00:00:03 John Daub: Greetings from Omotesando Station, which is in the center of Tokyo, not that far from Shibuya. You can see along this street some of the most beautiful Christmas lights in Japan. Hey everybody, I've been looking for Kanae. I can't find her anywhere. Hold on, I just got a text. We're gonna be going down this street, so join us for this episode. It's gonna be about 30 minutes or so. We're gonna take you from Omotesando all the way down to Harajuku and take a look at a little bit of Harajuku here at Christmas time so you get an idea of what Tokyo's like during the holidays.

00:01:01 Kanae Daub: Hi, I'm Kanae.

00:01:01 John Daub: I know where she is. She loves Lindt chocolate, and they have this matcha drink. So you want the matcha drink? Wow, I knew you were here. It's a good place to start. This is Kanae, and we're gonna go down Omotesando. Oh, here it is. This is what you're interested in. This Lindt's matcha chocolate drink. It's not pistachio, it's matcha. Alright, so let's go take a look at Omotesando. When was the last time you were here? Five months ago! How dare you! We're gonna go down the street right now. Up here is the start of the avenue, the other side of the station. You can also come out right there. These are brand new entrances to Omotesando station, came about a year and a half ago. Let's get this party started. After we look at the map.

00:02:13 John Daub: We are here. It's easy to figure it out. We're gonna be walking down this street to Harajuku station. This is Meiji Shrine, this is Harajuku JR station, and this is Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street), which is very lively. We're gonna walk down here and around this area before we end the live stream. Kind of cold. Yeah, it wasn't windy this morning when I did the live stream at the nabe (hot pot) festival. This would be nabe food time because it's gotten a lot colder than it was just about 12 hours ago. I see everyone starting to join us. Welcome to Omotesando. It's kind of weird. The lights now are flickering on and off. I don't remember seeing it like this before, but it is really beautiful. Yeah, it's like moving, like dancing. I've never seen them like this before.

00:03:17 John Daub: You know, the number that these areas always throw out is like a million. Hey, Nosh. Yeah, it's like pulsating. I don't know if I like it like that, though. It's pulsating with love. This area, Omotesando, is very famous for all the brand shops. And like I was saying, this is kind of like Paris. Kind of like the Champs-Élysées. Fifth Avenue, maybe.

00:03:55 Passerby: Oh, hello. You're so cool. Thank you for that. I saw you about one year ago, and I knew I was going here.

00:04:03 John Daub: Oh, wow. Well, there you go. Is it too much just for a selfie?

00:04:07 Passerby: No, it's not too much.

00:04:11 John Daub: Actually, yeah. We just started. Man, I feel so rude. It's all right. Where are you from?

00:04:17 Passerby: Sweden.

00:04:18 John Daub: Oh, Sweden. Okay. All right, cool. Oh, my God. I'm going to hold this here. Oh, yeah, with the lights here. All right. This is scary. Good? High five. High five. You're so awesome. All right. How cool is that? Where are you from?

00:04:53 John Daub: This is the Anniversary Cafe. This is where everyone gets married. And I didn't want to get married here.

00:05:01 Kanae Daub: I don't want to get married here.

00:05:02 John Daub: Why don't you go somewhere? This is a really busy street. It's called Anniversary. It's a famous wedding chapel. The chapel is down there. And if you're walking down the street, sometimes you'll see the lucky couple making their way there. People throwing rice down this little alleyway. And I do like this cafe. They do heat it up. You can see they have these outdoor heaters. So if you do want to sit outside, you will stay about 10 degrees warmer. When it's below zero, that's not that much warmer. It's nice. The entrance is really nice to Anniversary. They spelt it wrong though. I guess this is like the Omotesando way to spell anniversary.

00:05:54 Kanae Daub: Anniversary.

00:05:56 John Daub: I just say Anniversary. Let's see. Very nice. You like that dress? Really. You guys, everyone inside is too blown out from the light. Here. I'll put it in here. There you go. That's what Kanae looked like six months ago. Very nice. Omotesando is a romantic area. It does look French. I think it's like French themed. This is the Apple store here. I'm not a big fan right now of their products. So we're gonna walk by in silence. No more branding. Sorry. I don't know. I'm not happy with Apple. I'm not happy with Windows either. There's no answer.

00:07:06 John Daub: Some of the alleys here are really cool. And if you do come to Omotesando, I recommend one thing. Don't stay on this road. Go off-roading. Because the alleys behind, on the left and right of Omotesando Avenue, that's where you're gonna find a lot of the cool stuff that's happening. Like down these alleys. There's some pretty cool cafes. A lot of satellite shops. This is where most of the fashion is happening in the city. You'll find that not on this. This is all the brands that can afford the real estate. It's all on the side. All the experimental stuff. So you can follow this nice lady for a little bit. It is really nice. I like how they dress the entire tree. Check it out. The entire tree all the way up to the leaves. It's like if you're wearing gloves and you wear the gloves all the way up until your neck. The glove just keeps going up. That's kind of the feeling you get. But there are a lot of people on dates here.

00:08:17 John Daub: They thank you for trash in English now. They don't write arigato in hiragana. They write it in English so everybody can understand it. That's good. Because if it's written in Japanese, nobody knows what burnable is. I've never seen like this trash. Yeah, neither have I. That's new. So if it's in English like that, people can. Stylish. People should study English here. Right? They should. Stylish. We have to send up for New Year's that I shouldn't write it in Japanese. I should write it in English because it's more stylish.

00:09:04 John Daub: In the center of Omotesando, you'll find Omotesando Hills. This is the escalator that goes down. I don't shop here a lot. You know why? Because I can't afford anything in it except for maybe nothing. No, I can't afford anything. Omotesando Hills, did you ever buy anything inside of Omotesando Hills?

00:09:31 Kanae Daub: No.

00:09:31 John Daub: No. I've never bought anything in Omotesando Hills. I walked through there when it opened. I walked through there to look for the restroom. There's actually a public restroom on Omotesando Street. We just passed it. Omotesando Hills is a weird place. I remember when it was built about 15 years ago. A lot of people on dates. But because the weather's turned a little bit cooler, there aren't that many people walking down the street. Usually it's not this open. Look at all this open area on this side. Hey, Soham is watching from Calcutta. How you doing? It's a lot warmer in India than it is here in Tokyo. It's really cold here. Yeah, she's gonna check the weather. So you get an idea of what, if you're coming to Japan right now, you get an idea of what the weather's like on the streets. On December 1st, 2018. Okay, it's 11 degrees, which is about 50 degrees. That's warm! That's actually warm.

00:11:05 John Daub: Here's the entrance to Omotesando Hills. You know what, they took out the chocolate shop. Yeah, it used to be a massive store. Max Brenner Chocolate Shop. It went out of business, I guess. Sorry, Max. Can't afford the rent. They're gonna kick you out. You wanna go up there? It's nice. I like to walk down the street at least once during the holidays. It's one of these places, because it's quiet, and it's not as much fun to not have the lights. It's just a little bit better with the Christmas lights. Yeah, there is a wind, so it does feel a little bit colder, but I don't think wind chill kicks in until you get to zero or something. But there is a wind. That's a new building. Look at that white building in the distance. Dior. Never heard of them. Next door to Dior is a Japanese souvenir shop for tourists. Hey, Sanket Gamre. Thank you, John, for showing us the beautiful avenue. You're very welcome. Thank you, Sanket. I appreciate it. I do have to get a drink from Mr. Das on the earlier livestream. So we're gonna put it to good use. I do appreciate the Super Chats, guys.

00:12:55 John Daub: Alright, this is where the avenue starts. We're basically going downhill. We started from Omotesando station and making our way down to Harajuku. This is the Ralph Lauren. I know that because we were watching Friends earlier and Jennifer Aniston's Rachel was working at Ralph Lauren. Rachel. She's friends with Monica. Phoebe. There's a koban (police box) here. Now you can see it. So if you see a koban, someone with the red lights in front of it, you'll be able to find a police officer. And mostly, there's the red lights there. Mostly the police officers' jobs here are to give directions, basically. They take complaints if you lose something or have something stolen or something bad happens. But most of the time they'll come out here and show you on this map where to go, basically. The police are very good with giving directions. In other countries, in the United States, I think if you ask a policeman for directions, they'll probably not answer that well.

00:14:15 John Daub: What is that? I don't know. There's always something new and weird going on. It's like some kind of weird apartment thing going on. Check it out. I don't know. Google Pixel Magic Illuminator. What is that? Should we go in?

00:14:30 Kanae Daub: No, she can see something. Oh, what is this? Should we go? Yeah. What is this?

00:14:38 Staff: It's a new event for the new police officers. It's a photo space inside. It's really cute. They give you all the photos they took. They're doing a live stream on YouTube right now. Sorry. I'm a YouTuber. Oh, you're a YouTuber? Yeah. Oh, sorry. But I'm curious. Please share it. The live stream is about 400 people right now. Oh, that many? Yeah. Okay. They're doing it until the 25th. Oh, really? Yeah. Until Christmas, this booth is here. Do you guys want to go in and take a look? It's cute inside, so please go in. Okay. Yay. Wow, it's cute. It's cute, right? Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Can I go in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. Wow. It's cute, right? Yeah. Yeah, I like this. Wait. Can I take a picture with Google Pixel? Yes, you can. Oh, yay. I've been liking Apple lately. Sorry. We just passed the Apple, and here's the Google booth. We can give away all the photos we took today. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, guys. Ah, hey. You're welcome. Wait. This is really being streamed. Must be. All right. We're going to take pictures in three modes. We'll start with portrait mode. Here. Cheese. Next, take pictures in camera mode. Here. Cheese. Next, we'll take pictures in night mode. Here. Cheese. There. Now, I'm going to show you what this is. This is night mode. And this is portrait mode. This is portrait mode. Wow, it's beautiful! It's beautiful! Can you take a selfie? Wow, a selfie! Can I take a selfie? I'll take a selfie. This is a normal selfie. It becomes wide if you tap it. Try to take a picture with this. It becomes wide. It goes back. This is wide. I want to take a picture with this. It makes the background beautiful. I like that one. There are many modes. This is fun. For example... Look! Captain America! Why are you there? I've been here all along. How are you doing? Wow, it's a purple person. It's amazing. Oh my gosh, it's the hawk! How cool is this? It's so fun to be here. There are many functions. Wow. If you change the mode, for example, you can change the mode to buy a new one. You can see which one is which. You can see which one I'm wearing. It can tell what sneaker you're wearing and find it. It's so cool. It's a Google Pixel. Google Pixel. Pixel 3. Everyone knows it. Actually, I didn't know. She didn't know about the Google Pixel. If you change the mode, please think about it. I was just about to buy it. I can give you a present today. I'm so happy. Wow. Thank you. I have a card. Do you have a card? Thank you. Card. I'll give you a present today. It's the season. Oh. I'll give you a present today. Thank you. I'll give you a present today. I'll give you a picture. Look at the cute little trailer. It's bizarre. It's just sitting here. Look at that. It's pretty cool.

00:18:56 John Daub: I was complaining about Apple. I had no idea that Google would be here. Maybe. It seems that this phone can do pretty much what this phone can do. And maybe even some more. Getting instructions on how to get the photos that they took. Very cool. I like that selfie mode had a massively wide lens. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you. When can I see it? She got it. I can download. When? Now. I can do it. Now the competition heats up. Apple vs. Google Pixel 3. Google is now making an impression in Japan. Most people have Apple iPhones here. Yeah, I have iPhones. Yeah, Kanae has iPhones. I have iPhones.

00:20:16 John Daub: You can see now down the alleys. It's kind of late now. It's quiet. Most of the shops are closed. But during the day when they're open, these are the kind of side streets that you're going to want to go down. On the other side is Cat Street. Cat Street is over there. Yeah, Cat Street is... I wanted to go there, but they closed. The police officers, they closed the overpass. So you can't overpass over. You see the light there? They've shut it down. Tip, thanks for the information on the USB-C. I'm much bigger of a USB-C fan than Apple's lightning stuff. Lawson's Convenience. Alright, now we've completely covered the street from top to bottom. We've come all the way about 800 meters. Yeah, kind of short.

00:21:23 John Daub: And this is now Harajuku Meiji-jingu station. Now when I first came to Japan 20 some years ago, this was not Harajuku station. They just called it Meiji-jingu. And they added Harajuku because all the tourists were just... They couldn't figure out how to get to Harajuku, so they would go to Harajuku JR station. But Metro realized all the tourists don't know what Meiji-jingu means. So they changed it to Meiji-jingu Harajuku station. The proof is in the pudding. Look at all these lazy people waiting for the elevator. Go take the stairs on the other side. They added in Harajuku in quotes there. It's not actually Harajuku station, but if they added in, then the tourists will know how to get there. Hey Astro Boy. Hosent asks, is she your wife? I hope so. If not, that could be a big problem. Nice colors. Oh, you can see the autumn colors too. It's not as nice in the dark, but you can see the beautiful autumn yellow leaves. These are ginkgo trees, I think. They give the smell of the autumn. They're not highly berries, not conducive to high quality shopping. So they pick them up fast. This is also quite famous, the entrance to the Tokyo Plaza shopping building. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it is very interesting. It's different at night, but this opened up a few years ago. And it's got a really good extra mirror. Are you going to pose over there? Go ahead. I don't know. You can't go in. It's closed. You can go out. I'm going to take a screenshot. Yay. Click. Alright, good. I didn't really take a screenshot. Don't tell it. Oh, you found something? You can see you seeing you. If you look up, you can see a lot of things in the mirrors. And then, of course, there's a telephone booth with Santa in there. Because no one uses telephone booths except for Santa. There's no signal in North Pole, is there? Gotta move my one hair over.

00:23:53 John Daub: Alright, let's go over now to Harajuku and we're going to check out Takeshita Street after hours. Now, those of you who are joining us, the 500 people, we're going to take you now to Harajuku. Now, this intersection here, it is getting really cold. With the wind, it's now like winter. This intersection is quite famous. Usually during the day on a weekend, it's absolutely packed. But since all the shops are closed or most of them, it's a lot quieter. This is one of these new taxis. Alright, okay. Please hurry up and change light. If you go this way, you'll get to Shibuya. I used to walk from Harajuku to Shibuya this street, but I found another shortcut over there. But this way goes pretty. This way will take you past the tower building or the back entrance of Shibuya station. Not Hachiko entrance, but the back. So you can just go straight. There's a lot of new buildings that have opened up too. The thing is, every time I walk around Harajuku and Omotesando, I find new shops. I think that's because the rent is so high. You can't really afford to stay here very long. It's just all these chain shops from America and Australia and a couple other places. Oh yeah! Yeah, Ikea. Which we say Ikea in Japanese. But Ikea is coming to Harajuku, which is weird. Because there's not that much space. I mean, what do they do? They build a store underground or something? I don't know either.

00:26:03 John Daub: Oh no, the tacos place is closed. Kanae wanted a burrito. This place is called Guzman y Gomez. It's closed. Guzman y Gomez is closed. Is it closed? You can't get a burrito. Oh, it's still open? I don't see any people. Do you see any people in the Guzman y Gomez? I don't know. She likes burritos. She won't eat when we go to Chipotle, the shop in the United States, she won't eat the burrito, but she'll eat it in a bowl. She's a fan of Chipotle. She likes Chipotle. She doesn't know about the outbreak that happened. Let's not enlighten her on the potential dangers of eating. I think they've recovered, maybe. But she's a big Chipotle fan. She loves a good burrito. Yeah, Tim also likes the bowls, Kanae. Tim likes the bowls. Oh, they took the Starbucks here. There used to be a Starbucks, remember? I remember waiting for Starbucks waiting for friends in that Starbucks several times. I guess they're going to be building something new. That's gone. What? There's always something moving. Always something changing in Harajuku. I haven't been on Takeshita Street in a long time, too. So we're about to... What is this? Tapioca milk? That's new. Korean food. Korean street food is taking over Tokyo. I'm addicted to these cheese balls. They have a mozzarella potato hot dog. Kanae's favorite now. They do have the cheese dogs. Look at that. What's going on here? They have a sample. Oh, they have the samples inside. Let's take two steps in. I'm not going in, because it's just dangerous. That's a different chain, though. Look, it's in Hangul, too. That's a different chain. Should I try them all? I don't know. It's dangerous. I'm not a big fan of change. I miss... Yeah, I'm not happy about that, because this is where my friend's shop, ACDC Rag, they had this little teeny shop, and they were holding out, not selling forever. Just fighting and fighting the city planners to try to keep their shop that they've had for 30, 40 years, and in the end, they lost. I'm a big supporter of local businesses, and that was sad to see them go. I still like ACDC Rag, but I would never really wear their stuff. It's just not me. It was a Harajuku fashion episode that I did about five years ago. Oh, that looks good. Soup curry? That's interesting. Hey, Matthias! Remember Matthias? Matthias was in the episode in Hibiya Park, where we were eating the wagyu episode. Check it out. Yeah, Matthias. Look at that. That's a lot of crepes. Kanae wants crepe. Kanai, you want a crepe? You want a crepe? You want a crepe with chicken? Kanai likes the strange... She wants a chicken crepe. How about a hot dog crepe? What? Which one? Oh, the tiramisu one looks good, too. I know. The closer we take steps towards these, the closer we are to buying it. Looks good. You want to get it? I do like the tuna. The tuna crepe. That would be like dinner, right? Alright, you know what? We're gonna come back. Let's walk down the street a little bit. As you can see, it is so quiet. Chicken crepes. Takeshita is really quiet after hours.

00:30:58 Kanae Daub: You haven't been here in 15 years. Yes. 15 years. Because always crowded. I try not to come here at all.

00:31:10 John Daub: They have... It's a crazy place, but they have changed it a lot. Wow, a lot of the old buildings are gone. There's a Disney store here. This is all new. Check it out. Solaso. This was here before, but this is crazy. I guess it's like trying to get into the Harajuku kawaii (cute) of it all. Kawaii. So 100 yen, 300 yen. Everything is cheap for teenagers who can come and buy stuff. Unicorns. Oh yeah, we have some... Yeah, my nieces love the unicorns. There you go. Boom. Christmas presents done. 100 yen each. Change is inevitable, but I'm just sad that it's changed so much to like a plasticky kind of chain stuff. It's these kinds of shops here with the graffiti and the old buildings that I think really... That's Harajuku's identity. These kinds of older shops. And then... Yeah, this one looks like it's been remodeled. This one here looks more like the original. You see the air conditioners on the outside. I like that. That's Harajuku style. This is from the 1980s when Harajuku was just booming with the American interest. Everyone was into the Hawaiian fashions and the surfer fashions of the 1980s. And then it changed in the 90s to more Disney. This is according to ACDC Rag's president who opened his shop in the 1980s, 70s and 80s, because he was a surfer and wanted to do fashion stuff. It's a pretty fascinating episode to get a little more insight into Harajuku's history. But I'd love to do another episode on Harajuku's history before they completely lose their identity. And we're walking now up towards Harajuku station. This is new. It's changed a lot. Look at these new buildings. They kind of look like a French brothel or something. If this was Amsterdam, there'd be ladies dancing up there. Anki writes in, in Brazil we eat crepe on a stick it's more like the cheese dog. Interesting. Very interesting. Alright, see a lot of the shops are closed. Sweeping up. Once again, the alleyways are where all the action's happening. But you can see here they're all kind of closed right now in Harajuku. There's no Christmas lights here. There's no Christmas spirit! What's going on, Harajuku? This is new. The crepe stands have really exploded. Oh, now they're playing Christmas music a little bit. That's kind of neat. La la la la la crepes crepes crepes crepes la la la la la la la la. Santa Monica crepes look so good. La la la la la la la la. La la la la la la la. La la la la la la la la. I don't think it's monetized. Sorry. Up here you have some wigs. This is Harajuku after all. Cosplay. Kanae, do you ever do cosplay?

00:35:02 Kanae Daub: No. Why not? I didn't know. What's so funny? I've seen it before. Really? Yeah. Something wrong with that. What costume did you wear? I wore many costumes. Oh.

00:35:15 John Daub: The first crepe place, according to Harajuku history, the first crepes place was right here in the 1980s, I believe. And Marion is the first. That's the original company. A lot of people might not know this. It's in some history books. But they have a lot of different crepes. They found that people were eating it just for dessert and then they started to go into more like the tuna fish, chicken, meat, ham and cheese crepe to get the lunch and then you can just get a second crepe for dinner. Or couples might get a food crepe and then a dessert crepe and then share both of them. So. It was a way to keep people from just eating it as a dessert and then leaving and not getting one. There was no excuse anymore. They had lunch crepes. They could have just made burritos. Look at that. There's another store that just started remodeling and I bet you that's going to be I wonder what that's going to be. It's a new shop. They haven't put a sign up yet. Oh that looks good. Oh that's udon. Where do you want to eat that? Yeah, I didn't realize everything is closed. We came out because I was supposed to take her out to dinner. I was like what? We take her out to dinner. There's nothing open. Here's ACDC Rag. He used to have three or four shops. ACDC Rag. And we're Facebook friends. I don't use Facebook a lot by the way. If you're trying to mail me through Facebook, you're probably not going to get an answer just a heads up. But ACDC Rag, this is one of their shops. And you can see the building hasn't changed since 1980. Still got aluminum siding back there. But I love the spirit of that company. So if you come in there and you see the owner just go in and say hi. They're pretty cool in there. Oh you got one? Yeah. Now? Oh my nieces saw the unicorn. Do they want it? I can get unicorns. Look at this Wendy's. What? Why? Oh they're just kind of ruining the... This is like America. It is a street after all. Look at that. There's Wendy's. What? It kind of ruins it. I don't know. Wendy's has been... I know Wendy's history. Wendy's you cannot hide from me. I know your history. Wendy's came in through one chain and it was not successful. I think they were in Dai-A and a couple other companies. These foreign chains have to match up with other companies. So they went out of business. And then they came back, tested the water and went out of business again. And then they've come back with First Kitchen. First Kitchen is a Japanese chain here. And the two of them now with international money have powered up to give more burgers. Now First Kitchen can compete with McDonald's maybe. So to speak. Let's look just very quickly at their menu because some people... So you can see the collaboration. That's cute though, right? The Wendy's girl in Japanese kawaii. What do you guys think? What do you think? Is this a hit for Wendy's? Do you think the real Wendy would be okay with this? I don't know. That's the original Wendy right there. That's the original. Yeah. Well they do have these multi-layered burgers just like the US I guess. The Wendy's double burger. Alright. Moving on. This tour shall continue. The Christmas lights are gone. Which is kind of depressing. So let's take a look and see what Harajuku Station has to offer. Which could be gotcha. Paul, check this out. So this is like going back to the 1980s. These kinds of shops that go downstairs filled with Johnny's and these are the stuff that a lot of the younger kids like. And you go down there and find these Japanese idols. Actually the Johnny's office is just around the corner, right? Oh really? Yeah. Just around the corner. More crepes. Because... Oh crepes honey. Yeah this is Sweetbox. This is another chain. They've really cleaned this up. This used to be a really dirty corner. They've cleaned it up a lot. We should get crepes after dinner. Oh yeah. Or should we get maybe we get a crepe before dinner. You want to get a crepe real fast? Yeah. Alright we can get one. Now? Why not? What do you guys think? Should we get a crepe? Yeah my feeling is getting crepe. Okay let's get one. Let's get a crepe. Could use less crepe stores. Eh, nandemo ari? Is it open? Okay. Here's a fiver. 500 yen coin. Up to you. Here's for upgrade. Upgrade. Alright. We're getting a crepe. Oh it smells so sweet. It's just pure sugar. Oh it's so sweet.

00:40:59 Kanae Daub: What did you order? Tiramisu? Wow.

00:41:05 John Daub: Sorry for the flashy lights here. Hey Lenny. Go for it. Lenny aka weird raisin says go for it. Need a break from all the good content you bring us. Thanks Lenny. Say thank you Lenny. Thank you Lenny. Thanks a lot. So Kanae has gotten one of these tiramisus. Which is ranked. I like it when they put the ranking here. So says the best five. Double chocolate banana and cream. Gelato. Strawberry and cream mixed fruit. Tiramisu number four. And strawberry cream cake. I heard number one is double chocolate banana cream. I guess you know bananas good but I always in Japan they're always mushy. Never wanna buy crepes with bananas in them. They're good but I think Kanae made the good choice, the right choice here. She got the tiramisu. Or tiramisu as we say. But the menu there. They have the top five. So but they just completely have a thousand other varieties. Like literally. Can you guys count this? So one two three four five six. So that's three. So that's eighteen thirty six times two is seventy two here. Seventy two. Are you getting this kids? Like how I figured that out. One two three four five. One two three four five six seven. So that's thirty five plus seventy two. It's like over a hundred and ten of them. Whoa. Oh Kanae got it. Oh what'd you get? Merry Christmas. It's a crepe. It's a crepe. Hold it steady. That looks good. What is that like? Like a pudding cake inside? No this is tiramisu. Okay. Oh you have a spoon? Yeah. I didn't know that. Alright. Have you tried it? How do you eat it? I think I don't need a spoon. I don't know. Oishii (delicious). It's tiramisu. Oishii. I'm hungry though. I would eat anything. I would eat anything. Good? Yeah. So you can get crepes past nine PM in Harajuku. This is good. This is all inside information. This is all. Yeah you can bite here. Alright. The first bite. Dedicated to Lenny. That's good. That's real good. There's something about just cream and sugar that I don't think you can be bad. Does anybody say bad? It's good. It's too good. Should've gotten the chicken filet. But we're gonna have a proper dinner. Umeboshi crepe? Umeboshi crepe. Are there? Do they? I'm gonna ask them. Ah ah ah. Wow! It looks like Santa Claus. There's no umeboshi flavor, right? Umeboshi crepe. There's none. They don't have it! Sorry. There's none! Yeah I asked them. They had umeboshi flavored crepe and the girl's like this. She's also like she said No. But tuna fish is fine. Tuna fish is fine. That's new. Look at this. I'm always discovering new stuff. They have lockers and money exchange booths. This is all because of the amazing amount of tourists that come here. So I guess. Wow! They've just put in here I don't know. What? Hold on a second. This is all lockers and money exchange thing? 500 yen for the medium sized locker 800 for a large one which would take suitcases. I guess this is a really good idea. The small ones are 300 yen. It's about 3, 5 and 8 dollars. 100 yen each. This is a really good idea. This is also interesting guys. This is Daiso. Daiso is famous. If you watch the Tabi Eats guys they love Daiso too. This one is okay to take and share photos on Facebook Twitter and more. So you can film inside this Daiso. So that means we might be back. It's okay to film. That's pretty cool. That'd be pretty cool. So Daiso we might be back. Check it out. A party just let out from a restaurant I guess. So everybody's getting kind of rowdy. After wedding party let's get out of here. The rowdy. Hello you're on YouTube. Oh really? Hi. Nice to see you. What's your name? Carissa. Hi Amelia. Julia. Nice to see you Julia. We're actually live streaming now. What's going on here? That's what I see on Amelia's face. Where are you visiting from? Singapore. Wow Singapore. We were just there. Oh okay. Yeah. Nice to see you. It's actually, this street's changed so much. We're walking around like this. Really? That's changed? This is new? Yeah it's amazing. I wasn't expecting to bump into you. Well it's nice to bump into you. Thanks for saying hi. Hi. Thank you. Bye bye. Nice to meet you. No you can have it. You can have it. Oh. Uh oh. Anything can happen. This is a live stream. Something's happening. Something's happening. Ah! You got crepe on me. It's a bunch of... I can't even lick it off. It's on that part of your arm where you can't lick. I can't. I can't get to it. Don't show it to me. Don't rub it in. You dab it. She's going like this. Eugh. I can't wash it. Oh my. I smell like crepe. It's better than what I smelled like before though. Like nabe.

00:48:35 John Daub: Alright ladies and gentlemen. We've made it. We've made it this far. Check it out. In front of us is Harajuku Station. The JR one. It's still an old building. It's original. That's kind of neat. Actually there's a good restaurant this way. You can see the leaves have changed. It's not as easy to see in the dark but there goes the uh... Tokaido Line I think. I'm guessing it's the Tokaido Line that's going down towards Nagoya. It'll never make it there tonight but... It's Tokaido Line, right? What? What line? Saikyo Line. Oh, Saikyo Line. I always get it wrong. I always get those wrong. I used to take the Tokaido Line because I lived on it in Nagoya. In the Nagoya area. In Aichi. So... Oh, it's ramen. There's a lot of weddings that have let out and on the weekends in this time of year, tons and tons of weddings. You went to a wedding today. Yeah, yeah. I went to a wedding party. You went to a wedding party. I didn't. I was working. Yeah. A lot of work. I haven't been doing a lot of live streams the last week because I've been working. There's going to be a new video on the main channel by the way. On the 3rd and I can't tell you so much about it. Some of you might already know though. But it'll be released on Monday the 3rd and it's part of a big campaign of other creators that are doing something. It's kind of neat but just took a really long time to do it. There hasn't been a lot of content on the main channel. It just took a long time to make this one. Alright. Oh! This is the construction. Do you see this? This is where the IKEA is coming. Right? Yeah, this has got to be it. Look, there's nothing here. It's a construction zone. Across from Harajuku Station. This is where the IKEA's going to be. So I don't have to go all the way across town to get a new desk?

00:51:02 John Daub: It doesn't say IKEA. But we know because the writing's on the wall. Well, it's not really on the wall. There's nothing on this wall but we know because it was reported on the news that IKEA was building a shop here. That is not an IKEA crane though. It's a Japanese crane. IKEA doesn't make cranes, silly. Alright, this is the main entrance to Harajuku Station. It's a Takeshita Dori Takeshita Street exit to Harajuku Station. Or you can take this one. Or you can take this one. This is the front of Harajuku Station. I've been here many, many times but never so deserted as right now. It's weird on a weekend night. A lot of people just going home but ah, the ginkgo berries stink. Ooh. Smell the fall. The iconic Harajuku Station. A lot of people might have seen this before. Everybody who visits Tokyo makes their way to here. Makes their way here at one time or another. Wait, okay, wait a second. So the shop that now that I'm here, I'm starting to figure out what was taken away. There used to be a Snoopy shop there, right? This was a smaller building and there was a Snoopy shop, a Peanuts shop that I would go in there and I'd walk in there and go, oh it's Charlie Brown and then I'd see the prices and go, oh it's too expensive and I would just walk back out to the station and go back where I was going but I always walked in there. Anyways, they took that out. I'm figuring out what left. Ikea is very powerful to buy that property. That's not cheap right there. That's not cheap. That's some serious power Ikea. Respect. They're doing quite well because I'd say a third of our apartment is with Ikea products. Literally, right? About a third. Maybe. So we're going to walk down here and make our way back. Takoyaki. Oh, but it's closed. Tokyo is not like New York City. It's not a late night town. Do you need your fortune told? No. Alright, we're making our way back to Omotesando to say goodbye to the Christmas lights. Oh, this is the popcorn shop that people wait for three hours from Chicago. It's a Chicago popcorn shop that Japanese will wait in line. Yeah, Garrett. They wait in line for three hours for popcorn. They could pop their own in like five seconds at home, right? Crazy. I never understood why people wait in line for popcorn. I mean, it's not like it takes a lot of time to prepare it. No offense, Garrett from Chicago. How do you know we make a popcorn? Eh? Sokore tabetai? No, no. It's a cafe. It's a cafe? Oh. Oh, oh. Hari Nezumi (hedgehog) is hedgehog in Japanese. That's what took me off. It took me a second to register that they have a hedgehog cafe right here. Hari Nezumi. Ah. Hari Nezumi is hedgehog. Nezumi means rat. I was like, wait a minute. Nezumi means like a mouse or rat? It's like, Hari Nezumi is hedgehog. Okay, just add Hari in front of Nezumi. Okay, I got it. There's a lot of neat shops here. A puma shop. And this is the SoftBank for those of you who are living in Japan or just moved here. There's only, I think there's about four SoftBank shops in Tokyo where the staff speak English fluently and can take on your questions. And this is one of them on the left side here after Lush. But I have to tell you something. Where can I, oh there she is. Um, I've been walking into shops and then I'll meet with this robot called Pepper. And Pepper is some kind of otaku or something. He's very dysfunctional socially because when you walk into a shop, he will stare you down and his eyes follow you. He just keeps looking at you. If you're talking with the staff of the shop, Pepper doesn't stop looking at you. That's rude! You should not stare at people, Pepper. You know? I'm just saying. SoftBank has a little bit more work to do on the robots. And here's Oh! No, Pepper! I hope they're powered. That's so sad. Oh, look at that! That's so sad! Look! Poor Pepper's been powered down! Oh! He's got his head down. Look at that! They're sleeping, though. That's kind of sad. Like, some human just turned off his power. Turned him off. That is so sad. And, oh, he's charging. Pepper's being charged up. There's Pepper's other buddy. Head bowed. In charge mode. I hope they stay down because I'm not a big fan of Pepper. It just scares me. Run. PMX says run. Can I run? Run! Thanks, PMX. That was fun. If it turns back, run! Run, Forrest run. I was going anywhere I was running. There was a Gold's Gym up there. This is where there's a recycled clothes shop that was really big. I wonder if that's still in business. Chicago, I think it was called, right? This one's called Chicago. I don't... Is it there? Oh, okay. This is a used clothing store and you can find a lot of neat stuff. I used to shop at the used clothing stores for costumes to wear for what I did before YouTube, which was blue screening myself talking to various characters. You don't want... Don't ask. And I would go to places, these used clothing stores to get clothes to use for the production because they were cheap and they were unique. Usually you can find some very unique stuff. Oh, no, can I? They turned the lights off. What did they do? Omotesando, why? They turned the lights off. Christmas is over? It's until 10pm. There's the top of the Tokyo Plaza building which we walked by about 20 minutes ago. They've got lights up there. They turned it off. And check it out. They tore down the Condomania building and in its place is construction, you see. Very weird. That's sad. This is the big Christmas street. Shonzi Laze has been shut down in Tokyo. Sorry, guys. I thought we would have one more Christmas scene. But looks like that's about it. Looks like that's about it.

00:59:26 John Daub: So, I want to say thank you for watching this live stream from Omotesando. We've had some fun. It's time to get some real food late at night. For the 670 people watching, click that like button if you like this content. If we get to 300 likes in the next 20 seconds, we might keep going. It's a goal that we'll never reach. Alright. We have 10 seconds to get 300 likes. We'd never get that anyways. People are already starting to leave. You're just like, nah, we're gonna click off. Alright, guys. There's the Condomania building. It's now been reduced to scaffolding. And they're building something in its place. Probably something to get ready for the 2020 Olympics. But it's very unique to see how this neighborhood is changing over the last five years. It's completely been changed. It's really cold. I gotta get her inside. But it's been completely changed and it's exciting to see how this place changes over the next couple of years before the Olympics. So, thanks for watching. I'm gonna get her something hot to eat. See ya, everybody. Have a good day, good night, wherever you are. See you later. Like, maybe tomorrow. Bye from Omotesando.