00:00:10 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Ueno Station. It is a beautiful summer day in July and this building that you see right here. Hey, hey everybody. How you doing? Hold the fort down. It's time to get started. So anyways, this is the Ueno Station building a lot of people have seen when you come into Tokyo. I'm gonna show you a picture. This is the original building for Ueno Station. Not the original, but this is the opening in 1932 of Ueno Station and this is the one in 2018 and you can see it is quite historical. It's approaching 85 years old now and I like seeing this history. Not a lot has really changed. The building itself is pretty much in the same condition as it was before and Ueno Station is one of these that's kind of old now that there's some new additions to Ueno Station, but one of the great things I like about Ueno Station is just the fact that it's kind of old and has a lot of character and personality to it.

00:01:24 John Daub: But we're not just going to be exploring Ueno Station, but taking a look at this area a little bit in the next 30 or 45 minutes so hang out with us while we explore Ueno. Awesome. There's about 10 train lines that come through here including the Utsunomiya Line which goes up the Takasaki Line. There's also the Yamanote Line, the Keihin-Tohoku Line, the Shinkansen (bullet train) stops through here going towards Tohoku. So it's a pretty useful station to come and visit. There's a Yodobashi Camera which is a big electronics store that we're gonna go by on the other side. There's the Yamanote Line taking off right now. On the other side of Ueno Station is the park and we're gonna walk around there. If you go between these two buildings, we call this Marui—Marui (department store) in Japanese—if you go between the Marui building you're gonna go to Ameyoko market, which is one of the best and cheapest markets in Japan.

00:02:35 John Daub: All right, this is actually a shortcut that goes over towards the zoo. We're gonna take the long cut if that's a word—never heard that before. You can also see the Skytree right there. So you can walk to Asakusa going in this direction towards the Skytree. It takes about 20 minutes, and that's the one thing about Tokyo: everything is a lot closer than you think it is. You can ride the subway, but you can also when you ride the subway realize that probably the next station is only a five-minute walk. So if you want to go to two or three stations sometimes walking is faster than getting through the tickets, waiting for the train to come, getting out of the station and you could have walked it if you'd originally done that. Sometimes taxi is the fastest way and all live streams should have a generator scene.

00:03:36 John Daub: There is handicap accessibility here for people that have special needs and one thing that you'll notice all over Tokyo is these yellow lines and these yellow lines are for the blind, for the visually impaired. People have sticks, but they also like to walk on this tactile runway here and sighted people should not walk on it. You should let people who can't see walk on these and right at intersections, you can see it right here—instead of lines they have dots and visually impaired people can feel that and they know that it's what they can either go left or right and by feeling it it'll continue to the right. All right. Awesome, that's the Keihin-Tohoku Line, I believe. So it's a pretty nice day. It's still kind of early. It's 11 a.m. Things don't start warming up until after lunch here. Where that van just turned into the left, that's where Ameyoko market can be visited and this is the side entrance.

00:05:06 John Daub: Awesome, we might just stop in the park and get some lunch. Let's see how crowded it is. So this is the entrance that most people enter to Ueno Station because it's just so convenient to Okachimachi and for taxis to come in through here—says Ueno Station right there. Taxis sometimes if I'm in a hurry—which is quite often—a taxi is the best way to go to the station. The taxis can let you off right here and then you can walk into the station right here and you can catch your Shinkansen (bullet train) or your train going up towards Utsunomiya. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you this intersection right here really quickly and we're gonna make a quick walk through Ueno Station. It's been renewed. It's a lot cleaner than it was when I first came here 20 years ago, but I'm gonna let you make the judgment if you think this is one of Tokyo's most impressive stations or not. It's certainly got a lot of history.

00:06:11 John Daub: Alright, so if you follow the tracks you'll get to Okachimachi and Okachimachi is a really vibrant area especially at night when a lot of the izakaya (pubs) spill out into the streets and you get this vibe of what you would think Asia is like. Shibuya is a little bit different. It's kind of everything is inside. I like it when things spill out into the street and that happens here. So that's kind of why I like this area. You can hear the trains going by. Alright, let's go inside of Ueno Station and check it out. If you like this kind of content definitely click that like button.

00:07:03 John Daub: You guys are gonna have a say in which direction I go in this live stream. Alright. Wow. So this way will take you towards the park. You can see there's an exit or an entrance to another JR side. This is one of the harder stations for me to navigate. Oh, Andersen Bakery. They got some really good stuff here. Let's just check it out real quick. Oh man, look at that. Stop it. No, why? I'm so hungry. I just got out of the dentist. Wow, look at that bacon. No. Curry bread. Yeah. I'll be back.

00:08:12 John Daub: Hey, one of the meeting places that I've always used here in Ueno Station was the Hard Rock Cafe and it's been here forever. There's been a Hard Rock Cafe. The original one was in Roppongi, but this one popped up and it's been here for the 20 years that I've been in Japan that I remember. So I will often say just meet in front of the Hard Rock Cafe because it's one of these attractions that have been here so long everybody knows where it is. So there's several Hard Rock Cafes now in Japan in Tokyo. If you want to grab a bite to eat also by the Hard Rock Cafe there's these escalators and there's some pretty reasonably priced restaurants up here with a very good mix of cuisines. There's a Thai restaurant that I've been going to whenever I'm here because it's pretty reasonably priced. It's so good.

00:09:05 John Daub: All right, we're gonna walk over here to the entrance just to get a look. Now all these shops here change. This shop was not here the last time—this Sugar Butter Tree. But if you're a dime and you're a supporter on Patreon, I sent this to you a couple of months ago actually, so it's pretty funny to see them here. All right. Here's the entrance to the JR central entrance to Ueno. I'm so glad that this was under construction for a while. I'm so glad that it's not under construction unlike other places in Tokyo. Shibuya Station is a disaster right now.

00:09:52 John Daub: And you can see up here all these really interesting things on the wall and one of the reasons why you see this art here in Ueno Station is because Ueno Park is one of the places with a lot of the museums here in Japan, the art museums. There's that and that's another reason why up here you'll see some more art which is pretty neat up here above the tickets and if you wanted to know where Ueno is just look right up there on the map. Many of you probably can't read that but on the very bottom where it says here, that's Shinagawa, that's Tokyo, Akihabara, Ueno, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku and Yoyogi. These are the main stations. Harajuku is right here and yeah, there you go. There's your Akihabara. You can get around for about two bucks just about anywhere in the city. All right, so that's it for Ueno Station. Let's head out of here.

00:11:05 John Daub: I really hope this video is useful because Ueno is one of these places you definitely have to check out when you come to Tokyo and you don't want to miss it. That's for sure. Godiva's got a thing here man. I love chocolate. This supermarket's kind of pretty convenient that it's in the station but it's also really expensive. I usually take a pass. So we're gonna go out the way we came. There are shortcuts, but we're doing the long way around today. The symbol of the Ueno Zoo if you weren't sure is the panda and the zoo and the museums where we're going next probably is better to go this way, but we're gonna go straight and take the long way around.

00:12:08 John Daub: This is the way that you would go if you came from Okachimachi or from Ameyoko market. You would wrap around this way. So that's the way I'm gonna take you inside of JR station. If you did have a ticket this is the Hirokoji exit. If you did have a ticket you'd be able to go out through the park exit and it'd be really quick to get there. But that's not my style. Alright, there you go that leads towards Ameyoko market where everything is a thousand yen or less. You can bargain there a little bit. It's kind of fun. There's also the Keisei Ueno station for the Narita Airport, which is the Skyliner which is the competitor to the Narita Express, which is JR. Keisei Line is what I used to take in my last apartment but now I take the bus because if you live in central Tokyo the fastest and the easiest way to get around is by bus.

00:13:13 John Daub: There's underneath the tracks leading towards Akihabara. So you just went straight you'd eventually hit Akihabara, but we're going this way. We're underneath the tracks right now. All right, so this is Ueno. It's been completed for a while, but it's nice to see how clean Ueno Station is. It wasn't like this 20 years ago. I'll tell you that. Ueno Station is pretty rugged. Sorry this signal might cut out a little bit because we're underneath the tracks here but we're gonna get out in a second. You can see in the reflection the Yamanote Line making its way by the station now.

00:14:16 John Daub: This way is the way we would normally go to go to the park or to go to the museums. There's some stairs on the side of the station here that leads up to the park. You'd make a left and boom there you are. You're pretty much at the zoo. There's some nice restaurants here and I highly recommend that you get lunch here before you go into the park because it can get a little pricey and get a little crowded. It gets actually really crowded. This is the Yodobashi Camera and if you want to make photo printouts or get some electronics like an SD card that you might have left at home this is a pretty good place to get it. SD cards by the way just a little side note extremely expensive in Japan. Better to bring your own.

00:15:04 John Daub: Boom, Ameyoko market one of my favorite places to go shopping. Like when things in Japan generally are different but in Japan it's a little bit different because Ameyoko's are very trendy so they'll be like for example wasabi Doritos and they're here today and they're gone probably in ten days but you'll still be able to find it here in Ameyoko market because they tend to keep things until their expiration date. They keep things to the expiration date or a little bit after and that's why you get the discount. Always check the expiration date. That's why Ameyoko market's kind of a discount so a little bit of an inside information there that's why they can sell the stuff at such a discount.

00:15:42 John Daub: All right we're making a left here so I'm gonna ask you guys do you want me to take the steps here or do you want me to go around and take the main stairway to Ueno Park? I'm gonna leave that up to you so you got about 10 seconds so if you want chat in this is a live stream let me know what you want me to do—make a right turn go straight to the park or take this a little bit longer and maybe make another two minutes stop by going around? What do you think steps to go around? Steps to go around. Terry says longer. Malcolm said hi John that's not what I was asking. Dad says park straight to the parks is Karen long way straight go round steps go steps steps to go straight. All right I'm going around going around because Shane wrote it really big I could see that. We're gonna follow you Shane.

00:16:35 John Daub: Don't worry guys it's not gonna take that much longer because it's basically just another 30 or 45 seconds but don't count. Oh check it out hey they're not in costume this is a big big wow why weren't they? I thought they gotta be in costume I thought that was one of the prerequisites. The Mario Karts if you don't wear the costumes you basically drivers and you have to follow the law. All right that's the first time I've seen the Mario Kart people without the Mario stuff on. Very cool. Being a convenient local and now I'm just going having a driver's license that I rarely use it is kind of annoying because you know to the other drivers that I talked to in Tokyo the Japanese drivers hate the Mario Karts. There's been some accidents and it's been in the news in the Japanese media that it's a good tourist attraction but the locals don't like it.

00:17:52 John Daub: I'll leave it there if you're here you're probably gonna want to do it because it's pretty cool it's like less than a hundred bucks for a day adventure on a go-kart. So it's the main intersection main throughway. If you go straight it'll take you all the way to Ginza past Akihabara. This is Chuo Dori (Central Avenue). All right now this is the main entrance this is why I kind of wanted to go here but Shane made sure that we made this possibility. This is Ueno Park. Whoa it's got a good vibe like Disneyland. It's got I can hear some music playing in the background. Many of you probably can't read the sign but it says Ueno Park.

00:18:37 John Daub: All right so one of the reasons that I followed Shane's directions and came this way is because you have two options here one is the stairways to the right and the other one is this way. If you come in April you're gonna go this way because this is where everybody is this is where all the cherry blossoms are. We're gonna go there after we go up the steps here. Oh that sounds like the Bolivian music. I was in South America in 2003 backpacking and it was a really good experience and I'm glad that I got to go there. Everywhere I went they were playing that South American flute music which I love. Now it's mixed in with something else I guess there's competing street artists. Water fountain you can drink the water here. Lockers.

00:19:31 John Daub: This or should I take it easy and walk the stairs or should I run it? What do you think? I look she's throwing stuff for the throw this stuff again oh she threw it for the pigeons you see. I never seen that before she's doing something I think there was like a prayer that's salt very weird she did some sort of like weird ritual on the street I've never seen that before. All right here we go we're gonna run up this thing with the cool sweet sounds of the Bolivian flute music in the background. Oh yeah that's how we do things. Power up although I'm starting to sweat like a pig all that pig's blood and sweat.

00:21:05 John Daub: Craig Porter hope the earthquake didn't affect you. And I know we felt it pretty strong. I'll let you in on this a little bit later on in the live stream and I talked about the flooding as well. But I got to go back now. I wanted to show you this statue. This is another reason why I came this way now. There's Yodobashi Camera the electronics store I showed you before. Behind this tree is the samurai walking the dog statue and this man he is the last samurai. This is Saigo Takamori. He's originally from Kagoshima and he fought the Meiji government and of course eventually lost but he was hardcore man. Saigo Takamori was hardcore and if you watched The Last Samurai the movie The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise then you know who Saigo Takamori is. He's the main character in the movie you know for the other side.

00:22:28 John Daub: In this one I really love this statue. Why is he so fat because I think he's at the end of his you know he's probably my age. You know what I'm getting up there too. So I guess he liked to eat. I don't know. I didn't know Saigo Takamori personally, but I do know that this statue is really famous because he's walking a dog and a lot of people don't know who Saigo Takamori is. It would just say in Japanese, but I think it's good to know a little bit of the history before you come here and if you did watch The Last Samurai, you know the history of Saigo Takamori. It I guess when you stand here in front of the statue it has a lot more meaning. It's not just a samurai walking a dog. This is the last samurai kind of true you know. Let me pan down. He's holding a sword right there which you can't do in Tokyo anymore. See my don't bring your pocket knife to Japan episode. He's wearing some geta (wooden clogs). Very cool.

00:23:48 John Daub: Very easy to get here. Definitely don't miss this when you come to Ueno. The Saigo Takamori statue is gotta pay homage to the man. Many of you are coming to Japan for the summer. Ueno Park is a must. I get tired very quickly of Shibuya Harajuku Shinjuku this area. I don't want to stay there when I'm in Japan. When I if I was a tourist or when people asked me where to stay I tell them don't stay in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku. If you're asking me I'm gonna give you my opinion and the places I prefer to stay is up in Asakusa or this area Ueno because it's quieter. There's more history you can see and feel more like you're in the middle of culture whereas Shibuya Shinjuku Harajuku nothing wrong with there. This is really loud. It's kind of dirty. Of course I gotta say that because I'm for the other side. I'm a Ueno kind of guy haha.

00:25:25 John Daub: But I also I'm also a resident of Tokyo and I try to avoid places that are super overcrowded. I kind of look for the quieter quote-unquote like Zen kind of experiences in Japan where I feel alone and I can feel kind of the energy in the spirit. You don't really get that when you're in huge crowds of people. It's hard to relax. Try to avoid it. Now this is a famous Kiyomizu Kannon-dō (temple). I don't know much of the history of this place. I kind of just usually pass it off but let's just take a look off of the balcony. When you come during the cherry blossom season, this is one of the balconies that I like to come up to and you can take a look down at the park. Remember about five minutes ago when I said you can go left or right? This is the left you can see that path going by and if you go straight it takes you all the way out to a really beautiful lake.

00:26:03 John Daub: Well another reason to come to Ueno Park is because it's got like these paddle boats and lake and it's a good place for the family. It's got just about everything and you can ring the bell. Ring the bell lady. She didn't ring the bell. Should I ring the bell? It says I'm not allowed to film though. There's no filming so I guess if you make a donation you can ring the bell, but I'm not allowed to film so I'm gonna back off. Oh check this out Shishimai Omikuji (lion dance sacred lots). Hey, do you guys want to get one? Let's try this out. Insert coins and the four buttons in front of you will flash on and off. Choose one sacred lot and press the button a Shishimai will bring it to you. It's written in English. All right. Let's do this. So it takes only two 100 yen coins. See what I got in my pocket. We got that. All right, we got it.

00:27:31 John Daub: It's creepy and yet spiritual. Get that right. All right. Oh, that's a 50 yen coin. Here's two 100 yen coins. So let's give it a try. All right, Shishimai, are you ready for this? Oh, no, it's like closed. Oh, no, I can't do it. It's all sold out. They put tape over it. I could force my way in but I think it would just take the money. Oh why all right, sorry everybody. There on the other side there is an omikuji (fortune) vending machine which is pretty cool that's a hundred yen. But I'll be honest with you probably won't be able to read the fortune to you. You know, I can read newspapers and get the gist of stuff but I'm not fluent in reading kanji to the point where I can decipher things that are mostly in kanji. I can't I get the idea. I know if it's bad or good though, that's a good thing.

00:28:43 John Daub: Alright, let's walk down here. This is Ueno Park and this is the highlight of Ueno. I think the station is cool and all that Saigo Takamori statue's cool and all that. Okay, Kannon temple. There you go. But it's the park. I think that really makes Ueno because Ameyoko market belongs to Okachimachi. I don't consider that part of Ueno for those of you been following for the last 30 minutes. Here's the first map to give you an idea where we are. Ueno Park is pretty darn big. You can see the station here in the bottom and we came out we started this live stream right here, and I walked around we walked around in the station and walked around this way and now we're here.

00:29:50 John Daub: I'm gonna take you down to the lake and just give you a quick look at that and then we're gonna come up and check out the zoo and some of the other areas around the middle of the park before we end the live stream. All right. Black t-shirts are the way to go because it's so darn hot. I'm sweating and you get these big sweat marks. You can't see it with the black t-shirt. I learned my lesson. The rainy season is still on.

00:30:31 John Daub: So one of the things I wanted to talk about a little bit with you is what's been going on down in the southwest of Japan and it's some really bad flooding and my friend Mike is down there right now and Kevin as well is down there right now helping people recover from all of the flooding and loss of houses and the city of Kurashiki is like 30% of that city is underwater right now. There's so many places that I used to live in Japan. I've lived in 16 different cities that are really affected by what's happening down there. It is kind of heartbreaking to hear the tragedy. Dozens of people have lost their lives. This happens very rarely just because the rainy season is wet but it's never been this wet where it rains this heavy for this long and we have a lot of canals and rivers in Japan and they just can't take the amount of water that's been falling in the mountains and then also bringing it inland.

00:31:39 John Daub: And one of the reasons people do lose their lives is it's not just that they're swept away by the heavy rains. It's also because a lot of houses are built on slopes or there are a lot of slopes in Japan and every year during the rainy season at least one or two fatal landslides and the landslides will not just wipe out houses it's people with them and it's really hard breaking to hear the stories now and watch it on Japanese news every time you turn on the TV you can see it here in Japan. Although we have sun and some clouds that do look kind of ominous here in Tokyo right now it's nothing like what they're having down there on the other side of the country and Japan's not a very big country but it's a lot bigger when you're here. Now oh that said for those of you who are traveling in western Japan, please take care knowing that landslides can happen and flash floods as well right now.

00:32:38 John Daub: In the winter, you don't see any of these lilies, but in the summer they grow up and you can hardly see the water. But there's also a lot of street food here on the weekends. Monday is the day not to come to Ueno though. We got some koi here. Look at that it's just loaded with these really big lily pads. Lily pads, I don't know we used to I used to have these when I was a kid in America in the east coast of the US and we call them skunk cabbages because you'd break them off and they smell like skunk but I'm sure it's a totally different plant. On the weekends and during the days when the zoo is open. There's tons of street food. You can see this here is ikayaki (grilled squid) but because you can see the zoo's closed on Monday as well as all of the museums it's not the best time to be in Ueno.

00:33:46 John Daub: This is the back entrance or exit to the zoo. You can either enter or exit here. Most people enter the other side because that's where the pandas are and if you do want to see the pandas let me just give you a quick warning if you want to see the pandas go early and be prepared to wait because and if you go late you might not see them at all because when Jennifer and I went to Ueno Zoo they give out tickets a certain amount of people can go and see it every day and they're usually sold out by like 2 p.m. on busy days, especially on the weekends. One of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on a Monday was because it's not as crowded but we've already done the zoo. I'm not gonna run these everybody. Yeah I'll put a link in the description or maybe up a card right up here. You can take a look at Jennifer and I going to Ueno Zoo. I guess it was in February. It was definitely much much colder but we had a lot of fun.

00:35:13 John Daub: Alright, I'm gonna try to find a vending machine or a drink and get something. All right. The walkway is amazing. It's amazing for many reasons. It's not just because of the cherry blossoms. It's also amazing because it's one of the most crowded places to watch cherry blossoms or to do hanami (cherry blossom viewing), in Tokyo. In Japan, maybe. Because on the left and on the right, it's filled with blue sheets of people. Mostly businessmen, mostly drinking until they can't stand up. And that in itself is quite a sight. But I really love the cherry blossom season because it's a time where people are a lot more friendly and open. When you're outside, you're celebrating the spring, you might be a little bit tipsy. And people are friendly to invite you over, come and sit down with us, have a drink. And you can talk and listen to people's stories.

00:36:20 John Daub: One of the first videos I did on the Only in Japan channel was on the cherry blossoms around the city of Tokyo. And there was a place in Kichijoji, a really beautiful park, that I met a guy who told me the story of his mother and how he came by every year because they used to come here together and he'd been doing it for a long time since his mother passed away as a memory to her. And these are the kind of stories you get during the cherry blossom season. Very touching. But that's also how you make friends, I think, in Japan. And I'd said a comment that it was really hard to make Japanese friends. I think it's because it's hard to get Japanese to open up to you. Which is why alcohol helps. Because if a friend doesn't open up to you, you're not really friends. It's kind of like you're friends on the surface. You don't really get deep. Like I know Peter von Gomm, for example. He's pretty deep stuff, he tells me.

00:37:33 John Daub: So we've had a pretty good day. Let's give him 500 yen. Here we go. This is all from you guys, okay? It's a 500 yen coin, about 5 dollars. Let's give him. Woohoo! Awesome! Those two waved too. That was good. Thanks everybody for contributing. It's just something small, but I know if you're out here in the hot and there's not a lot of people because it's Monday and Ueno is closed, he's gonna have a tough time making money today. So, always stop and help out the community. That's Peruvian. Yeah. The zampoña (Andean pan flute). Thank you for the information on that.

00:38:44 John Daub: Alright. So as you can see, every other day of the week. And there's a totem pole, which seems kind of out of place. But this is also a place of art and history. And science. And all around this park. We're going straight into the center of Ueno Park right now. You're surrounded by like science, art, history, zoo. It's kind of amazing place. And Ueno Park has a very long history. A lot longer than the station. It's a beautiful place. Alright. That opening there is the center. I don't know if you can hear it. But you can hear the cicada. Cicada. Semi (cicada). Chirping. It's going to get a lot worse in August. But you hear them all over Japanese parks. I had one attached to my screen this morning and just go and it was worse than an alarm clock. That was pretty bad. When I opened the curtain, he flew away. I guess it was the shock. But these cicada are very much alive right now.

00:40:03 John Daub: Now, the entrance to Ueno station is this way. And I told you before about 30 minutes ago that if you take a ticket to JR and you get out, you can actually exit and go straight to the park. And we took the long way around. That in the center there is actually a really funky police station or kōban (police box). And straight ahead, I believe, that's the Ueno station. National Art Museum. Or is that the Science Museum? I'm really bad. I haven't I'm not a museum person in Japan. I am but I don't go to a lot of museums. Whoa! Alright. News flash. You see straight ahead? The Ueno Zoo is under massive construction or renovation. And the old gate that used to exist in the last video with Jennifer and I were in just a few months ago is gone.

00:41:25 John Daub: And Jennifer and I started the live stream here at that mailbox that's a Japanese post box it looked like a panda ah it's gone and there's another entrance over to the side. I mean it doesn't really affect getting in it's closed today anyways but that's really weird to see that Ueno Zoo doesn't have that gate like they did for decades and decades since they opened so long ago very weird. So if you've been in Japan or Ueno before this might be kind of a shocking sight to you not to see that gate. Maybe they're just gonna redo it and make it better. It's now the land of pylons well said. Yeah and it's closed on Monday so we're not gonna see any pandas but that's not the purpose of this live stream sort of just to get you oriented to this Ueno area.

00:42:12 John Daub: Once again we started this live stream here this is where my dentist is by the way Ueno dentist and we started around here we walked in and we went into the station just about here there's the Hard Rock Cafe and then we came out and we walked around the park we came in through here we saw the Saigo Takamori so yeah this is the boat pond where we were. So we walked this entire length which is just beautiful in the spring it's still nice now but it's a little bit better. This is the Grand Fountain and straight ahead is the Tokyo National Museum that's what I was looking for. There's a Tokyo National Museum there's a National Research Institute for Cultural Properties this it's just a bunch of museums that right here oh here on the side is the National Museum of Nature and Science because you know Eastern art is different.

00:43:17 John Daub: Yeah I mean this is Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo Cultural Hall) and bunka means culture so this is the cultural center for Tokyo. There's a baseball ground because baseball's a guess in many ways the national sport yeah so and there you go up on the top here is Ueno Zoological Gardens this is the zoo which is closed today and then there you go Ueno the University the art University Art Museum and that's Ueno Park which is a pretty big place.

00:44:20 John Daub: Usually there's an event going on here but after the weekend they shut it down Monday's a big cleanup day for the park and by the end of the week there'll be another exhibition here. Across the way is another cafe and then you have one of the more famous Starbucks in Japan because it's in the middle of Ueno Park. I don't know how they got this real estate but they sure did. This is also the one day where the Starbucks in Ueno Park has available seating usually this place is just packed lines out the door on Monday it's so much more it's so much quieter. And I did introduce this in the world's most beautiful Starbucks episode just a little bit. What do they got today what do they got going on here I might not get the Starbucks but it doesn't hurt to take a look at see what they got.

00:45:36 John Daub: So on tap is Teavana frozen tea grapefruit and tomato that's weird and the Teavana rose tea herbal lemonade. Huh. And they got salad wraps as well. Alright, so I think we're gonna pass on the Starbucks. Yeah you got the mmm, tomato, mmm. Tomato, mmm. I like it on a sandwich. Not so much in a drink. Not so much in a drink. Alright. So let's check out the other cafe on the other side. So then you don't have to when you're here. It's so quiet. This is the peak time, which would be on a weekend, completely full of people today. So chill. So nice. Saying chill kind of chills me out because it's still pretty hot here.

00:46:55 John Daub: This one's called the Parkside Cafe. And their menu is a little bit pricier. But they have probably decent food here. Spaghetti with meat sauce. Everything is about $10 for food. Hashed beef rice with eggplant and tomato. That sounds interesting. Beef stew. Seasonal vegetables with meat doria (rice gratin). It looks pretty good. The drinks are more expensive than the Starbucks. There's the herbal tea, Darjeeling. Everything is in the $5 to $6 range. But it does look good. I mean, I can't complain with this. But it is really expensive. But this is an actual restaurant. This is the kind. There's staff here with aprons. This is an actual restaurant. So I guess if you're going to eat here and chill out and have lunch, you're going to want to do it here rather than Starbucks. And the inside looks really nice as well. So I bet the food's pretty darn good. There's a couple of ladies having a girl's day out. Yeah. So this Parkside Cafe is pretty sweet. This is behind the police station.

00:48:41 John Daub: All right. I'm taking you now towards the JR station. I was going to stop the live stream right there, but we can go on a little bit further. This is new. I didn't see these. These are the so there's this like you see this if you come to Tokyo. They've kind of patented trademarked this the and Tokyo. And if you take this away, they'll do like discover and Tokyo trains and Tokyo. So it's kind of a neat little marketing thing that they've done. But now they've got these LED screens. This really wasn't here before. And I guess it's touchable. Let's check it out. I guess most people are speaking English, right? Wow. So there's a glass and it can feel through the glass. That's pretty cool. That's really cool. We are here. Can I do this? I can move it with my finger. All right. It shows. That's pretty cool. So this is the kōban and the station. So you can see where we walked here. So I go take a movie down to the lake. Now that's a really big Ueno Park Lake. And yeah, there you go. Come to Ueno. You can play with it, too.

00:50:17 John Daub: Last thing. The exhibits. What is going on at the museums until October? This is the Fujita, a retrospective commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death. So you get paintings like this, which looks somber, but I could probably stare at for several hours examining a little details in it. I kind of like this. Actually, it's pretty neat painting. You can see this inside of the Tokyo National Art Museum. There's the International Library of Children's Literature. All right. And there's Saigo Takamori. Do you remember the statue? We saw about 30 minutes ago. There is memorabilia from his life. Oh, this is pretty cool. Saigō-dō. And this exhibition is open until July 16. Wow. So you get a chance to take a look at some of the stuff from his life. I guess this is his armor. He doesn't look like you can fit in it now. But that's what Saigo Takamori looked like. That's a pretty good portrait. I can see the resemblance. And oh, it doesn't have a face yet on the statue so that you can see that's this is the portrait that they used. This is the painting that they used for his face for the statue. Interesting. I didn't know that. Learning something new every day.

00:51:58 John Daub: And then there's another exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum. This isn't the art museum, but it's 10,000 years of prehistoric art in Japan. And it looks like they got Haniwa (ancient clay figures), which is haniwa and Spanish. It's kind of weird. Probably has another meaning. All right. And it's starting to rain. Believe it or not. We have an ominous looking sky. It is supposed to rain in Tokyo. And as I said, the rainy season is on in Japan until about the 20th of July. So at any time you could get hit with a rainstorm like we are right now. I like this too. On the ground. It tells you where to go. So there's the JR Ueno station, which is where we're going. The zoo is straight ahead. The national park is right there. The National Museum is to the right. And then to the left is the Keisei line to Narita Airport. So there you go. You never get lost in Ueno Park. Yeah, they've done a really good job. The renovations over the years have paid off, I think. Paid off to the point where they don't need to renovate anything except for the zoo.

00:53:19 John Daub: Which is good because I have to be honest with you. The city of Tokyo is going to be so cool in 2020. But right now it is just one big construction zone. And I thought I would be okay with it all. But I'm getting kind of construction tired. Now these kids are running because of the rain. They're running. They're trying to get out of the rain. Oh, big babies. It's just rain. It's just rain. Okay. So this is kind of neat too. Something to point out. I think Jennifer and I talked about this when we did the Ueno Park. But if you want to get museum tickets, you can get it right there. That way you know what all the museums are here in Ueno. And you can pick the one that you want. And you can get the tickets and know the exhibitions before you get there. Because it is kind of a little walk. And if you have a family, you're going to want to do it this way. Not the I wouldn't want to drag kids around on a hot summer day. Or a day where the rain is starting to come down.

00:54:34 John Daub: This is where we're going to end the live stream, everybody. That right there is the zoo entrance or exit to Ueno Park. You see that? But we also have these really nice historical pictures of the area. And this is a great place to end because I love history. There's Ueno Station. I showed you the picture of Ueno Station in 1932 when the front opened. And I saw this picture on Wikipedia as well. But it's nice to see it big here. That says Taito-ku (Taito Ward) on the bottom which is one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. Like New York has the five boroughs. This is Taito-ku and that's Ueno Station. It doesn't say what year though. So I'm guessing it was the turn of the century or before. This is the botanical Ueno. The mountains of the. Yeah. So it's like very botanical looking. I love this painting. This shows that's Ueno on the side right there. And there's a train coming in. And I guess it's coming from this is the rail line.

00:56:01 John Daub: All right. And here we have another picture of the museum. There's the lake you can see on the left. And there's no train station. That's kind of interesting. It just has the sea here. So there was no train station here. This is where the Saigo Takamori statue is. Of course, Saigo Takamori was still a samurai at this time. And you can see all the people have come here. And this is where the cherry blossoms are down here. But the road seems a lot wider back then. And this is the opening that we were at. This is where Starbucks used to be right here, and this is the museum. But Starbucks was here, and then this is where the zoo is now very interesting and the rain is starting to really come down. So I'm gonna have to go inside. Oh, it's really coming down all right. I'm getting in here. Well in a second let me clean you off. Oh it just started coming down like crazy.

00:57:13 John Daub: Just a little rain. That's pretty neat there. They are doing some construction to the backside of Ueno station, but they've added these historical pictures which makes it pretty cool now the rain is starting to come down. I don't think it's gonna last long this rain. But I was gonna end this live stream anyways. I'm just saying like we're an hour in and we've already done a complete circle of the Ueno station and park area. There's a schedule of the arts. That's another thing here. They've got a small hall in a big hall. I love to go and see the arts yesterday I went to go see a taiko (Japanese drum) group that I'm a fan of called Gocoo and Gocoo is kind of like they've taken taiko to they've evolved taiko to another level, and I love taiko drums.

00:58:20 John Daub: But it's a band where I think it's seven women and four guys in this band, and they're very famous internationally. Gocoo G-O-C-O-O check it out if you want to. And I'm gonna see if I can feature taiko in an episode of Only in Japan on the main channel. So I went to the performance yesterday. It was awesome and I had to leave at 9 p.m. They kept on going on forever and leave early, but I'm gonna talk with the leader of the group and see if we can get permission to film an interview and maybe tour with them a little bit and get behind the scenes of what it's like to be a taiko band and where does the inspiration come from and how much does traditional taiko play in their evolution of what they have now and how does that evolution of something that's traditional bring in younger people as well?

00:59:06 John Daub: Go see AKB48 nads. That's not my style. I'm not an idol guy. That's my friend. You know who does that Kai? Kai my friend Kai who ate the big gyoza with me and he's into the manga and anime and everything. He's the one who's really into AKB48 me. I'm not really care so much about teenage girls. I don't know um I hope AKB48 is not in the Olympic opening ceremony although they might be I'm just saying it's I'm sort of I hope that doesn't make you stop watching this show. I'm just gonna be honest. I think it's really weird to have these idol girls and then you see the audience and they're all middle-aged dudes. It's just kind of something creepy about that to me. Not that it's a business so I don't know I'm not gonna go any further with that.

01:00:00 John Daub: But yeah, so I hope that Japan and the government makes it and the organizing committee of the Olympics listens to me just a little bit. I think I can represent most of the people out there. They and I hope they don't get Japanese idol bands like or J-pop bands to play and instead they take some local artists that do traditional stuff like Gocoo and if you listen to their music I think that's the stuff that inspires people, and I think J-pop is just mimicking what's happening in the United States to not a high level. I don't know just be honest here. I'm not a big fan. I listen to if I'm not a big fan of Japanese pop music, but I am a huge fan of taiko drums and traditional music and things like this. I believe there's another YouTuber called Tokyo Lens that he sent me an email and says he actually plays the koto (stringed instrument) which is a traditional Japanese instrument which is so cool. So I'd like to feature him on a live stream one sometime in the future because it's pretty neat to see traditional instruments and hear new sounds that you've never heard before and if you're a musician popstar United States listening to new types of music is something that probably pop stars all around the world will incorporate in their music to give it some more diversity and that's a good thing.

01:01:27 John Daub: So with that and my little rant on J-pop, I think the rain is not so bad. We can walk and say goodbye at the park entrance to Ueno station. There behind me is a Tokyo Cultural Center and get a nice view of it with the wide lens. As we say goodbye to Ueno the Skytree and the left right in the center right now. You can walk you're in about 40 minutes I think for those who are interested the zoo is open from 9:30 to 5 every day with the last entry at 4 p.m. and very clearly crossed out as every single Monday except when there's a holiday then it's on a Tuesday so July 17th everybody just so you know next week it's gonna be on a Tuesday and the price has gone up wow that's interesting to note used to be 400 yen now it's 600 yen for a day pass.

01:02:42 John Daub: Is it worth getting the annual pass I don't think so I think you come here maybe once or twice a year if I lived in Ueno I might get the annual pass because then it pays off you just take a walk around admission is free oh so if you want to if you come on these days the next one October 1st it's free to go to Ueno Zoo which means it's gonna be completely packed just pay the 600 yen it's not that much fun when something is that crazy crowded. All right everybody all right let's come maybe we can we walk we can make this all right so I'm gonna go have some lunch I'll Instagram what I eat so you guys can take a look because you guys bought the lunch for me thank you very much there's Ueno station the park entrance this is where you would probably go home tickets to everywhere costs about two dollars I'm gonna go inside.

01:03:36 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching this live stream I hope that was informational and it can help you make your trip to Ueno a little bit better love you too definitely subscribe hit the like button if you think this content is something that's useful enough that lets me know to do more of it I'm gonna end with the last 20 seconds and scribe. I'm gonna add the end of the last 20 seconds looking at how to get to Ueno right here so I think we can do this 20 seconds there's the vending machines but right there as I showed you before there's Ueno on the other side of Shibuya and Shinagawa there's Tokyo station you can get here on the Yamanote line or a lot of different lines that dump into this. So have a great day or night, wherever you guys are in the world. See you in the next live stream. Bye-bye.