00:02 John Daub: Greetings everyone. Right there is Tokyo Station to your left and right in the background. And if I turn the camera around, you'll see what all these people are taking pictures of. You can already see it right there in the center of your screen. This here is Sakura Avenue, right in front of the Tokyo Station Yaesu side. Once a year, this street really comes to life. I'm standing in the middle of it right now because there's a traffic light. How you doing everybody?

00:40 John Daub: Once a year, this street is just absolutely beautiful. And for the next 3-4 days, this is going to be the place to be when you're in the Tokyo Station area, Nihonbashi. People just love snapping pictures of it. It's a good one. Because it's such a wonderful street this is. It kind of reminds me of the lower sides of New York where the buildings are kind of close. Not a lot of sunlight is coming through. It's really busy. It's colorful.

01:10 John Daub: But then you got this street. Check it out. Look at all the people, all the stuff going on around here. But it's one of these beautiful sakura (cherry blossom) tunnels that you can see in Tokyo. The trees are... This is just a one-lane road. So the trees are a lot closer here compared to some of the other avenues in Tokyo where you have two, three, four lanes going on two different directions. And I'm going to be riding this with you for the next 20 minutes or so on my new bicycle. Which is right here. Check it out.

01:40 John Daub: This is a Bridgestone. It's very popular right now. These smaller wheels are 20 inches. Usually they're 26 or 27 inches in Tokyo, in Japan. But this one is 20 inches. And it's more compact, more easier to take around with you. I could even bring it inside if I wanted to. It's a sweet ride. And I learned that Bridgestone was a Japanese company. It has a Bridgestone which doesn't really make a lot of sense for a Japanese company. But it is a Japanese company. It comes from Japan. It's called Ishibashi (stone bridge), I think is the original name of it. They changed it to Bridgestone.

02:15 John Daub: But I'm going to get on this bicycle and we're going to ride down this. And I think it's going to be a pretty cool experience. Because it's a one-way street, riding down it is not as dangerous. It's not as dangerous as you would think. Again, everyone's making sure that they snap a picture before they go back. A lot of people in business from Osaka and other areas of Tokyo come here to snap a picture just before they go back home. Alright, let's do this. Are you ready to ride?

02:54 John Daub: I'm guessing though that maybe I should put this wide-angle lens on the other side. So, let's do that. So you get the full experience. Wide. Hold on a second. It's like you guys are trapped inside the phone. Alright, I think you're going to be wide now. Yes! This is totally awesome. Alright, wait for the traffic to go by and then we're on our bikes. Alright, here we go. Ding, ding. Let everybody know we're coming.

03:48 John Daub: Alright, kind of annoying, the DJI gimbal. You'll see that on the lower right, but not to worry. Wow, there's no cars behind me. This is perfect. We got a green light as well. Now, it's only for like three, four days this street is like this. And for some reason, it just never lasts. No, it's turning red! It's alright, we can sit here for a while. I'm going to move ahead of this car. It kind of goes off-limits. It's not going to go on until Takashimaya up there. But it's just for two, three days.

04:36 John Daub: And usually these blossoms will not last very long. They open very quickly in this alleyway. And then they just fly off before April 1st. And it's always the first place that's finished. And it's one of the first places that blooms. Peter von Gomm, my friend Peter von Gomm, told me he went down to Shiba Park near Tokyo Tower. And he said that they hadn't bloomed yet. I knew this place would be one of the first. And it's spectacular.

04:59 John Daub: Alright, let's make this happen now. We're going to go to the end of the street. Let's go to the end of the street here. Beautiful. It doesn't connect very well over here. But we're going to ride back now. Going against traffic. Live dangerously. That's the historic Takashimaya Department Store on the Nihonbashi side. We're closer to Nihonbashi now than Tokyo Station. Beautiful. Alright, let's ride back now.

05:43 John Daub: Oh, you know what? Hold on a second. There's some more going this way. And there's hardly any traffic at all. Let's make this happen. Let's just go down this street. And then we're going to go the whole way back to Tokyo Station. So on our left is Takashimaya Historic Department Store. And on the right is new buildings. I don't know what else to say. But there's not a lot of people here because it's reserved pretty much for parking. People come here to park.

06:24 John Daub: And if you keep going straight, you get to Higashi-ginza. Eventually you get to Higashi-ginza. On the right side would be towards Ginza. Alright, we're going to turn around now. And we're going to make our way back to Tokyo Station. Nice. It's really nice at night as well. At night you get the lights from the city kind of brighten up these sakura trees. They don't illuminate them directly. But it's still really nice.

06:55 John Daub: And when you have the blue skies like you do now, that's when the cherry blossoms they really look better with the blue sky. March and April are a hard month because a lot of times you'll have cloudy skies. But today we have a nice blue one. So you have to take advantage of it. It's probably going to be better tomorrow. But you have to take advantage of a blue sky when you have it with the cherry blossoms. Because tomorrow might not be that day. It's also a little bit windy. Typical. You can see the flags in the distance there. This is typical of spring, right? Spring is supposed to be a little windy.

07:45 John Daub: Alright, let's do this. You ready? Now we're going towards Tokyo Station. It's pretty cool riding on a bicycle. It's a lot better on a motorcycle, I think. Peter von Gomm's moto vlogs. It's not too bad on a bicycle either. There's not a lot of traffic. We should be fine. But I think when we get about 50 meters further, you'll see that the tunnel is complete. And the trees on the left and the right side meet in the middle. So let this Mercedes-Benz go by. Ah, it's so beautiful. It smells good too. It smells like spring.

08:33 John Daub: Now you can see it, right? Straight ahead. The sakura on the left and the right just touch and meet in the middle. It creates a tunnel. Alright, get a red light. Yeah, [inaudible]. We definitely could use some smell-o-vision. Although, it could work against you with hay fever. There's so much pollen in the air as well. It makes my eyes itch. It's hard to breathe sometimes. But today is a pretty good day. No complaints.

09:22 John Daub: Just watch the cars coming out. Ah, this is the best part right here. The start of it by Tokyo Station is the best part of this avenue. Absolutely love it here. There's a ramen place on the left side. Matsuya, gyudon (beef bowl) place. Lots of little restaurants to get a bite to eat before you get on the Shinkansen (bullet train). This Starbucks is one of the first ones that came to Tokyo. I think it's the third or fourth one on the left side. Hey, Steven. Thank you.

09:51 John Daub: And then that's pretty much it. Alright. My Bridgestone was a pretty sweet ride. Already you can see that the blossoms are starting to fall off onto the street. And in about three days after they've come to 100% bloom, then they all just start to fall. The first rain or the first little wind knocks them all down. And it's one of the saddest sights that you can see. Because beauty lasts just a short period of time. Life lasts such a short period of time.

10:27 John Daub: And it's very symbolic, these cherry blossoms that samurai used to use the blossoms as sort of a reminder that life is not forever. When the cherry blossoms are out, stop and enjoy life a little bit. And then, you know, they're only going to be for a couple days. And then after they're gone, get back to your everyday life. But for this period, yeah, it doesn't hurt to get a little bottle of booze and celebrate underneath the trees. I'm going to move the wide-angle lens back. And we're going to try to find a sakura drink.

11:01 John Daub: Alright. I like this little wide-angle lens that gives us a different view of the city. And it also means that we're not so close because you don't need to be like in my face when he's live-streamed. Nobody likes that. Although I do brush my teeth three times a day and I guarantee you it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be. I guess I could park my bike right up here. Yeah. Boom. Now this is a pretty sweet ride. I'm very happy with this bicycle. It doesn't go as fast. It has three gears. It's called the Vegas. It has three gears. It doesn't go as fast as I'd like it to go, but safety first. But it's comfortable.

12:06 John Daub: Alright. I gotta do one stop right here. So shout out. Hey, Debra. Love the sight of Japan at this time of year. By the way, Debra, I'm going to be doing another live stream after this in a totally different area of Tokyo. Maybe not totally, but in a different area of Tokyo. So I'll be doing it maybe in about 30 minutes after this. I'm going to get on my bike and go to another area. Just a shout out to Linda in Brooklyn. This is one of your postcards. This is just a little bonus, Linda. This is coming to you right now. I'm putting it in the mailbox. Alright. Make your way to Brooklyn. That's for our Patreon supporters. We had a new sign up yesterday.

12:56 John Daub: Alright. I'm going to see if they have some kind of sakura drink. Oh, this Starbucks is totally packed. It's not going to happen, guys. This one is so crazy packed right now. Anyways, they don't have the sakura drink. I'm going to actually talk to you about this for a second. They have this one. It's a tiramisu frappuccino. Which is just insane. I kind of wanted to get this one. Oh man, that's a shame. I know of a dozen secret Starbucks. There's no line whatsoever. Alright. There's just not one around here.

13:37 John Daub: Let's just take a quick look and get a closer look at some of these cherry blossoms on Yaesu Dori. And see what... Actually, it's a $15 postcard. It's not a $100 postcard. I appreciate the support from our Patreon community. Alright. Here's a good tree. Oh wow. I love how when you get close to the sakura trees, you can see sometimes they bloom right out of the tree trunk itself. You can see the little sprouts of spring. That's such a beautiful green color. Really nice.

14:27 John Daub: See these on the right have not bloomed yet. So, there's a little bit more left to it. Oh, look at that. Spring has sprung. Just so delicate they are. These are the Somei Yoshino variety. White. Hey GamerPro, how you doing? Viewing from India. It's just people, they stop their day, whatever they're doing, and they take pictures. I love that. This is the lunch rush too. You can see a lot of these, the gyudon shop is just packed with people eating. And this ramen shop. I walked by the ramen shop. It's cool. You order by vending machine here. Oh, there's a couple of seats open, but slice of life in Tokyo.

15:31 John Daub: It's not going to be long now before we have the sakura petal blizzards here. And they just kind of come down when the wind hits. A breeze will come and then all the petals will fall. It looks like it's snowing into the street. That is probably as beautiful as, more beautiful than what you see right now. It's probably more beautiful than the sakura tunnel of Yaesu exit of Tokyo Station. This street, appropriately named Sakura Avenue.

16:11 John Daub: There aren't too many cities in the world that have such a beautiful view of spring like this. Just kind of soak in this view. Looking back at Tokyo Station now. At the really cool Sakura Tunnel. That's a great shot. Yeah, difference engine, DE. I'm going to be going to a park in Tokyo now on my bicycle. Just wanted to give you guys a taste. I like to come here. I like to come to Tokyo Station, to this street because I know that this is the first one to bloom. And it's also the first one to also lose its petals. So you have to kind of absorb it all in. Take it all in today. Because tomorrow will be a different day. As it always is.

17:16 John Daub: Oh, there's one of those rental bikes. See, everyone's getting these 20 inch bicycles. Now this is kind of in the shadows, in the dark. But if you go to the parks on a day like today, you're going to see with the blue sky in the background, the white petals are just stunning. But there's not enough light in here. It's hard to see. So let's go to another park. Let's do this. Yeah? Let's get on our bicycles and move to another park. Now Peter von Gomm said that those even aren't... those are like 15 inches. Like I was trying to get to this guy. Those are some small wheels. Wheel sizes in Tokyo are getting smaller. I don't remember that. This is just a new phenomenon.

18:16 John Daub: Such a busy street. April is also the time. This is a symbolic scene. April 1st starts the new business year. So a lot of companies will be closing shop in March and moving to new locations. Just as workers will be moving from one location to the next. It looks like this office has sort of closed its stuff and is now moving or recycling this to another place. Just a sign of spring. Everything ends on March 31st. And the year appropriately starts on April 1st, which is the Japanese way. In the US we start on, I guess it's like January 1st or something. But in Japan it's always April 1st. So I've been busy finishing up year end work.

19:08 John Daub: Oh man, it's just so gorgeous right now. I cannot express in words how beautiful it is. Yeah Rob, it's April Fool's Day for most of the other countries in the world. Looking up, this is what it is. Looks like looking up in Tokyo right now. It's really really beautiful. Alright, let's go do this. I'm going to go to another park. I'm not going to tell you which one, but there's going to be another live stream. I'm going to do a live stream in about 30 minutes from now. And I'll put that live stream up about 15 minutes in advance. David, hey! Thank you David.

19:43 John Daub: I'm going to put that live stream up about 15 minutes in advance so you get a chance to look at it. So you might want to tune back in to the Only in Japan Go channel in about 15-20 minutes. I'm just going to pick which park to go and visit. Some place where I can get a lot of the blue sky. Because I think in a day like today you want to get some of the blue sky. And because it's windy, I definitely want to cover the cherry blossoms as quickly as possible. Because once you get to 100%, that's when the first breeze or rain just blows them all away.

20:15 John Daub: One of the most impressive places that I love is Kitanomaru Park. That's where I was to show the index cherry blossom tree about 5 days ago. Which bloomed on the 18th. Which is 4 days faster than normal. And Kitanomaru Park was not at all bloomed. And I bet you tomorrow it's going to be so spectacular. Maybe I'm going to find my way there if it's a sunny day like this. I'm going to bring my GH5 and get some really great shots of it for Instagram as well. Alright guys, so check back in in about 15 minutes. I'm going to give you one last look.

20:54 John Daub: This is Sakura Avenue outside of Tokyo Station. And it's one of the most beautiful sakura tunnels. And if you're in the area you probably want to stop by and just take a look. Snap a picture. Because it's a beautiful view. And you can see the buildings of Tokyo left and right of here. How busy it is. And in the center just a little piece of nature that makes it such a peaceful place to come right before April 1st. Alright guys, see you soon.