00:00:10 John Daub: This is the Tokyo Film Festival at Hibiya Park and they're showing a Tom Cruise movie. That's pretty cool. But today we're not doing that at all. We're doing something completely different which is we're going to eat. And in the distance there you can see the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line and underneath there it's loaded with restaurants and this is the starting off point. Behind me is Hibiya Midtown which is a shopping mall, a brand new skyscraper building. Right now they are doing the Tokyo Film Festival for 2018 showing it right here. It's kind of a neat place to do it.

00:00:55 John Daub: On my left is the Godzilla statue. Not as ferocious at night. Not without any lights, huh? And this is where we're going. This way. So I hope you're hungry. I'm not going to be eating anything. At least I don't know. I don't know what we're going to find but we're going to have some fun. I'm going to introduce you to an area that you might not know about. The Ginza Corridor area is actually on the other side. This is still part of Yurakucho and Hibiya. But this is where a lot of the restaurants start.

00:01:27 John Daub: This here is a chain I believe. Uomarumaru Honten. This is the shop. They got some pretty neat seafood. It's usually pretty reasonably priced. There's a FamilyMart. There's the Shinkansen passing above there. And now we're going into a very interesting area. This is a motsuyaki (grilled offal) place. Motsuyaki is kind of like the naizo (innards). The innards of... oh there's one of those new taxi cabs for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

00:02:04 John Daub: Now underneath the Yamanote Line right here is a motsuyaki restaurant. Motsuyaki. Motsu (offal). This is the innards of the animal. It could be pork or it could be pig. It could be beef. But it's the insides, like the guts. And they grill that at this restaurant. So let's do a quick walk by. I don't know how this signal is going to be, but this is actually underneath the Yamanote Line. So you got a beautiful sunset. Well the sun is setting so you get some beautiful colors. Can't say sunset but it is pretty out here.

00:02:41 John Daub: This is a very famous scene too and you'll see a lot of photographers of the city of Tokyo. They'll stand right here. Alright, this is a beautiful frame shot. This arch, kind of famous from the 1960s. And this restaurant that's grilling motsuyaki, it just becomes so smoky. And you see salarymen walking through here with that image of smoke. Very famous in this area. I hope you do come at least check it out. Walk underneath the Yamanote Line, which you can hear passing right now. Let's walk through here and see what they've got cooking. I guess it's pig. Check it out. Pork.

00:03:36 John Daub: Oh, they're cooking. Looks like some kind of nabe (hot pot). Pretty cool. This place is pretty affordable, too. I don't remember ever spending more than a few thousand yen eating here. So if you do find a seat available, which would be like right here, right around now, I highly recommend coming underneath here and eating at this motsuyaki restaurant. It's got a pretty cool atmosphere to it.

00:04:12 John Daub: Alright. Above me now is the Yamanote Line. I'm gonna actually be walking back. I just wanted to show you and walk through this corridor. Through underneath this tunnel here. This is Ginza now, in this area. And I'll put a map in the description. This is the Ginza area. And in the summertime, a lot of these restaurants here will put tables outside. And it's hard to find outdoor dining options in the city of Tokyo. Here comes the Shinkansen above. But they have it here. Dining outside was something that they used to do in the olden days. I guess like 20, 30 years ago. Now everyone dines inside. So old places like this, they still keep that tradition going. Eating outside. And this place, even in the winter that I'm gonna be taking you back through, is sort of outside even in the dead of winter.

00:05:08 John Daub: Alright. We're going to Ginza Corridor. So we gotta keep going. So walking right by the motsuyaki shop one more time. Lots of open chairs. There's an Ikinari Steak right there, which is a chain shop. They sell super cheap meat. I wouldn't eat there. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't. And there's a Sushi Zanmai, which is a chain of sushi shops that's everywhere. And also, one of Kanae's favorite places, this is a German restaurant. Baden Baden. Also has hot dogs. Wolfbrau Munich beer. And of course, reeks of beer. German beer. Very good.

00:06:02 John Daub: Uh, sorry, I've already been to the Godzilla statue. I just passed that up. There's two restaurants from Germany. There's this one, the Baden Baden, and there's this one, which is the Bitburger restaurant. The Bitburger one is also pretty good, but Kanae likes the other one. Because they have German music. You know the kind I'm talking about. Wow, that's some really good looking gyoza. Usually gyoza comes round, but they put some kind of flour underneath it when they cook it, so it makes it come out crispy like that. And then they flip it. Okizeme set. Nice. It's pretty reasonable. Right now the shops are kind of empty. So, let's keep going here.

00:06:58 John Daub: Now this is not quite Ginza Corridor yet. We're getting there. I'll be making the next left and getting there. And I'm just gonna walk down there and show you some of the dining options that are there. But, these are still pretty cool too. This one's new. Or at least I don't remember seeing this. There's two of them. This one has a big pig on the wall. And there's a train going by above it. How cool is that? If this pig's a rockin', don't come a-knockin'. Alright, let's go take a quick look at the menu. It looks Korean. Han Tejiya. So you got a lot of meat here. Very interesting. Cuts of meat with sauce. Looks so good. That's nabe in the center there, which is a kind of soup. And the restaurant right now looks pretty open. If we're just looking, window shopping right now. So it's still kind of early in Tokyo to be eating out. But wow, does that look good.

00:08:16 John Daub: We're getting there to the Ginza Corridor. You can't go there directly. Now, you can follow the Yamanote Line tracks, which is where we're going. And if you were to go straight, you could see those bright lights in the distance. That's Shinbashi. And we can connect the other video that I did on Shinbashi with this one. That's Shinbashi in the distance. And that's a totally different town with a totally different vibe than where we're going. It's so amazing because Ginza Corridor is right near Shinbashi. And yet, it's so different. On our right side is the Teikoku Hotel, the Imperial Hotel. That's where the Queen of England stayed back, I don't know, 50 years ago when she last visited. And Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe came here on their honeymoon. Some other VIPs, Jean Reno stayed there, I believe.

00:09:17 John Daub: Oh, it's loud down here. Oh, they closed these shops down. So, there's a secret corridor that runs between, underneath the tracks. And it was loaded, loaded with dozens of restaurants. And they've all been, they've all been kind of put under. Check it out. Do you see this construction here? All these closed shops? These were all restaurants that have gone out of business. They're gone now. I don't know what they're doing. I guess they're reconstructing it. But it looks like they just ripped it out. That's a shame. But there was like an underground passageway that started at Yurakucho. They went all underneath here. And I've been wanting to do a live stream on it for a long time. And look, it's closed out now. I guess because the 2020 Olympics is coming. That's a shame. It's kind of like a ghost corridor. It was kind of spooky. But, yeah, it's gone. So, we don't have to worry about it anymore.

00:10:32 John Daub: Here's Ginza Corridor now. We've gone to the other side of the tracks. And now we're in a posh neighborhood called Ginza. And Ginza is exactly what it is. It's like the Beverly Hills sort of of Tokyo, I guess you could say. It's where a lot of the brand shops are. I'm going to walk across the street and then look back and show you the restaurants on the other side. Two things of notice. I've done a lot of live streams up there in the Ginza Tokyo Plaza building with a beautiful view. This is a historical elementary school where the kids are forced to wear Armani uniforms. Like, it was in the news. The kids actually had to wear these $800 Armani uniforms to school. It was required that the parents had to buy them. That's that school right there. And, yeah, right there in the center of your screen, that's the elementary school. It's closed now because it's night. And then there's Chronic Tacos. I've never heard of this company before. They've come in here. I ate their tacos once. Way too expensive. Overpriced. Not bad, but not worth what they were charging. Sorry, Chronic Tacos. I don't expect you to be in Tokyo much longer. You're not the only taco place in town.

00:11:56 John Daub: Shinkansen going by. On the left side we have Ginza Corridor. And these are all these restaurants that we're going to be walking by right now. And this whole Ginza Corridor area is just restaurants. Here's the sign for it. Ginza Corridor Dori. This is Ginza Corridor. Corridor Avenue. So it's a corridor of Ginza. And, uh, I've taken a lot of people to eat here when they come to visit. It's just sort of the place. So I'm going to cross the street at this next opening here.

00:13:01 John Daub: Oh, look, they got an English menu. English staff they're looking for. English staff and menu available. Good. Alright, let's give them a little bit. They've made the effort now. Let's give them a little bit of PR here. Hakata-ya Daikichi. Ooh. Wow, they wrap everything in meat. Sugoi ne (amazing). So it looks like, and look at this, everything is in English too. Tori karaage, motsu nabe (chicken karaage, offal hot pot). Wow. Grilled dumplings. That looks good.

00:13:50 John Daub: Alright. So there you go. It's interesting to see a lot of these shops. Just about five years ago. Oh, Tokachi-ya. Check that out. That's an area of Hokkaido that's really, really remote. Tokachi area. They make wine, I believe. They make stuff there. Welcome to Hokkaido. Check it out. We're in Tokyo and welcome to Hokkaido. Some remnants of Halloween, maybe? Even in the city, you know, no one's going to smash those pumpkins. And you can see, I guess they bring a lot of the vegetables. And you can see there's the Tokachi wine, which is famous for that area of Hokkaido. Hokkaido potatoes. Wow. The menu looks awesome. The prices are pretty reasonable too. Nothing is over $8 to $10. Some of this, the prosciutto ham is $17 about. But everything else looks good. It's still closed. So the restaurants are just starting to open.

00:14:55 John Daub: Oh, there's a confectionery. Oh, they got like strawberry daifuku (strawberry rice cakes). That's $2 for that daifuku. They have some Halloween stuff over here. All right, let's keep going down the corridor. Now this rib house has been around for a while. It's pretty colorful on the corner there. You don't see too many restaurants like this in Ginza. Flashy with weird lighting and things like this. You don't see a lot of places like this in Ginza, but you will see it here. It's pretty sweet. It's a fun place, you know? That's what I like about Ginza Corridor. It's kind of fun. There's a Starbucks in the corner. Let's go back down. See what we got here. This looks like Chinese food, Sichuan. Spicy. Oh, an unagi (eel) restaurant. Oh, that looks so good. I love unagi. It looks better when it's cooked like this than it does in real life.

00:16:14 John Daub: Here's oden (simmered vegetables and fishcakes). If you guys are interested in oden, this is an oden restaurant. You can see from the chochin (lantern) here. The menu is all in Japanese, but this is the hanpin menu (sample menu). You can see you have an omakase for 200 yen. Each one is 280 yen. Even the prices are in Japanese numbers. If you don't know how the Japanese numbers go, it's really hard to figure out the menus. But the pictures do help. This is oden. It's like boiled or simmered deliciousness in some kind of sauce. It's so good. If you do come to Tokyo, especially in the winter, do not pass up oden. Say yes to oden and yes to yakitori (grilled skewers). Definitely say yes to yakitori. You got to say yes to yakitori.

00:17:17 John Daub: Liza I. JD, please go back and get some ichigo daifuku (strawberry rice cakes) and Halloween treats from the shop for yourself and wifey, please. Alright. Ask and you shall receive. I'll have to get one for Kanae later, but I'm okay going back to get a daifuku. I'm Halloween. Let's do something Halloweenish, okay? This is the power of community. Thanks to this contribution, I'm walking my way back to get some snacks.

00:18:10 John Daub: Halloween ohagi (rice balls). Ohagi. Looks delicious. Please give me some Halloween ohagi. Please. Today is Halloween, so we shall enjoy. Here you go. I have some. Thank you. Happy Halloween everybody out there. This looks good. It looks kind of evil. Kind of scary. Thank you. Alright. So I guess I got that to go for Kanae, as you said. Right? I got it. So I got some Halloween ohagi for Kanae. Thank you for that. We're going to enjoy that. I'll put a picture on Instagram.