00:03 John Daub: Welcome to Ginza. This is Tokyo Plaza here in Ginza. I'm going to show you a brand new urban green space, which I think is really cool. It's a fantastic idea. It comes from Sony. This is where private businesses can really do something to make urban spaces seem more green, which I think is an amazing thing. I'm going to show you right now. We've been here before, but I'm going to show you down here what it looks like from above before we go down below. Do you see that? That is Ginza.

00:34 John Daub: This is Ginza Sony Park, and it's extremely unique because you don't see places like this where they've taken prime real estate. If you look just down the street, that's Ginza Yonchome, one of the most expensive intersections in the world for property. Right here you have a park, and they could have made a skyscraper or a tower right away, but instead they reimagined what they wanted to do. Instead of building a building, they've turned it into a park, which I believe is called Phase One. For 2018, right now we're going to have a park for a year or so. Eventually by 2022, they're going to have a building here, and I believe on the roof of it they're going to put the park. It's cool where you can just walk right off the intersection into a park. We've got Hibiya Park down the street, but this is unique because of where it is, right near all the shops.

01:35 John Daub: I'm going to take you down there, but first I wanted to bring you up here to give you a feeling of what it's like from above. It's not that big, which makes it unique. There are some stairs that lead to the subway, but those stairs are beautiful, made out of wood like a plank. They have a pop-up store—you see that trailer over there. I think they're serving drinks or something; we're going to find out. On the right you see the big air conditioners pumping air down into the subway. This is Sony's Corner, and it's been like this since the 1960s, I believe. Ginza Sony has owned this property. It's a temporary park, but I think it's a way to imagine what Tokyo can be like. Here's a view from the building—this is Tokyo Plaza Shopping Mall. Instead of turning it into a building right away, they turned it into a park. So I'm going to take you down there right now and get a view from the ground.

02:44 John Daub: We're back, everybody. I can take you from down here into the garden, the urban garden—one of the nicest escalators. There it is; we get a nice panning view, slightly obstructed but you get the idea. Wow, check out the jungle on the right side. Do you see that? A lot of people speaking in Spanish, I'm hearing. It's just pretty cool. Alright, there we go. Now I'm sitting in the trailer; we're about to cross the street. We are now ground level. I'm going to take you over to Ginza Sony Park, which is just so cool. This place has been under construction for a while. One of my first experiences in Japan, in Tokyo, was going to the Sony Building because they had all sorts of foreign goods, things you can't find easily.

03:57 John Daub: The building's gone and they're reinventing it right before the 2020 Olympics, so it will be something new in 2022. I think it's important for companies to always reinvent themselves. From the air, that's one of the reasons why I went up to the top to start this livestream—because you get a different feeling of what this green space is like from the top. It's really peaceful. We were at the very top of this building about five minutes ago and now we're down here. Let's take a quick look around. This is pretty cool; we have a tree—looks like an olive tree, I don't know, well the coloring of the leaves does. Maybe you guys can chime in and tell us what kind of trees these are, but I'm kind of curious. What's on the other side of this van? Nothing—oh, it's a broadcast booth for Tokyo FM, so I guess they have broadcasts going on throughout the day from this spot, which is kind of cool. I guess I used to do commercials for Tokyo FM—well, I did one.

05:13 John Daub: Alright, let's go up here. See, this is what it's called officially: Ginza Sony Park. Let's take a look at it from ground level down here. We're gonna go in and take a look later, but they have trees from around the world apparently because I'm seeing flags from different countries. This one looks like it's from Mexico. Interesting. Alright, let's keep on moving. Oh, that's also pretty interesting—they put QR codes so you can scan and get more information on the trees. We're gonna have to try that out later. Alright, let's pan over here to the right, to the left—depends on which side you're looking from. Interesting. Saguaro—we have in here two random cacti. Are those saguaro cacti? They could be. I'm gonna go back and look at the QR code and see if they work. But this is not a sight you see every day: tropical trees in the center of Ginza. Oh, and it smells so fresh. Check it out—there's fruit on there, some kind of fruit. Let's figure this out. What is this? This is a Citrus maxima var. Burkillii from Malaysia, I believe. It's yours for the small price of $3,000. I'm kind of surprised they put the price on there. This is $2,300 about—this is the yucca from Mexico, Yucca rostrata. There she is in all her glory, like a punk haircut—heavy metal all the way. Oh my gosh.

07:51 John Daub: So Kanae is supposed to be here too. We're gonna meet her, and at the end of this I'll have some questions—I'll take some of your questions on this. This is pretty cool. I'm gonna actually turn the wide-angle lens onto the front. There you go—you guys got a much wider view to check this out. A lot of people are here just checking it out for the first time. Now this is a stump that's gonna turn into more life—you can see on the top of the stump. This is a big stump; they have little trees growing out of the top of it. That's pretty unique. So this is Ginza Sony Park, a brand new urban green space that opened up two days ago on August 9, 2018. We're here less than 48 hours after it opened. They do put on performances here. This is a pretty neat view—you can see the intersection of people crossing through like trees and stuff. This is not a sight that I've ever seen before. I've been living in Tokyo and Japan for 20 years and I've never seen this. In the distance is Yurakucho—a place that I go to often. It's a really good vibe, nice plaza there where you can see lots of people. There's a Marui department store and JR Yamanote Line access. This is so cool.

09:32 John Daub: Now these trees look like they're from all over the place. This is an olive tree, and these olive trees come from the United States, I guess that looks like Spain, Italy, and Turkey. I love the colors, that green color of the olive trees—really nice. Hey, howdy UFO Bob—greetings from Mexico writes in. If you guys want to take a minute and write in where you're from, I'll see if I can find a tree from your country here. There seems to be a bunch of countries represented. You can see the olives on the tree—I just want to pluck one and eat one, but I don't want to ruin it for anybody else. And they don't look like they're going to be very good yet. Yeah, more olive trees. Hey Lloyd, thank you—Lloyd gave $10 as a Super Chat. These trees start at like $3,000, buddy, but we're $10 closer. Thank you for that. I'm going to use it to take Kanae out for lunch. Wow, look at this big one. And then we have another kind of cactus here, and I believe they're going to be swapping the plants in and out over the seasons.

10:52 John Daub: So this cactus is different than the other ones—this one is from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This one's from China—the ichō, that's the name of this tree, or in English, Ginkgo biloba. I don't know my trees. Okay, this one's from down under—this is the Australian and New Zealand Cordyline australis, otherwise known as kōdaine australis in Japanese. So Australia's represented here. I'm going to walk down now—let me go to the corner and show you what this looks like. Alright, there you go. This is the upper part of the green space, and now we're going to pan down the steps. As you can see, here's the middle layer, middle level. Lots of people making their way in here—check out the urban green space. And I'm going to take you back down to the start. I'm digging this. See, they put a net here, and the net goes all the way the length of the air conditioners. Do you see that? The air conditioners into the subway are up here, and this net is perfectly suited for these types of vines, these types of ivy. Over the next year, they're just going to grow all the way to the top, so I think this whole intersection is going to cool off.

12:58 John Daub: It's still in its infancy—this just opened. So give it like a few months and I bet you next time we come back here, it's going to be close to the top. Kind of a neat experiment over time. So all you kids watching, stay tuned to the Only in Japan Go channel over the next three months—we're going to measure the project scientifically. We're going to get Spider-Man to go up there and measure the distance, or we'll find a way to do it. Alright, so let's walk down to the street level. This is the way we came in about a couple of minutes ago. On the right side you see the steps leading down to the subway, which is cool. And they really put in a lot of effort to make this look natural. The wood is just incredibly beautiful—well, maybe because it just opened two days ago. But it's also really nice contrast to the subway. It's like you're walking into the urban asphalt jungle out there with all the people—it's like a really comfortable place in the middle of Ginza. I'm digging it. I don't know what this table is for—they're serving something. I'm looking for Kanae to get here and then I'll go in and buy her some ice cream or kakigori (shaved ice).

14:16 John Daub: This is very interesting for me because I've been living in the city of Tokyo for a long time, and when something new pops up, yeah, you know, it's not really that interesting. But something as iconic as the Sony Building—it metamorphosized from an iconic building in the center of Ginza into an urban green space. That is newsworthy, I think—that's where private businesses are doing something to make the city more beautiful. I gotta applaud Sony for making that decision and coming up with it. Now I want to give you some information about this. I have in my pocket a smartphone which has access to the internet, and the internet has some information on what this is all about. I don't want to get it wrong because Sony's reputation is more important than mine. So this place is called Ginza Sony Park. The website is GinzaSonyPark.jp—it's in English, so click on the English on the right and you're going to get the information I'm going to read to you. But I want to get it right so you guys can understand what we're seeing here.

15:52 John Daub: Alright, so I'm going to show you this park once again while I read from the website—propaganda from Sony, but it's good propaganda. About the project: The Ginza Sony project is a project for renovation of the Sony Building with three aims—to create a new hub for Sony brand promotion, offer people interactive new experiences, and make Ginza a more comfortable town. I dig that last part. The Sony Building, which was built in 1966, will go through a reinvention and emerge in August 2018 as Ginza Sony Park. The idea of providing a public space has been present since the very beginning of the Sony Building in the form of Sony Square, known as the Garden of Ginza. Ginza Sony has always been making the neighborhood a little bit more unique by putting different displays here on this site. Ginza Sony Park is a reinterpretation of this concept and will act as an interesting, attractive new space in Ginza. There are also plans to construct a new Sony Building that will inherit this concept of public space and bring a new rhythm to the town and its people, with construction to be completed in 2022. This is Phase One, from August 2018 until autumn of 2020, so we're going to have this for two years.

17:22 John Daub: It will pose an incredible challenge for us to create a public space in a town like Ginza with so few parks—this is what makes this really unique, and Sony has got this right. I'm going to take you to the corner here so you can see it a little bit wider. There you go—there are very few parks, and this is at Tsukiji-bashi Crossroads. Our plan is to create a three-dimensional park structure that encompasses both above-ground and below-ground floors, utilizing the flat ground of the above-ground areas and incorporating a concept known as "lower park" in the below-ground area for an open expanse of space. Phase Two is in 2022, the new Sony Building to be completed in 2022—we'll inherit this main concept, the idea of a park that will provide a public space for the town of Ginza. The Sony Building's spatial design was based on the concept of taking a vertical stroll in Ginza with a seamless flower-petal structure considered very innovative at the time. With the new Sony Building, we aim once again to create an unparalleled space just our own with the characteristic Sony playfulness. So it's going to end up being like a vertical walking experience, a vertical stroll. The park opened on August 9th, and we're here on August 11th. Very cool.

18:54 John Daub: They do have events here. I'm going to take you now down below. I'm saving the ice cream for Kanae—she's on her way. I'm taking you down below; I think it's pretty interesting to see what this area is like. Let's go down these steps—this is part of their linear experience of walking the city. I like the design so far—Ginza Sony Park, very nice. Wow, this is pretty cool—I didn't expect this. And then in the center of it, this goes all the way down to the subway. Check it out—looks like an Apple Store, except it's a Sony store and it's more urban-ish, I guess you could say. And down there is where the entrance to the subway is. Very cool. You guys can figure it out if you come here to Tokyo and see more of this. But whenever you're inside, I don't like to film very much, so we're going to go back up. Oh, and they do have some history of the area on the wall, I think—it's pretty cool. I like these unfinished walls; the cement kind of gives what this place is going to look like in the future. Let's walk up to the ground level.

20:41 John Daub: Shadow Man, more gachapon splurges please—love you from North Hollywood. Alright, Shadow Man, we will be doing some more gachapon episodes. Actually, I'm thinking of going to my friend's place called Gachapon Kaikan in Akihabara and doing a splurge there. So we have permission—he said okay to it; I just gotta find the time. But apparently Tokyo FM will not do more. Alright, so I do not see Kanae—do you? This is why I had to leave early because she was doing her makeup, something that I don't have to do. I woke up and was like, alright, I'm going to Ginza. She goes, oh will you wait for me? I said, how long? She said, like 30 minutes. I'm like, no, I'll see you there—it's only a few subway stops. But you can see behind us for the 500 people watching this livestream—this is Ginza Sony Park that opened up. On the other side you can see Yurakucho. So they've really made a big change in the neighborhood, and the further I get away, the more impressive it looks.

22:15 John Daub: Hey, Matt M writes in—hi John, we saw the Edogawa fireworks, awesome, thanks for your tips. That Edogawa fireworks is probably the best in Tokyo because it offers a green space where you can sit very comfortably. It does get crowded, but at least you can sit down unlike the other ones. It's a very wide, expansive area, unlike the Sumida-gawa fireworks. So basically right now we're just hanging out for Kanae in Ginza. One of the fun things about Ginza on the weekends is that this street is closed off to traffic—it's pedestrian only right now. Ginza, this neighborhood is doing lots of little things to make it more comfortable, and I like that closing down the street on the weekend to make it friendly to pedestrians. It makes me want to spend more time there. As someone in the neighborhood, definitely. You see all around Ginza—it's always been a place where they've had trees on the streets here. So this park is not really anything completely new; across the street you can see lots of trees as well. And if you want complete and total tree action, go past the Ginzabell Shop to Hibiya Park, which is straight that way. Hibiya Park right now has the Belgian Beer Weekend, where a friend of mine is one of the organizers—his name is Tim; he's usually on stage. Go say hi to Tim if you're there.

24:00 John Daub: If you guys are good and you hit the thumbs up and like button, I might take you over to Hibiya Park after Kanae gets here. We could go take a look at Hibiya Park, another green space in the center of Tokyo, which is very much considered like the real Central Park of Tokyo because it's very much in the center. So if you click that like button and we get 300 likes, I will take you down there—that's our mission for today. Yeah, that's about it to the green space though—we can walk around it. I like to be pretty thorough, get a complete experience for you. So this is Ginza Sony Park, a brand new urban green space—it's actually pretty cool just to walk around it like this. What do you guys think about this urban green space? What do you think about the very loud ambulance rolling by right now saving somebody's life? Hopefully they get them there in time. I'm going to take you from the side here and then we're going to roll back over to the other side and look for Kanae. There are the air conditioners that I was telling you about, and once again we started the livestream up there—so watch the playback to see some more. It's pretty cool from the sky—a real breath of fresh air for the area.

25:57 John Daub: I like it when people are bold and do something different than what everybody else is doing, and that's what Sony's done here. This building—this is where Jiro Sushi is; if you saw that movie, it sits inside that building there. But that building hasn't changed since the 1960s, and you can see it too. It's kind of neat to have those buildings from the 1960s still around—it's sort of a history of architecture. But they're also very inefficient, and it's nice to see something like this where they're taking a break for two years, maybe reinventing what they want. I think Sony should take their time, and if they're going to take their time, I can't think of a better way to do it than to make a place for people with lots of trees in the city. Alright, we still don't see Kanae—are you guys looking out for her too? I'm going to make an entire circle around—this is how you kill time waiting for your wife. But it's pretty useful; it's neat to see the entire area. We're live in Ginza at Ginza Sony Park, brand new urban green space in Tokyo. Behind us you can hear the sounds of Tokyo.

28:02 John Daub: What is that silver car thing? That's a sweet-looking ride—check that out. If we can get to 250 or 300 likes, I will take you to Hibiya Park where they're having a festival.

28:26 Kanae Daub: Why were you hiding behind the post?

28:29 John Daub: Hello. How are you? Hi, I'm good. Well done on the makeup—I wasn't supposed to say that, sorry. I think everybody said... What do you think? How is it? Ginza Park—thumbs up?

28:48 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Ah, yeah.

28:52 John Daub: It's pretty cool, isn't it? Do you want a kakigori?

28:57 Kanae Daub: Okay. Yeah, kakigori.

29:02 John Daub: Uh oh, we got a wow in there. Alright, so let me move the wide-angle lens to the other side and see if they let us get a kakigori with the camera on. There's like a lady at the door. Tanai, what kakigori do you want? Just get one because I...

29:34 Kanae Daub: Kakigori gives me headache.

29:43 John Daub: Wow. Alright, here we go—let's try this kakigori. So this is the pop-up store and I guess they... Hey, the anko paste looks good—the Ginza... You want one?

30:00 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Anko paste?

30:02 John Daub: Yeah, I'm not a kakigori fan, but... We'll try one here. Which one do you want? How about the ichigo rennyū?

30:10 Kanae Daub: Oh, the strawberry? Yeah.

30:12 John Daub: Yeah, that looks good. Alright, yeah, get what you want. Thank you for the cash, guys—this is Super Chats going to work. I'm going to go here to wait. So we're waiting for her to get a kakigori. Don't kiss in public—don't worry about it. It's really hot outside. It's not as hot as it's been in the past, but we're getting closer to the 300 likes required to go and enjoy Hibiya Park with us together.

30:57 John Daub: Nasa Broad—has John done a stream while walking across Rainbow Bridge? I have, and it's available—I think it was last summer. So go take a look at last summer's livestreams; I walked across Rainbow Bridge. Not a lot of people know that you can do that. It's actually a way to save the ridiculous $3 to go just across the bridge on the subway, but it's also a way to see a lot more of the city walking across Rainbow Bridge—totally highly recommended.

31:28 John Daub: Station 240 is very perceptive and knows exactly what I'm doing. But the fan was actually turned the other way—nice call though. Alright, Kanae...

31:42 Kanae Daub: Mara? Oh, they give you a thing that will... a number. Seri-ken.

31:49 John Daub: So when they call number one, they're gonna give her her kakigori. Apparently she's not number one—he's number one. Brian, with an I not a Y. They just notified me that we have passed 300 likes, and that means boom—we will be making another trip, another excursion into Hibiya Park. However, that said, I will have to cut this stream as soon as Kanae gets the kakigori. Hey Vikram's in the house—hey Vikram. I'm gonna have to cut the stream and start another one so we get a walk over there—it's about a five-minute walk. But we're going to call this one Hibiya Park in the summer or something like this. We're going to take you through the Belgian Beer Garden as well, but just a couple of minutes because I think to make the streams an hour long, sometimes the playback is kind of painful. So what I want to do is make it where it's available for everybody as another livestream for people interested in Hibiya Park. That's sort of the reason why I do the Only in Japan Go stream—so we can have as much information about Tokyo out there right away, because I can't edit the videos as quickly as I like.

33:15 John Daub: David Salazar, thank you. We're going to eat this kakigori first, so don't worry—we're going to be here for a little bit longer. We're just waiting for the number to call. Alright, Kanae's been called—that means one thing: kakigori time.

33:35 Kanae Daub: John, what is kakigori?

33:38 John Daub: Alright, I'm going to show you right now. Kakigori—K-A-K-I-G-O-R-I—is this. It's not ice cream, it's ice—like Italian ice gone completely hyperactive. Show me up here—this is like when Italian ice meets everything else. It's a little bit healthier than ice cream. I can highly recommend it.

34:14 Kanae Daub: Let's eat. Itadakimasu.

34:18 John Daub: So this is like a milk cream with red bean paste on here. Hey Eric, thank you. Now that's a good Ginza Sony Park kakigori. How many stars?

34:48 Kanae Daub: Four stars out of five. It's good. Mmm. I have sensitive teeth—it hurts. Brain freeze.

35:07 John Daub: You can have the strawberry. It's Kanae approved—so if you're in Ginza, now you gotta go. You have to go. I have my last bite.

35:31 Kanae Daub: Last bite? I'm not a kakigori guy. I'm an ice cream guy—I want the fat.

35:38 John Daub: Do you have many nice cookies in Japan? What's your favorite flavor of kakigori?

35:45 Kanae Daub: Matcha. Matcha milk is good—matcha milk with red beans.

35:54 John Daub: Okay. Alright. Oh, look at that happy face—somebody's happy. Kakigori. Hey, Vaughn's in the house. Vaughn, don't get hyper on sugar when you unbox the Tim Tams—that's true. Make sure you chill four of them before you try them. Vaughn has sent me a crate of Tim Tams—well, a box with like two kilograms of Tim Tams. So we're gonna do a Tim Tam unboxing and have some fun with that. We actually do have Tim Tams here in Tokyo, but they're hard to find. Most of the flavors Vaughn sent were things we don't have in Japan. The ones we do are made in Indonesia—they're a little bit smaller and don't taste quite the same. I think Indonesia is a really hot country and they maybe do something with the chocolate to make it not melt, but it doesn't taste the same as the Australian ones. So I'm really looking forward to Vaughn's Tim Tams on the way, sent in an ice container—we'll see how they turn out.

37:06 John Daub: Oh, Kanae, you totally destroyed the floor of the Ginza building—sorry. It's alright, I'll take care of it for you. You eat it—always keep the area clean for the other people. No, no—thank you. She'll be thanking you. Alright, I'm gonna take it to the trash; I'll meet you outside, okay? It's okay, take your time. Alright, I'm gonna meet her outside. She's still kind of shy with the camera. Oh no, no—she's not; she's totally in on this. You don't have to eat the kakigori in the corner. Alright, good. How fast can you eat a kakigori? Can you do it in one minute or less? Three minutes?

38:12 Kanae Daub: Okay. I'll start the timer now. Three minutes—no, it's okay?

38:20 John Daub: Speaking of food challenges, I want to give a shout-out to Randy Santel. He's a competitive eater, a professional one. Randy Santel was here two days ago and he ate the two-and-a-half-kilogram gyoza that I failed to eat—he ate that in 13 minutes. I saw the picture of it; I thought that was insane. So Randy Santel, I might meet up with him before he goes back to the United States—I think tomorrow morning he's leaving. It'll be pretty cool to talk with Randy; he did reach out to me. I'm a fan of his eating work—he's an inspiration to all of us with that stomach of his. So shout-out to Randy, and we will have a beer in his honor at the Belgian Beer Garden—at least I will anyway.

39:10 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Alright, Kanae, very good job with that kakigori—you did it.

39:16 John Daub: No—well, you almost did it. But we're going to end the livestream to save the battery. Yeah. So thanks everybody from the Ginza green space—I hope you enjoyed your time here together; I appreciate it. We're going to keep this going and go over—we're going to do a Tim Tam livestream as soon as they come, a Tim Tam slam; I'm going to figure that out. Randy Santel, thank you so much for being here. Ren3, have you tried Taiwanese shaved ice called Ice Monster? Not yet—it's super thin and you can add fresh fruits or tapioca to. That sounds really good—there's one more musubi-sando. Ren3, it's on our radar now—thank you. And thank you everybody else for the Super Chats—that will literally pay for the Belgian Beer Weekend. So stay tuned—we'll be back in about five minutes from Hibiya Park. Alright.

40:11 Kanae Daub: Right? Yeah. Why are you doing this? Ciao. Ciao. Ginza to Sony Green Space—thank you.