00:00:00 John Daub: Hey, everybody! How you doing? Good afternoon from wet Tokyo. It is not a picture perfect day for doing this. Behind me is the Imperial Palace. That's where the Emperor lives. This is a lot of Japan's government behind me. And right there is the entrance to Hibiya Park. We're going to be going in there.

00:00:25 John Daub: So this is a historical walk in Tokyo. This is one that there's the entrance to Hibiya Park again. We're going to be going in and taking a look at the Liberty Bell of Tokyo and kind of wrapping our heads around what the heck is this place? I mean, this is something when I was in elementary school, we all made the trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We went to study the history of the Revolutionary War, 1776, freedom, independence. All this was symbolized within the bell itself. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about the history of Japan's Liberty Bell. It was actually given to Japan from the United States. It is exactly like the one in Philadelphia.

00:01:17 John Daub: Despite this weather, and I want to thank you all for joining me in this really not really nice day. It's really coming down here in Tokyo. Ah, there it is up there. So this is Hibiya Park, which is a park in the center of Tokyo. This is kind of like a miniature Central Park. This is a place where a lot of foreign dignitaries and visiting people would stay at the turn of the century before World War II and then also afterwards. And that structure in the center of your screen is where the Liberty Bell is. That's where it rests across this very wet park. Oh man. Autumn has hit. You can see the leaves starting to fall. But that's not going to stop us in the pursuit of liberty.

00:02:08 John Daub: Hey Andrew, thank you. Check if the word liberty is spelled correctly. Haha, that's true. We will be taking a look at the original marker. There it is up there. It's kind of cool when you look at it from this point of view in the center of Tokyo. That is unmistakably the Liberty Bell. It's the exact same thing. It's the same shape, the same weight. Everything is the same except for one detail, which we're going to get a closer look at right now.

00:02:45 John Daub: It just started raining. I got out of the subway station. You can either get here by Hibiya Station, Yurakucho Station, but Sakuradamon Station is right over there. It's about 150 meters from there to here. And we're going to walk up and see the Liberty Bell. I think you should see it from the start here. Hey Spector1065, hello from Albuquerque. Yeah, New Mexico! America! I'm kind of feeling it today.

00:03:20 John Daub: And I wanted to cover this because I got a comment from Why Japanese Live So Long. I'm not going to ring it, but I was told at 12 o'clock noon it will ring. So that's why I wanted to start a little bit early. So somebody commented the other day. They said that, why do Japanese live so long and why is it mostly women in the top 20 that are super centenarians? And one comment was because a lot of the men had died in World War II and they weren't wrong. And made me think about all the people, all the servicemen that lost their lives. And then I remember this at this site in Tokyo. Ah here it is. It's ringing automatically check it out.

00:04:07 John Daub: Twelve o'clock everybody. Oh, it's really swinging. Look at that. It's so close to striking now. Here it is. It's striking right now. Here we go. The Liberty Bell rings. Well, how come it isn't striking? How loud is this thing gonna be? It's not making a sound. Let freedom ring let freedom ring!

00:05:17 John Daub: Anathenia don't lose your faith in freedom. What no ring? Come on. Let it loose. Is it rusted underneath there? Oh, man. What? Give it some time. Who knows this could be just on a timer release or something. Oh man, it's starting to slow down. No. Let freedom ring. Ring it. Oh, that's kind of disappointing. How is that possible?

00:05:54 John Daub: Dear mayor of Tokyo as an American citizen. I protest in the name of the elections. The midterm elections of the United States. How can this Bell not ring? How could there not be freedom? I stand upon you on the Liberty Bell Hill. It is a hill. How dare you not repair the Bell and not let the freedom ring? How will these people in the office building behind us know that freedom exists and it sort of is now dying. It's actually true. The freedom does not ring today. Hopefully it will ring on election day when everybody in the United States decides to vote go and vote. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday morning Tuesday afternoon in Japan. It's Monday night in New York. What a shame. I can't believe that the bell didn't ring. I didn't hear anything. Was that supposed to be like that? No liberty miss Lady Liberty come Statue of Liberty and fix this like Godzilla versus Lady Liberty, that'd be pretty interesting.

00:07:04 John Daub: All right, there is actually a plaque here and there is some history. Vote for what I don't know. It's Tuesday November first Tuesday in November is the elections. And this is two years since the presidential election, meaning it's a midterm election. So anyways, that's happening in the United States. And freedom, that's all I have to say about that, like Forrest Gump.

00:07:29 John Daub: So, as we say here, this Liberty Bell was dedicated by Douglas MacArthur to the Japanese government in 1952. 1952 was the year that the United States gave back the government to Japan. And the occupation was over. And that occupation was from 1945. 1945 to 1951, they voted for it. And then in 1952, we seceded the country back to Japan. And that's when MacArthur... The story goes, it's kind of a unique story, and there really isn't a lot of information on this Liberty Bell.

00:08:02 John Daub: But it was in 1952 that MacArthur, I guess he really wanted to leave a lasting impression on the city of Tokyo and on the country. And the best way to do that was to show generosity. And in this live stream, we're going to see a little bit of Hibiya Park in the rain because it's not sunny. But MacArthur was Douglas MacArthur, who was the super... I forget his title. Oh, gosh. But he was in charge of the Allied forces here in the Pacific region in Asia. And he was an extremely, extremely intelligent man. And I could see the reason why he would do this just based on the rules that he set up, the laws that he set as soon as he stepped into Japan in 1945 in August.

00:08:57 John Daub: I believe in 1952, he commissioned this and asked for U.S. businesses, anonymous, to donate this Liberty Bell to Japan. And the reason why is so that they can know what liberty means, what freedom means, and not forget it. And this is something maybe that was in MacArthur's mind, the Liberty Bell, as a symbol. And it's a gift from the United States, but it's more like a gift from MacArthur. Hold on. I'm going to wipe this lens for you. It's more like a gift from MacArthur than the United States. But it was businessmen. It was private contributions that made this Liberty Bell possible, not the actual government of the United States.

00:09:39 John Daub: This stand, the brick stand that you see that the Liberty Bell is in right now, was donated by the Japan Newspaper Association, the Nihon Shimbun Kyokai (日本新聞協会, Japan Newspaper Association). And they built this. I don't know exactly when. I don't think that this tower was here when they dedicated the bell to Japan, but it is here now, and it's pretty cool. It's high up there, so people can't climb up there and maybe try to sleep with the bell or something or try to ring it. It's pretty high up there.

00:10:14 John Daub: But as an American living in Japan, all these little reminders of the United States makes me feel kind of good. You know, I don't have to go to Philadelphia anymore to see the Liberty Bell. I can see it here. As you can see, because we've already been around it once, it is missing one thing. Do you guys know what that is? Do you know what's missing? Are you seeing it front and back now? The inscription is the same on it. I'm going to zoom up there. I've got to put the umbrella down to do that. The inscription is the same as the original Liberty Bell. It doesn't have a crack. That's right. Yeah, the crack. It doesn't have a crack in it. It is beautiful, flawless. And this is what the Liberty Bell is supposed to look like. So if you want to see it without the crack, you can come to Japan.

00:11:11 John Daub: That's the only thing that they could not replicate. Why would you... Japan, we're going to give you a cracked bell because we broke our own. So we're going to break yours too. That wouldn't go down there. And you can see Pennsylvania on the top there. So there's the Liberty Bell. Exactly the same replica, except this one doesn't ring. I'm pretty sure they could replicate the crack as well. But they're like, why would you do that? Here is the Japanese inscription for this, for all the historians out there. You can take a screenshot of it right there. It's basically saying the Liberty Bell, the Liberty of Bell. Ni tsuite. Ni tuite. And on the back side, you have the dedication. This plaque is the dedication of the stand that the Liberty Bell is in. And it basically just says that it was donated in the hope of freedom of the press by the Japan Newspaper Association.

00:12:24 John Daub: If this was China, I would think it was a copy. Well, yeah. No, this was donated by the United States. Anyway. Skullcrushers here. I love your videos, John. Really wish I could visit Japan. I hope you can make it too. There's no inscription back here. Now I'm going to give you a little bit of history. I'm going to tell you some stories, some personal stories that... Because I was born in 1974. So that means my father's generation, my grandfather's generation fought in World War II. And now the millennials, people a little bit younger, don't have that same connection to history. They don't know too many people that were born during World War II. My grandfather fought in World War II.

00:13:01 John Daub: Let me get this around here. So this is a picture of Douglas MacArthur with the Emperor when he came and you can see this is it's very rare to see a picture where the Emperor stood up alongside with MacArthur. This is a very simple symbolic photo. I'm sorry. It's not in better shape. This is like a printed out version from my computer, but it's getting wet now. I'm gonna put it away, but that's Douglas MacArthur in 1945 I believe with the Emperor of Japan and they're standing side by side because MacArthur was an extremely intelligent man and he also knew that Japan that we're suffering here when the Allied forces got to Tokyo and they got to Japan. You could just see all around you and I've seen some of the museums of the history people were starving. People did not have the worst bombing in the history war went on in 1945 in March.

00:13:52 John Daub: Okay, so when MacArthur got here in all August of August 30th, I believe of 1945 this place was in utter ruins. Tokyo was completely demolished. Let me just pan around here for you. You can see now. It's beautiful now. Everything's been rebuilt. They've had an economic boom and a bust and a boom again and a bust. But now Japan looks really beautiful and peaceful but back then MacArthur saw absolute destruction and the first laws that he enacted were kind of touched me when I read them and I hadn't read them in a while, but I read them again before this to try to get a feeling of to put this in context actually the Liberty Bell.

00:14:37 John Daub: Let's see here. He here it is. So MacArthur arrived in Tokyo on August 30th. Yeah and immediately declared several laws. All right. This is why I like this the symbol the symbolic of symbolism of the Liberty Bell here. This is in 1945 and this Bell came at the end of his tenure in 52 no allied personnel were to assault Japanese people no allied personnel were to eat the scarce Japanese food and flying the Hinomaru (日の丸, Rising Sun flag) or Rising Sun flag was an initially severely restricted. Although individuals and prefectural offices could apply for permission to fly it. He was very lenient. This restriction was partially lifted in 1948 and completely lifted the following year in 1949.

00:15:26 John Daub: So MacArthur knew right away from the start that the people here were suffering and you can't have liberty and freedom and you can't have rebuilding and you can't have peace with starving people. And it reminds me of a story that my great uncle told me uncle Ed in his when he got really old he would tell the story sometimes six times in an hour. This is when I moved to Japan in 1998 and I came back to visit and he told me the stories of when he was in Japan during the occupation and uncle Ed. Yeah, he's one of these guys who's always smiling and I remember seeing him at the Christmas party always always smiling. And he told me the story and he said I don't want to mess it up. But I know it revolves around when he was here. He just saw the people were starving and he offered one Japanese man an egg. He offered him an egg and the guy was so grateful just to receive an egg that he'd never seen such appreciation.

00:16:30 John Daub: For receiving it and for him it was kind of shocking and when I heard the story I didn't quite understand the significance until I got here and started to study more about the war. But you could tell he was affected by the great appreciation that the enemy because Japan had never been occupied before America did in 1945 was so gracious and gave they gave food to people mr. Seiichi who's my wife's grandfather. He's 97 years old now and he told stories of when he was in the Philippines and he came back to Japan and how gracious America was they gave him chocolate he loves America and it's a generation people might be more. People the younger generation might forget about it. But people remember the older generation how gracious the occupation was in that set up for the boom.

00:17:23 John Daub: Yeah, that's set up for the boom in the nineteen 1950s which you know UC Tokyo Tower. Andrew Riedman Smith writes in, visiting Japan in January, first time, can't wait. Love to meet up and buy us both a cheese with a stick thing. Yeah, that's in the live stream the other day. Yeah, this is so good. By the way, everybody's watching this. I'm doing a live meetup on the 8th in Ameyoko. And we haven't decided where, but it might be by the cheesy thing. So go to Facebook. Only in Japan TV, you can see where the meetup is. And I would love to see you if you're visiting in Tokyo on the 8th of November. Wow, it's autumn. Come and visit and we'll get some street food on the 8th of November at 11 a.m. Sorry if you're working at that time, but that's when we have. And we're going to have a special visitor. Greg from Life Where I'm From said that he's going to try to join us. So it'll be me, Greg from Life Where I'm From, and maybe Alan from My Life Japan might come to say hi. But it's going to be pretty cool.

00:18:24 John Daub: I know Greg. I've met Greg a few times, so we might collaborate on a video. But it's nice where we can come together and have some street food. And if you're around, it's going to be fun too. All right. So I was getting a little bit emotional, but things are really bad in the 1940s after the war, 1945. And it was the American Allied Forces and MacArthur who said, look, you have to show compassion to your enemy. You have to show them you just have to be good people. And I think that back then, there were, of course, incidences, but the Allied Forces that were here, stationed here, were pretty darn good, especially around the country. I mean, there was stuff that happened, but I'm sure the stories that I heard were all very, very positive. And that left such a great impression that as Japan, after the occupation, as Japan grew as a country, the connection between the United States was real.

00:19:24 John Daub: And you see that with the 1960s, the boom, a love for California, even today, there's a massive love for Guam and Hawaii. There's, for Kanae's father's generation, that grandfather, they grew up loving like Elvis Presley and American music and that freedom that was associated with it. It's not quite the same today. I think that things have changed a little bit, but it's these little things behind me, like this Liberty Bell. And there's a couple other statues here that really give me hope that what we did, what America did, helping after the war and the way they did it was really, really great, I think. I mean, the battle in the Pacific was so, so awful. So many people lost their lives on both sides. And then MacArthur came in and the first thing he said was, don't touch the Japanese food. Do not touch their food supply. Do not show them mercy. Don't assault anybody. Don't show any kind of anger or aggression. This was huge.

00:20:30 John Daub: And yeah, and in today's world, when we see, we focus on so much of the bad stuff that's happening around the world. I think it's kind of a breath of fresh air when you see such a strong leader after an awfully fought war going in and saying, look, we're going to give this country back its dignity. And that's the right way. That's the right way to do it, especially back then. So there you go. That's the Liberty Bell. It's kind of not the perfect day to be doing this, but the weather is about, I don't know. It's comfortable. It's about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe 55, 56 degrees Fahrenheit, 60, somewhere between there.

00:21:19 John Daub: I did not, we could not hear it ring. Therefore, Liberty's got some technical problems. So I want to say to any investors in the United States who wants to make a nice contribution to help the Tokyo government make freedom ring again, I think they could probably use it. Although the Liberty Bell looks in very good condition. Actually, it looks in very good condition. And the base of it reminds me very much like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia that you can see. It is beautiful. Yeah. And this was back in 1952, and this was dedicated. Tokyo Tower started construction in 1953. This is when the Americans stepped out, then Japan's democracy started to take over and you saw business explode. And that's when NHK started broadcasting TV in 1953, a year after America left the country, they needed a tower to broadcast from, and they constructed Tokyo Tower in 1953. They started and it was finished, I believe in 58.

00:22:32 John Daub: And this started through television. TV is a reason why people don't talk in regional dialects anymore. There's a Liberty Bell in the distance up there on the hill. Japan is such a regional country that there's 47 prefectures. And at the time people spoke in the regional dialects and it was national TV in 1953 that started to bring unify the dialect too. So people speak pretty much the same dialect, but same in the United States. I think people had strong dialects. They still kind of do, but TV was a unifying force where culture came together. You could unify the country. I'm going to walk a little bit around Hibiya Park and make my way back to Yurakucho Station. It's raining, but you know, one of the things about being out in the rain is that the greens are even greener. So try to look at the bright side here.

00:23:21 John Daub: Andrew writes in, have you done a video on the 47 Ronin graves? Not yet. There's a lot of historical places, especially up in Tohoku and down in Mie and the Kansai region. There's just too many things to cover. That's the great thing.

00:23:38 Mohit: Hello. How are you? Love your videos. Hi, what's your name? Mohit. I'm from India.

00:23:43 John Daub: Mohit, nice to meet you. All right. Yeah, I'll be there in December. Oh wow, welcome, welcome. Woohoo. Which city are you in?

00:23:50 Mohit: New Delhi.

00:23:51 John Daub: Hey guys. Subscribe, subscribe, please. Thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, subscribe. Hit the like button. He's awesome. I watched your Ameyoko Market video. And I tried that cheesy thing. It was awesome.

00:24:02 Mohit: Oh, cool. So you got the one that I got, the potato mozzarella. Yeah, potato. It was so unhealthy.

00:24:10 John Daub: Yeah, so unhealthy but so good. So good. So good. Hey guys. So where are you from? Which city?

00:24:18 Mohit: New Delhi.

00:24:19 John Daub: Okay. But I won't be going this time. Oh, you should come. Yeah, yeah. Where will you be?

00:24:25 Mohit: Mumbai.

00:24:26 John Daub: Mumbai? We're only going to be... Kanae and I are going to India. She's never been there before, so I kind of want to show her where my mom's from. And we'll be there for six days in Mumbai. Wow. You should come to New Delhi. I know. Six days is not enough to do India. So just focus on one city. And if she likes it, which I think she's going to fall in love with it, we're going to come back for a longer visit. Yeah, sure. But December also is such a beautiful weather in India. Wow. It's amazing.

00:24:51 Mohit: I just found you.

00:24:53 John Daub: Yeah, look at that. How long are you in Japan for?

00:24:56 Mohit: I'm here for 30 days.

00:24:57 John Daub: Wow. And this is like last week. Okay. So initially I came to Tokyo for one week and I took the JR pass for 14 days. Okay. And then I went to Fuji Kawaguchiko. Yeah, yeah. By Mount Fuji. Right. It's amazing. I saw the Mount Fuji. It was so clear. Oh, where the leaves had changed? Yeah. It's everywhere. It's autumn. Guys, come here right now. Come here. I know. I tell everybody, well, even though it's not the best day today, but October is one of the best months because the humidity goes away. The weather is still pretty comfortable. It's not cold. It's amazing. I'm in a t-shirt now. It's just for the rain. I'm not wearing a t-shirt now because I didn't know what the weather was like outside. It's hard to predict. Check out the sky. It's kind of dark. Yeah. But yeah, October is the best time. You can just kind of... Usually, the skies start getting clearer too and you get really beautiful views of Mount Fuji.

00:25:51 John Daub: Did you get to see Fuji from Kawaguchiko?

00:25:53 Mohit: Yeah. It's amazing. Do you have a picture?

00:25:55 John Daub: Yeah. I knew you had a picture. I want to see the picture. I went to Nagoya, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, so many places. Wow. So you went to Hiroshima as well?

00:26:06 Mohit: Hiroshima. Miyajima?

00:26:09 John Daub: Tsukima, yeah. Oh! Mountain, myself. Amazing. I hiked it to get a beautiful view. Wow. So cool. 30 days is not enough. 30 days is... I can't believe that. 30 days is not enough. No. I've been here 20 years. That's not enough. I want to go to Hokkaido and Sapporo. Like, I want to do that. Yeah. So just give me like, you know, like... Oh, it's okay. 40 chills. 47 prefectures. If you give one day to each prefecture, that's at least 47 days. So, yeah. Now, I guess if you want to see it all, it took me... Yeah. I didn't see all 47 for 13 years. It took 13 years to get to every prefecture. You probably don't believe it, but this is what I took. Look at that. Wow! What? Yes. That looks like a postcard. Yeah. Wow! With this camera? Yes. Wow. It's a dual camera. I don't know. It's just Chinese phone or something. Yeah, but it looks good. Yeah. That's October and there's just snow up there, so that makes it even better. Without the snow, it's not quite as...

00:27:13 Mohit: I was just wondering, somehow, like, people from other country were staying, for example, like, one month, and they haven't seen them on Fuji, like, because of the cloudy. And I just went there and I saw it. Yeah. It's amazing. The clouds part, and there it is.

00:27:26 John Daub: You didn't see from the airplane?

00:27:29 Mohit: Sometimes, if it's cloudy below, but from the airplane coming into Tokyo... Did you fly into Tokyo?

00:27:35 John Daub: Yes. Ah. Very good. If you pick the right side of the plane, usually you get really beautiful views, even if it's cloudy. Mount Fuji will be popping over the clouds with a nice snowy peak. Yeah. It's amazing. Kawaguchiko is amazing. Yeah. Is that your favorite place, then?

00:27:53 Mohit: Kawaguchiko was the most... What would you say is the one place? Yeah. I mean, I was thought to go Hakone, like, nearby Mount Fuji, then I chose Kawaguchiko Lake because I want to see the forest, lava cave. And, like, Kawaguchiko Lake. Right. So, I booked a tour from a Japanese firm so that...to get the different experience. Mm. So, they took me to that Aokigahara Forest. Yeah. And... Oh, yeah. That's the suicide forest.

00:28:19 John Daub: Suicide forest. Yeah. And then they just let me inside the cave with full gear and headlights and everything, and I saw the ice. And the volcano, and it's amazing, guys. Just... Yeah. The forest is... The forest is actually...you don't have to go looking for that kind of thing. Yeah. The forest is actually pretty. It's very pretty. Which is why people go there for that. It's because it's a beautiful forest. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I don't know why it's like suicide forest, but if you know the history and everything, it's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That's...that...yeah. I don't want to...I'm afraid to go there, though, but...

00:28:57 Mohit: It's true. I found one of the facts. Like, you cannot pick the...actually, volcano rock. Oh. You cannot take back home. They can actually fine you for like $5,000. Wow. Wow. Really? Yeah. Wow. Like, that tour guide told me. I thought, like, just take it as a souvenir and take back to India, but they said, no, you cannot do that.

00:29:17 John Daub: Do they mark it with some kind of secret paint or something? I don't know. How would they know? So I know what to get you when I come to visit India, right? Sure. A piece of volcanic rock. Yeah. You have a free stay. Yeah. You can have these. Come. All right. Cool. Yeah. We'll definitely be in Delhi one of these days, but... But not on this trip. Come on down to Mumbai. How about that? Sure. Yeah, it's pretty close. It's like two-hour flight. I might be doing a meet-up at the YouTube space in Mumbai. They have down there. And Leaping Windows, I'm going to give them a call this week and see if we can arrange a way to meet up in Leaping Windows where they have a manga cafe in Mumbai.

00:29:55 Mohit: Really? Yeah. We have manga cafe in Mumbai? Yes. Yes. Wow. It's not the same as here, but it's pretty good. I did an episode on that about four years ago. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Wow. We need so many things from Japan to India. It's true. Wow. Like go for Udon noodle restaurants like Hanamaru, like chain. We need that. I'm addicted to that. Yeah. So tasty. So good. You don't have it. Not... Well, we're getting there now.

00:30:23 John Daub: Oh, it's the rain starting to come in. The rain's starting to get in. Come down harder. I didn't interrupt you. No, not at all. It was really nice to meet you. There you go. There's your package. Did you take a picture? Yeah. Did you want to take a picture? I don't know. I can take it from there. Good. That's the way. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Snapshot. Subscribe. Subscribe. Oh, I like that one. All right, buddy. All right. See you later. That was awesome.

00:30:55 John Daub: Oh, man. So that's pretty cool. I will be in India. Kanae and I got the tickets already. I have an apartment in Mumbai, so I got a place to stay already, but I appreciate all the people who've been inviting me to their place, which is really cool. So, yeah. My mom is originally from that area of India, so we have a lot of family in India. I mean a lot of family, like a lot of family. I don't even know who everyone is kind of a lot. All right. I'm going to take you to the fountain, which makes no sense because it's raining and the entire city is a fountain, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't not take you.

00:31:36 John Daub: There are little snack bars in here, and one of the things I like about Hibiya Park besides the Liberty Bell and the friendly people is that this is a great place to buy a bento or box lunch and just sit and eat it in the park. Lots of benches here on this side of the park. There really aren't a lot of people even at lunchtime. A lot of the business people won't come out here. They'll eat at the office. There's a picnic table right there. I mean, of course, this isn't an ideal day, but who knows in an hour or so, this could be an amazing place. Now, last year around this time, Jennifer Julian and I. Jennifer Julian came here for the Christmas market. That's going to be starting in a few weeks. And this park, which is completely empty, is going to be completely full of Christmas spirit. And I'm kind of looking forward to that because Kanae and I are doing a world tour instead of going the short way from Tokyo to New York. We're going the long way back home to New York to visit. So basically, we're going around the world taking one way tickets. And it was only a little bit more expensive than taking a round trip ticket from Tokyo to Japan. Believe it or not, it's weird, but that's the way it worked out.

00:33:02 John Daub: Thanks for the comments. We're getting a lot of comments. Andrew writes in it. Is it cold in January? Yeah. I mean, it's not Canadian cold, but it's cold ish. Tokyo gets Tokyo is about the same as Washington, D.C., I would say. And New York City would be the same as like San Diego. But it's like a little bit colder than Sendai, which is cold. So there's a big difference between Washington, D.C. and New York City. This is a water fountain in the rain. They could just turn it off, right? It's like naturally fountaining. I mean, really, you could see it on the streets here. But yeah, in general, Tokyo, if it does snow, it snows for one day and it usually melts the next day. And the city stops because they don't know how to deal with snow. But if it snows in Sendai, they got like a hundred different hundreds of snow plows. It'll plow the city and everything. Snow tires. They got the city back in order in a day. So you could see the difference between the cultures. Tokyo is not a super cold place, but it gets cold. You do need a down jacket. You do need to bundle up. You do need to hit Okinawa to warm up. Maybe that might be a good idea.

00:34:14 John Daub: In the center of the screen is the Imperial Hotel, and that's another hotel with a lot of history. It's grown a lot since the 1950s. You can see. Now it's just a massive structure. They've got loads of restaurants. Very nice restaurants. I think I had a Kobe beef steak in there with one of my clients, a friend of mine. I think the bill was $1000, but for two people. I guess it's a business write off or something, right? Probably the best meal, the most memorable meal I've ever had. It's crazy. They're insanely good. So this is Hibiya Station here. And this is pretty much kind of like the main entrance to the park. In the distance, you'll see the Shinkansen passing by in better weather. There's a platform in the distance right underneath that red sign. There's a flower stand here, and I really do love this park. Whenever I get a chance, I'll walk through it to get from A to B.

00:35:22 John Daub: What happened in the plan of coming to Mumbai? On Jim, I actually just announced that I was going to Mumbai, so the plan is real. The plan is happening and the plan has been planned. That's why it's a plan. Kanai and I leave here on the 10th, and we fly via Sri Lanka, Colombo, to Mumbai. And we're spending one night in Colombo to meet with fans in Sri Lanka. And I don't even know if we got viewers in Sri Lanka. If you're in Sri Lanka, raise your hand, but we're going to be in Colombo for one night. And I'm going to go to, I'll be on Facebook and Instagram to announce the meetups there. If you're in Japan right now, we're doing a meetup on the 8th. The day after tomorrow, I'll be in Ameyoko Market with my friend Greg. And the event page is on Facebook. Yeah, it's on Facebook right now, and you can meet us. I'll put a map of where to meet up, but probably near that cheese potato place because it's so darn good. I could use some more cheese potato. So I'll be able to share the cheese potato. Oh, this is so beautiful. I'll be able to share some cheese string, springy string cheese. I'll be able to share some potato and coconut sugar with you tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.

00:36:46 John Daub: So then we're in Mumbai for six days only. It's not enough time, but it's enough for, I wanted to show Kanae, India, and I haven't been there in a while, so I just kind of wanted to stop over. Also because I've been promising it for months. And then we fly to Germany for a couple of days in Munich. So we'll do a meetup in Munich, in Japanese. Okay. And then we fly to Paris where I'll be meeting some friends and maybe do a meetup in Paris. And then we fly from Paris to New York, but the cheapest flight, get this guys. Oh, look at the bird. That's such a beautiful sight. Look at that. There's a couple of other over there in the corner. Wow. This is Japan that I know. It's a natural green place, even in the center of Tokyo. Let's go see if that bird, I think the bird flew down there. Oh, I see it. I know it's going to fly away if we get too close. Wow, that's a beautiful sight.

00:38:40 John Daub: I'm just, oh, I'm sorry bird. I didn't mean this to startle you. Andrew writes in, bogus, long time lurker, first time donation. Thank you, Andrew. The bird flew just a little bit away. Startled for me speaking again. Wow. The rain's really starting to come down, guys. Beautiful, beautiful in Hibiya Park. Yeah, it's nice if you're in the city. And you just want to take a break from all the urban stuff. Just walk through one of Japan's, Tokyo's many parks. Tokyo has tons of beautiful parks. You can see, wow, it's starting to really come down. Check it out. This is not a good day. Be happy that you're watching this indoors. And hopefully you're not outdoors with me here. Yeah. So that's what's happening. Come join us the day after tomorrow in Ameyoko, in Ueno. And eat some street food with us. And I will see you either that.

00:39:50 John Daub: Oh, oh, I forgot to say. So for me to fly to New York from Paris, the cheapest fare was Icelandair. So Kanae and I are going to spend two nights in Reykjavik because the hotels in the middle of winter are half price. It's just like it was too good to pass up. So we don't get back into the United States until near Christmas time. And I know I'm going to do a meet up in New York. Probably after Christmas. After the New Year. Right now it looks like on the second or third of January. But that's kind of good. People still have holidays, I believe. So we'll try to do the meet up in New York as soon as possible. Last year we had an amazing turnout in New York. We had an amazing turnout. It was so great to finally put faces to people who've been commenting and saying hi and following the channel for years. Hopefully I can see them again and meet some new people in New York City. So it'll be a lot of fun. And I might even make a trip to Montreal. We're talking about it because we're going to be up in that direction. So we'll give you updates. It would be great to meet you on this world tour. I know some of the fans in Germany don't live on the other side of the country and I apologize. We're only stopping in Munich for some of the Christmas markets.

00:41:06 John Daub: But I'll walk out here to the intersection and you can see a little bit of Ginza. There's the Peninsula Hotel. The Liberty Bell is right up here. Okay. Liberty Bell is up there. So we saw about half of the park. And there's the Imperial Palace, the moat around the Imperial Palace. And this is the Yurakucho Hibiya area. And right there where those people are standing, when we look back past the Peninsula Hotel, we're going to see Ginza. And then we're going to end the live stream on the other side. There's the Imperial Palace is opened up. And you can see the bright neon lights on the other side of this traffic light, this intersection. Let me just walk through here. It is wet. This is where the Thai Airlines office is, by the way. Beautiful big office. And that's Ginza and the Peninsula Hotel on the left there. So thanks everybody. A little bit extra walking. Where are you? There you are. Stay dry. We haven't had the best weather, but we keep it real.

00:42:53 John Daub: There's a little plug for the Rugby World Cup. Rugby World Cup's happening next year. These are the members. The mascots for the Rugby World Cup. Yeah, we didn't have the best weather today, but I'm glad that we could share a little bit of American history. I think it's pretty cool when you walk around the city. In a previous live stream, I showed you where the first American embassy was in Tsukiji, of all places, not in Akasaka, which is where it is today. And just a couple of weeks ago, just last week, I released the Ogasawara video, and we got to see some of the history of the island of Chichijima, the World War II history, including President George H.W. Bush being shot down off of Chichijima. And you can see he made a trip back to Chichijima in 2002 to kind of put those events behind him. And that's kind of the feeling, you know? When I see the Liberty Bell, and I see the occupation, and I see where we were and where we are today, a lot has happened. And just, it's a time to give thanks. And a lot of Americans I saw, they actually do come to the Liberty Bell to give thanks. That's the Yamanote Line going by. And just these little teeny markers of the occupation from the 1940s and 50s, the late 40s and the early 50s, makes me feel good that we did... That something good happened from that. And Japan is a lot stronger from it, from where they were to where they are today.

00:44:20 John Daub: For those asking, there's the, there's the, um, Godzilla in the middle. I was just... I know someone's gonna ask for it. Godzilla's in the middle of the screen. Have a good day, everybody. Stay dry out there. Thanks for the support. I'll see you in the next video. Next livestream, probably, uh, tomorrow. The last 20 seconds I'll just show you some traffic because I'm gonna get somewhere dry. I'm gonna get somewhere dry. Ah, hot cup of coffee, where are you?