00:00:04 John Daub: Greetings everybody, welcome to Morishita Station. How you doing? Morishita is on the Oedo and Shinjuku lines. You can see it—kind of the purple-red and the light-green subway lines. The Toei line, which is different from Metro. There are two subway lines in Tokyo. This is the big connection—they interchange between Oedo and Shinjuku. And I used to live on the Shinjuku line, so I know this area sort of well because I would change here for the Oedo line quite often.

00:00:33 John Daub: But now we get a chance to walk around this neighborhood because I was going to do one of the most famous bakeries in Tokyo where curry pan, the donuts made with curry, were born here in 1927. That's just down there. I'll be back. They're off on Mondays. But this show is not. Anyways, take a look here at this intersection. This area has been growing a lot over the last 20 years that I've been here in Japan. I've seen this neighborhood go from kind of really outside the center to now a lot of apartment complexes have moved in. More people are moving in.

00:01:12 John Daub: And the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa area is kind of a place where people want to live. There's a lot of decent restaurants here. There's even a takoyaki stand on this corner. You can see they're in there making it. Loads of different toppings. But since we can't go to that bakery, we're going to improvise. We're going to go walking from here to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, which is a pretty good neighborhood. I left my bike down there by the Fukagawa River. It's a deep river. And we're going to stop by the original Blue Bottle Cafe here in Japan, as well as the Edo-Fukagawa Museum, another museum in Tokyo that you might want to stop by.

00:01:52 John Daub: And check out this neighborhood. If you've never been to Tokyo, or you have been and you kind of just stick to the tourist areas—Asakusa, Tokyo Station, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Harajuku. Yeah! You might want to come out here. Monzen-Nakacho, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, and Morishita. They kind of got a different vibe to it. Loads of cafes. Most of the cafes are pretty reasonable. A lot of them are family owned or small businesses. And you're going to see a lot of really old kind of history. Like this building over here. Some of them survived the firebombing of 1945. This one looks like it might have.

00:02:34 John Daub: Looks like an 8-inch building. And this area got hit pretty hard. So wouldn't want this to go. It looks like a family run restaurant between the buildings. That in itself is almost worth the visit. Look at these really thin apartment complexes. That's one building right there. We say it's kind of semi, kind of narrow. And then there's that two-story building. As a lot of you know who have been watching the series, back in the Edo period, a long time ago, the buildings were two stories. That was the limit that they could go. And then as time went on in the Meiji, then Taisho, and then Showa era, the plots were cut in half. And then the buildings got up to five stories. And you can see history right there.

00:03:28 John Daub: There's also some really exciting restaurants here. You have to really know the area. I'm somewhat skeptical of introducing this area because I do come here with friends. There's one restaurant in particular that I am wondering if I should not introduce you to, because I know people are going to go there. Yeah, maybe the owner would not be too happy. There's one right there you see on the corner. That's the kind of places that I'm talking about. This is a goya champuru restaurant from Okinawa. That's kind of neat. It's like just here on the corner. When you come outside of the city, you'll find these really hidden out of the way places.

00:04:31 John Daub: Ouchiko is here in Cobra Bebop. How you doing? Big thumbs up. Thank you. That's interesting. Look on the other side—United Diner. You don't see a lot of diners like American style here. They used to be around in the 1980s. And historically, during the occupation, 1940s and 50s, they had diners in American culture. But that's unique. I'm going to have to stop back in there. Of course, it's closed. A lot of the places are closed on Monday. Like this place. It's a jimbichu. This is between lunch and dinner time. Not the best time. So fasten your seat belts because this is going to be a ride. I think it's going to take about 20 minutes to walk to the other side to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa from here.

00:05:34 John Daub: From this traffic light here, we're going to make a right and then walk straight. And that should take us down an old Fukagawa roadway. Should get a little bit quieter. I like this road better. There's not as many shops. The main road between Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and Morishita, you know, it's about 150 meters between the two stations. I don't think it's that long. I remember the Oedo line stops at Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and then you have to get outside. You can wait for the next train. But if it's the last train from Roppongi, I've had to do this a couple of times. You have to get out at Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and run outside to Morishita. And then if you can do it in four minutes or less, you can catch that last train connection. I've had to do that a couple of times. I'm usually out of breath. But it's a good challenge. But it's not that far. You just have to go over the river, which we're going to do in about three, four minutes from now.

00:06:43 John Daub: But you're looking at a part of Tokyo that no YouTuber has ever been down. It's kind of historical. This is what we call improvising. Inu no himitsu kichi. It's like a dog grooming shop. There are some hotels around here. But again, like this is more residential than tourist. That's pretty cool. There are lucky cats and gold. And the big one is reduced to ¥4,000 from ¥12,000. That's actually a bargain. What? Konnichiwa. It's cheaper now. It's a little cheaper. Oh, I see. I'll come again. I live nearby. Thank you. Cool. He said that they're reduced in price because there's some scuffs on it. And it's not 100% perfect. I think that's pretty cool. I think they're piggy banks. That's a pretty cool piggy bank. And that's just from walking around the area. You kind of discover these weird, unique places.

00:08:07 John Daub: Like these car parking lots. This one looks like it was built maybe in the 90s. But I always was so confused on how they work. Like how does the car from up there get down? Did you ever think about that? I wouldn't want to park my car here. How do you get your car down? I guess it does like a merry-go-round kind of a thing. Let's go take a closer look. Investigate. Interesting. It's like I like it because you can see inside of it. If you've ever been inside those car parking garages, they're so narrow. But they could fit like 30, 40 cars in there. If there's an earthquake, I probably would not want to be standing around here. So this car on the first floor might not be on the first floor in a couple hours. Because I guess if you want your car, it does a little Ferris wheel kind of a thing. We say kandensha.

00:09:25 John Daub: Is that a cafe? Let's cross the street again. Social Space Kiyosumi. This is what I'm talking about. Like these kinds of places are popping up to make the area more cafe-like. I guess kind of like Brooklyn-ish-y. Rachel1977. Good morning. A gift from a Patreon supporter. Hey! Welcome. Okay. So it's just an empty space and right now there's nobody in there. But that's interesting. There's bar stools and stuff. I could hold a party in here. Well, we could use this for meetups. Stuff like that. Cross the street. There's look like a little factory. Family run. Kabushikigaisha. Fui... Na... I can't read that. Keep moving. Alright, we're coming up to the Fukagawa.

00:10:22 John Daub: This is the river that sort of separates. I believe it is. Which is famous from this area. They also have like a kind of rice. A fried kind of steamed rice. A famous rice from this area of Tokyo. Well, rice is steamed. But a famous rice with all sorts of seafood I think inside of it. I've had it a few times. It's pretty good. But it's been years since the last time. I'll look at this little shopping street. This is the kind of place that we're all kind of searching for when we come to Tokyo. Like a retro town. Look at that. A lot of these shops are closed on Monday. So it's good to note. But there's a ton of family operated businesses here. Let's go take a look.

00:11:25 John Daub: Since this light turns green. It's walkie. Alright, this one. Right now the jimbichu. The businesses will close between 2 and 5 pm. We're in between lunch time. But you can take a look here. These are plastic models. It's a Chinese restaurant. They have pretty good offerings. Kurage. That's jellyfish. They have jellyfish on the menu. What? And then different kinds of ramens. And there's a ebi soba. Shrimp soba. And gyoza of course. Looks good. A lot of the shops are closed today. I think if you've been to Japan and you've traveled a lot, you've seen it. Alright, this is Panna. And I thought this was a bakery. It's actually a hair styling place. How much is a haircut? Oh, for... It's pretty reasonable. Haircuts usually somewhere between $10 to $12 for a cheap one. And the thing is you don't have to tip the barber here. It's all inclusive.

00:12:54 John Daub: It's amazing though. They actually look like what you're gonna get. Alright, I don't think I'm gonna see much down this alley. But it's interesting the bike riders going through there. Let's go. Keep going. I like walking down alleys. You never know what you're gonna find. Including trouble. Whoa. Look at that stump. What is that? Just kind of sticking out. They cut down the tree but they didn't remove the stump. It's interesting. How deep does it go? Just leave the stump there. I'm stumpified by that stump. It's a good one. Again, like you can see the more you watch these livestreams with me, the more I think you start to see the architecture. And you can tell the age of the buildings. Two stories and larger. And then the bigger ones going up to five floors and then even higher.

00:14:34 John Daub: So this is the construction outfit. You see the pants there. That's the outfit. You can buy those pants. I've had people ask me where to buy them. And there's a shop that's really good called Workman. You can find that in a kind of not in the center of Tokyo but more out in the outskirts. I think Koiwa is a good place. Edogawa Ward and a little bit into Nerima. I think you can find a couple of Workman. But not so much in the center. Alright, look at this bridge here. And there's what appears to be a koi on the other side. So I'm gonna cross the street. It's an old historic bridge. This is the Nishifukagawa Hashi. Yeah. And that's a pretty big fish. It looks like a taiyaki. Whoa. It's a big mouth. You too can get this photo.

00:16:09 John Daub: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking it too, weren't you? Come on. I know you were. This bridge is... It looks like it has some history behind it. They don't make bridges like this anymore. This reminds me a little bit of the Eitaibashi, which is my favorite bridge in Tokyo. There you go. Gotta give it the pound test. That's what we do. It's a beautiful river here. This is the Fukagawa, the deep river. And the story goes I came here during the cherry blossoms last year. And to this area. It's a beautiful area during the cherry blossoms. And the story goes that they had these boats that didn't go very fast and commerce... That was the original subway. They'd go around by boats. And you can go from Asakusa to Monzen-Nakacho in this area by boat during the Edo period. And they still kind of have those rides every now and then, mostly on the weekends. Beautiful, beautiful river. They used to fish out of it and eat it. Now just the ducks do that. There's a couple right there just chilling out. Yeah. Those ducks might be lost.

00:17:36 John Daub: Alright, on the other side of this bridge now, we're leaving Morishita and we're entering Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. I believe there's this separation with this river between the two areas. That bridge on the other side, you see? That is the one that you can go from subway station to subway station. So if you want to get to the Hanzomon Line, you can actually get off at Morishita, walk across about 200 meters, and get on the Hanzomon Line at Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. Hanzomon Line will take you to Shibuya. Hanzomon Line is the purple one. Purple. Alright, next up is the museum. I really do like this bridge. Tokyo is filled with bridges like that all over the place. It's very much a canal city, Tokyo. I think, you know, to me, Tokyo is like Amsterdam. I wish they had more boats. I wish they had more boats on there.

00:18:44 John Daub: During the 1964 Olympics, just before that, leading up to it, Tokyo was still under reconstruction mode. And to quickly get up to high-tech convenience with the infrastructure, they kind of just de-beautified all of the canals. Because a lot of the roads now, the highways, are above the canals. And it's made them, I don't know, like dungeons. And you can go and see that at Nihonbashi, which is Japan's bridge. I'm one of the people who want to see that be renovated. And I want the highway to be underground or something. And not above or rerouted. Because I think Japan's bridge... You can see the ukiyo-e pictures, the woodblock prints of Nihonbashi. It's such a historical bridge. Now it's been de-beautified because in the 1964 Olympics, they had to make the highway. It just was quickest to build along the canals. And this area of Tokyo doesn't have that problem. Because they're sort of a little bit outside of the center.

00:20:08 John Daub: Now, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa is known as Tokyo's cafe town. And a lot of towns want to have that name. They want to have that reputation. But I think that Kiyosumi... Look at this gasoline stand. Gasoline stands in Japan are awesome! Full service! They still do that. They still do full service. Like where they wash the windows. They check everything. Gas stations used to do that, right? They don't do that anymore in a lot of the countries in the West. But Japanese gas stations go a step further. They will go out and stop traffic so that you can exit safely. And then they bow and then they leave after you're out of sight. Which hopefully is soon because they gotta get back to their customers.

00:21:07 John Daub: Here's another. Looks like a Hashimoto family run seafood pasta pizza wine bar place. Looks like just like on the first floor of their house they made a restaurant. I like that. Here's another one right here. Kind of a cafe looking. Hoshii-no. Double I. Now this is the part of the livestream where we get into some pretty cool things having to do with Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and the change of this neighborhood. And I kind of wish I had a chance to do that. I wish I had more time to plan this and do just specifically this neighborhood. Look at this. I didn't know that this was here. So this is Yard, a yoga and pilates studio. Looks like a brand new building. Look at this thing. There's PVG here. Are you riding in from here? The pilates. And this looks very promising. Hey PVG, what do you think of this?

00:22:23 John Daub: So it's like a little shack. Literally it looks like an abandoned shack. Look at this. With a rusted exterior up there. And what have they done? Boom. They made it so nice. So wonderful. A place that maybe I would want to, you know, spend some money in. Now let's go across the street and go check this out a little bit. Whoa. I love that they left it rustic up there. Do you see that? They left it just the way it should be like that. So it feels historical but they've added in what looks like a bathroom or something in the corner there. It's nice. And this place is called Dragonfly Craft Beer Hall. And I, they're closed, when do they open? Never. What? On Monday and Tuesday they're closed. So they open up at 5pm on Friday. Only Friday? What? That can't be right. Dogs are allowed so you can, you could bring your, so anybody can bring their significant other. Doesn't matter what they look like.

00:23:41 John Daub: Dragonfly is open Monday to Friday 7, 5pm to 10pm, Saturdays 1 to 2am. Does that look right? Alright, so I gotta come here on the weekends at 1. Make it a slow afternoon. This would be a perfect day for that. It's so warm. What do they got? They have Imperial IPA. Some stouts, a porter. Red rose. An beru. Okay. That's a pretty good, and 14 ounces is 1100 yen. It's a little pricey but I can live with it. I'll be back. I like what I see there. Now we're moving on to the museum and the original Blue Bottle location. Blue Bottle is this crazy cafe that I've actually never had a coffee at. I guess they started in Silicon Valley or something. And they do slow poured beers. That's pretty interesting.

00:24:44 John Daub: This looks like a very stylish store. Is that something that you would expect here? Right? This is the kind of, these kind of boutique shops you don't, you wouldn't expect it here because it's very, like 65 and older kind of a feeling to it. But that revitalization of the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa area has made it kind of cool. And I think when you look at a properties, this is always one that pops up. Like, what do you guys think of this? Because it's still pretty inexpensive to live in the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Fukagawa area. And there's a lot of trendy shops here. I can see myself hanging out here. Can I actually get on the bicycle and come here a little bit more often? Like once or twice. Asari-don. Asari is like a shellfish, little teeny shellfish. Probably from the Fukagawa. I'm guessing that this shop seems pretty old. Living on the second floor and serving asari-don. Which is like, guess little clams, little clams on rice. Which is a specialty of this area. Along the Fukagawa. Fukagawa meaning deep river.

00:26:32 John Daub: Look at this house. I'm just gonna take a little detour here. That is an interesting looking house. Or is it? I don't know. This could be, um, could be like a funeral parlor. I don't know. Could be haunted. Just stay, spending a night here. Little bit nerve wracking. Little bit nerve wracking. Alright, coin laundry up ahead. Free chair. Okay, so is this the museum? Here's another building here. I know we're near the Fukagawa Edo Museum. That might be here. I'm gonna cross the street. This looks like an interesting museum. I've been going into local museums around this area, trying to put together the pieces of the story from 1945 about what was left. What's left after World War II. What some of the remaining buildings and the history of it. Try to preserve some of that. Been working on this project for quite a while. And, uh, going around this neighborhood. This is the area that was the most harshly hit. From that day. March 10th, 1945.

00:28:07 John Daub: Alright, this must be it here. No, it's not. Alright, so this is a gelato place. You can get some Italian ice cream. It's interesting. Looks like it's family run because it's just in an apartment building like that. I love that. You know, if I build a house, doesn't it make sense to make the first floor a cafe or something? You know, I have a ton of friends. Oh, there's an unagi restaurant. Unagi Tempura. Ayume. You know, when I first moved to Japan in 1998, 1999, when I was, I went, after the contract, I went, um, I went backpacking and I met a friend named Yuki in Thailand. And, uh, there were seven of us then. We just kept making friends. And then seven of us traveled from Thailand to Cambodia and then up Vietnam and through China to Tibet and then through Nepal. And then we said goodbye and I went to India to visit my family. That was in the year 2000. And my friend Yuki, we're still friends today, 20 years later. She has a cafe down in Osaka. I think I might have introduced it in a live stream.

00:29:23 John Daub: Um, but when I, I, um, came back to Japan in 2000 after that trip, I would go down and visit her. And she'd introduced me to all of her entrepreneur friends that were, like she had, she had owned her own cafe, but a lot of her friends were also very, very entrepreneurs. Here's a cemetery. Again, a little creepy, but pay your respects. But everybody who had their own, um, office, on the top floor, they, they owned their own building. And on the top floor, they had a bar. Or on the first floor. They had a bar where you can go in and have a drink. And everybody would go and, um, they would have a day off on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Pick one day off during the week. And then everybody at the end of the day would go to their friend's bar to support. And I loved that vibe. Osaka had a pretty cool entrepreneur vibe. Uh, between the Japanese. And it's still today, kind of like that, where, if you have a small building or an office, you'll have a secondary business serving drinks or something. Or food or snacks. And make a little side living off of it.

00:30:35 John Daub: Again, it's a residential neighborhood, so you have kids walking around here. A straggler. Interesting. Arise coffee roasters. Bean brigade. Now we're in, now you're seeing why this is the coffee roaster. The coffee town of, why they call themselves the cafe town of Tokyo. Now, Arise is closed. But they do have a chimney for roasting. Sorry, it's Monday. Don't come here on Mondays. Don't just, don't, just don't do it. Don't do it. Where is this blue bottle? That building looks kind of abandoned, doesn't it?

00:31:49 John Daub: Now my friend, um, Jaya from the channel called Tokyo Llama, he just posted a video, um, from when we went to looking at abandoned buildings, um, in, uh, a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago, in January. He just uploaded it to his Tokyo Llama channel. And it's interesting to see his take on the abandoned buildings there. That one's not abandoned. It just looks like it could be. Look at the veins on it from the, it's awesome. Could you live in this house? What do you think? It's like growth on your house. All the spiders probably climbing it. It's easy access for spiders. But see how you spiders can get in. Anyways, I think they don't need to climb the vines. I always get freaked out, you know, spiders lay their eggs. And then I saw that Charlotte's Web, and then they all infest people and fly away in little webs. It's scary, creepy. And they got eight legs. So it's nasty.

00:32:56 John Daub: All right, this is the first, um, blue bottle in Japan right here. I've never been here. I don't think I'm going to go in. TYG, uh, Raholf writes in, it's just ivy. Yeah. Poison ivy. Well, that looks like my bike. I mean, they made more. They made more than one. It's a Bridgestone. They call them the Vegas. Wow. So this is the first, first blue bottle ever. And they're roasting coffee right now. You can smell coffee. Smells wonderful. Um, I've never had it. This looks really nice. It's got super high ceilings in there. You can sit outside. There's a heater. That looks pretty nice. It just doesn't really, it doesn't feel like it fits into the neighborhood. You know, I'm going to pan here. Then, then, then, then, then, then a blue bottle. I don't know. Sort of doesn't quite fit, but it smells good. I'm tempted. I'm tempted to get something. How you doing? Yay. Yes, I'm holding a stick with a camera on it. Three dollar cup of coffee. I think it's a little bit more than that. Look at the air conditioners to keep that okay. Cool stuff. They don't show you in the back. I don't know.

00:34:42 John Daub: Where did that museum go? We're all running. Really does not like blue bottle. Well, if you don't like it, you have coffee choices right here. 100 yen, less than a dollar. You can get a cafe au lait from Hokkaido origin. Look at that. Just $1. They even have the soup, onion soup and corn soup too. Hot for a dollar. Very nice. Please show us the parking lot. Madison E. D. Really? Should I rename this to Tokyo's interesting parking lots? This is a parking lot. It could be interesting. You can see you back in. All the people, I'd say like 95% of people will back into parking spots. Do you see it? Nobody goes in front first because I guess Japanese are always thinking of their escape plan. Maybe. I don't know. But after you back in, this thing goes up and you can't drive out. I guess it's international standard now. Isn't this the same system as everywhere else? And then you got to go to that machine over there and pay and it'll go down and you have like five minutes and you got to get out of there. Or it senses when you leave. I don't know. Oh, no, no. It'll automatically go back up as a sensor.

00:36:28 John Daub: Never seen that in Cali. A lot of buildings will turn. Turn into parking lots while they make up the plans to try to earn extra income. And sometimes it'll be a parking lot for nine months. And then nine months later, there'll be a building there. It's pretty smart, though, because it doesn't cost a lot of money to put the parking lot and you can make pretty good income from it. Can I? Grandfathers had two parking spots as part of on his property and he would make like an extra. He makes some pretty decent money on the side as a parking lot. Parking is expensive. In Japan, in central Tokyo, you can pay up to five, six hundred dollars for a parking spot. I'm serious. That's like people's rent for living. You pay that for your car, man. Heavy, heavy. All right. Another canal here. It's pretty nice. And these are sakura trees. So it looks like we're about a month away still.

00:37:27 John Daub: I know I showed you the ume blossoms. These are not even close. No, they're going to take a closer look at them. These are not even close. So anybody who's panicking like, oh, yeah, warm in Tokyo. I heard the news and I'm going to miss the cherry blossoms. They're like blooming right now. It's not true. It's not true at all. All right. I'm going to bring you inside. They're going to take a look and see how they're budding. Let's take a look at a bud here. And we are way, way, way, way, way far away. I don't think you got anything to worry about. People just saying I don't see much budding. Just look closer to the tree. Nothing. Nothing. It's not even close. Judah Lynn writes in. She stopped work for this warrior. Yeah, I know this is just to be a Curry Pan episode. But like by the time I figured out that they were closed, there was like 200 people already waiting for something to start. Can't leave you hanging like that.

00:39:11 John Daub: Tag Rahof won some lottery. Whoa. Start sharing the wealth, man. That's awesome. Tag Rahof sharing the love. All right. That means I got to stop off and get something. I got to share the love with you guys now. But the residential areas of Tokyo are nice to walk around. And on a day like this where there's some sunshine, the sun is out. Tomorrow it's supposed to get cold. The temperature is going to drop. It was snowing in Fukuoka. That weather is coming up here to Tokyo soon. So this is the last day where we have spring like weather. And it's going to change back down to winter. Yeah. Congratulations, Tiger. That's really cool. Yeah. By the way, on Wednesday, I'm going to be giving an update on a situation that I can't say publicly. There's been a lot of developments over the weekend. I've been keeping up to date with all of the situation. And I want to address the question. This chat is off. I'm going to address the question that a lot of you have been asking me. I've gotten hundreds, hundreds of mails through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Patreon. Discord. All the social medias that I'm doing about I'm coming on March 16th. Is it going to be safe? Like all these questions. I'll address them in another video. Don't even write it. Stay safe. Don't write it. Thank you. You get upset.

00:40:38 John Daub: I would love to live here. Check it out. It's just like a cafe. You're on the second floor. You have a little table. And you're overlooking the canal. Okay. Very nice. Very nice. I'll address that all on Wednesday or Thursday. Tech 178. Heading to Tokyo March 9th through to the 18th. Any chance I'll be there for Hanami? No. I certainly hope so. If you. No. It's going to March 9th to 18th. At the end of the trip, you might see some early varieties blooming. But you know what? It's hard to say. They could bloom earlier. But even the first blossom happens at Yamanashi. Yasukuni Shrine, typically. And that's like at the earliest March 16th, 17th. And then you don't really see it until the 22nd or 3rd. So it might be a little early. It might be just a little early. Get yourself a drink. Mira. Okay. You got it. Let's find something to get a drink here. This is cafe town after all. Even if it's just a convenience store, I got to get something. I do like the coffee at 7-Eleven. And I know it's not overpriced. It's a dollar. And they grind it and brew it for you.

00:42:01 John Daub: Okay. Look at this. You know what? Okay. If you do come, you will see something. So this variety is very close to blooming. This could be Ume. I don't know. I think this is a variety of cherry blossom. It's very close. I'd say next week. This is Ume. I'd say next week you're going to see it. Yeah. They're going to pop open. It's going to be beautiful. This corner. Here's a couple right here. Look at her. She's just starting to come out. Oh, I'm enjoying the sunlight. Hey, you know what? I have some bad news for you, flower. Tomorrow, it's going to get like really cold. Soak it up now. Because tomorrow is going to be not nice for you. It's nice to see a little piece of spring coming out. There's a cafe, Kiyosumi, around the corner. Thanks, Brad. Let's go take a look.

00:43:08 John Daub: All right. So my bicycle is up the other way. This is the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. This is the Kiyosumi Park right here. And I did a live stream already inside of there showing you. And you can just see the tip of Tokyo Skytree over there. So it's about... Oh, I can make this light. Let's see if we can get something to drink here. The thing is, on Monday, a lot of these shops are closed. Oh, that looks so good. Amami daifuku. Check it out. But it's closed. $1.50 for one. That'll fill you up. Really, really chill neighborhood. Kind of a place that you want to live. I believe there's some guest houses. Some short-term residential places like Oak House, I think, has some places here. Like a sakura house kind of a place. A guest house where people will stay for two, three months. That kind of place. This is the kind of neighborhood where they've taken old abandoned houses and turned into guest houses kind of a place.

00:44:39 John Daub: Jeffrey474. Get an egg sandwich at 7-Eleven. Ooh. I saw that my friend and yours, Mike Chen, is here. And he's eating too much 7-Eleven breakfast. Although, how could he resist? It's hard to say no to a delicious egg sandwich. Look at the buildings here in front of the park. You know that that's... These are old. They look like the houses put up right after World War II pretty quickly. Some of them. And then afterwards in the 70s and 80s kind of renovated a little bit. But there's still two floors. And that was by decree. You couldn't have anything more than two floors. And you can see after time they seem to have added a third floor. Do you see? So it's like a house on top of a house. A house on top of another house. It looks like the laws changed and they did something with that. It's interesting. Very interesting.

00:45:46 John Daub: Hmm. This is a photo place. No, hair salon. Hair salon. So usually if you're going to a wedding or something, you'll go to the hair salon. Well, look at that pole. That's not the typical barber pole. It's not spinning either. Like, Kanai's sister's wedding is coming up and she's going to be going to a place to get her hair done. Professionally. Because you can't... It takes a lot of work. You can't really do it yourself. There's a Lawson's up there. That's nice. So there's a guy here. And he's got the flag for kids to walk safely. Because after school, he's got a ransel backpack. Do you see? So after school, there's a lot of school kids walk across the street. And local areas like this have people to make sure that they cross when they are supposed to cross. It's a nice little service. Basically, Japanese society wants to minimize any risk. There's a chance, you know, that you can decrease the risk by 5% by having these guys out here. Of getting hit by a car. Then they're going to do that. It's good for society.

00:47:15 John Daub: Chinese restaurant. Hey! What's that kid doing? It's a hooligan. The mother's right there too. Careful now. Careful, kid. When I was teaching kids English, I was a children's teacher for seven years when I came to Japan. Disciplining kids is like almost non-existent. Papa's usually away working. And mama is pretty liberal. I've seen kids like punching and climbing all over. And parents won't do much to discipline. Because they know that the kids' lives are going to be so hard when they grow up here. When they start entering into school. Alright, I think I've actually gone by here too. This shop. Takahashi Edo Miyage. So this is a gift shop here. You can stop by right across from the park. I've been around for a while. I think he chased me away for filming once. Came out with a broom. Didn't run at first. I thought he wanted me to sweep up the place. And then I registered when I saw this angry grin.

00:49:03 John Daub: This is a rice shop. That's cool. These are rice bags here. You can see rice spoons for the rice cooker up here. They're not combs or brushes. Those are for the rice cooker. And you can see bags of rice in here. Interesting. I prefer buying the rice from rice shops like this. But most people buy them at supermarkets these days. Just plain white rice has a ton of flavor. The more you eat it, the more you can make that face. See? It's true. There's some genmai. Brown rice. It's very healthy. Genmai is good. I like Genmai. It's got a little bit of fiber. You have to wash it a little bit more. Or you can mix. White rice and Genmai. It's pretty good. Alright, I don't see a 7-Eleven. What? So, what? Monday is not the ideal time to be here. Basically, I learned Monday, don't do it. There's an izakaya over there. That's pretty cool. That would be a nice place to hang out. The park closes pretty early. There's the entrance to the park. All these people are leaving the park right now. It's a beautiful park. Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. The Kiyosumi Park is very, very nice. It's worth a visit. They got some Koi in there. There's a nasty looking turtle that stared me down.

00:50:52 John Daub: Let's get a drink here. Oh, they got the Max Coffee. These used to be not available in Tokyo. They were only available up in Ibaraki and Tochigi. They had a Max Shinkansen back then. It's super sweet. They just load this with coffee. So, if you like your coffee sweet, try the Max, man. It is, it will completely... There's no 7-Eleven around, Brad. This one's interesting. This is an official Olympic coffee. What? It's got five steps from five countries. What? The Georgia Five. So, the beans come from five different countries, and they made a blend out of it. There's a lot of varieties. It's only 100 yen. All right, let's give this a try. Even if it's awful, then I'll just... So, here we go. I got to get something. Here's 100 yen. Let's put this to good use. It's a clean one. Kind of curious here. Special price. Wow. Arigato. Wow. Did you hear the music? They have a little song that came out of it. Da-da-da. Dun. Da-da-da. Dun. Da-da-da. Olympic coffee. All right, let's try it. Frothy.

00:52:34 John Daub: People do not drink and walk. They'll usually stand around the machine. It's like a water cooler. I proclaim this an okay coffee. It tastes kind of chemical. Chemical. I'm just going to recycle it. Is there a gutter? I can't drink this. It's really not that good. When I said an okay coffee, I meant like it's not that good. Why are you looking at me? Staring me down. Kind of creepy. Why is your sweater on your head, first of all? It's disturbing. That doll doesn't even have a head. Slightly disturbing. Haunted. So, we've seen a few things. A few haunted houses and now a haunted doll. Night It Comes Alive animates itself. Walks around the shop. You can hear the footsteps. All right, that's pretty much all I got. My bike's up there. I don't know what... Yeah, this is a weird livestream, but it's a good one because I'm positive about my work. There's a map of the park. You can see it's old school. That's Kiyosumi Park. It's pretty nice. The pond inside's a good place to sit. Bring a coffee. You know, go to the cafe, get a coffee, and you can take it into the park and just sit there for half an hour or an hour with a friend. Just kind of relax. It's really, really quiet in there. That's one reason why they have the high walls.

00:54:57 John Daub: Wow, that's a ramen and a half, isn't it? It's a massive ramen shop. Let's go take a look-see. Let's investigate. Now, some of the bikes that mamas have are pretty high tech. If it does rain, it's okay. If it does rain, there's a shield for that. That's a big ramen. Bike bubble. Yeah. Look at that Hanjuku Tamago. That's a sign I want to put in my room, but it's pretty massive. I'm slightly upset about this Curry Pan bakery being closed. All right, we've got to wait for the guy to tell us it's okay. He's going to do his job here. All right, safety first. That's a pretty nice bike bubble. I guess Kanai's going to have to get one of those. That is a comfort inn. So this place is called Ramen Yamagoya. Ramen Yamagoya. Price is pretty reasonable. 750 yen, 850, 920, 900. There's 1,050 yen. That's the special. Look at that egg in there. Miso ramen with egg and bean sprouts. Nice. My favorite is the Kara Miso Negi Ramen. They don't have that. Or they do. Spicy. There's a super spicy, super spicy ramen. Not just spicy, super spicy. That means something. And then this one looks really good. That's their famous one. The Osusume, which is the recommended one. Osusume means recommendation. It has the egg in there. Look at that. It's a beautiful ramen. 950. About $9 for that thing. Pretty nice looking ramen. They're open until 26 o'clock, which is 2 a.m. All right. You know, it's confusing for me, too. There's only 24 hours in a day, but they go past it to 26 o'clock. That's what that means.

00:57:35 John Daub: Oh, man. That coffee was kind of nasty. Oh, check it out. I crossed the street. Cross the street. Cross the street. Do it. No, I missed it. Ah. Red light. Hey, is that egg sandwich really? I got to. That's beyond the witching hour. It's 26 o'clock. Witching hour is 12. Do you really? How bad do you want that egg sandwich? I have to go in there? I guess I got to go out there and get some food. I guess I got to go in there and get that 7-Eleven for the people. All right. Let me get rid of this coffee. Sorry. It just was not what I was looking for. Sorry. Sorry. I guess I'm not in the Olympic mood. It just was not good. Sorry. This was really, really bad coffee. All right. Let's go get an egg sandwich then. You asked for it. I'll go get it. Okay. Ouchiko. Why bike bubble for Kanai? I'm not going to say it. She wants five kids, okay? Yeah, the coffee is from 72. Kanai wants to have five kids and yeah, she's going to need a bigger bubble. Don't worry. If something happens, I'll announce it, okay? Don't get any ideas, Internet. I don't know why she wants five kids. I don't know why. She doesn't have one so she doesn't know what it's like to have just one. She wants five. I don't know. It's a lot. One is a lot.

00:59:52 John Daub: All right. Let's go in here. We got to go stealth because you're not allowed to film technically, all right? I'm just going to get this and get out of there, okay? All right. You're coming with me. You coming? All right. Let's do this. Come on. It's a clean one. Oh, there it is. Which one is it? Is it this one or this one? They both look good. This one has a shrimp cutlet in it. All right. Get one with the shrimp cutlet. Get one with the shrimp cutlet. 200 and there's 300 yen. All right. Let's have some. Let's have some. You can hide. Hi. Hi. How are you doing, man? Hey, you joining me for lunch? Dude, that dog is freaky, searching for me. Yes, a human can make these sounds. Let's confuse this dog. Here you go. That's right, I know your language. I think you know mine, huh? So why don't you try to speak a little English, huh? What's this ar, ar? Strange, ar. The master came back. He's not happy. Alright, let's eat this... Hey, that dog took a leak. He's not a very good master to his dog. I don't like that word master either. I like friend. Dog is an evil, evil streak in it. Small but violent. I know the kind. Let's have a dog, a Pikachu, a Peek-a-Poo. Let's have like a Pekingese poodle. That's the language I speak.

01:03:12 John Daub: Alright, let's do this really quickly here. Thanks guys for the super chats. I appreciate it. This is a nice way to say thank you by enjoying a sandwich together. This is a... I'm not going to eat the whole thing because Kanai... Listen, I can't eat the whole thing because Kanai is taking me out to dinner tonight for my birthday. So don't expect me to eat the whole thing. I've got to take care of my health. Health. Health as well. Don't do this to me. Oh, that bus is really close. It's a bus stop after all. It's blocking me, son. Alright, check this out here. This is 300 yen. This is a shrimp cutlet and egg sandwich. Oh, it's really zoomed in here. So I get the best of both worlds because 7-Eleven knows that you want to eat that egg one. So hey, maybe you don't want all egg? Throw in a shrimp cutlet because the shrimp cutlets are pretty darn good. Pretty darn good. I can't eat this all. Because Kanai is taking me out to dinner to my favorite restaurant. I don't want to ruin my appetite. Alright. I'm going to start off with... I'm serious. Five minutes later, Only in Japan Go has eaten the whole sandwich. I read the chats, okay? I know what you're talking about. Smells pretty good. Click the like button. Come on. We have 1,100 people. At least give me 500 likes. It's ridiculous. Click the like button. Come on. Look how far I go. Talk to dogs and I eat sandwiches on the street.

01:04:59 John Daub: It's good. A little bit of sauce on there. Mmm. A little processed, I think. I don't know why they cut the crust off. I'd prefer if they left the crust on. That's what you're waiting for. Half the viewers who came to Tokyo are like, this is what I want. This is what I miss. I miss this the most. And they get just that piece of egg right there to really make you want to buy it. And you'll never see this inside. They always put it on the outside so it makes you want to eat it. This is the egg salad sandwich from 7-Eleven. The one that... Everybody just loves. There's a piece of egg right there. Ah, fake yolk maybe. I don't know. I cannot confirm or deny it. But I can taste it. Doesn't taste fake to me. Egg mayo with a hint of tomato? No. I don't taste any tomato. One more bite. They do use a lot of margarine, which I don't like. When you read the label, it's not good, guys. Do not eat a lot of these sandwiches. Maybe you'll get sick. Maybe one or two, maybe. Don't eat these every day. They're not good for you. Nothing against 7-Eleven. Chemicals. It's processed food. Japan is one of the best in the world, if not the best, at making convenience store food look and taste good. But is it good for you? Yeah. No. Okay?

01:07:32 John Daub: Kanai, honey. I'm bringing you some leftovers. I love you. Always bring your wife something. A present. Always bring her something. I didn't give any of these away. But if you ever come and catch me, you will get one of these. You found me while streaming live on YouTube. So come and find me. You'll get one. Kanai's not going to eat that. She's going to have a smile and laugh, and then we're going to go out to eat dinner. I didn't want to eat the sandwich. She's going to actually probably get really upset because I ate the sandwich. We can cross the street here. She's going to get really upset. I saw you eat a sandwich on live stream. That's why you're not hungry anymore, John. Yeah, it's probably true. But I did it for the people. You know, that shrimp cutlet was okay. Compared to kimura pan in Ginza, there's no comparison. Kimura is just awesome. Kimura pan. It's like the best of the best. This was like if there was nothing else, I would eat it. If I was... Whoa. Yeah, there's a lot of margarine or shortening or something in there. And that egg salad sandwich, it's good. But yeah, I don't know. I don't eat too many of them. I did it for you guys. Kanai gets the rest of it. So there you go. Thanks so much for watching me eat an egg salad sandwich and clicking the like button.

01:09:20 John Daub: I don't know. This is kind of a busted live stream because the bakery I wanted to show you is closed. It's the first curry pan bakery in Japan. It started in 1927. They did it for historic... The historic history behind it is pretty interesting. When you can explain the history behind a food dish, it's awesome. So I will be back probably next week or later on this week maybe if I have some time. I got some other stuff I want to show you. What's going on here? Okay, a boat. Tugboat. It's pretty cool. Look at the birds following the boat. What are they seeking revenge and they want to get the pilot or something? Why are they following him? Thanks, Stacy. My birthday was actually when I was in Hokkaido at the... Wow, that was like a big bird. You see it? Now they're over me. It's like the anti-Toby. Do seagulls and crows get along? Are they mortal enemies? Because I'm on the seagull side if so. Those of you who watch the show know that me and the crows, we have a history. Seagulls don't strike me as being the smartest of birds. But they seem kind enough, right? Kind enough.

01:11:01 John Daub: All right, my bike is just... I see my bike. Okay. Thanks for joining me this whole trip. I didn't think I'd be live streaming this long. But this is a pretty good residential area. A lot of people are moving in here to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and you can see why. Loads of cafes, family-run restaurants, little bistros and shops with a lot of personality. That makes this a very livable place. A nice place if you look for a guest house. And you have it there. There's like another local restaurant. Just kind of these little closets in the wall kind of places. Never be intimidated to walk in there and just try it. But it's always better if there's a line because then you know the food is fresh. Sometimes you got to check Google reviews and make sure that people have, you know, go in there and eat. There's another little site. There's a kaya at night. These places really come alive. Little bistro. Organico. And where is my bike? Wait a second. Wait a second. Where is my bike? Listen, she's got two bubbles. Catch up to her. It's awesome. She's got two bubbles. Look, that guy's checking her out her bubbles too. Here it is. How you doing? No tickets? Not illegally parked? You happy to see me? Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Wonderful.

01:12:56 John Daub: There you go. Thanks for joining me on this amazing adventure. It's been real great. I'm going to go. I'll be back here in a couple of days or something. But thanks so much for supporting. It's been a pretty amazing month of February. Sometime this week I'll give you an update on that thing that's going on. I can't talk about, but you know, and then talk about it about your trip because I know a lot of you who are thinking about coming to Japan are a little bit worried about it. There's a lot of developments that have been happening. We're seeing more of a trend now where this is going. And I'll be able to share. I'll show you more than just give you give you news on it. Just show you exactly what it's like. And I think just walking around the neighborhood has a value to you. So you get a vibe of what it's really like in residential areas in Tokyo as well at this time because you all know what's happening with the news. It's hard not to. So I'm on my way home. Can I? We're going out to dinner soon. Got to do my hair. Bad hat head. And I'll see you probably tomorrow. Bye, guys. Last 20 seconds. Let's look at plastic models from the Toshu Cafe. Mabudo. How you doing? Pat Javi. Thank you. Thanks for the coffee. And that looks so good, too. Look at the fake crab on top. That's an awesome set, too. Gyoza. Fried rice. Ramen. Who's in on that?