00:00:02 John Daub: Greetings everybody. You're now standing in front of the great Yodobashi Camera on the Nishi-Shinjuku side of the station. This is an institution of electronics. Yodobashi Camera is my favorite camera shop. I own a gold card here, which is basically just a point card, nothing special. Hey everybody, I've decided to come this time for the livestream and bring you not just to this intersection, but to walk around this area. Not to go inside Yodobashi Camera, but look at some of the electronics here.

00:00:34 John Daub: Now this building, Yodobashi Camera, the company itself started in 1960, but this location opened in 1975. So that's quite a long time ago. I was born one year before it opened, which I'm kind of proud of. But this shop has a lot of history to it, so does this company. This is a place you come if you're really looking for anything camera or electronics based. Shinjuku is one of the places. Akihabara is the other one where they have a super mega store. But the one here in Shinjuku is an institution. It's just really famous and there are different kinds of buildings. As the company grew, they started buying more and more real estate. You can see there's the main one and then they just bought the building next door. I forget what year exactly, but this became the camera pavilion and up there you'll find all sorts of camera gear, usually at discounted prices.

00:01:31 John Daub: We're gonna walk around this neighborhood because Yodobashi Camera kind of put this place on the map for electronics and as a result, just look at the street right in front of us. It's so cool. This is one of the most iconic views in the city and I might come back here and do another livestream in the future. Let's just walk around this building here. It looks like it's gonna rain by the way. Some people have got their umbrellas out. Let's see how this livestream goes.

00:02:03 John Daub: I remember when I first came to Tokyo many years ago, this is one of the first stops to buy camera stuff that I wanted to get. They didn't have digital cameras in 1998, not so much. So I was able to get memory sticks and things like that for the first digital cameras, way back. They have something called the Yodobashi Gold Card and it gives you 10% off the price. But I heard that if you're just here temporarily and getting a point card, it doesn't make a lot of sense so you could ask them for a discounted price and more often than not they'll be okay and just give you the 10% off the listed price.

00:02:42 John Daub: Here's air conditioners because the summer's about to start. I like the way they put it right off the street like this, so this area Shinjuku has such a high population of people walking by it, so much so that this is new. Wow, this is new. I don't remember seeing these gachapon (capsule toy) jungle. They call it. I've never seen this one before, how cool is this. Alright let's take a look quickly. You know what, let's go around the building really quick and then we'll come back here and do some gachapon. I just want to take you around here, it's super cool in this area. I know this used to be where a lot of people would get their smartphone digital pictures printed out. You just walk by and say I want a picture printed and you'd be able to print it up really quickly.

00:03:33 John Daub: There you can see inside the store here. Oh, they've moved it just to this side now so if you have a digital picture, a smartphone, you want to print out your Tokyo pictures you can do it for about 30 yen for L size or 60 yen for 2L size and that's right here. You can see the difference between L size and 2L size, you can print them all from these machines here and decorate them. It's pretty cool but not a lot of people have a use for copies of their photos these days. They're just kind of a little bit of a thing but they're pretty cool. And by the way this music, it will stick in your head until the end of time. You'll go to sleep six hours later and you'll be humming this song, it's so addictive. Big Camera is also very addictive, it's awful, it's so good.

00:04:53 John Daub: This is the back side of it. We're gonna go to the electronics district, that's sort of the fringe. The electronics district of Shinjuku is pretty much on the nishiguchi (west exit) side towards the city hall, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which is just over here. Walking around the building you can see just how big Yodobashi Camera is. This is the back side and it looks like they have some kind of game center which I've never seen before but they also own this building behind it which is crazy. This is another game center, it's five floors of toys, Gundam plastic models, figures, more Gundam. They have a whole building basically for toys behind the main building, that's crazy. I'm kind of learning this too for the first time, very very cool place to go. More gachapon behind here, what an amazing vibe that Tokyo has.

00:06:10 John Daub: Check this out here, this is also the game center. I guess they have arcade games in there, there's a pretty cool Nintendo, PlayStation game. Very cool, you can see in here they're selling lots and lots of games. I guess it'd be a competitor to some of the game places in Akihabara like Super Potato but this is all new stuff, nothing used. Wow look at the graphics on this, it's insane. It's a good old Nintendo, I love that they put this right outside on the street you can watch this. One of these days I'm going to get permission from Yodobashi Camera to take you inside. There's also a Sega World back here and again one of the reasons why they put a lot of these amusements is because there's a lot of salarymen that finish their jobs, they walk by here and say I just need a break, I need to do a UFO catcher and win this Dragon Ball Z figure.

00:07:59 John Daub: The rain is starting to come down. I'm gonna go get some coffee. I'm hoping it holds out for just a little bit longer. They do more than electronics, they have a Travel Con which is suitcases and luggage and I got a message from somebody asking me where I would buy a suitcase in Tokyo, this is one of the options. You can come here and look and they've got a pretty good variety of luggage from cheap to expensive inside this Travel Con, con meaning like center, kaikan (meeting place). You can buy tons of stuff and you get 10% off and it's also tax free so it's even cheaper for foreign tourists.

00:09:02 John Daub: Oh this is this new translator thing so anyone who's thinking maybe they won't be able to speak Japanese they can get one of these and it will help you a lot apparently. This one's a little bit better than some of the other options and definitely better than Google Translate. It's pretty cool. What is the price on this one, san man nana sen (37,000 yen) so it's about $300 and they have a cheaper one for about $250 but you know it's there. I bet you can find a place to rent that. That's where we started the livestream just over there, Yodobashi Camera owns that building too and in between here where all the electronics are there's a ton of restaurants, a lot of izakaya (pubs). Again a lot of people coming from not just the city hall which is right there, do you see that big tall building in the center of your screen, not just all the office workers coming from there they go through here to get to Shinjuku Station but it's a lot of other office buildings in this area.

00:10:06 John Daub: This little teeny center that we're in it's like an island of electronics and shops. This is also where you're going to find one of my favorite shops for camera gear and if you're a camera otaku (geek) you're gonna know this shop right up there. Check it out, you see that, that's the headquarters for Map Camera and if you are a camera otaku or camera geek like me you're gonna know this. This location inside there are floors and floors of used camera gear and they sell a lot of new cameras as well. I don't think I've ever seen a video where they showcase where Map Camera is actually based but it's behind Yodobashi Camera and there's also a buying center where they will check out used gear and give you a pretty good price for it. Map Camera is up there and I've been there many many times looking for used camera equipment, lenses, things that are cheap to buy used then just renting it. Sometimes it's easier just to buy it used. I'm so passionate about my Shinjuku electronics district.

00:11:11 John Daub: Straight ahead is the Shinjuku Central Post Office, probably the biggest post office in Tokyo, it's massive inside and if you ever want to send a package that's the easiest place to do it. Tokyo has an international post office which is open on Sundays as well, some good information for you. Lots and lots of izakaya again, Yodobashi Camera owns this building here, they've literally just started owning this entire island on the nishiguchi (west exit) of Shinjuku. It's pretty cool. Alright let's walk a little bit down, five floors of watches, it's insane. I need a drink guys, let's hit a vending machine right now.

00:12:17 John Daub: We've got a lot of choices at this corner. Sometimes I just go for the Tomsun Suito (carbonated water), hmm it's a good choice. This creamy sauce, this is coffee jelly, oh this is grape jelly it's kind of gross. Mets Black, Tropicana Cola, I'm not really a cola guy. Sparkling Aquarius, Aquarius is the Gatorade of Japan, sparkling Gatorade just imagine. I'd totally look for a beer vending machine but I don't think they do it on this side at all. I'd rather have a beer vending machine. I'll tell you what I will find if I can find an Asahi Super Dry I will absolutely get one because I've had a really long day. Apple tea, green tea, these two green teas are different, this one is more koicha (strong) like stronger green tea. Oh just down the bottom that stuff's got so much caffeine it'll knock you out. I'm gonna avoid that. I don't see anything I like, Daido blend coffee no. Wow this is a Kochi-ken (Kochi prefecture) shop, this is that's Ryoma, Sakamoto Ryoma.

00:14:12 John Daub: I just saw Ryoma in Kochi like 24 hours ago. Do they have tataki (seared bonito) here? Oh my I'm so coming back here with Kanae Daub. Yes they do, this is in Shinjuku they have tataki here what no way. Alright I'm gonna see if I can go inside a little bit. Let's just take a look at this menu, I had no idea so they have a Kochi prefecture restaurant in Shinjuku this is too cool. Oh wow and there's some really good seafood here and the prices are pretty reasonable. It looks fun inside, I gotta be honest with you I might just jump in here.

00:16:15 Staff: Do you have it in chain? Chain in Hana no Mai.

00:16:16 John Daub: Oh Hana no Mai chain.

00:16:19 Staff: But this barbeque place has all the items they offer.

00:16:23 John Daub: I went to Kochi-ken yesterday.

00:16:26 Staff: Oh wow wow you speak so much Japanese. So I live in Tokyo. Oh you do that's so cool. Yeah it's awesome here I think I had a lot of Kanto food here it was really good.

00:16:37 John Daub: I've never been to Kochi before.

00:16:40 Staff: Oh, you know Hirome Ichiba (market)?

00:16:43 John Daub: No, I don't.

00:16:44 Staff: It's next to Kochi Castle. It's a great place. I used to work there. That was delicious.

00:16:52 John Daub: You're going back with your wife.

00:16:54 Staff: What is that? I didn't know that Kochi was here too.

00:16:59 John Daub: That's right. Thank you very much. If you want to come again, please come. I'm sorry. I'm doing YouTube now. I'm watching 500 people. That's amazing. I'm sorry. Don't watch it. I'll come again later. Thank you very much.

00:17:33 John Daub: That's pretty unique. I see Tyler's in the house. Oh my gosh, Tyler. I think Tyler is the reason why I was in Kochi. He funded the Kochi trip last time. So, big thank you to Tyler for that. I appreciate it so much. Alright, let's walk around a little bit more. There's another Map Camera. But you can already see everybody goes to... Sorry about the wind. I'll have to take a wedding picture right in the middle. Oh my word. Let me get out of the wind a little bit.

00:18:06 John Daub: Alright, they're taking like a wedding picture. That's crazy. They're doing it with the lights in the background. I'm a duck. I don't want to get in their picture. That's a nice shot. But everyone goes to Akihabara for these kind of lights. Shinjuku is the king of the lights. Before they had them in Akihabara, it was all Shinjuku. Shinjuku was just this area on the nishi (west) side. I believe nishi is west. Higashi (east) is east, so nishi would be west. Left and right is difficult for me.

00:18:53 John Daub: This used to be a lot more local restaurants, but over the last decade a lot of the chains have taken over. So I'm going to go back and you can take a look now at the happy couple having their wedding pictures taken right in the middle of the street here. I guess they watch Lost in Translation too. This is where the magic happens. Ah, it's a nice shot.

00:19:24 John Daub: So here, Yodobashi Camera has less influence, but pachinko (pinball) has more influence. So this is the pachinko parlors in here. Super loud places. I kind of avoid them. Sorry about the wind, everybody. It's really picked up here. North Face is here. That's really new. I didn't expect that. Mostly izakaya chains and things like this. This is interesting. One of the most purchased gifts in Japan are pharmaceutical stuff like eye drops. And sorry to the kids, they're condoms. These are things that, I don't know why, but they rank in the top 10 or 20 in gifts from Japan. In fact, if you go to the airport, you'll see these things stocked up for people to buy as gifts. I know it sounds weird, but pharmaceuticals are something that people buy a lot of in Japan to take back. These are genki (energy) drinks that will give you a little bit of pep. So if you're going to be playing a game marathon, you might want to have one or two of these stocked up so you don't run out of energy.

00:20:51 John Daub: We're about two hours away from sunset, so in about two hours, the street's really going to come more alive. Right now, people are still working in the offices. So if you stay in Shinjuku, a lot of people will stick to the Kabukicho side. But my favorite side of Shinjuku is right here. This electronics district because there's so many different shops all in one area. Kabukicho's just a little bit spread out. This is all like an island. I like to consider nishiguchi (west exit) like an island because it's all in one really concentrated area. Look at this. This is insane. It's like a shop on top of a shop. There's three or four different restaurants all in this one little complex. What the heck is this? Chizutakarubi (cheese kalbi). It's a cheese, beef and cheese skillet. That's insane. How do they come up with this stuff?

00:22:05 John Daub: Oh, look at that hanjuku tamago (half-boiled egg), baby. Those half-boiled eggs on top of pasta? What? Look at that combination. Do you see the spaghetti? Alright, we're going to give you some cheesy spaghetti with a little bit of meat. And then we're just going to put a half-boiled egg on top of it because, you know, that's what we do. Half-boiled eggs make things just a little bit better. Look at the oil on there. Oh, man. Getting hungry looking at this.

00:22:47 John Daub: Advice. When you come to Japan, and if you're a Westerner, you're going to have an urge, actually if you're just not Japanese, you're going to have an urge to go to McDonald's. Fight that urge. Do not eat McDonald's more than once. I'll give you a ticket for one time. Fight that urge and be adventurous and walk into places like this. At first, it can seem intimidating and you might be afraid of the language barrier, but there's English menus here and if you don't have allergies, try some new stuff and be adventurous because Japanese food is incredible and you find really diverse menus. That last place, the Ryoma place, also has regular izakaya food as well as Kochi cuisine. They probably have 150 things on the menu there. Try to be adventurous and that's when you're going to discover things that you didn't know existed.

00:23:32 John Daub: This is a ramen place that I've heard of before. Ichiryu since 1955. Yeah, Ichiryu is one of the big chains here. It's just a counter space. Oh, look at that chashu (pork). The meat's popping out of the bowl. What? That's insane. Look at that. Stay away from all the food that you already know and try something different. Be adventurous. Look at that chow fun. It's black yaki (grilled) chow fun. What is that? I guess they add in some other good stuff.

00:24:27 John Daub: Oh man, look at that chashu popping out of the bowl. Ugh. How much is that bowl? Oh, it's like $10. Yeah, it's about $10 for that. That's reasonable. This must be an electronics district. Let's get back to it. Let's go check out that gachapon. This way we're going. Behind me is the government building. You can see that right there. It's got a free observation deck. So if you're thinking about paying like $40 or more to go to the top of Tokyo Skytree, fight that as well and go here. It's free. And I did a livestream about six months ago on the Bunkyo Ward Civic Center which has the best observation deck in the entire city. It's free.

00:25:23 John Daub: Here's the map for Yodobashi Camera and all the complexes that they have. It goes to the letter W. And it's an entire building dedicated to watches. Oh geez. That's incredible. And this building here is dedicated to SIM cards. So I think if you're looking for it, you're gonna find it. Let's go over their complex in total. Building A, cell phone accessories. Building C is the camera pavilion where we are right now. And they have even an event space here. That's pretty crazy. Building F, a repair counter. So you know you're gonna get some good service. Building M is a smartphone pavilion with bargain prices. There's a south pavilion, a multimedia pavilion. Building N is the north pavilion. I guess that's why they called it N. And that has LED lights. Oh man, Strange Parts Scotty would love this one. He went to the one in Akihabara, not here. This has light fixtures, washing machines, air conditioners, refrigerators, portable audio, TV recorders, beauty and health, PC and Mac, and other paraphernalia. And then where we passed, the T building is the travel pavilion. And then the hobby and toys pavilion. And Anpanman represents on the fifth floor. And Anpanman was created in Kochi prefecture. There's so much Kochi prefecture here. Trading cards? There's a floor for trading cards? What?

00:27:11 John Daub: But the history starts with one building in 1975. And Yodobashi Camera is just incredible how fast they've grown and how strong they are. Big Camera is their competitor. And I don't think it's as big, but Big Camera has it pretty good. And then you can find a new GoPro. That's history. They're gonna have series 8 out soon to compete with the DJI Action that just came out. And there you go. That's pretty much it in 30 minutes. The Camera Con is right here. This is the Camera Pavilion, Camera Center. And this is where you're gonna find on the first floor a ton of all the new cameras that are out. They usually have the newest stuff the day it goes on sale here. Which is cool. You can walk in and just buy it. And get 10% off if you have a point card. Or you can get the money back. Binoculars. But it's the second floor. If you're looking for pro level cameras, you're gonna have to go to the second floor. And they have consumer stuff on the first floor. The second floor and the third floor, pro level tripods, pro level camera equipment, massive $10,000 lenses. They have all that stuff in there.

00:28:41 John Daub: Look at that building. It is just every floor is an advertisement. Oh geez. I love it. I love the vibe around Shinjuku's nishiguchi (west exit). Let's go around the corner. Oh this is where I believe the Map Camera Buying Center if you're going to sell camera equipment is around here. It's on this side. But all of those signs up there are restaurants. These are all restaurants. First floor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor. Some are local, some are chains. And in about two hours, this place is gonna be buzzing with business people off of work.

00:29:33 John Daub: If you'd like me to buy a gachapon, click that like button right now. This is an audience participation livestream. So if you'd like gachapon, click the like button. Don't click it twice because you're un-liking your like. Just saying. Alright, we're on this side. Let's just see the choices we have. All I know is that three years ago, four years ago when I did the first gachapon, there were some gachapon in Tokyo. But since then they've completely exploded. Especially for foreign inbound tourists. That's kinda neat. Slippers. Get that for my brother's daughters. I don't see too many things I'm interested in. Alright, we're gonna go to the other side then. I think there was some more stuff. A lot of Conan! Did you see that?

00:30:48 John Daub: Alright, I'm gonna get one gachapon for Kanae Daub. Because according to Ramsey Silent, never go home empty-handed. Oh wait, I don't have any coins. I might just buy a drink so I can get the coins. Hold on. Ah, okay, we gotta buy a drink. This is the part of the livestream where I just start buying stuff. Dr. Pepper! What? I haven't had that forever. Never take me to Starbucks. I will stand there for ten minutes even though I know what I want. Never ever take me to Starbucks. It's awful. It's a terrible experience. You think it'd be fun. Oh, I wanna hang out with John. It's not. You're just gonna stand there and wait with me as I can't decide. The best thing is just to leave Starbucks. Go to the convenience store where you have one choice. Coffee.

00:32:19 John Daub: This kind of tea, it seems to have a lot of stuff in it. Gonna try it. I've been looking for the Asahi Super Dry. I can't find. Oh, now we're ready for some gachapon. Alright, this is interesting. Looks healthy. I've been eating a lot of fried foods. Advance, good for your body, karada (body). Okay. If you say so. Tea is good for ya. It's got a little bit of kick to it. A lot of grains in that. It's good. It's good balance of grains and tea. Tastes healthy. All you Coca-Cola lovers hold on. Alright, we're good. We got cash now. Let's support our friends Yodobashi Camera. Oh, there it is. They still got a few in there. This is where you can print out photos. If you have a smartphone, you took some pictures or an SD card, you can print out photos there for like 25 cents a photo.

00:34:13 John Daub: Alright, let's see what they got. This is the capsule toy jungle. The other one was just outside of the building. This is the jungle area. Let's get Kanae something good. More Conan stuff. Oh, there's some Dragon Ball Z. Look, I'm packing some, I got some coins. Come on. Give me something good. I'm willing to pay a little bit extra for something good. What is that? Like a lovable Pokemon Poka Poka Biori. That's like a really lovable Pikachu. These are cute. I think Kanae might like that. Do you think we get the lovable Pokemon, the lovable Pikachu? Pikachu's pretty lovable as he is, but with hearts and roses. Alright, that's so far what I'm going for unless I can find something better. Oh, I can get Kanae a new watch. What do you think? Kanae could use a new watch. What do you think of these designs? Minnie likes them. That's 300 yen or about three dollars. So far Pokemon, I think Pokemon's still winning. Disney friends? That's interesting. Could always use more friends. That's cute down there. Sumikko Gurashi (little corner creatures). I guess they're squishy toys? Three dollars a squishy toy.

00:35:50 John Daub: Oh, here we go. We're getting into the weird. Mushrooms. You know who'd love that? Lincoln. Lincoln liked the poison mushroom ones that we had in Akihabara. Lincoln's, um, the What's Inside. He does a channel called What's Inside. So you can get the different colors of mushrooms. That's kind of weird. I don't think Kanae would like that. Nah. Kanae likes animals. This is possible. This is 400 yen. They look pretty life-like. Whoa. I guess the anteater is the one you want to get. Everyone's going for the anteater.

00:36:39 John Daub: Unless there's an explicit international warranty from the manufacturer, I would not bother buying expensive new Japanese electronics. That's true. I think the big makers usually have an international warranty. Panasonic's usually do. But I haven't had too many problems. Most of the electronics that break are the ones with moving parts in it. And now everything's like an SSD, solid state drives and things without moving parts. They usually last pretty good. But a camera? I don't know. Unless you're really coming from like a third world country, I think the US is still a better camera market to buy from. In fact, I usually will buy expensive equipment from B&H in New York and have it shipped or picked up when I go to New York.

00:37:24 John Daub: Alright, I guess we're going to go for this Pikachu. I can't find anything. I better do it quickly because this music's driving me crazy. You hear it one time, cool. Two times, three times, four times. That's when you start losing your mind. Alright, here it is. Alright, Kanae, we're going to get you one of these Pikachu squishies! Yay! Kanae's at home going, don't do it. I don't want it. But it's from me. It's from us. What? You want to, is my money not good enough? Take my money. Alright, took it. Let's do this here. Gotcha. Pong! Oh, it's small. It seems so much more lifelike in the picture. Maybe it expands? Alright, let's open it up and see what we got here. Go for broke. We are getting that Pikachu. Oh, that's cute, but that's not the one I wanted. Alright, let's go for one more. Actually, according to Tyler, the keyword is go for broke. I only have 500 yen. I wish that vending machine gave me more.

00:39:23 John Daub: Okay, hold on a second. I didn't get the one I wanted. You don't give up. You just try again. That's what we do. Alright, so Tyler, I'm going to ask for change. Let's see if we can make some change. Excuse me, I want to buy a gachapon. I want to buy one for 500 yen. Yes. They're going to help me. Excuse me. Yes. Thank you. We're in business now. Check it out. Check out the seats for the Keio bus. They're Pokemon seats. How awesome is that? Alright, it was destiny that we're going to try and get the Pokemon, the Pikachu. Alright, Tyler, we're going for broke. I got some more ammunition here. We're going to get that happy one. So we have this one already. Alright, let's do it. We're gachapon in this. Thanks to our friend Tyler. I'm having fun. Gacha, gacha, pong. Dude, we did it. What? Dude, we did it. Dude, dude, dude, dude, dude. What? I'm really excited about this, but I didn't think it would ever happen. Hold on, I'm putting the tripod on. Pikachu! This is awesome! I never get what I want. I always get what I don't want. Kanae! Do do do do do do! It's pretty cool. And he's got roses. Tell her you love her with Pikachu.

00:42:30 John Daub: Alright, this next one here, I'm going to do one more. This is too fun. This is for Tyler. Alright? Love you, man.

00:42:41 Constantine: How you doing? I love your videos.

00:42:44 John Daub: Oh, thank you! What's your name? My name's Constantine. Constantine? Nice to meet you. I'm live streaming now. Hey, everybody. Alright, Constantine, we're going for this Pikachu again. Cool. Let's do this. Do you want to do it? Sure, why not? Let's have Constantine do it. Alright, we're hoping for another Pikachu. But our luck cannot be that good. Yeah, do it. Gotcha! Gotcha! Pong! What do you think? Who could it be? It could be anything. Those are our choices. I know! Where are you from, Constantine? I'm from Germany. Okay! Thanks for being on the show really quickly. I didn't ask you much. Thanks for letting me, though. Not at all. Whoa! Alright, this is part of the collection. Nice! Very cool! So this one is... Hold on a second... Uh... Batafuri (butterfly). Batafuri. Yeah, Batafuri. So that's batafuri. So we got 3 out of 5. Oh, it just means like butterfly in Japanese? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, batafuri. What is batafuri? It means butterfly in Japanese. Alright, so Tyler, that's for you. Appreciate it. That's pretty cool. Do you do a lot of gachapon? First time. Really? Yeah, first time. Wow! Is there anything that you like? Um, no, but I heard, um... Or saw in one of many videos on YouTube that there is a gachapon machine for like old chips. Yeah. Like FM chips and stuff like that. Yeah! My friend Scotty! Yeah, it was your video! I showed him where the machines are. Actually, he found it on his own. I didn't show. I need to go there. Do you know where it is? Um... I wrote it somewhere down. Show me on the Google Map. I gotta take this for Tyler. Tyler, I'm gonna send this to you. I think I know your address. We'll figure it out. I'm gonna send you something from the livestream. What just happened is actually real. You'll know. I'll show you on the Google Map. The guy who's there is now like a friend of ours. Okay. So I'm gonna move to this map here. Yeah, sure. I'm gonna turn off traffic. We're gonna go to Akihabara. See here. Yurakucho Akihabara. Yeah, there it is. So it's on this side. So this is Chuo Avenue. That's the one with the bridge where the train goes over it. Okay. Do you know Akihabara? No, never been there. Oh, never? His shop, if you go, it's right here. This is where you'll find the machine. There's a Sega World right there. This one right there. Yeah, if you go inside that building, on the first floor, is the vending machine for chips and boards. It's crazy. And the guy in front of the shop, he speaks just a little bit of English, but tell him like Scotty and John sent you. Scotty and John, okay. Maybe he'll show you some other stuff in there. Sure. Spread the love, you know. Yeah, maybe so. How long are you here in Japan for? Almost two weeks. Okay. And we're leaving now on Thursday, so it's not that much of a time, but we saw a few things which was nice. We even went to Okinawa and rode some motorbikes there, which was cool. Oh wow, so you have an international driver's license? Yeah. We got it on the first day because it's like you should avoid jet lag. Ah. And it was so hard staying up and we're just at the hotel and it's like, okay, no sleep, no sleep. Stay awake, stay awake. And it's like, okay, well then, get the translation. So we went there, no internet, so it was a bit of an adventure going there, but we did it. Yeah. We got it and it worked perfectly. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to have the driver's license.

00:47:24 John Daub: Do you guys have any questions for Konstantin? Oh my god. Don't worry, no one's watching. 670 people. Oh my god, you shouldn't have said that. Ich wohne in Bavaria. Oh, nice! Ich bin aus München, also. I'm from Munich, so. Oh, okay! Yeah, Kanae Daub and I were there at Christmas time. What a beautiful city. You're lucky. I wish... Kanae Daub and I want to go back to Munich. Anything else? Does he know he has a comic book named after him? Well, yeah, it's a movie, I guess. Because the first time I went to the US and everyone asked me what my name was, they all wrote it with an E at the end. And so every time I'm in the US, I say, it's like the movie, but without an E at the end. And bang, everyone knows my name. Very cool. Steven from Frankfurt. How you doing? Are you traveling alone? No, I'm with a friend of mine, but he's in a hotel right now. Alright. What do Germans think of Japan? That's a very general question. It's so different. I mean, Munich is a beautiful city and all, but it's not a city if you compare it to Tokyo or even not, or something, because it's so small and we have a law in Munich that bans like tall buildings. Yeah. So no skyscrapers there. Frankfurt has some, as this guy probably, but Munich, like one or two or something. But that's it. And so, coming here was like, so over, like, and I feel like an alien. Like, I really do. But it's cool. Oh, so it's your first time? Yeah, it's your first time. I love my first time. First time in Asia. So... Everything's very colorful. So you're just walking around, eh? Yeah. Like, camera nerd. Did you go to Map Camera? Yeah, yeah. Map Camera was awesome. Alps Camera and some of the stuff that Japan Camera Hunter recommended. He has like a whole list and stuff like that. So it was cool. Yeah, Shinjuku's kind of underrated. A lot of people will go to Akihabara for camera equipment. Probably this is a little bit better.

00:49:47 Jack: Hello! Hi! You found me! Hi, how are you?

00:49:49 John Daub: Jack. What's your name? Jack. Jack? Yes. Nice to meet you. Where are you from? I'm from Denmark. Okay! I'm one of your patrons. Oh, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay! Thank you! Do you have any Gammeldansk? I always ask. When someone's from Denmark, I'm like, Gammeldansk! Haha, no, no. I actually have a small gift. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay! It's for, what do we call it? Oh, very cool! Yeah! Thank you! All the way from Denmark. They're pretty old, too, actually. It's from my grandma, actually. Really? Are you sure this is okay? Yeah. Wow! I have a lot more of them. Thank you, buddy! How's your trip in Japan going? It's great! Let me put this here. It's weird. Now we got like a show going on here. A whole party going on here. Yeah. We got about, we got a small audience out there. Not much more.

00:51:04 John Daub: I think both of you speak more than one language, of course. English and your native language and maybe other languages. People in Denmark can speak a little Swedish and Norwegian sort of similarity. Yeah, a little bit. There are some similarities. You can normally communicate with our language, with our language, but we're not that good at... So, we're not that good at communicating with other languages. So, would it be easy to pick up Japanese, do you think? Constantine, have you been able to pick up any? I learned a few here in kana (hiragana), and it went quite well. But only like the most. But helps a little bit. But then every time I read something in here in kana, I think, oh, cool! I read it, and then spelled out like in normal letters for me. So it's like, yeah, I think it's... So is it... Have you found it difficult to travel alone as a solo traveler in Japan? No, it's been pretty easy. I use Shinkansen and the like. But Japan will pass those sort of... Also, if you make a mistake, just jump to another train and get back. And I'll think of the price and everything. It makes it a lot easier. Yeah, have you had any challenges or difficulties? Experiences? Horror stories? Not really. Not what I remember, at least. Yeah, those are the ones you want to forget anyways. Konstantin, how about you? Any horror stories? Horror stories, no. But I ate something yesterday which I didn't think I would eat. Oh, really? I ordered like a beef udon. So, I tried to translate it, and it translated to beef udon. So, I thought, well, nice! I like beef and I like udon. So, I got it, and I thought, well, I've never seen beef that looks like that. And it was probably like inner organs. Yeah, yeah. Tripe, yeah. It tasted okay, but I didn't finish like every little piece of it. Chewy, right? Yeah, a bit, yeah. It's an acquired taste. Yeah. It wasn't Osaka, though. It wasn't just liver. There's more than liver. Usually, it's like intestines. Let's not talk about it. No. Alright, we want to... Beef tripe, yeah. We don't want to relive that experience.

00:53:14 John Daub: But I think I was showing everybody all these izakayas around here, and this is a really unique place where you can find, like, everything in one spot. The nishi (west) side. I always get nishi wrong. I think that's east, right? Yeah. South... In order to get to nishi, nishi's west, actually. So, to get here to the nishi side, you have to go through south... Shinjuku's south exit, and it'll get you to the nishi side. It's kind of weird. Shinjuku Station might be one of the biggest in the world. Yeah. Any advice for other travelers, since I got you here? Google Maps, I guess. Ah, use Google Maps, yeah. It's not perfect, but helps you a lot. How do you access the internet? I have a hotspot with me, and the carrier I have back in Denmark has just made a deal a month before I traveled over here, so I actually use my phone's normal 4GB... So you didn't... Wow, just normal... Just normal use. Denmark Telecom? Yeah. I only have 20 gigabytes. That's... That's still enough? Yeah, it's enough to Google Maps and stuff, but don't... Too many pictures, don't upload too many pictures on your phone. Yeah, do it on the Wi-Fi. Yeah, Google Maps in Tokyo is quite good, because if you, like, say you want from your hotel to Shinjuku or something like that, it even says where you should board the train, like platform blah blah blah, and then car number 304, it's the best way to get out, which is really really cool. It doesn't work in Osaka, I don't know why, but in Tokyo it's really good. It didn't work in Nagoya either. Yeah. It didn't work there either. But still you will find your way around, but you will always get the wrong exit. It's quite confusing downstairs, so I always try to get out as fast as possible. Yeah, the basement areas are hard, I get lost as well, and with everything being renovated for the 2020 Olympics, I'm getting lost in the city that I've been living in for decades, so it's pretty crazy. Well, it's nice to meet you, thanks for tracking me down. If you want to stick around, we can get a drink over here. I would just like a picture. Oh yeah, sure. Just real quick and on about a few seconds. Alright. So this is on the livestream as well. Look how tall you are! Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm standing on my toes. Did it turn out okay? Yeah. You too? Yeah. That's right. Pictures are better when they're taken live. Yeah. Alright. It's okay? Yeah, thanks for coming up, Constantine. Keep in touch. Bye-bye. You have some time? Yeah. Alright.

00:56:35 John Daub: So I believe someone told me to go get an Asahi. Do you drink alcohol? It's a long time ago, but I can try it right now. Oh, you don't have to do it if you don't drink it. It's okay. I need to try it anyway. I can right now. I think it's been five years ago or something. Wow, five years ago. Last time I drank alcohol was last night. I had half a glass of wine with dinner. Yeah. So we're going to end this livestream with a drink to celebrate. It's nice to be able to drink alcohol. Nice to see you. Thanks for checking me down. No problem. I actually brought this with me. I've opened to find you. I also sent a packet to you a long while ago, but I think it's never ended up at your place. That could have happened. I apologize. No problem. Alright, let's go inside and get a drink here.

00:57:42 John Daub: Alright, let's see what we got here. What do you recommend? What do I recommend? That's hard. Everything's different. What do you recommend? If you don't like beer, the chu-hi (shochu highball) has a really... it's sweeter but it's got a lot of alcohol. If you haven't had a drink in five years, it's not. No. This one is green tea with alcohol. I don't know. Is there anything you like? Do you drink beer? Well, I actually like it. Okay, that actually is a good choice. It's a little sweet. Yeah, it's good. But yeah, it's kind of maybe high in alcohol though. I don't know. You might want... Oh, this one's okay. 3%. Yeah. I'm gonna go for the super dry because that's what I was asked to drink in the super chat. So that's okay. Alright, yeah. Now this is on me. This is on me. I'm gonna treat you for helping us all out. I actually also hope my birthday is in Tokyo. Oh yeah? Yeah, one of the things I actually did was driving those cars to Akihabara. Oh, the Mario Kart! I've been kind of wanting to do that, but part of me is against those Mario Karts. Thank you. Actually, we got more coins for gachapon. Sorry, I'm not gonna... My pockets are full of them. Alright, here you go. Five years. Thank you. At least it's on a livestream, right? I've documented. It's been documented. Alright, I'm really appreciative of this. Okay. Here we go. I got it, guys. We found a beer. It just wasn't from a vending machine. Kanpai, buddy. Kanpai. Tastes good. Tastes good? Yeah. Sweet? Yeah, it is. Strong? I don't think. No. It's good. So, cheers to all of you.

01:00:25 John Daub: My dad said, John, if there's one thing you should stop doing, it's don't touch the beer to the camera. And I said, why? I'm like, I feel like I'm... In a way, it's like sharing with you. You can feel it on the other side, maybe. I don't know. He thinks it's just rude, but... Tyler kanpai. Shown, keep up the good work. Buy a beer. Can one of these be the beer that you bought? I don't think I'm gonna have another one. UFO Bob. Do you guys have any questions while we drink? Or else I'm gonna just tune it out. Prost from Germany. We say Skål in Denmark, right? Skål. Skål. Skål. I did a show for DR, Denmark. It's called Denmark Radio, but it's actually TV. So, it's so effing special. It's called. You ever heard of it? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, I know that. Oh, yeah. I was... You could see me in it, but I helped to set up the TV ship for them when they came to Japan. Okay, I didn't know. Yeah, I tried to help get her to eat fish sperm. And some crazy stuff. It was a good episode. But I was the fixer for that. It was kind of fun. Didn't know I would go home and find that. Yeah, yeah. I think you can still find it in the archives of DR. What's her name? Christine? Yeah, I mean, it was Christine. I don't remember the name. I last met her. Ah, she's so down-to-earth. Very, very friendly. Very famous person, right? Yeah, very famous in Denmark. We hung out a lot. Very, very famous, but so cool to hang out with and just, you know, talk and drink and... It's neat, though. Like, I don't know who she is. She doesn't know why... Oh, we got Skål. Tyler writes it. Skål. People in Denmark are pretty cool. In fact, there's a bunch of people from DR coming next month in June, and they contacted me every year to go out drinking. I don't know why. But I guess I'm in some DR database. And if you're watching, just give me a call when you get here, okay? They know who they are. They always bring a bottle of Gammeldansk, too. I have three bottles of them at home now. That's a lot. Yeah, I drink it slowly. One bottle lasts two years.

01:02:57 Jack: What's going on in Copenhagen? Is that where you're from? No, actually, no. I'm from the countryside, more. Okay. But I do a lot of work in Copenhagen. I work as a plumber. Okay. So, a lot of fixing motor pipes and stuff like that. Yeah. So, my image, though, is that the plumbing must be really old. It is. It's very old in Copenhagen. It is. But a lot of it is getting renovated. Okay. Very cool. There are also a lot of new buildings. The building is a lot of new. So, yeah, a lot's happening. So you get a lot of work. Yeah. We do. Well, so this is your second time. You think it's going to be a third time? I know this. I'm definitely going to take one more trip at least. Next time, probably by car, I think. Okay. I have been thinking about renting a car and drive around. Oh, you totally have to. Wait, Denmark is on this side of the road, right? The other side? Yeah, the other side. That might be difficult, but it's driving. It's like a totally different way to see the country. It is. I'm new to driving. I love it. Yeah. I'm driving tomorrow. I rented a car in Kanazawa when we get there, so. I've also been thinking about it. Maybe it would be easier to take a motorcycle instead. Are you going to Peter von Gomm? Maybe. But if my cousin isn't coming, I'll think about doing that instead. How come your cousin didn't come this time? He's coming in a month. Next month he's coming. Okay. A trip along the coast with a tour guide. And I think there will be about 20 people or something like that. And I want to do a trip with what I want to see myself, not as a big group. I like to travel and adventure alone. Yeah. Or at least do some adventuring. Yeah. What do you want that day? I did some hitchhiking alone. It was pretty fun. There's something about going out there and just doing it, you know? Yeah. When you're out there on your own, stuff happens, right? Yeah, I do. A lot of things. People just come talk to you or invite you and things you didn't expect or plan just start happening when you travel alone. Actually, yesterday, I went to Mount Takao. There actually was an older Japanese guy who started talking to me. We talked about Denmark and why I travel here and everything. It was actually quite fun. That's the stuff that happens when you come alone. When I was hitchhiking, the same stuff. People invite me and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I remember hitchhiking. I woke up in a town that I had no plans to going to in the ride's house. It's like, how did I get here? But this is really cool. It's just part of adventure, right? It is. Yeah. So it's different than in Denmark, right? Yeah, it is. Denmark is also a lot more expensive on everything. I think you can have... When I traveled around Denmark, I had... People are pretty friendly. Yeah, they are. They're pretty... Especially outside of Copenhagen, actually. Outside, but yeah, you can have the same kind of experience if you go out. But drinking was really expensive in Copenhagen. Yeah, it is. Also, if you want to go to a restaurant, it's expensive. Yeah. Go to take a taxi, it's expensive. Hotels is also expensive. Expensive. Tokyo's cheap compared to... Yeah, everything is pretty cheap. I actually bought a lot of souvenirs I'm bringing home. The red hot dogs weren't too expensive. They were okay, right? No, they are not that bad. They're not too bad. Not too bad. They have the thing on the ice cream that they put called Gufskam. Do you know Gufskam? Yeah. It sounds like scum, Gufskam. I love it. Sku, also called sku. Sku? Sku. Can it also be called... I can't find that in Japan. I've been looking for it. The only time I had it was in Copenhagen on ice cream, and I was addicted to it. On ice cream? It was on ice cream. Gufskam. They put some kind of gup, some kind of thing on the ice cream. What's called? What's the color? It was brown? White, I think. White? Like a marshmallow-y. I don't know. It was a topping. It was not white and brown? No. I don't remember. It was a long time ago. If I could taste it, I would remember. All I know is that they called it Gufskam. I laughed. I ate it. I stopped laughing. And I loved it. And now I miss it. End of story. The end. That's also what I do when I get home with the Japanese food. Yeah. Also, especially I really like curry. Okay. And okonomiyaki (savory pancake). I really like those two things. Oh yeah. Do they have Japanese food in Denmark? I'm sure they do. They do. But it's all in Copenhagen and pretty expensive. And it's not easy to get in from where I am to Copenhagen. At least if you park, you'll probably get a ticket or it's pretty expensive. Copenhagen is a pretty good city too. They have the mermaid statue. I think someone had cut off her head when I was there or something. That's happened too. That's happened. Somebody cut off the mermaid's head when I was there. It wasn't me. Toby did it. Are you sure? Yeah, it wasn't me. Seriously. Government of Denmark. It was someone else. It wasn't me. I don't have the tools. But if you need the tools, you can find it here in Shinjuku's electronics district. I'm pretty sure that they have a hardware store somewhere here. But it's pretty cool.

01:08:33 John Daub: Well, thanks so much for joining me. I'm going to end this livestream. We're going to drink a little bit. But if you are looking for electronics, at sunset, you can see the lights. The lights were on when we came here, but they're a little bit more vibrant here. I'm just going to show the view looking back. You can see more people are getting off of work looking for izakayas to go to. But that in the distance is the famous Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It was the start of the Tokyo Marathon when I first started running it in 2007. And now it's just a building with a free observation deck. But this area of Shinjuku is one that a lot of tourists don't get to. So I highly recommend you get to the nishiguchi (west exit) side of Shinjuku Station. Check out the electronics district. Not just for maybe just for Map Camera alone. It's pretty cool. And I want to thank our sponsor, Tyler, for all the wonderful things that you've done. Tyler, we love you, buddy. Ramsey Silent, Skål, I'm looking back at it. Kanpai, amazing. Really, really appreciate it. I'll find a way to get you your gachapon. See you, everybody. Have a good day, good night.