00:00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody. Can you hear the chanting? Do you hear the chanting from the stadium across the street from the Olympic symbol here? That's the new National Stadium in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics. And I'm right here. How you doing everybody? I'm wearing my Olympic 2020 t-shirt. It's an exciting day because it won't be long before we start celebrating one year until the Olympics start. That's going to take place on Wednesday, July 25th. It's now July 22nd. I thought this would be a great opportunity, one, to beat everybody by two days. But more importantly, to give you a chance to walk around the stadium because I think there's going to be a lot of buzz on Wednesday. Monday is perfect. Right now it's Monday morning. And as you can see, the stadium is set to be finished in November of 2019. They're actually going to be using this in January 2020 on New Year's Day for a soccer finals that will be taking place here in Japan. And it's so exciting. I hope you're excited too.

00:01:04 John Daub: Before we start, I wanted to show you some of the merch that the Tokyo store is selling. I'm so excited about this. Olympics are coming to Tokyo. What's going on? I was here. I've been here for many, many years. And I remember Tokyo was sort of making a bid for 2012. And then they made a full-on bid for 2016 and lost. And then they made a bid for 2020. And I remember them winning, the city winning. And I'm just so happy that finally that year, 2020, is just around the corner. Now, the merch started selling a while ago. This T-shirt here, it's a Japanese size. So I'm usually a medium in the United States. It's extra large here in Japan because it's a Japanese size T-shirt. The shoulders are a little bit tighter here in Japan. I got this towel. Check this out. Boom. Tokyo 2020 Olympics towel. In case it rains, I might need this. I also got some stuff like Tokyo 2020 Olympics pins. All this stuff is on sale at the stores around the city. And then I have this, one of the mascots for Tokyo 2020. I forgot her name. But she's for the Paralympics, which is very exciting as well. So I hope you're ready because we are about, I have an umbrella because it might rain. Take a trip around the new National Stadium and talk about some of the venues and what's going on in the city of Tokyo.

00:02:36 John Daub: Play the music, Olympic music. We don't have that here. But I think it was about a month ago or so they put in these Olympic rings. And it is pretty neat as a backdrop to the stadium, which should be done. Again, like, I believe all of the international media is coming, especially from NBC for the one year to go party. Would you call it a party? Not sure. Because there are a ton of bulldozers and people. There are a ton of cranes still left in the stadium. But when we were last here in February of 2018, it was a different picture, wasn't it? All right, so let's go around. I walked mostly around the stadium. It's amazing how much construction they've done and how much has been completed so quickly. Like this building right across the street from the stadium, where the Olympic logo is placed, was not here in 2018. There's a Japanese baseball game going on at Jingu Stadium. So you can hear the rumble of the crowd every time a hit or strikeout occurs. That's pretty neat. Oh, konnichiwa (hello). Sumimasen (excuse me). So we're gonna follow these ladies towards the stadium. Again, you know, I think it was about a month ago, they took down the walls. They were really high walls obstructing the stadium and now they've opened it up more and you can see what's happening over here.

00:04:25 John Daub: I think we're going to walk this way to the right. Over here you can see some of the park and we're going to go all the way around the stadium and end up on the top there. It's pretty exciting. Oh sorry, this is pretty exciting. Oh we can make this light. You can see inside the park here they've got trees and they've got already like stands and stuff like that. You can see there. I made the light. It's exciting. They have trees and stands. I think there's a venue inside of the stadium that you can kind of see. That's a nice car. That's an Olympic style. That's an Olympic type of car. It's a Rolls-Royce BMW. Very nice.

00:05:26 John Daub: All right, the venues in Tokyo are, I don't want to say they're finished, but they're starting to look really good. I don't live too far away from where the Olympic Village is, where the Olympic athletes will be staying. And those apartments look amazing. So you know, if you are an Olympic athlete and you qualified, you're going to be staying in a really nice place. All right, check this out here. Now you can start to see the park kind of take shape. A lot of trees. There's still a lot of construction, but they're putting in the trees one by one. They were not seeded here. Kind of transplanted, I guess you could say. You can hear some saws going on. We're going to get really close to the stadium in a second. But this tree will find a home maybe the next 24 hours, I think. Hope so.

00:06:28 John Daub: All right, let's make our way around the stadium here. They're ready. I have an entirely other episode that I want to do about why Tokyo needed the 2020 Olympics. And Tokyo, in my opinion, really needed the 2020 Olympics. It's huge, isn't it? Yeah, Leonie Pitzer writes in, it's a bad time to be planting trees in the heat. Today is not too hot. So what's the weather like here in Tokyo? You know, the weather here in Tokyo is cool. It's been really unusual summer so far. We have typically sauna-like weather with lots of rain. Now there's thundershowers that's going to be making their way through Tokyo later this afternoon. But for right now, it's cool. It's nice and cool. We have people wearing sweatshirts. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Hopefully the Olympics are like this sort of next year but I doubt it. Well, I doubt it.

00:07:32 John Daub: All right, check this out here. I love the way you can see the wood paneling on here. And just over here we're going to get a better shot of it a little bit later on. You can see some of the trees that they've put in the stadium. This is going to be a really refreshing look for a stadium, I think. But it's just amazing, the progress that they made. Because I wasn't too aware of its current condition. Too long ago this was just a hole in the ground. It's just a hole in the ground according to designer Kengo Kuma who I've gotten a chance to meet a few times. I hope to meet him again for the Only in Japan Go series the design of the stadium is made so that it catches the wind and it harnesses that wind and pushes it into the stadium so you don't need to have the air conditioning on you can have an open top and it still remains pretty cool. I don't know how the wind will do with all the microphones and stuff I guess it'll be okay. I might are we gonna have like a whirlpool of wind in the stadium I'm not sure it's gonna work. I really would love to ask designer Kengo Kuma a lot of questions about this.

00:09:02 John Daub: Now we're starting to see on this side of the stadium that there's a lot of green coming out of the levels, the tiers here. Now you can see the green coming out of the levels, the tiers here. Now you can see it a lot more clearly than before, can't you? Hey Nina Mileto for your next Sapporo thanks John you're welcome thank you thank you very much. If you guys like this definitely click the like button. I have a lot more Olympic streams coming up over the next 367 days because that's when the Olympics starts it's gonna get super exciting I'm all in on this I'm all in. So the I was talking about the Olympic venues there are some around here but there are two areas there's the I think it was called like legacy the the it was where the 64 Olympics were held and then there's the Bay Area which is more all new venues I think and I live more towards the Bay Area and it's getting pretty nice. Tokyo needed the Olympics I gotta be honest with you and this is the this is the police mascot for the Tokyo Police Department yeah just be careful riding bicycles around here thank you sir.

00:10:20 John Daub: Oh wow there's a tour bus of tourists all taking pictures of me right there maybe we can come and say hi hey mr. das in the house thanks for running out the pregnant tiger sharks we need more videos oh yeah I just released a video on scuba diving for anybody who's a scuba diver I went to Ogasawara which is considered the Galapagos of Tokyo Galapagos of the East they call it because it's been so cut off from the rest of the world the and the wildlife the marine life is very friendly still so it was in a unique episode that's on the main channel and I had a run-in with a shark on that episode it I'm still alive I'm still alive.

00:11:20 John Daub: All right now we just turn the corner and we're gonna walk around towards the Oedo Line subway station which is one of the access points but do you see that square building on the right side that's new that that popped up so fast that was not here the last time I was here it was just under construction I guess they put that together like Legos I don't know but we're gonna get a chance to look at a few new buildings over on this side of the stadium. Ronald Mitch writes in will there be street food around the stadium I think that there probably will be all over the city I'm guessing that there will be a lot more food trucks the lines in Tokyo traditionally can be quite long for popular foods and the best way to beat that is just to have food trucks everywhere just lots of food trucks no traffic everyone has to take the subway food trucks just lined up the street no one goes hungry problem we'll need restrooms as well restrooms and food trucks that's what I would recommend but I do think that there will be a lot of food around the stadium for two weeks during the events.

00:12:45 John Daub: I'm gonna stop here for a second you can get another look of the stadium I'd love to put the wide-angle lens on the other side then you can take it all in so I might do that from another angle but you can see clearly this thing's looking pretty nice I hope to get in there as well sometime real soon for main channel episode. Let's walk around this construction zone yeah it's a long time coming if you look at Google Earth and Google Maps they the last time Google came through here for pictures was in during the cherry blossom season so all these trees here that you see around the stadium were beautiful with cherry blossoms and I'll probably be back in April when they also bloom you see these trees very very beautiful so I'm gonna say that that's that's gonna be one of the pictures I think for the 2020 Olympics with the stadium with all those cherry blossoms all around it.

00:13:59 John Daub: Alright now we're getting a point where the wall is higher it's this is the wall that we had before it's harder to see into the stadium here but there are some points as we get to the stairways I hope those stairs are still there where I did the opening for the 2018 where are we now video for the main channel alright follow the traffic patterns I'm hoping on Olympic Day Olympic opening ceremony it will not be like this. Good morning. For pedestrians. I feel like I'm going to be able to walk around the stadium. I feel like I'm running the marathon. This is how it's gonna be I guess the Olympics you have to have these cones here so you know where the athletes are gonna run right now these guys are the athletes doing a good job doing a very good job in the distance you can see the clouds starting to take over the DoCoMo tower in Shinjuku we're that close away from Shinjuku so it's not very far away from you could walk to Shinjuku in about 35 minutes or so 30 minutes.

00:15:09 John Daub: Yeah they are working hard on this building. Now you're starting to see it a little bit closer it's a lot of it is made out of wood you see that beautiful design with an arch on the top there right across the street from the stadium I'm guessing these are apartments boy do I wish that can I and I had the budget to go and live here now that would be awesome I may be these people on the top have a view into the stadium what do you think do you think they have a view like Wrigley's Field in Chicago where the buildings across the street can watch in i would i would consider buying that apartment with credit if i could see into the opening ceremony the opening ceremony tickets were between three and four thousand dollars so if you were lucky enough to win the lottery if for the opening ceremony the opening ceremony was was more expensive than the closing ceremony if you're lucky enough to get tickets for the opening ceremony it cost three thousand three to four thousand dollars so a lot of people that were lucky enough to win the lottery they won the tickets and then they're like oh my god i have to pay six six or nine thousand dollars for the tickets because they'd put in tickets for two or three or four people and that came as a little bit of a sticker shock because they could have probably bought a new car.

00:16:46 John Daub: Hey oh cool they got uh three tickets for the opening ceremony so this this is an ice skating center this is new that was not here before and uh okay there's an ice skater it's wrong wrong period that's winter olympics but this looked a little bit older i'm glad that they've renovated it you can see there's the old entrance the old 1970 brick 60s and 70s bricks and they put a new nice new opening to it front with glass and i like that i wish that the tokyo olympics was called the recycle olympics that would have been a lot better.

00:17:26 John Daub: Oh what's that box there wow that's cool mr das that's a cool sticker all right we're going over to this to the steps here where there's another olympic venue across the street from the stadium this is so cool now this area is called Gaienmae and Sendagaya is a JR station that's also close to here and that's the olympic stadium that's the olympic stadium this is where the baseball stadium is you would have seen that if you'd uh started watching. All right where are the where are the monkeys it is kind of jungly you can smell the newness of all of this it's really exciting now typically you can walk down here i'm kind of wondering why i couldn't how do i get back down there i think you can get around maybe i've turned the wrong way i think i've turned the wrong way i'm supposed to go down there all right let's do that i believe so can't i all right i think i can we're lost i think it's not going to be like this later on.

00:18:59 John Daub: Hey craig porter is in the house hi john get a nice lunch on me thank you craig i'm building up an appetite hey gil thanks for the preview john i was a kid in tokyo when the 1964 olympics consumed the city and the country such an exciting time all right there it is such an exciting time the first shinkansen (bullet train) concert was completed for the games yes i've got i've got some uh shinkansen history episodes coming up as well it's going to be pretty exciting there's a shinkansen museum there's a train museum there's all sorts of museums and i think it's a really nice opportunity to document i think gil definitely knows to document how the 1964 olympics after world war ii really made such a huge impact it changed japan and that's sort of the reason why i think the 2020 olympics were so needed in tokyo as well.

00:19:54 John Daub: I guess i just wanted to say this because if you're watching 20 minutes into this live stream and you're still with us that means uh you're quite interested in this topic all right let me let me just get around the corner here all right we're back on track imagine if this is the the tokyo the um olympic marathon i would totally have been off course my metal is gone oh did they block the steps oh we can make this light because i must we can make this light they might have closed off the doors and they're not open and we can't go to the stadium we're going to have to do some work to get to the stadium we're going to find a way to get a view we're going to find a way there's always a way there's always a way hey blue room put this towards the purchase of your olympic apartment all right blue room we are now um one million sorry nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars away from that apartment now always good we'll get there but I think I'm gonna I think I really appreciate that.

00:21:11 John Daub: I think I'm gonna find a way to look the thing is this I was talking with some agencies Olympic Stadium I was talking with some agencies about even if I got inside even if I got inside I'm not allowed to broadcast because I believe it's NBC has all of the rights to the stadium on opening day so you're not anybody who's broadcasting will have problems live I don't know how they're gonna control it I guess find a way this is new this this overpass this was not here I could walk this is weird this you see that old cement wall right there these are the steps where I did the 2018 opening this is I was gonna take you up here to get a look back but I guess we're not gonna get that chance now instead you get to see this beautiful underground under the stadium view which did not exist a year ago.

00:22:21 John Daub: Well he's really tired taxi drivers passed out yeah so I believe that NBC and Fuji TV or one of the TV companies have very strict broadcasting rights meaning even if I got inside of the stadium and I have an angle to get in the people that I'm working with said that they're too busy to be able to broadcast but it's actually what I believe that it's going to be very hard to even have a camera and be able to film. Now, there are places for the international media, but they've bought rights to the Olympics. The Olympics is about making money. You know? Someone's got to make money off of this. Don't broadcast. YouTube, we know you will win. I don't want to broadcast live. I want to just film about one aspect of the Olympics that's very interesting to me. And we'll find a way to do it. I never give up. I never give up.

00:23:22 John Daub: All right, the Olympic Stadium. From this side, it's a little bit different because there's a walkway above ground here. On the other side, everything is on the first floor. It seems like we've gone down and sloped down. So now the stadium looks even higher from this point. This is the NTT, which is the AT&T of Japan building. One of them that they have here. And I remember I called and tried to get access to that point, and they said no. So thanks a lot, NTT. Let's work together again in the future. I'm just your Daz. How do you do that? I don't know how you do that.

00:24:11 John Daub: So the Olympic venues are coming along really nicely. The ones that have been renovated, the Budokan, got a little cleaning up. I don't think you want to do too much with the Budokan. That's where the Judo and the martial arts events will take place. Budokan is with all the respect for the Budokan, that's where I saw Clapton play. You go in there, you experience Clapton play, the Judo events will never be the same. That was an awesome concert. A lot of musicians will do events at the Budokan. Because it's smaller than the Tokyo Dome, and it's so internationally known that it's a wonderful venue with just a very intimate amount of seats. But enough where the musician can make a living out of it. I think Eric Clapton is doing well. I think he's doing well.

00:25:02 John Daub: Alright. We're going to go back to the point here, and then look back at this. It's going to be pretty nice. Amy Meow Cat! Get a couple gachapon (capsule toy machines) on me! Preferably something cat related. Okay. You got it. Yeah. I'm seeing now a lot of people in the chat who have been to the Budokan to see some amazing concerts.

00:25:31 John Daub: Alright. So this building, in the 2018 February episode that I made, it was just a couple of tractors on the ground. And now look at it. It's cranes. And looks like they've gotten maybe 20, over 20 floors. How high is it going to go? Are they going to finish that in time? Now this bistro, right across the street from the stadium, is going to do some big business, aren't they? They're already getting free plugs. But this area of Tokyo is really nice. If you want to see me, if you want to see more, and maybe get a little bit creative with this livestream, let's see if we can get the 500 likes. I would love, I would like to see that. I can't like it myself.

00:26:29 John Daub: This is another place where, just right over there. Right over there a little bit. I took the stadium view from 2018 and you get a really nice panoramic view of the stadium. But I love these trees. This is, I love trees. This is amazing. How they've incorporated this green with the very natural color of the wood up here. Mr. Kuma. Mr. Kengo Kuma has done a very good job with this. Him and his staff. I'm very impressed. I cannot wait to go inside. I hope it's just me. I want him to let me in. I want him to let me in after hours. Just turn on the lights like that scene from Rudy, the movie where Rudy's dreaming one day he too will play for no reason. Notre Dame. I want to go in there and do the same thing one day. I can also play inside the new Olympic Stadium. It has that new car smell. It kind of, well something's wafting this way that smells like a new car. It could be a new car. I don't know. There's a couple of new cars in the city.

00:27:41 John Daub: I wonder if this stand will be here as well. It looks pretty old. The city has been, I don't know. One of the sad things with the Olympics is that a lot of the older buildings have met their end because they're not up to code. Or I guess after the 2011 earthquake, we saw a lot of problems with the older buildings and they're starting to get rid of those wooden buildings. Thank you Zeta. Much appreciated. So that's kind of sad to see old Tokyo kind of get the curtains drawn on them. But it's also exciting to see what comes after that. I'm always hoping, you know, like some kind of new cafe or something, you know, that I can go to very often. And usually it's not. It's somebody with money or something like a brand shop store.

00:28:42 John Daub: Let's get to the end of the street here. Then we're going to look back at the stadium from a different angle. We've almost gone completely around it and it took 29 minutes to do it. Wow. Now I'm starting to get the feel of it. I didn't come this way to scout. I went the other way around. So all of this is the first time for me in over a year. Do you see this overhang? That was not here. And this gives, I guess they're building an access point here, but this gives access to go above ground onto towards the stadium and there's stadium steps. Check that out. So from this angle, you can fit a lot of people, get a lot of people flowing up to the stadium. This is going to be beautiful. It already is. But from this angle, from this point now, you can see kind of what it's going to look like. They're pretty much have finished. Once they just remove the wall here, it's going to be an awesome shot.

00:30:06 John Daub: So on Wednesday, July 24th, they're going to have a really big celebration. NHK is broadcasting something maybe from inside the stadium I'm not really sure. All I know is that they're advertising a lot and the city had never been more exciting than this. Now, I kind of had teased this a little bit. Why did Tokyo need the 2020 Olympics? All right. The 1964 Olympics was a time. I can tell the story a dozen times. It never gets tired. The 1964 Olympics was after World War II was a time where the country was, they needed like a spark to grow and the 1964 Olympics did that by bringing in lots of eyes, lots of people to the country and Japan met that challenge for the 64 Olympics and the infrastructure at the time, they were still in reconstruction mode from World War II. I mean, it was still just 20 years later, 50, 60 years ago. So construction didn't go quite as fast. They just slapped buildings up. But for the 64 Olympics, they met the challenge. They fixed the infrastructure. First of all, they built stadiums. And I guess you could see that Japan reemerged from the flames. A lot of the stuff that they talked about in the 64 Olympics was about World War II because it was still very fresh.

00:32:03 John Daub: Now, fast forward to the 90s, 2000s, right? Japan is a powerhouse, economic powerhouse, right? It's a, you know, bring the Olympics back then. And then things start to crumble because the 64 Olympics were 50 years ago. The infrastructure was old. I'll be honest with you. I think there was such a desire to build Tokyo up really fast and they did a really good job with it. There's so many patchworks. It's like that with every city. The reason why Tokyo 2020 was necessary was because the Olympics was an excuse, a much needed excuse for the city to upgrade everything. In order to inconvenience, it's a politically unpopular thing to do anything in the city that disrupts the flow. But if the Olympics are coming, everybody could rally around that and it's a perfect political reason to have all of this construction just clogging up everything. And now the city of Tokyo is going to be another powerhouse, I think, for the next 30, 40 years because of the infrastructure changes that have occurred. It's beautiful. Shibuya Station project, I don't know if that would have been possible without the Olympics. Just the push. It's a massive inconvenience for people for several years and now it's looking so beautiful. And that's an area that needed it.

00:33:03 John Daub: The stadium, did we need a new one? Not really. As I said, I think we could have renovated it and made this the Recycle Olympics. There was a big debacle with the stadium from another designer and eventually they turned back to Mr. Kuma. They should have turned back to him in the beginning, maybe. Now you're starting to see that building take place. Look where we are, everybody. We're back where we started. See the Olympic rings right there? See the Olympic rings? We're going back there. Yeah, so there you go. It's pretty exciting. Wow, look at this statue. This is the Japan Olympics Chief Jigoro Kano. So they already have statues in honor of people in Japan's Olympic past. Thank you, sir. I like the style. There's a statue over here we can go and check out. We're really lucky. It's supposed to storm this afternoon. Look at this astroturf-like grass. Oh, this is astroturf. No, is this real? Oh, no, this isn't real grass. That's why it's not real grass. It's like this grass looks too good. It's not grass.

00:34:40 John Daub: The cauldron. The... Oh, wow. This is something special. I had no idea. This is the cauldron for the Olympic Winter Games in 1998. So there's a little bit of history here. The last time that the Olympics were held in Japan was my first year in Japan. I hope this does not mean this is my last year. But this is the first year in Nagano. And this is the cauldron where they had the flame. I did not know that. So that's sort of a little artifact that they've put here. Very cool. I think the flame is in Japan. And they're going to be starting the torch relay. And I think Kanae and I applied for that. That'd be pretty cool. I kind of want to hold the torch. But we'll see. That's also a lottery. And it's through corporations. I guess everything is sponsored. I think Coca-Cola and Toyota and a bunch of other companies have the torch relay through there. So I think anybody can apply. But you can't pick where you're going to go. I'm okay. You could put me in the middle of nowhere Hokkaido. I will run just 100 meters of that torch. I just want to hold the power of the Olympics in my hand. That's all. So torch people, please give me any opportunity. I hope it's in the middle of nowhere because that's even better.

00:36:02 John Daub: All right. And I won't even live stream it. It's an honor. It's my honor. All right. There's some more torches here. There's more torches. Let's do it. Right west. West. Land your rights in. Let's just do it. All right. Here we go. A lot of people don't know. Because Winter Olympics is in Japan. This is sometimes feels not the same as the Summer Olympics. Sapporo 1972 was another Olympics event in Japan. And this is the cauldron for that. It's pretty neat. You can see the difference of the style. This is more classical. And the Sapporo and the Nagano Olympics was more colorful. I like that. I like them both. They represent their era. But there's another one. There's another torch. Let me get out of the way. What do you think? I think that one there is for the big black flower pot. That is not a flower pot. This here is the cauldron for the first Olympic Games. Yes. Ozymandias got it right. It is the cauldron for the games of the Olympiad in 1964. Look at that. I love it when they put some history. You can feel the torches being passed back to Tokyo. You can see it. This is the cauldron. I wish I could put the camera inside. You can see what it looks like inside. The flame has been put out. I wonder if they're going to relight these cauldrons. That would be pretty cool. This will be the fourth Olympics for Tokyo. This is 1964, 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. And then Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics. And they might have another Winter Olympics in Japan. Who knows? I hope they do. And then 2020 is represented right in the middle of your screen. Designed by Kengo Kuma. Nearly complete.

00:38:05 John Daub: It's making me hungry. It's lunchtime. This is the part I think is really important. If you have any questions, we have almost, we're getting closer to a thousand people that are watching. If you have any questions about the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, I'm very happy to answer them. I'm schooled in this event. All I do is sit at home and dream about being a part of the Olympics. Finally! And now it's here. So shoot away. Um. I believe it is too late to buy tickets, but I have a feeling that there will be tickets around. I don't think, I think, um, even if you don't have tickets to go into the events, just come anyways. Just, it's going to be fun. I talked to some people who were in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics and I was there in 1999. And I talked to them later and they said that they, a lot of people had left. And they said they'd wish they were around because there are a lot of events and they'll never see their city that way. I think that if you, or somebody who's been to Tokyo many times, you're going to see the city in a way that it hasn't been like since 1964. Probably even then, it's just going to be different.

00:39:17 John Daub: Can we watch the mile run along the route? Good question. I think we can. Um. I know the marathon will be held a couple of days before the closing ceremonies. So that will be an amazing event to watch. I'll be out there cheering for sure on the course. Several times. I'm someone who's run, I've run six, six marathons in Tokyo since 2007. So I'm somebody who has run this city a lot. So it's going to be really good to see those marathon runners. I'll be cheering. That's an event that anybody can go to. There's going to be events like that. Do you have an athlete that you're looking forward to watch? Um. I know Michael Phelps is not in this, in this Olympics. I don't know. It's hard to say. But I know the Japanese athletes just as much as I know the American athletes. Um. I don't know much, too much about them. I'm actually, I'm actually more excited about the Paralympics.

00:40:14 John Daub: So I'm going to put this down for a second. I'm really excited about the Paralympics as well. Because Japan does technology like no other country. And there's so much tech and so many advances for the Paralympics. This is going to be a really unique year for that event. It doesn't get the same kind of attention as the Olympics gets. I think that that might be a misstep this time. I think, I think that's a good thing. I think the Paralympics might be better or more interesting than the Olympics. I don't know. Um. But to me, the Paralympics is not as commercialized. And it's, it's sort of, it's neat. I'm glad that we get a chance to see that. Um. Looks like Asics. Yeah. This shirt is, um, Asics. It, the prices are expensive. Uh. So if you're interested in Tokyo 2020 goods, Amazon actually, Amazon USA actually sells some of this stuff. The problem is, it's just ridiculously crazy. This pin, this Olympic pin cost 600 yen or $5. Right there on the back. It's real. It's got a hologram on it. But this one was, was 600 yen or about $5 or so. Uh. This t-shirt for my niece. It's getting famous here. This is the Paralympics logo and this is the character for it. She's pink. And, uh, this one cost 22. $5. So it's not, it's not overly priced. But it's, let's just say I bought a bunch of gifts to take back to my family when I go home later on this week. And it costs a small fortune. But it's worth it, right? It's worth it.

00:42:00 John Daub: Can NHK help you get into the Olympics field? I don't know. I, NHK has their own reporters. I report sometimes for Tokyo Eye. I've been doing that since 2008. I think Tokyo Eye, I think they're doing a lot of work on the Olympics. I don't know. But the rights to film anything in the stadium during the, during the Olympics is very, very rigid. Let's just say. We're working on it. We got a year to go. We're working on it. Is Kanae interested in any parts of the Olympics? Kanae went, Kanae went to a physical education university. She's a dancer. Um, she's very physical with sports. She's, she can't run very well. She can't run like me distances. But if, if it's a dash for a hundred meters, she's pretty darn fast, especially if food is involved. So she could, she's very interested. She's the one who applied for the tickets online because I've been really busy. But yeah, we didn't get anything to go to the events. She would, I would, that would be awesome if she danced. I'm going to pitch that. Mayor Koike, please hear my appeal. Let my wife Kanae dance at the opening ceremony. The 40-yard dash for food. We should have the street food Olympics. That's what I think I'm going to do.

00:43:12 John Daub: Do you think they've kept the old national stadium? Now, Avery, the old national stadium is on, was on the spot where this stadium is now. They tore it down to build this new stadium. They used the same real estate. They were, they were talking about opening the new stadium where they were making the Olympic Village. To use that point on the bay. It's so beautiful. If you're an Olympic athlete watching this, you are going to be staying in such a beautiful part of the city. It's right on the water. And that this is where the Olympic Stadium was going to be pitched because the stadium had such an amazing viewpoint of the entire city. Tokyo Tower was in the distance. I can see the helicopters for NBC having a field day with that. But no, they built it back here in the right place. You couldn't go wrong. Again, I don't know if we needed to have a new stadium designed, but there's going to be a lot of really great stories about that design, I think. So in the end, it's several billion dollars. Well spent.

00:44:12 John Daub: Any other questions? So we're taking a Q&A right now. Our tourists. How many tourists are expected? We're not really sure. But if the numbers are the same as in Rio, I think the thing is, it's hard to get into Tokyo. It's not something that Americans and Europeans can drive here. So everybody has to fly in or take a cruise ship in. Cruise ships. Japan has been building a lot of cruise ship ports all around the country, especially on the Sea of Japan. Yonago in Tottori is a great example. They've opened up a huge port and they're building a shopping mall there, mostly for tourists to China, but it allows other ships to come into the country. So there's more access points now into Japan by ship and by plane. But you can't drive here. So I don't think the numbers are going to be quite as high as if it were in the United States or maybe in London. I don't know. Maybe the numbers will be about the same as London because the UK is an island, but it's sort of easier to get to. It's also quite far for North America. It's quite far for Americans to come to Japan. It's quite far for Europeans to come to Japan. So we will see how many people. I would say maybe similar to the London 2012 Olympics games.

00:45:20 John Daub: I will definitely watch these. I will definitely be at the venues, live streaming at the venues. I'm going to be talking to people outside. I'm so thankful for all of you guys because as this channel grows, I'm using it as a platform to be able to live stream outside the venues and give you a completely different point of view. That's my goal with the Only in Japan Go channel for the Olympics. The more people who subscribe, the more power we get to have access. And I can use the main channel because we have 1.1 million subscribers on the main channel and we have about 150,000 subscribers here. But if we can increase that, then gives me more power to go into venues and maybe to help the Olympics. I would love to help local businesses around the Olympics. To try to promote them. So people who are here can find places to eat or can find... This channel could be a problem solver as well. Who knows? It's just good because we have a platform now with the Go channel to do something like this.

00:46:25 John Daub: Can you show us the interlaced rings from up close? Sure. Sure. It's pretty neat. I opened with this. You can also watch it on the replay. There's a lot of stuff on this on Instagram. But nobody has really done what I did. This is what I'm doing right now. Just to take you around the Olympic ring. I'm holding the gimbal like a torch right now. So people are watching me. No, this is not the Olympic torch. My gimbal and phone would have to be on fire. That's not on fire. It's beautiful, huh? You can hear some bulldozers emptying out some sand. I did put this in the last postcard alpha. I did. In fact, if you'd like a postcard on Patreon, on the back... The postcard for Patreon this year, right this month until the 30th, is the National Stadium. Okay? And on the back of the postcard is the rings here. Is the rings here. The construction sounded dramatic. They're beating the drums for me. There are loads of hotels around this area as well. So many things have changed since a year ago. It's pretty exciting. There's going to be enough hotels. For everybody. And then afterwards, I don't know what they're going to do. But I don't think hotels are going to be a problem next summer.

00:48:13 John Daub: Yeah, that's right. We are 75 likes away from 500. Any more last questions? This is it. This is your time to ask. What made you come to Japan to begin with? That has nothing to do with the Olympics. But I will answer that very quickly in one word. Love. There you go. I certainly look forward to John's reports. Thank you. Like one. Saw square building. It's the Mitsui Hotel. Okay. So the building on the other side, we're getting reports now that that is a hotel, which is going to be so beautiful and probably very expensive during those two weeks and probably booked already, probably booked already.

00:48:54 John Daub: Yeah, the events here. What are the events? There's just too many to list. Swimming is one of the events. I've been really upset a little bit about this because of the contracts they have with broadcasting rights. Japan wanted to have the swimming finals at prime time for Japan because it's Japan but for the US market they had to have the swimming finals take place in the morning here so people got to wake up early for those swimming finals so that we can watch so the US can watch it primetime I don't know it's all about money I don't it's just the way the world is I'm not angry about it but it'd be nice to see at primetime here and I have no patience to record it and then watch it at night doesn't make sense I might be outside of the venue if I can't get tickets I'll be outside the venue and live streaming and cheering maybe they have a TV a big-screen TV outside the venue and I'll be cheering for first all those swimmers one of them will not be Michael Phelps for a long time Usain Bolt is not gonna be in this Olympics which is a shame he was the world record holder for the 100 meters an amazing Olympian he won't be here.

00:50:02 John Daub: They do have handicap access is increasing could send a heart great question the handy the access and I am wearing a Tokyo 2020 shirt cost me $25 but it's breathable it's breathable I can run with it the Olympics events I've noticed that there are a lot of points for wheelchairs this is really good the city has been installing since the Olympics was announced this is not this has been ongoing since the Olympics were announced has been installing elevators in almost all of the stations in the Olympics and the Olympics are live I believe have one now before they had a device that help people in wheelchairs go up the stairs and it required two or three staff members to operate it now they have elevators that people can just do it on their own that's really great so the city of Tokyo has changed and become a lot more wheel friendly shall we say for bicycles as well yeah they do have elevators more and more and they're still working on it Thank You David.

00:51:10 John Daub: I'm actually gonna be getting those refreshments really really soon really really really soon oh there's some international tv people check it out that's that's pretty cool so the talent the reporter whoever he is he's carrying he's carrying the bags so a lot of reporters a lot of tv international tv news is here for the olympics this looks like one of them and you can see the reporter is in this in a suit who's that guy anybody know and he's got a big camera so definitely somebody nbc contacted so nbc contacted me nbc denver and they they filmed an episode of uh at the micro sushi place that i filmed that and a shout out to the sugeta family uh at the micro sushi restaurant they actually um nbc went there and filmed yesterday uh and they ate some micro sushi and that was really cool i think it was nbc denver that did that so very very cool to have had that opportunity um what else is going on australia they're from australia um good to know yeah um with it being a year away coverage is starting yeah a lot of the coverage of the olympics is starting from wednesday and there's several several stations from nbc are here already they've some of them have contacted me on twitter as well and it's going to be oh it's on osaka tv it's going to be on youtube the top of Tokyo is going to be it's going to be pivoting in the Tokyo is going to be the focus for the next year which is very exciting for the channel um last question last question i'm just gonna uncomfortably smile into the camera until somebody asks.

00:53:31 John Daub: Playback about 20 minutes. I showed that. The mascots might be yokai (supernatural creatures). I'm not sure on the story. Not sure on the story. Yeah, Gil, definitely check it out. If I get more information on it, I'll let you know. Was there a question here? There's no questions. I'm just sitting uncomfortably with the Olympic rings and stadium behind me. Should the New York City bid for the Olympics? I'm not sure. I think that's up to the city of New York. But look, everyone is so worried about losing money on the Olympics. I think if you do what Tokyo has done and make this an opportunity to inconvenience people for two years and upgrade the infrastructure very quickly, what you got is an extremely better city than it was two years before. So for me, this was huge for Tokyo.

00:54:21 John Daub: And I got to tell you something about New York City's subway. New York needs to renovate some of these stations and make this like a 21st century one. And the only way to do that, it seems like, would be to have a flying subway because there's no way to do any construction without being a political disaster. The Olympics is an excuse to do things that would normally be a political disaster and never be able to get done. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it better to do it now than five years from now? Probably. So I think that this is going to be a huge investment. And what the 1964 Olympics did for Japan was it completely modernized it. It made it. It made it a lot more expensive. It made it into the powerhouse in the 1980s and the 1990s. It set up Japan's future because it really improved the infrastructure fast in the city of Tokyo. Now for 2020, as a lot of attention is going to China and we had some, you know, the economy in Japan has been pretty stagnant. We, a lot of people in Japan are excited about it, especially the politicians, to get stuff done. They're excited about it because it's an opportunity to now be competitive again, to do what they did in 64. That's the hope. In 64, huge, huge