00:00:00 John Daub: That right there, those are cherry blossoms. And it looks like in this area of Tokyo, we're at 100% bloomage, which is really beautiful. You can see just how dazzling white these blossoms are and how precious they are. And underneath them, the flowing water. This is not a river, but a canal that leads out to Tokyo Bay. This area is called Monzen-nakachō. Last time we gave you an experience that was more popular in an area of Tokyo that a lot of people are going to because it has just a huge volume of cherry blossoms in one spot. And this is more a local experience. This is the experience that I kind of tend to think of when I think of cherry blossoms, where you're hanging out with your community and they have little events like this. It's not as crowded, but this here is a pretty unique experience that you can try for free out here in Monzen-nakachō.

00:00:58 John Daub: This is a wasen (Japanese traditional boat). And you can see he's doing it in the traditional Japanese way. We'll have some more to say on this a little bit later. But it's pretty cool to just come out here. It's gotten warmer since a couple of days ago. The weather's been really chilly here, and now it's warmed up to about 15 degrees Celsius or 57 degrees Fahrenheit. It's really beautiful. Over there on the other side of the banks, they have a live performance going on with jazz from local artists. And it's a way for us just to celebrate. This is what hanami (cherry blossom viewing) is supposed to be like, not such a crowded place that you're going to see in Ueno Park or Nakameguro.

00:01:40 John Daub: And joining me in this report is none other than Kanae Daub. How are you? People have been asking, how do you spell your name? K-A-N-A-E. Not "I." It's K-A-N-A-E, Kanae. Yeah, that's what I see in the chat. Some people don't spell it right, but that's OK. We get the point. But today we have a very special day. And because the sun is out, that doesn't happen too often because the temperature and the weather in March and April is very volatile. It'll be warm on some days and then just turn freezing cold. And then you can see the tourists come here with shorts. They enjoy it when it's in the upper 60s and then it goes down into the 40s. So you got to be prepared for any kind of weather. And the sun is out. The weather is very good.

00:02:30 John Daub: So, Kanae, where is your favorite place to celebrate cherry blossoms?

00:02:36 Kanae Daub: We have them. We're surrounded by them. I can't decide one place.

00:02:41 John Daub: Oh, no?

00:02:42 Kanae Daub: Yeah. All areas are very beautiful for me. And the different kinds of cherry blossoms and feeling.

00:02:55 John Daub: Right. Yeah. But I like the local area too.

00:03:00 Kanae Daub: Yeah. It's more quiet.

00:03:01 John Daub: It's more quiet and relaxing.

00:03:03 Kanae Daub: Yeah. That's what cherry blossoms supposed to be. It's supposed to be really relaxing. And where you can sit outside with blue tarps. Usually people have blue tarps and it just kind of relax with a bento or food or something you bought from the supermarket or you made at home. This feels like Japan to me more so than yesterday's live stream at Chidorigafuchi.

00:03:27 John Daub: Now, these boats are called wasen. I guess we can talk a little bit about them. Wasen were the traditional boats that they used in the Edo period (Edo Jidai), which was about 160 years ago. The Meiji Restoration happened in 1868, so it was before then. And these boats would depart from Monzen-nakachō, which is the area that we're in. There's actually a Google map link in the description so you can see where we are exactly. If you are in Tokyo, definitely come out here. And they would take the boats, the wasen, from here to Chidorigafuchi. And then they would go to Asakusa because that was the route. And they would ship goods and take people from Edo because it was faster to go this way than to walk it. A lot of traffic, I guess, in the Edo period.

00:04:17 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:04:17 John Daub: What else did the guide tell us? Because we went over there and kind of interviewed the guy for research with scouting. He said the shape, the wasen shape is like this. So because of it, it's faster. The shape of the boat. So they can go to Asakusa very quickly. They can speed boat. This is the design of the boat was like this because it could go faster through the water, through the canals. And these guys look like they're very experienced. I bet you back in the Edo period, they had young guys who were hyped up on Monster and other sports drinks. I could just cruise through the canals at top speed. You had to pay for it. But these are free. I like the guy sitting in the front with the hat. Just kind of he's the commander. I guess the commander just sits there like that. He looks so relaxed. The people out there look so peaceful.

00:05:16 John Daub: But we're going to walk around now and just join us for a smooth afternoon. Well, this is not—that's not old style. They did not have this boat in the Edo period, did they? Oh, this is from Nihonbashi. Hey. Oh, he's got the Tokyo Olympic logo. He's got the Tokyo Olympic logo on his back, too. Nice. Oh, so I've seen this cruise before. This leaves from Nihonbashi near Tokyo Station and it goes quite further. These boats that you see on the left, the wasen are more traditional boats and they just take you around the canal here. And again, Tokyo is a city of canals. A lot of people don't know this. It's more like Amsterdam. And back there is the Kanda River, which was the original Yamanote Line. The Yamanote Line is the JR line that goes around the city. We also have the Oedo Line, which is the Toei subway line, which goes around the city. But it was the Kanda River that looped around Tokyo with the Imperial Palace in the middle. And they had gates at the Kanda River to let in the people that were allowed to come into Edo, which is the old name for Tokyo. And it's these canals that connected with the Kanda River that Tokyo is most famous for. And you can see here along the banks and some of these local areas, people have hanami. They have blue sheets and they just kind of drink and eat and set up little tables. And it's pretty neat to come out here and do. So we're going to walk along the canal here and show you a little slice of what it's like for a local hanami event.

00:07:02 John Daub: Look at the cute doggy. So peaceful. Yeah. It's nice to see everybody is out enjoying the weather. It's not as cold as that. But the thing is, when you stop walking and moving, you do get chilly a little bit more. So don't underestimate, although it's getting warmer, don't underestimate the chill in the air in Tokyo because there is a breeze. The sun isn't always out and it gets cold. So Kanae and I, and actually Kanae's dad's coming a little bit later. He knows well about the downtown area. Yeah, he's a master of the downtown area. He grew up in Tokyo. Oh, it's so beautiful. He grew up in Tokyo and he's seen a lot from the post-war era all the way to now. Just like Mr. Seiichi. Oh, man, it's so beautiful here. And this is the Tokyo I think that I really wanted to introduce to you. Another side of the city, more local. Now, the other side is a little bit more crowded. And I also came out here because yesterday was so crowded, Kanae and I couldn't take any pictures. So we came out here to take some pictures and show you around.

00:08:22 John Daub: You Only Live Twice was filmed at the New Otani Hotel according to James Bond. I want to do a live stream on some of the locations of that movie because it's one of the first movies that I saw about Japan when James Bond came here. And Tanaka's... Oh, these aren't bloomed yet. So we're still early. So everyone who's asking me, am I going to be on time? The answer is yes. Yeah, I think these will be blooming probably around Tuesday or the sun today will make them come out. They absorb the sun. And then in the middle of the night, they start to bloom. I bet you if you did a time lapse tonight, you'll see these guys start to open. Yeah, there's another blossom right there. All right, so we're walking across a bridge here. Now, as you can see, there's really not a crowd. Look behind me. There's not a crowd of people. It's pretty free. Oh, except for the bicycles going by here. It's pretty free. And you can get a blue sheet and sit pretty much anywhere here. Whereas yesterday, they were very strict about it. You can see just over yonder across the street, it's even quieter. And people like to connect with nature in this way. They don't want to be where everybody is like in Ueno. They want to go to their neighborhood parks. And everybody has a favorite tree. Everybody has a favorite place. And for many people, it could be Monzen-nakachō. And you can see a blue sheet over there. There's a couple just enjoying some private time. And there's a lot of sakura trees along the canal here. So there's one for everybody.

00:10:14 John Daub: Wow. Wow. That's a big bush. Got some wavers. Yay. Yay. These are... Actually, the people taking these... Oh, they got it bent down. Even the captain got down. Awesome. Did you see that? Asher, Paul Tan has a good comment here. If you want to be different from everybody else, get a different color tarp. And it'll be easier for people to find you. You could say, we're on the red tarp. And then people will be able to find you easier. Because everyone seems to have blue sheets. In fact, I think that's what we call them. Blue sheets. Hey, Rachel1977. Hey, guys. Street food on me. You got it. Actually, I think on the other side of the canal, we're going to go to a place where we can try some of the street food. I think there was street food over there, right? Yatai (food stalls) maybe? Yeah. Maybe we had a yatai. You can see the boats coming in from this side. Again, on the left and right. It doesn't look like they're fully bloomed. And we had rain yesterday. We were really worried when we got here whether or not we'd be able to see the blossoms. But it was promising yesterday when some of the trees were just at 75%. So that means when it rained, we didn't lose a lot. So we're going to have a beautiful day today and tomorrow, I think, for cherry blossoms.

00:11:49 John Daub: And I love that these boats are free. And they're just volunteers that are spending the day ferrying people around. And it's a great chance to see Tokyo. Where we were... We had the paddle boats. We had to pay for that. And it was so crowded. Here, there is a long line. But it's going pretty quickly. And they can take about 10-15 people per boat. And the boats keep coming and going. These wa-sen. Wa meaning Japanese and then sen meaning boat. It's nice.

00:13:11 John Daub: Oh, I love this. Check it out. There's a party over there. I love it. You can just put the blue sheet down. Find a corner. And everyone gets a little table. And you just start drinking and eating with your friends. And relax. Even on the left side, you can see they recycle and separate their garbage on the left side. You see that? Very smart. Up here. These are illuminated at night. So if you come after 6 p.m., it becomes even prettier. Now, the lights aren't as bright as Chidorigafuchi yesterday, but they're still pretty nice. And that's the local experience. They don't light them up too, too much. But these lights do add a little bit of mood to it and look very traditional Japanese. These chōchin (paper lanterns). These are chōchin, right? Yeah. These are chōchin or lanterns that you'll see. Traditional lanterns. They have light bulbs, LED bulbs, not fire like they used candles in the olden days. But just to give you an estimate, right here you can see these blossoms are truly not at 100% yet. And that's surprising to me. That's kind of surprising. Let me get this in focus here. That's surprising to me that they're not 100% bloomed. They're just buds.

00:15:01 John Daub: There's not a lot of tourists here. Wow, they did it properly. Look at the table there. They're doing it proper. They have like nabe and gas grills. That's pretty cool. They have a yakiniku (grilled meat). Wow. They do have some yakiniku going on over there. How cool is that? They're grilling, baby. Yeah. Now, that's semi-illegal, but we'll keep that to ourselves. I mean, you're not supposed to have open grills and grilling in the city of Tokyo. A very old law that came. Because we were born in the year of the tiger. We had a lot of fires in the city, so the police often cracked down. But I do it too sometimes. You have to do it very stealthily. It's such a beautiful day. And this morning was chilly and wet, and it's turned into blue skies. And you're going to get a chance to see some of those cherry blossoms with the blue sky. The contrast is so beautiful between when you have a blue sky and... On this side, it doesn't look like it's really opened up yet. I like the flags here. This is the launch point for the boats. And let's just take a look down here. They're serving tea and refreshments for the staff to keep them hydrated. That's good. You can kind of relax. So they switch the drivers every now and then. It's the break area. And this is the launching point. And you have to wear life jackets. So you never know.

00:17:05 John Daub: So here, this is the other side. We have the canal is here. And we're going to keep on going. This is actually where maybe... We've got another 15 minutes of streaming. But this is a school. This is very much a residential area of Tokyo. Monzen-nakachō has a lot of izakaya (pubs) and places to eat outside. And it's got a different vibe because it's on the other side of the Sumida River. And it's available... I think it's on the Tozai Line and the Oedo Line. And the Oedo Line is the loop subway line. So it's easy to get here. And again, once again, I put a link in the description of a Google map on how to get to this area. If you want to take a break from all the tourist sites like Asakusa and Shibuya and stuff and see.

00:17:50 Kanae Daub: What did you find? Just a beautiful tree.

00:17:56 John Daub: It is. That's what I'm saying. When you get the blue skies, you got to go outside and enjoy it. There's such a beautiful contrast when you have the blue skies and the sunlight just perfect. That's a great shot right there. Yeah, Daniel, I tagged the video, but I put the exact bridge that we were just at. So you can navigate from the station to this area. After you arrive, it'll help you get to this exact spot. Chris writes in, we need butterflies. Absolutely. We could use some butterflies. Just not butterfly keyboards. Different topic. It's so beautiful. Sometimes kids will climb the trees. It's not permissible to climb them. Just to let you know. If you do do it, you're going to see people with their mouths open and they're too embarrassed to tell you not to get your kid down. I mean, no one wants to be the policeman that's despised, right? We just open up our mouths and hope that you figure it out. The Japanese way. People stare a hole into your back until you figure out, oh, maybe you shouldn't be doing that anymore.

00:19:17 John Daub: Yeah, I started this live stream a little later. I know that I saw that Peter von Gomm had gone live. So I just... I'm excited to delay the start of this just out of respect to my man, PBG. Oh, look, they've tagged this one. What does that say? It says, "May talk is the Kotaku." I like that. They kind of give it a tag. Wow. It's just so beautiful. This is the shot. Monzen-nakachō's into Kotaku, but you can see the levels of cherry blossoms. You see that? I love the shot. Corn dog got the kanji now for Monzen-nakachō. Yeah. If you're in the area, please join us. Come and say hi. If you're watching this, why don't you in the comments below, if you're watching this in playback, leave us your favorite spot in Tokyo. Where's a nice place you think is worth going to? A nice neighborhood. This for me is a hidden spot. This is a jewel where you can come and relax a lot more. This is a Sunday. It should be way more crowded. Yeah. And when Kanae and I woke up this morning, we were thinking, where should we go to see the cherry blossoms? And we're thinking Nakameguro. But then we knew it was going to be too crowded. And we just took our bicycles, which we'll show you. And then came to a neighborhood.

00:21:12 John Daub: Here's the boat here. And we're going to walk by. Walk by the jazz place. It's pretty cool. Nice. All right. Let's walk past this band because I think they're playing. I've been waiting for a long time. About an hour. Wow. Wow. She waited for more than three hours to ride the boat. I guess the line is still pretty long. But I'm going to walk by this cover song band music because I don't know if this is going to be demonetized. So I got to sometimes go like this. Yay. That's pretty cool. Wow. She's come out into the audience. That's really hardcore. It's just really playing right here. Very cool. Nice. That's very cool. I love the vibe here. I mean, you're not going to get a chance to see live performances like this just in the park. I love that. You don't see that.

00:22:21 Kanae Daub: We know. But it's too crowded.

00:22:28 John Daub: Yeah. No, to have bands. It's too crowded to have like live music. But here they can kind of do that. And this line that you see of people are waiting for the free boat. That one couple said they waited three hours. Eh, san-jikan matte ka? San-jikan koko ni imashita ka? I think they're just here for three hours. Yeah, she's on board waiting. Waiting? That's pretty. That's like Disney. Then finally it's her turn. Oh, finally it's her turn. After three hours. But the good thing is if you look back at this line, you're waiting underneath the canopy of cherry blossoms. And it's pretty nice to relax. So I don't mind waiting in line in this line. It's a lot more relaxed today than yesterday. All right, let's cross the street.

00:23:25 John Daub: Should we? Oh, this is the wasen reception. Yeah, the ladies are inviting us over. Hey, are these cherry blossoms? No, that's not cherry blossoms. They kind of look like them. You can find nature all over springing from the weeds. Even the weeds are pretty. The river called Oyokogawa. Yeah, Oyokogawa. I like how they wrote it in multiple languages too. City of Tokyo is really starting to embrace other languages. Oh, do you see these? These are cherry blossoms. Do you see the flower pots, Kanae? I didn't notice that till now. They're shaped like the boats, the wasen. So there must be a history behind it. I know, I didn't notice that. So we've gone around one time. This is what it looks like from the other side. We were already to a bridge about 150 meters that way about 15 minutes ago. There's one of the wasen going down. So if you're joining us, we gave you a rundown of the history of these boats called wasen or Japanese boat. So we're going to take you to the other side and let's see. I think there's some street food. There seems to be some street food. And Gamer Pro has been waiting for some street food. You see on the other side, there's some tents. That has to be food, right? I hope so. How do we get to the other side though? There's a 7-Eleven over there. Maybe let's cross from this side. We can go past our bicycles. It's going to take about a minute or two to get across the street. Yeah, it's separated by this main road which goes towards Kachidoki and Tsukishima. And then this way I think takes you to, I'm not sure. But eventually you get to Asakusa, this direction. And Toyosu maybe. Toyosu is over there. The city of Toyosu. Tokyo is pretty big. But the harbor side, the side where Tokyo Bay is, is pretty nice. Oh, we walked past our bicycles. Is it still there? I want to make sure that we didn't get ticketed or something because you shouldn't park your bike here. There's our bikes, our Bridgestone bikes. I have the black one. And Kanae has been given the white one. Both of those 20-inch wheels turn into kids' bikes. His and hers.

00:26:28 John Daub: Alright, let's cross the street. Make our way to the other side. Alright. While we're getting from A to B in the live stream to make this interesting, why don't you write in where you're watching from? Let everybody know what part of the world you're in because we have such a global audience. Oh, this is nice too. It's pretty nice. You can see from the alley. Wow, Norway, Sydney, Singapore, Netherlands, California. We've already gone around the world. Detroit, Malaysia, Scotland, Adelaide, Quebec, Vegas, baby. Singapore, Karachi, Pakistan. Wow. Nevada, Honolulu, India, Vietnam, Asakusa. Wow, that's our neighborhood. Just down the street. Atlanta, Calgary, North Queensland. Calgary must still be cold, huh? Spain, Melbourne, Indonesia. Whoa, Indonesia. Auckland. Very cool. 7-Eleven, koro wari bento. Check that out. They got a lot of everything in that bento. Kabukichō, Italy, Nagano. Alright. Just so everybody knows, Japanese convenience store food looks really good, alright? But it's not that healthy. Just remember that. When you see all of the videos on Japanese convenience store food, do not eat a lot of it, please. It's loaded with chemicals. I get my information from her and she does research and people eat it because it's convenient. Just remember that. Don't eat a lot of convenience store food and think it's healthy or healthier. Maybe it's healthier than the way you eat back home. But try to limit it. Eat fresh food. Yeah, but it tastes so good. I know. It does taste really good. It's hard not to. But then again, you know, we shouldn't eat just cookies every day. Well, maybe. Just a little bit of a warning. I've seen a lot of convenience store videos lately and I'm like, maybe people should realize that they should eat fresh foods a little bit. Because if there's an expiration date beyond the date, I don't know. But if you're eating a day or two, it's loaded with chemicals. And convenience store foods, it's easier to put the chemicals and preservatives in it so nobody gets sick than to continuously serve the fresh food. Although they do a really good job of making it fresh. Just be aware they got a ton of chemicals in them.

00:29:16 John Daub: All right, let's go this way. We are here and cross the street. That took a couple of minutes. We were on that side of the street and now we're on this side of the street. Follow that baby car or stroller. In Japanese we call strollers baby car. I know, I thought that was pretty weird too. But it makes sense. They're baby cars, right? So strollers, baby car. Baby car, right? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Oh, they got like traditional singing on this side. I love how these trees have naturally made a tunnel. Do you see this? Here's the base of the tree, the trunk, and it just arcs. It's still arcing and now it's sweeping down. The branch is sweeping down into the river. I know. It's crazy. It's like right down into the water. Very beautiful. And these look like they're about 90% bloomed. So just, that's really good news because yesterday it rained and I thought we would lose a lot of the blossoms. But they stayed on. They stayed on. Why? So we could get one more weekend day. Just to celebrate. Kanae's getting a snapshot right there. Very nice. Wow. It is really beautiful. It's, if I don't zoom, we get better quality. It's like you guys are with me right now. This is pretty nice. Thanks for watching. I could just sit here all day. I could sit here all day just enjoying this. That is why we come to a neighborhood and not to Ueno Park. And that's why, despite, you know, I probably get 10 times more views.

00:31:47 John Daub: Oh, oh, these are baby trees. Yeah, these are baby sakura. Check it out. They're springing from the base of this cherry. I've never seen that before. Check this out, guys. So from the base of this cherry blossom tree, do you see it? Branches are coming from the feet of it. I've never seen that before. And even blossoms, there's some blossoms off of these like roots. The roots are sprouting blossoms. I've never seen this before. What? New sakura from the old roots and Jim, you got that right. That's really beautiful. It's so beautiful. Kanae took out a camera. Let's get a shot of this. I've never seen that before in my life. I guess they snip that just for aesthetics, but they shouldn't. I like to see that this one also has it too. So the old, the newest sprouting from the old and they probably clip it to make it more aesthetic and appealing. But I like the fact that the branches are coming from all over this old tree. And these trees must be about 40, 50 years old. 'Cause it's the Yoshino trees, according to the botanists on the internet say that they last about 60 years before they start to go. They start to lose their beauty.

00:33:27 John Daub: Yeah. We're going to go to the other side of, we're going to go to that bridge over there. And then I think there might be some food because our friend GamerPro has been waiting for some street food. But I like this. There's some, there seems to be some traditional singing going on over there. Feels like Kyoto in a way. This is such a relaxed experience. So anyone asking about the equipment, this is what I'm using today. I'm using the DJI Osmo 2 'cause it was charged and I have a Zhiyun Smooth Q thanks to Matsumi. And I'm using the iPhone XS with an Olloclip wide lens on the front. Yeah, Caroline, it is so much more beautiful in person, isn't it? It's the Mons Café by Super Genki. Thank you for that suggestion. I do think though in a live stream, you can feel it a little bit better. You can feel the energy more than you could. It's just, I wish we got 4K images out of live streams, which might come one day. But that blue sky. Is that live? It's live. Or is it a CD? It's starting to feel like now it feels like a festival. It's called Oedo Fukagawa Sakura Matsuri (Edo-style Fukagawa Cherry Blossom Festival).

00:36:12 John Daub: Let's see if we can get some food here. I'm getting hungry. Oh, check it out. I'm just going to go off road a second. Kanae, wait a second. This is a nice little alley and you can see the canals continue off of the main canal. There's other canals. And that's Tokyo. It's just a city of canals. Kanae went, Kanae kept going. Uh oh. All right, we got some live traditional singing. This is cool. Are they going to dance? Dance revolution right here. Oh, this is cool. All right, let's see if we can bring you this. Let's see if we can bring you a little bit of this festival.

00:38:24 John Daub: Kanae go. All right, let's go to the other side. Kanae found the food. Wow. Very nice. Wow, that smells good. We found the food, everybody. All right, let's do a little food walk through here. Oh, we're going to the other side. We're on, wait, we're separated by fence now. Oh, Kanae, there's curry. Kanae, look, they got curry. Oh, are those the mochi fries? Oh, those are the mochi fries. All right, let's get over there. Gamer Pro, we got food. Let's get over there. Oh, this is beautiful too. We got beer too. Wow, this is better than the Meguro River. Although the Meguro River is a little bit narrower. So the blossoms will connect in the middle and that's sort of the attraction of the Meguro River. But this looks really beautiful too. I mean, I'm not sure if you can see it. But on the left and right of the canal here, the Fukagawa are these blossoms. It's just, tomorrow it's going to be more full bloom. I can tell because if you look in the river, you don't see a lot of the petals. You do see some petals. That's normal, but you don't see a lot. So we still got another day or two left. That's good news for everybody who's visiting right now.

00:40:14 John Daub: But this is such an amazing experience compared to yesterday. I don't know, just different vibe. If you can, you can sort of relax a little bit when you're out here and do what you want to do and you can eat, you can sit down. You couldn't sit down yesterday at Chidorigafuchi. They wouldn't let you sit down anywhere. And there were rent-a-cops to keep the lines moving. But here it's a Japanese neighborhood, so you can chillax, just relax, jump on a boat, take you a couple hours to wait for one, but they're free. All right. This boat ride is so much nicer than Venice. Roy, that's kind. I think though it does look like it's a lot of fun and it's definitely historical. And I don't think these are really as touristy as Venice. These look like the real deal. I've taken the gondola boats in Venice. It's just a different experience. Yeah. It's a different experience, but we got live music now. Oh, there's Kanae's dad. Daijōbu? Daijōbu? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tabetai? Sō da ne. Okay. Let's go eat some food. Nanka mochi fry mo atta yo.

00:41:52 John Daub: I don't know. That curry, soba, asari (clams), beer. Let's go check it out. Oden (stew). Wow. It smells good. Let's go check this out. Let's get some food such a nice scene we're here for the blossoms but we're not here for the food look at this people are lining up oh it's a game check this out can they i guess you shoot the cork gun and if you knock one over you get to keep it that's fun that's fun too all right let's get some food they have Ebisu beer 500 yen green tea for 100 yen amazake (sweet fermented rice drink) i like that looks like just local people are here that's good they have amazake here as well and they have some asari this is uh like clams right it's a little shellfish oh there's unagi kimo (eel liver) that's the heart of the unagi wow unagi hearts amazake very good some beer it's interesting oh there's atsukan (hot sake) some warm sake wow oh that looks like some fresh oh wow what are they making here this is from like fresh orange juice fresh like orange and carrot juice maybe whoa all right officially this has changed now to food let's get some food here just bear with me for a second you want to try special curry do you have chicken curry okay okay should i get two special curries or just chicken curry or special okay okay i'll just get a chicken curry uh okay something local maybe all right let's try this here oh they got like spaghetti or something over there there. In fact, before I get the curry, let me go see what they got here over here. Oh, they have like Italian. So this is like spaghetti. All right, I'm going for the curry. This looks really good too. Check it out. Curry Evo. Oh my word. All right, I'm going to get this. This has like a little bit of everything. Hey guys, can I get this? I'm going to get this, okay? Curry Evo. Hey, Queen of Tacos is in the house. My favorite part is always the food. Enjoy the goodness. Thank you. Let's get this Curry Evo. I got two G's here. I'm waiting in the line here. It smells really good here. This is the curry evolution can. This is the good stuff. They also have this, which has the chicken in it. That looks good too. We're going the big ones. We're going to get the big one, okay? That looks really good. Wow, that's volume.

00:47:14 John Daub: So the evolution is at the shop, but, let's look at a coupon. Easy. Izumite. Izumite. Monzen-nakachō. Ah, here in Monzen-nakachō. So you got to try the curry evolution there. Good. That's not too far away from my house, so I can do that. Hey, J&H is in the house. Started a late night shift work. Oh, this is it right here. Wow. You have no idea how good this smells. It smells so good. Oh my. Oh my word. Oh, big dog. Oh, okay. Wow, look, they put it in a bag and everything. And that makes it easier to throw it away because it can get messy if it spills. They have your back. You have a bag and you can properly throw things away. Separate your garbage. They have a bag and hanging on the counter. That looks really good. That looks like it's Japanese sake dasu, which is… Arigatō gozaimasu. Wow! So you ordered the Japanese sake? Or amazake? Orange juice. Oooh! Freshly squeezed orange juice. It's very nice! It's 100% straight juice. They wrote here on the sign in the back. Looks like the Master is from England. Haha, he is wearing the Uni Jack. And we got Dassai Japanese sake over here and I actually did a video at the brewery in Yamaguchi Prefecture down in the south near Hiroshima and they have that turned upside down serving it out of a machine very nice I'm gonna go on the other side of the river what happened to Papa he went to get the beer ah it's kind of crowded here I'm gonna go over to the other side oh look at the little doggy hello doggy hello little doggy oh that man's holding a lot of curry all right I got to show you this curry oh they got the cooking right here now they got some yakitori (grilled skewers) action they get some yakitori action going on nice it's a little bit crowded here they're getting the drinks you know I'm gonna go over to the other side and I'm gonna go over to the other side we're just gonna share this because we don't want to get messy but we're probably gonna eat a lot more I'm gonna show you what we bought see if I can get a place to sit down over here all right so we're here on the bridge I'm trying to find a little spot we can sit down oh it's roped off here that's gonna make it tough or you can use the bridge as a table this is not a very big table this could be dangerous oh well danger is Austin Powers middle name so I'm gonna try to open this up here well you guys get a beautiful view of the river this is the Fukagawa River oh wow this looks so good I know I'm gonna spill it it's still all covered. behind me you can hear the sound of the cork gun look at this what this is street food how can this be delicious this be street food i have to be careful wow look at that chicken it looks like it's just been slow cooked some pickles on the side here and then that curry nice and i have a spoon and so i'm going to try this out i'm just going to wait for kanai for a second i know jim it smells so good but it's hard to do stuff if you if you don't have a table all this for um i think this is the special but you can get it without the big piece of chicken for 500 yen and the big piece of chicken just cost a couple dollars more i think it was 300 yen so it's basically it really is a bargain isn't it i think it's a bargain um in order to eat this i'm gonna have to um put this down and i want to do a kanpai with kanai's dad i brought a tripod come prepared live streaming live streaming requires to be prepared for any any situation except this that should work nice all right i have some chopsticks here we're gonna try this but with curry rice you don't wanna you don't wanna use chopsticks she gave me more than one spoon like she knew that this is for kanai and kanai's dad as well so let's try this really delicious looking curry so i guess you take the rice you dip it into the curry oh that looks good very nice this is the most non-japanese street food look at the way that chicken just breaks apart it's so soft definitely been slow cooked this is really good good

00:55:12 Kanae Daub: It's your beer. Oh yeah. Chicken.

00:55:21 John Daub: Kind of table I kind of made a table. Table? Yeah. Look at the water. I got the hamaguri (littleneck clams) for you. Oh. Let's show me this oh yeah i saw them they were just grilling this check it out hold it up there oh what what is this asari? Hamaguri. A hamaguri it's like a shellfish. Yes. All right we'll try some hamaguri. Oh yeah bigger than a little clam. Oh that's mine. We got the three. Okay. This is hamaguri bigger than asari. Very nice all right come kanpai.

00:56:05 Kanae Daub: Yeah you're gonna try this uh curry rice yeah this is really good.

00:56:30 John Daub: I put it in my pocket it's gonna be dangerous you're gonna stab myself later on that's a nice boat all right so we have some people from malaysia and we eat curry by hand same as in china India when I go to visit my family I use this not my yeah this hand to eat and the other hand is for something else have to watch out all right good night I bet they the chicken is so good I know all right let's see that happy face it's really good isn't it happy up and but the chicken is good I think it's worth it so 800 yen or about seven dollars fifty cents today's exchange rates so that's spring in Japan hope you enjoyed again like this is the neighborhood experience this is the experience that's different than the tourist experience I think and if you want to try it out come to monzen-nakacho this festival is gonna be going on for I think today tomorrow and maybe even the rest of the week but it's pretty vibrant today I'm on the weekends when people have off but these are lights will be lit up tonight so even if you're in Tokyo it's kind of worth it to come out here for a visit and yeah that's sort of what the ends of the cherry blossoms festival should be it's a connection with nature and it's a way for you to connect with your neighbors and it should be local it should be something that you you can relax at not so much a tourist attraction to snap pictures but more to drink and eat and just be merry and enjoy so from me and Kanae and Papa we just say goodbye matane see you next time and another live stream perhaps tonight perhaps tonight because I want to show you at night illuminating the trees and what that's like and I don't the notification will come but I'll try to give you like an hour head start so as long as the weather is nice I'm gonna bring a light and we're gonna go outside to a local tree and I'm gonna show you what the blossoms look like with the black background it's just really beautiful And if I can't for some reason do it live then I'll record it and then upload it But it is something that you should see at night totally different than what you see today Have a great day guys. Great night. See you in the next live stream Have a nice weekend