00:00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody. Welcome to the Harajuku Omotesando area. And that right there is a sign showing us that Shibuya is to the left. And that's where we're going to be going from this area. Right there is Harajuku from Omotesando. Good day. And in this live stream, we're going to be going over to Shibuya via Cat Street. I put a link in the description if you want to find this. So I'm walking up here so you can get a view of Omotesando from the top.

00:00:36 John Daub: They usually close this off during holiday seasons. Check it out. And then from this point, this bird's eye view, we'll get a look at Cat Street, which is ironic. That right there is the main intersection where Harajuku's stores start. And Takeshita is this way, about 100 meters, 150 meters. And right there. On the left of your screen is the entrance to Cat Street. And that's where we're going to be going.

00:01:04 John Daub: It's easy to find when you see that statue right there. Mostly naked woman. But Cat Street is the least known of the two big ones. Although it's well known, it's less known than Takeshita Street. Takeshita Dori is the big one from Harajuku Station that comes down via there. Loads and loads of shops where the kawaii fashion is. This is more the hipster street. Yeah, hipster street. Let's go find out what makes it such a hipster street.

00:01:34 John Daub: It's really cold. This is a weekend. And like Saturday, it's always quite crowded here. You can see on the left side is Omotesando Hills. This is what they would consider to be the Champs-Élysées (Champs-Élysées) of Tokyo. And we're going to be walking to Shibuya. So stick with us because at the end of this livestream, I'm going to be showing you Hachiko Scramble. The most insane intersection in all of Japan.

00:02:04 John Daub: This is also a place of high fashion. Look at those ladies. Dressed better than me. Alright. So I'm right here at the entrance. I'm making a left. The walk takes about 15 to 20 minutes depending on how much you want to see, how much you stop. I think if you just go straight, you'll probably get there in about 12 minutes. I think I ran it once in five. I was late.

00:02:40 John Daub: But from Harajuku Station, come down Takeshita, come to that intersection over there, and then make a right. Down Cat Street. This is what I see with the sun in our eyes. The Italian flags representing. Italian food is very popular here in Japan. Once again, this is the hipster street. There's a lot of really stylish shops, street art, urban art. If Banksy were to do urban art, street art here, sorry, in Tokyo, this would be the place.

00:03:08 John Daub: Although they're still debating whether or not they found some of his art in Minato Ward down by the docks. Tokyo took it a step further. They took the gate that they found what could be Banksy's art off its hinges and put it in a warehouse because of its extreme value, and they don't want it to get ruined. All right, here we go. Cat Street.

00:03:33 John Daub: This is a Luke's Lobster. This hasn't changed, but this used to be, I think, a fashion shop before it. It's funny that a main US-based lobster shop has come in here, as well as this new pancake shop. Flippers. These are like massive changes. It's blinking because of the frequency of the voltage here in Tokyo. It's 100 volts, so everything flickers unless your shutter speed is at 100.

00:03:59 John Daub: There is, to the left here, a very nice Starbucks. For those of you who are big fans of the chain, right there, get a coffee. It's off Cat Street. Now, you have a choice here. If you go down this alley, it'll take you in the wrong direction, so you want to stay onto the main street. Jim is writing in Flippers. I don't know what this chain is. It's all new to me.

00:04:24 John Daub: This is the main street. This is the Meiji Jingū-mae Harajuku Station right here. We're taking this street, which is Cat Street. You can see there's loads and loads of little alleys around Harajuku and Omotesando filled with tons of street art. It's really good to spend a day getting lost down here. And this street is the more established one. That'll cut straight through. It bends here. And then, boom! It'll let you off right in front of Shibuya Station. And that's where we're headed right now.

00:04:57 John Daub: It's also the place where Peter von Gomm likes to park his motorbike when he comes to the area. And tons of fashion shops. I'll be looking at it from both ways. So, we're going to be taking a point straight ahead, and then I'll flip between the screens back and forth so you can see. Because it is very bright right now. This is also a place where a lot of my hipster friends... Oh, Jack Wolfskin. A lot of my hipster friends will have a desire to set up offices here. Because when your address says Cat Street, it's just a little bit cooler. But also the rent is a little bit more expensive.

00:05:39 John Daub: But you won't see a lot of the goth stuff down this street. You'll see mostly... Oh, Takoyaki! Hey now. This is Wara Takoyaki. I could actually... What do you guys think? By the way, hey Gretchen. Nice to see you watching. Wow, our signature menu, Takoyaki. Should I get some? I'm not really that hungry. Alright, let's do it. Alright, let's just get some Takoyaki.

00:06:18 John Daub: Shio Negi Mayo looks good. Shio Negi Mayo. It's taking a long time. Shio Negi Mayo, onegaishimasu.

00:07:02 John Daub: One, two, three, four. Come with me. I always, well often, stop here for some Takoyaki. And guess what? There's no place to really eat it. Ow, you can smell that salty negi (green onion) taste to it. I found a place right here where we can sit and eat. Yeah, I see Gretchen. Thanks, Gretchen. Yeah, I saw it. I thought you got some mochi the other day. This looks really good, alright. It looks hot. I love that negi and the sauce on it. Alright, let's try this.

00:07:46 John Daub: I actually did bring a tripod. Of course, because eating street food does not work with one hand. And there's actually no tables here. You literally have to make use of Cat Street, which is the way a cat would eat, right? A cat would eat just like this. So as we eat this, itadakimasu. It smells so good. This was about $5. About $5, so it's pretty reasonable.

00:08:29 John Daub: But it's different. In takoyaki, usually we put a tangy, like a black tangy sauce that's sweet but salty and so good. And instead of negi, which is these green leeks, the green onions, we put on katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), which are the dancing fish flakes. And this is just a Tokyo way to do it, perhaps. All right. Now, a lot of people who watch this series know that I often just put takoyaki in my mouth and burn it. Not this time, folks. I'm pretty sure this is misogynist. I've been sitting around for a while. Itadakimasu. It's still pretty hot.

00:09:12 John Daub: Oh, wow. I'm a YouTuber. Excuse me. All right, found a piece of tako (octopus) here. It's reasonable. I still think the one in Ameyoko is a little bit bigger and a much better value. It's half the price, but not in Ameyoko anymore. As I said, this is the hipster town, and everybody wants to have an address on Cat Street. So the price is a little bit higher. So when you do find a place to eat for $5, that's pretty good value. Oh, man. This is really good. And there's a bunch of other people that are eating here. This is good for one person.

00:10:14 John Daub: Aaron, you're very welcome. Aaron Nelson writes in. Wow. So this is also a nice post-Naked Man Festival snack. So a lot of you got to see the live stream last Monday. Sorry, just a few days ago. Hey, Nadia, thank you. It was quite an experience. And I was so hyped up. After that Naked Man Festival, guys, go and check out the Miyazaki Ōshima Hadaka Matsuri, which is on the channel from Monday. It was cold.

00:11:12 John Daub: So as I said, it usually takes around 15 minutes to walk this. But if you stop for takoyaki, you can just add on another five minutes. In fact, you can stop on a lot of restaurants on the way. You can definitely do a half-day trip just Cat Street. Yeah. Steaming. There's one left. That's for you guys. All right. I'm done. To the rest of our trip.

00:12:10 John Daub: Whoa. We timed this right. Check it out. There's a line now for this. We timed this pretty good. Once again, all the hipsters here. For those of you checking out, what are the stores here? We have Paul and Joe. Two cat lovers. And they really like pink. It's interesting. I'd like to meet Paul and Joe. Get their take on Harajuku. This area would still be considered Harajuku, I think. I don't know where the border is.

00:12:52 John Daub: I think maybe we hit it at the bend. But this isn't like, you know, a border war between these two areas. It's just a straight. Oakley is representing here. Tons of brands. You know, Cat Street never really was about international brands. It was about Adidas, Burton. This is crazy. It was always about, like, local satellite shops, fashion brands, small houses. And now it's just become big brand stuff. Look, even Keen is here. They make sandals. They make those Newports and the... I got these other shoes from them. But they're here, too. It's crazy. Smith is here. I haven't been down the street in a while. So for me, this is like another era.

00:13:57 John Daub: Hey, 321ZTony, thanks. Finally able to catch a live stream, get a beer. You got it. Beer goes well with takoyaki, I think. It does. I think anything goes well with takoyaki. I bet you Jennifer could have a bottle of wine with takoyaki and be pretty happy. Oh, check it out. This used to be something. I guess... I don't remember if this is a new building or this is... The shop that was in it left and they're redesigning it. But I kind of remember this building from before, but looks brand new. I guess they've redesigned it or something. That costs a lot of money. So whatever is moving in here is going to be... It's got to be like one of these chains.

00:14:32 John Daub: So now I'm looking back at Cat Street. It's kind of sad to see, I don't know, like the old Cat Street and now the new Cat Street. So these offices on the second floor, do you see some of them? I don't know. Friends that have offices up there, they're hipsters. They think they're cool. And if you're one of my friends with an office up there, you are. I would love to stop in. Give me a call. I'll come in and you plug. Because everybody looks on the first floor, but the second floor, you can see these windows up here. These are offices that you can usually rent for a reasonable amount of money. Reasonable. Like I'm thinking, I forget what my friend paid. I think he was paying like $1,500 a month. For a very small office in one of these. But it's a good address to have.

00:15:28 John Daub: And it's really convenient because you can walk to Shibuya, walk to Harajuku, walk to Roppongi and some of the other areas with offices. These bricks look plastic. I got to be honest with you. I'm just going to give it a pinch test. They don't seem real to me. They look like a glazed donut. They got a glazing on it. It's all about image here.

00:16:12 John Daub: Gretchen's calling to get a monster. I bet you a lot of these kids are drinking monsters. Saw one in Miyazaki when we were doing a live stream there. So we go up here. I love looking up. Right now, someone's getting a haircut of a lifetime. These haircut places. Harajuku is the place where girls want to get their haircuts because it's also part, like, all the very expensive barbers or hairdressers. I don't know what you call them. They all have offices here. And you can see there's another one up there. She's getting a hair dry treatment. Unless it's for cats. I don't know. I don't get my haircut here.

00:16:55 John Daub: I've been getting my haircut. Guys don't go to, not a lot of guys go to places where it costs $50 for haircut. Mine cost $9. No tip. I've been going there for 10 years now. More than 10 years. And always been a pretty good haircut. And we talk about life and he gives me advice. That's a haircut for a guy. Women come here because it's just that because for them, getting a haircut is like an experience. You know, it's more than just getting your haircut.

00:17:25 John Daub: This place was highly recommended to me. Smokehouse. They have pretty good burgers and they make their own beer here. That's part of a chain. They also have pecan pie, which Kanae Daub loves. And again, like these, if you do want to explore, these do go off and branch off. And if you do go off the main street, you're going to find like really quiet alleys. Oh, they got amazake (sweet fermented rice drink). Hold on a second. Amazake. How much is it? Because I don't want to get ripped off. I love here. Oh, man. That's 350 yen for amazake. That's just a rip off. I mean, how good is it? Is it like really good? Is that why? I don't know.

00:18:11 John Daub: Agaipan (fried bread) is deep fried bread. And it's what kids would eat to supplement the calories in their diets after World War Two. Agaipan. Just a piece of bread. And then they would deep fry it and then add coconut sugar or powder on it. Now they've got like matcha powder and all that other stuff. And now they deep fry it with coconut oil, which I guess is healthier for you. You know what? Okay, let's just go. Let's just go and get the amazake. And I'm going to tell you the amazake story here. Konnichiwa. Amazake onegai shimasu.

00:18:46 John Daub: All right. Okay, so the amazake, she's cooking it here on the stove here. I'm just going to go over to the side here. So the amazake is one of my favorite drinks and it's super healthy. It's like sake without the alcohol in it. Nihonshu (Japanese sake) without the alcohol. Each shop is different. Oh, this has been on TV too. So if you guys want to get agaipan, this would be on TV. Maybe one day I will. It's kind of like dessert agaipan. But I got to be honest with you. Agaipan is really expensive here. That should be like 100 yen. But I mean, we're not in the countryside anymore. This is like hipster town. Hipsters pay more because they're hipsters.

00:19:49 John Daub: I want to be a hipster today. So I wear my hat backwards. Hipster. That's what amazake looks like there in kanji. Amae means sweet. The first kanji means sweet and the bottom one means sake or booze. So it's like sweet booze, sweet sake, but it's not sake. There's no alcohol in amazake. So you don't have to worry about that at all. Yeah, this is healthy. It's okay. I think it's coming up. It's taking quite a long time. That means it's cooking it fresh.

00:20:23 John Daub: Get out of the way, flag. Move, flag. So this flag is moving with the beat of the music that I shouldn't be broadcasting. It's going to get copyright claimed. It's a dancing amazake flag. It's annoying. I'm starting to get hypnotized by it. That's just going to be another minute, I think. Oh, it's really annoying. Flag. All right. She's stirring the pot now. You want to have it at the perfect temperature. I like that she's putting a lot of, that you're putting extra thought into, extra care.

00:21:04 John Daub: Is there a reason why? I don't know. I'm trying to stop. There. That flag's just really happy that I ordered the amazake and we're getting extra service from the flag. Oh, she's pouring it in now. Here we go. This is better than coffee. Thank you. Oh, I just got decked by the flag. All right. What I love about amazake is that you can see here, there's chunks of rice in it. Do you see it? And she gave the spoon, I guess, to stir it up. I don't need that. But the reason you stir it is so you get more of the rice. If you drink it without stirring it while you drink, like miso soup, you're going to get it all sticking to the bottom and the side of it. They give you a double cup because it is super hot. Not even a full cup. It's all right.

00:21:57 John Daub: But this is one of the things, this is the ultimate street drink. And when you see amazake, that kanji that I showed you, being drunk, being served, just get a glass because it's so good. It's one of the drinks that, when I do have amazake, it's one of the drinks I'm like, yeah, I'm in Japan. But I don't need the tongue depressor. They also have tops that you use for coffee to put on top of it so you can drink it while strolling. But in Japan, drinking and walking is kind of a bad thing. I don't even know why. Just people don't do it. All right. Cheers. Oh, man. Actually, this is really good.

00:22:43 John Daub: You know why? Because it's not so sweet. It's not, I wouldn't call it non-alcoholic sake, but it's a different drink than sake. It's thick. It's got chunks of rice in it. It's more like a soup than it is an actual drink. You can put alcohol in it, but you never heat Japanese sake to such a hot temperature because the alcohol just melts away. Oh, man. This is so good. Hey, Pozo Lahiri is here for the allies of Japan and for the amazake. Thank you, brother, for chipping in to get that. I really appreciate it. This is for our friend Gretchen. This is your monster. It's non-alcoholic and it's healthy. If I had a marker, I would write it on there for you.

00:23:29 John Daub: We're about halfway, halfway to Shibuya. I don't know what company is represented here. What do you guys think? Could that be Ralph Lauren, perhaps? Another reason to have two cups is that you can share. I do like that. Whenever I get two cups and I'm with Kanae, I will share half of it. Actually, when we do go to coffee shops, we'll get the bento size because they charge a lot of money for coffee. I gotta be honest. Even in Japan. And so I'll just get a bento size and then we'll drink half and half. That's the best way to go, I think. Bento (large size) is pretty big in Japan. You know what? If you're Japanese, you order a bento in Japan, you're like a cowboy. You are hardcore. Nobody orders bento size in Japan. But I could.

00:24:27 John Daub: It's really good. What I like about it is it's not so sweet. It's got the chunks. I'm guessing this is the good stuff. There are chunks in it, but it's not so sweet. You can taste it if they use corn syrup or something. It has kind of a natural sweetness to it. I like it. Just perfectly balanced for amazake. So I don't mind paying a little bit extra. Typically, this would be on the countryside, this would be about 200 yen. So this is about like 30% more, but it's just a small price to pay because you're in hipster town.

00:25:08 John Daub: And you can get... I should have brought my takoyaki here. Look, there's like little seats here. Next time. That's the good thing about doing these live streams. We can find places for you down the road. So you can buy the takoyaki, walk about 150 meters, and you're right here. That building is... That building there? I don't... I'm reading the live streams. I don't know if that's a museum. So I'm gonna walk over now to the... So this is the Smokehouse upstairs, and then they have a roastery, which is a coffee, like a gourmet coffee place down here. And that's owned by... a local business chain. I think they have seven... six or seven restaurants now. One of them is where I had my wedding party, TY Harbor in Shinagawa. It was awesome. We had it on a boat on the... on one of the canals in Shinagawa, which is really cool.

00:26:06 John Daub: So we're getting ready to go down. This is the final stretch. We're gonna be making our way to Shibuya, and I guarantee you in about 15 minutes or less, we're gonna be at Hachiko, the crazy intersection where a bazillion people will cross. A bazillion people will cross in like one second. Total gross exaggeration. But feels like that anyways to people visiting. All right, let's go. Hipsters on the move.

00:26:39 John Daub: So the... Like I'm just... I keep discovering stuff. I walk two steps and I see this. This is the chocolate stand. High Cacao. And they've got like ridiculous chocolate desserts. I've never seen stuff like this. I like a simple amazake stand in the back alley. This is just like... Like gone on another level. Let's just see what they're offering here. What is this? Hot chocolate taster. That looks so good. It's 800 yen or about seven dollars. Whoa. What is that? Like a cinnamon roll on top of a bottle of hot chocolate? When you get to keep the... Get 100 yen for the bottle return. It's a good deal.

00:27:25 John Daub: Like the thing is, a lot of these shops, they might not be around when you come to visit. Oh, there's a North Face. Kids. I don't know. Would you dress your kids up in North Face? They're gonna outgrow that jacket in like three months. I don't know if I'll be dressing my kids up in North Face, but apparently people do. I guess kids fashion has a good resale value. Or you just keep having kids. But you know that they'll be wearing last year style. And here, you just go off and you get onto the alleys. Again, up there is a residential. You can see the laundry hanger. Man, if anyone is living up there, they've got the best... They're living right off of one of the best hipster streets. I can't imagine what the rent is like here. Like these days. It was about $1,500 a month for a little cubby office.

00:28:23 John Daub: Alright, let's get on our move. This cup's going in my pocket. I know it's gonna leak. That's okay. Mystery Ranch. I don't know any of these brands. This is where I believe we end the hipster area and we move into the Shibuya area. And I have a lot of friends who live in this area. Between Harajuku and Shibuya. Whoa. I wonder if they have what I'm looking for. Always looking for a good hat. Oh, and here's the Cat Street looking back now. If you're walking from Shibuya, this is what you'd see. That's Cat Street.

00:29:25 John Daub: Alright, off we go. I do have a few things to say. I don't think that guy's got a permit to park there. Patagonia. These are all chain shops. This isn't the Cat Street that I remember. Again, everybody wants to have their address here, so I guess makes sense to put an international brand here. I bet you once the 2020 Olympics is over and all the media attention is gone, all these brands just vanish and the locals will come back again. Cromel 3CH. 3CH, thank you. Appreciate it. That looks like... Norway. Wow, baked sweet potatoes. Let's just do a little roundabout on this truck. Whoa. I love yakiimo (baked sweet potato). And he did it in English because I know he's targeting the foreign visitors. Wow. Yakiimo. Smells wonderful. Oh man, that smells so good. Yakiimo.

00:30:53 John Daub: In the middle here is the Cat Street Park. Used to be where a lot of skateboarders were. They've redone this. But they've taken out a lot of the skateboard places, I guess, and put in little parks and walls and try to keep the skaters from being here. I don't know why they do that. It's part of the identity, I think. It's a nice little shop. Hey, Zato71. Thank you. That would be fun to skateboard here. I think it would be part of the experience.

00:31:29 John Daub: You know, when I went to the Tsukiji Market about... When it first opened about three months ago, I met a couple of skaters that were skateboarding through there. And somebody watched it and they told me that they were like world famous skateboarders who got yelled at and in trouble. And that's pretty cool to see because Japan is getting... The skateboarding is one of the Olympic sports. So it's funny to see. It's nice to see more tourists coming here for skateboarding. And they're skateboarding on the river where the new Toyosu Market is. That's the main street that I showed you. And this is where Cat Street will meet up with it, just going straight. And then we hit it and then we're pretty much at Shibuya Station. In fact, you can see Shibuya Station. That's where all the cars and the noise and the traffic and the construction is.

00:32:20 John Daub: We leave this very peaceful street that's very symmetrically colored well. And then we hit Shibuya. On a... It's not too warm. It's not too cool today. It's about 10 degrees, 12 degrees Celsius, about 50, 52 degrees. I know our friends in the United States have an Arctic blast coming down right now. Probably making them jealous. This is tropical weather to most of the world right now. Except for those in, you know, the tropics. Oh, right. I had a friend who lived up there. She's a J-pop singer. Those are really, really nice mansions. Used to teach her English. 12 years ago. But I don't anymore. America representing. Very nice.

00:33:21 John Daub: So I'm gonna... I'm almost at the end of this here. I'm weaving it, weaving back and forth. And this shop has been around for a while. It looks like a diner. You see that with the golden egg on top of it? It looks like the diner, like a... Like a diner or something. Like something from the 1950s. Yeah. Just like the home of the building. The building might be. I really don't know the history of the building. But it's... With all the construction you see in the background as the new Shibuya station is finishing up next year. I do hope that they try to keep. Yeah. That's fitting. This is the end of Cat Street. Do you see? Like, literally. Cat Street end. They should put the period at the end of end, maybe. But that's pretty cool. So literally, this is the end of it.

00:34:14 John Daub: And you can see that's... There's just a little bit of fashion stuff from Harajuku and the skateboard stickers. This one is Pink Dragon Rock and Roll Department. I forget, what was this? Was this a, yeah, this is a fashion shop. This is a fashion shop. And it says here, Miracle Women. I'll just keep walking along. Where do I shop? Not there. Maybe I should. I think that's where Peter von Gomm shops. Peter von Gomm shops down this street. And I'm right there. You can see there's a sign here actually saying no skateboarding. But he looks like he's having a lot of fun in that. He does look like he's having a lot of fun in that icon. All skateboarders put their hands out like surfers, right? I don't know. It's all about balance.

00:35:17 John Daub: More street trucks. Ah, man, food trucks. This is a Japanese sake crepe. What? Just gonna. I've never seen anything like this before. Japanese sake crepe. Sake grapefruit vanilla ice cream. Interesting. They're about $7.50 each. Hmm. Street trucks have to have a catch to them. That's a pretty neat catch to it. Something for Future Lab Street, I think. Again, right here. You see the yellow sign here? Skateboarding prohibited. Strongly. That's what that means. Skateboarding. So. You skateboarders have been ruined. Some old man with a broom will. Old man with a broom will come out and punch you down. If you choose to skateboard Cat Street to Shibuya.

00:36:16 John Daub: Ah, alright. I see our goal. So I promised you that we would be on Hachiko in 15 minutes. We're going to cruise and do this. Folks. Did they take out the, um. There's the Tower Records. I still can't believe the Tower Records is still there. I cannot believe it. Like, I used to go to Tower Records when I was in high school. And people just started downloading online and there's none, or very few in the US. There's the Yamanote line going by. But here the Tower Records Shibuya is, it is a brand in itself. Shibuya Tower Records. It's where people will come to release CDs which are still popular, you know, in Japan.

00:37:00 John Daub: Oh wow! What? That's, that's kind of sad. Do you see where this wall is right here? The construction? This used to be a park. We had the skateboarding, um, area for skateboarding. It was just a really nice park. The problem was there were a lot of homeless that were living in there. Tons and tons of trees and nature between there. It's been removed. That's kind of sad to see the, this area changing so much. But I think it's just a lot of development is happening. The real estate is so valuable.

00:37:29 John Daub: And this is, I believe, the reason that they didn't build anything on this area here. In fact, the reason that they didn't build anything on this area here. In fact, in this area of Shibuya for a long time was because it follows the Shibuya River. It's a river that's dried up now. It's more of a drainage ditch. But the land where the Shibuya River is was so unstable that you couldn't build on top of it. And now with new technology and such, you can. And Takenaka construction is leading the way. All right. This is the backside of Shibuya Station. Most people and tourists will be coming this way. So we're going to go the traditional route and we're going to end this live stream at Hachiko Crossing. You know that famous intersection everybody goes to.

00:38:22 John Daub: That's what I'm talking about. I want an open car. These are called convertibles in English. They call them open car here. I totally want an open car. You see, I want to feel the air around me, right? You want to feel the air around you. Cool people have convertibles. I don't know. I've never owned a car. So therefore, I don't know what it's like to own a car. But I know people who do. And they complain about parking all the time. Actually car owners in Tokyo are not very happy people. Peter von Gomm's pretty happy. He's got a motorbike. Might be a little bit better.

00:39:05 John Daub: All right. Here we go. We're going underneath the Yamanote Line. There it is right there. So we're going underneath the tracks here. There are still some homeless that are living here. Which is sad to see. But more and more are getting moved out because of the urban development happening here. Tons and tons of construction before the 2020 Olympics. Most of it will be completed by the end of this year, they say. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the changes. There's the Yamanote Line. A symbol of Tokyo.

00:39:49 John Daub: I think I'm going to be doing a live stream today or tomorrow on this channel to answer some of your questions. Because I've been getting a ton of people asking me about their trip coming up to Japan. So it might be a nice opportunity to do that. We're going to do some Q&A on the Only in Japan Go channel because I get a ton of emails from people and I don't know how to answer them all. I can't answer them all and they ask the same questions over and over again. So OK. I guess Hachiko has its own. The leaning Hachiko. All right. The leaning Hachiko.

00:40:44 John Daub: Times are changing, my friends. But people do buy CDs here. I know that because I have a lot of friends that buy CDs here. It's good. You feel like you're holding it in your hand. It feels like something like you bought something. When you download a digital copy, you're not really holding anything. It doesn't feel the same. I think it's just part of Japanese culture. There's tons and tons of... Alright, now definitely we're getting closer to our goal, which is Hachiko from Cat Street.

00:41:21 John Daub: Oh, that looks good too. I'm not even hungry. This is the big toast. Check it out. Look at that. That's pretty cool. Whoa! That's really what I think is the karaoke. Do you see that? When you go into karaoke, they just have these bread machine, bread maker breads that are just massive loaves. And they just put honey all over it with whipped cream. There's nothing wrong with that. Straight ahead is our goal. That's Hachiko crossing right there. But before we get there, let me pan this intersection here. People that used to live in Tokyo know exactly where I am. And those who visited probably know where I am too.

00:42:12 John Daub: This used to be a McDonald's actually. Yeah. If you spent a night out drinking, you would end up in this 24-hour McDonald's. Most of the people at 3 a.m. were asleep. Fought for that chair to sleep in. I wouldn't know. I didn't, you know, go out and do stuff like that. Yeah, I did. And we're about one minute away from being on Hachiko. Stick with us. Once we cross this street, it's smooth sailing all the way to... all the way to the intersection. And I'm gonna end the livestream right in the center of it.

00:42:50 John Daub: All right, here we go. If you move quickly, you can hit the other light. All right, let's do this. All right, I'm booking now. You have to move quickly. All right, I think we got this. If you miss two lights, then shame on you. Is that... that's how the expression goes? Miss one light, shame on me. Miss two lights, shame on you or something like that. All right, hold on. We totally made it. You have to book in order to make it. This is the only McDonald's... well, there's a couple of McDonald's now. But this is one of the first McDonald's in Tokyo, I believe. This one here. Everybody knows where we are now.

00:43:47 John Daub: We're moments away from our goal. So before we get there, why don't you write in on this livestream. Where are you watching from? Anybody watching from Tokyo, Japan right now, I wonder? Here's the famous Tsutaya, a DVD rental shop that's like Blockbuster but won't go down easy. Everyone's gonna fight it till the end. All right, I could cross the street now, but I choose not to. I'm gonna wait this out. And if you're in Shibuya, you can come and say hi, but I'm not gonna be here for very long.

00:44:38 John Daub: Wow, I'm always impressed by the amount of people here in Shibuya. It's just insane. A billion people will cross in one second. This is totally not true. It feels like it. This is also... the traffic lights talk here. There's a speaker up there. Do you see the speaker? It tells people... I don't know too many cities where the traffic lights will talk. Now, what I've been told, because I did an NHK show on this, is it helps the blind people that are here know that it's turned green. But I'm pretty sure that they can figure it out. There's a speaker up there. There's lots of little things. And I think these are live cameras, so if you do go... I think this is one of the live cameras. You can see Shibuya. If you look going on the Shibuya live camera right now, probably could see me. Live streaming you. Which would be pretty cool. I don't know where the live camera is. I think it might be there. Or in one of these buildings here. But this looks like the angle. Yeah, and this is Starbucks.

00:45:53 John Daub: When it first opened, miniskirts were popular. People did not know that people were looking up at them. I was here when that Starbucks first opened. Hello. Oh, hi. Yay! I saw your vlog. Oh, thank you. See what I mean? All right, guys. I hope that was fun. And if you do come to Tokyo, maybe forget the Yamanote line. Walk instead because you're going to see a lot more. And you're going to get to eat some takoyaki, some amazake. And who knows what else you're going to find. Leave a comment below if you've done this walk before or if you just want to share something. And see you later on today as I live stream again some questions and answers. Bye from Shibuya. The last 20 seconds. Last 20 seconds to people who like to wave to the camera and say hi. Just like those two girls did. It's a nice vibe here.