00:00:06 John Daub: You would hardly believe it. Huh? It is actually snowing in the center of Tokyo right now. This is March 14th, the day after Friday the 13th. And I'm freezing. It was 20 degrees Celsius, 68 degrees yesterday, Fahrenheit. And now it's completely like going down to zero. It's literally at zero or 1 degrees Celsius, which is 32.

00:00:39 John Daub: And it's starting to come down a little bit. It's. It's not a white out, but it was just. It's just something so unique. You don't see this much at all. What do you guys think? I came here by bicycle. This is the International Post Office. I'm sending some postcards and some packages to supporters here.

00:01:10 John Daub: But it's rain or shine or snow, apparently. So I'm going to take you around a little bit right now. I can't see the chat. Hold on a second. Here we go. Yeah, sometimes I can't see the chat coming up. This is so weird. Just. I can't even explain it why I'm in like heavy sweatshirt and rain gear right now.

00:01:41 John Daub: I came, you know, as I said, by bicycle. I came by bicycle. It's pretty crazy. I'm gonna walk around Tokyo Station so you can see this snow. What weird phenomenon. I don't know how this is going to impact the cherry blossoms. I do know that if it freezes overnight and it does get cold, it might have an impact.

00:02:12 John Daub: The cherry blossoms are at the budding phase, so they're just about to break out. They were loving a week of sunshine and now we've got this. You can see it better when you get it from a distance. That's the Maru building, the Shin Maru building in the distance. It keeps on swinging back and forth between rain and snow.

00:02:45 John Daub: Sometimes it'll be rain and then it'll just boom. It comes out as snow. You can see it right there pretty clearly. Right? Snowkyo is back. Well, it's weird though. I don't think it has snowed at all this year in Tokyo. Really. It didn't accumulate anything. And then here we go in March and we got snow.

00:03:16 John Daub: It's bizarre. I cannot explain it. So if you're visiting right now, good luck. Not only are all the attractions closed, but it's snowing and freezing outside. And some of you might have brought shorts. I'm talking to those Canadians and our friends from Scotland who wear shorts, like all the time.

00:03:46 John Daub: It's freaky. What is going on with the world? This is the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Do you see? This is not the most surreal. Look at it, look at it. Right. Derek writes in, after a record early first bloom, those poor cherry blossoms have come out. They thought, oh, okay, summer's here, it's safe to come out. And then boom, Mother nature throws them a curveball. Isn't it just like the world today? It's gone mad. I tell you, it's gone mad.

00:04:19 John Daub: So I'm going to take you over to the Tokyo Olympic sign tonight. Prime Minister Abe is going to be giving an important speech about the situation here in Japan. We know that President Trump in the United States did that yesterday and a few days, a couple days ago, making important announcements. That's coming tonight here in Japan, another announcement. I'm not sure how that's going to impact the Olympics, but a lot of talk has been going on on this, mainly because I turn it around here, mainly because the Olympic torch was lit in Greece and it's supposed to make its way to Tokyo. But I mean, what happens to Japan?

00:05:35 John Daub: Do they keep, first of all, hope the torch isn't extinguished with all the snow. But what happens to Japan, the Olympics, if the torch is here, do you just keep it alight for. For a year, for three months? There's so much debate and so much uncertainty. Now if you look down. Hey, Liam. Thanks. You better believe I'm gonna get a coffee after this.

00:06:10 John Daub: Oh man, my hands are freezing cold. I came by bicycle, so after about 5, 10 minutes of riding through the snow, my hands just had to. I was doing one hand on the bike, one hand in my pocket. There in front of us, the clock that counts down towards the Olympic Games of 2020. And we have 132 days. But this could change tonight, it could change next week. I don't know. It's weird, right? The times we're in.

00:06:40 John Daub: Snow mixed with rain, right? What do you think. Today? Hey, hey, failed off break. Snow is a no go. Stay warm, stay safe. Thanks. I'm going out. I'm one of these adventurer types. I don't care if it's snow, snowing or just lightning. I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna go and get stuff done. It's just weather, as my family in the UK used to say. Friends and family, it's just weather. Oh man. Oh, my hands are freezing. What happened? I was in shorts yesterday. I was in shorts for the entire week. There's the Imperial Palace. Somebody knock on the door of the emperor, please ask him.

00:07:51 John Daub: Excuse me, sir. Your Highness, what's going on? It is snow mixed in with rain. People were interviewed. People were asking me on the Discord server where we've been debating a lot of travel situation here in Japan. People been at was writing me non stop. Is it snowing? I hear it's snowing. Could you please go outside and show us the snow? It's kind of, it's kind of not the. I don't know, it's not like a heavy snow like we had in Sapporo last month. But we're looking back at the old Marunouchi facade of Tokyo Station. Here it is snowing and yeah, the cherry blossoms are early and it's snowing. It's just bizarre. I really. I'm kind of at a loss of words. I just can just be quiet and show you. It's 1 degree Celsius or zero. It teeters between minus 1 and 1. So it's right on the fringe but there's a slight breeze.

00:08:58 John Daub: This is Tokyo's exterior from 1912, I believe. And it's, it's modeled after Central Station in Amsterdam. Sort of. I believe kind of has that feel if you've ever been to Amsterdam. Central Station, Central with two A's, I believe. All right, let's go this way. If you missed it yesterday, I was at Yasukuni Shrine. That's the controversial one. And that's where the Tokyo index tree is. And if you missed that video, go back into the playlist. Not a lot of people saw it. Check out the first blossoms of cherry blossoms. The first one popped out and I was there at the tree to see the first Somei Yoshino variety of cherry blossoms. I was able to snap a quick photo of it. Just two blossoms popped out yesterday.

00:10:06 John Daub: Oh gosh, we get snow all over. Brendan's here. John, save yourself in cold wind. It's Lake Akan. No, run for it. Run for the. Get behind this wall. Alright, Make a break for it. That's how we did it in Lake Okana up in northern Hokkaido when it was down to minus 30, minus 15, minus 30, even more with the wind chill. We're talking like north Canadian temperatures was up there in Hokkaido, but just really bizarre. I, I'm glad that I, I get a chance to record this live again. You can see this. The snow is not as, as much as it was about five minutes ago, ten minutes ago when I started. But you could see it coming down. It's a mix of snow and rain but it's just like. It doesn't make sense. So many things don't make sense.

00:11:39 John Daub: Brandon, what's going on? Emmanuel Khan. What's going on? You know, guys. Zona, tell me. Sean. I don't know. Sean's in. Sean says aloha. He's in warm, warm Hawaii. It's supposed to be warm here. What's going on? That's the new Apple store. There's like, nobody inside. I think there's three people. They opened one up here. Used to be just Ginza, Monte Sando. There was one in Shibuya that shut down, and now there's one here on this side of Marunouchi. It's beautiful, but there's really not a lot of people on the street. I came here just to deliver stuff at the post office. I always deliver, almost always deliver postcards and stuff from the central post office because they put a Tokyo stamp on it.

00:12:51 John Daub: And if you're interested, you know what? I'll go and deliver the postcards inside of here. It's always nice if you've ordered it, to see it being put into the mailbox. That's the Tokyo's international post office. It's called the Kite Building. Kite means stamp in Japanese. And it's kind of neat to. It's kind of neat to see the changes that's happened over in Tokyo over the last 20 years. And this. This building here was. Was really old. And they renewed it, and inside it's beautiful. But they just didn't renew the building. They put a skyscraper in it. Look at that. That's inside of the stamp. The post office building. They put a skyscraper on top of it. So it's pretty cool what they've done with that. Maybe we can take a look inside. Hey, guys, if. If you want me to continue with Snokyo here, click the like button because I'm freezing. But I will go on.

00:14:22 John Daub: I gotta get some stuff for Kanai. And today's White's day. That's where the man. The man returns the favor to the woman. And she bought me chocolates on. On Valentine's Day. And I have to buy her something today. So I'm also out to get some desserts. She said I want something healthy. That doesn't make any sense. You gave me chocolates. You're going to get chocolates? Because I want to eat the chocolates too. It's healthy. What should I get her? Carrots. She's not going to like that. I can't win. What's that? If you have any healthy ideas, that's where I am right now. There's Tokyo Station. I'm right here on the side. That's the International Tokyo Central Post Office right there. Hey, Peter, thanks a lot. Carrot cake? Maybe that's a good idea. Where do I find that in Tokyo? Huh? All right. It's kind of. The snow's starting to dissipate a little bit. I see flakes mixed in. Flakes mixed in with the rain. As. As this sun goes down in about 20 minutes, it's going to start to get colder, I believe.

00:16:04 John Daub: And then if it can, the precipitation continues. It'll be snow. It's just really bizarre to have snow in. In like mid March. Like what? It's the 14th of March, people. This isn't we. This isn't normal. I think there's a conspiracy. Michael Sassano, Shericano Sapporo. You mean a warm can of sake? Maybe it's raining in California. We got reports now. What's the weather like where you're from? Why don't you ride in here while I pan across Tokyo Station and you're watching live because this is a live streaming channel. Oh, there are some pastries. Hey, that's a great idea. That's a great idea.

00:17:04 John Daub: Maybe they have a mil for you, like a French pastries. Can I. Could I. If you're watching this, turn off the tv. There's a place where you can get some. Some French milk views. And they're pretty. They're pretty pricey too. It's hard to get like the good stuff here in Tokyo. So I might. Maybe I'll go check that out on the side here. Yeah. Oh, my word, it's freezing. Oh, my hands are all red. Yeah. For those that have had to cancel their trips to Japan, I want to say that, you know, I'm not going anywhere, so I'm just going to keep on. I'm going to keep on bringing you live here.

00:18:08 John Daub: Hold on a second. For those of you who don't know, I do these live streams for a lot of people who can't make it to. This is my scuba diving bag. So I put the postcards in here. So let's go deliver these into the international post box. We'll come out and see if it's still snowing in a couple of minutes. But I gotta warm my hands. Oh, wow, the snow's really coming down now. Look at the flakes. They're huge now. Yeah. If you can't make it to Japan or your flight was canceled or you just decided not to come, I'M gonna take you around the country. Kanai and I are thinking about renting a car next week. Kind of going up north a little bit, staying safe. Maybe get out of the city with a. Rent a car. You can do that?

00:19:43 John Daub: Those are tiny snowflakes. No, they're not. I don't know if you're seeing it. They're getting bigger. They weren't that. They weren't that small before. I guess it could be bigger some places, but they're getting bigger. It's crazy. I'm freaking out also, how do I get back home? You see what I mean? It wasn't like this five minutes ago. If you just wait a little bit, it's gonna get more and more. All right, let's go take these postpartum in. All right. My hands are frozen. So who are these postcards for, anyways? By the way, I still got some postcards available. I can turn the screen around. Here's the postcards from a scene in Kyoto. I think I got about. I reordered some, so I have about, I don't know, 20 left now. So if you're interested, this is going out to Ranjit, Robin, Lena in Norway. Yeah. Oh, it's so cold.

00:20:44 John Daub: All right, let's go do this. All right, let's go do this. You guys. I'm gonna go put this in the mailbox. All right, Ready? Postcard drop. And then we're gonna come. We're gonna come back out. So let's go to the international post office. Drop here. Welcome to Tokyo's. Boom. All right. It's nice and warm in here. Look inside the kite building. Huh? Check it out. It's really beautiful inside of here. They have a big Christmas tree during the. The holiday season. Let's go take a look and see if they have those Meal for yous at that French. The French bakery. That'll be a really good. That'd be really good white. Stay. Present. Problem. Okay, let's get out of here. All right, back. Out we go. Auto door. These are not the drones you're looking for. All right, here we go.

00:22:20 John Daub: Yeah, the flakes are getting bigger and bigger, everybody. Hey, Irene, thanks for the coffee. That looks like warm spiced wine, though. Is that some gluewein or something? Glue. I miss my friends in Germany and hope everyone's doing well. There's a Yamanote line with snow going past it. That's in itself insane. If you're joining us right now, it is snowing in central Tokyo. It is one of the most bizarre March afternoons ever. Yesterday it was 20 or around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Today it's zero. And there's snowflakes. That's. You're, You're. You're. You're not seeing it wrong. And that's the Hato bus, which has, like, nobody on it. All right, here's that French cafe. Let's go take a look and see what we got for Kanai. Who knows what train line that is? It's not the Yamanote.

00:23:22 John Daub: All right, we're on a mission. Hold on a second. I gotta buckle this up. This is my scuba diving bag. Done. All right, cool. Thanks, guys. Let's go inside. I wonder if they have the milfyu. Oh, they do. They do. They got the milfyu. All right, I'm leaving my bag right here. I'm gonna go get 2.2mil for yous. Okay. This will be good. Oh, that looks really good. What do you guys think? Let's get two of those. Oh, man. Brulee looks good. Oh, that eclipse. Another. Summary. That's a. That's 15 bucks for that. I gotta keep going. Cool. Okay. Oh, all right. I'm halfway done. This is not enough. I wanted to get a sandwich, but I need to.

00:24:27 John Daub: I need to keep going. All right. And I'm happy she was using gloves, too. That's good. The biggest problem right now is that people are people, and people are wearing the masks, but they're not doing it correctly. They're. They're. They wear the masks, but you adjust it only by the strings and not by the front. And once you touch the front, you have to wash your hands again. This is the times that we live in. But if you're touching your mask and you have gloves on, it doesn't matter if you're wearing gloves. But, like, if this was two or three months ago, it wouldn't have mattered. People didn't really notice it.

00:25:29 John Daub: Now, even the television, Japanese news, when they do interviews of business owners, they will. All the business owners have masks on. And the host will watch them. And the entire national audience is watching them. And often they're adjusting their masks, including the reporters, incorrectly. And the host on the other side will correct the store owner or the reporter, don't touch the front of your mask. It's pretty. We're at that stage where I'd say 80% of people in Japan that are wearing masks are not doing it for this reason. They're actually doing it for hay fever or for pollen. That's what Kanai's got.

00:26:32 John Daub: Really bad hay Fever. That's right. What you see is snow, everybody. And yeah, that's why everyone is wearing masks, but they're wearing it incorrectly. So if you're wearing masks for preventative measures, then you're going to have to make sure you do it correctly. And that's one of the reasons why they tell you it doesn't work. Well, it doesn't if you. If you don't know how to use it. Yeah, it's. It's one of the most insane March afternoons ever. And I've had some insane ones, usually with the cherry blossoms and friends and a bottle of wine. But this is another scale. This is on another scale. Hey, Cindy. Pastries. Such a great idea. See you in April. Yeah. I hope it's warmer in Canada than it is here.

00:27:37 John Daub: Ando writes in here. Ando 11:35. I have no self control. I buy one of everything. Happy Wednesday. Thanks, Ando. Oh, man. Here's my bicycle. The good thing is that it's naturally called cold outside. So the. The milfyos are going to be just fine. I'm ready to go home now. Look at that. I've been carrying stuff in this waterproof bag so everything stays dry inside. Hey, Sicarapanpante. Thank you. Big thumbs up. Speaking of thumbs up, if you want to go for a ride with me, give me a thumbs up. This gimbal's already drenched. I might as well keep this live stream going for another 10 minutes and show you a little bit more of the city of Tokyo.

00:28:50 John Daub: So if we can get to 500 likes, like really quick, I'll take you on another adventure. Just a little. Keep going tonight and tomorrow. And for the next few days, I'm not going to be going out as much, but once the cherry blossoms go, I will take you outside and show you some of the blossoms, just in a responsible way. Probably earlier in the morning, which is evening in the United States, or at night when there's not a lot of people around. But during the day I probably will be home. I got a lot of stuff to do. Yeah. Hey, Marty. Ah, thanks, Marty. Marty versus the cake. Marty. Actually, one of the things I sent was that I sent for Marty as well. It's nice to see. Hey, Austin, get some hot chocolate. Thank you. And Arun is. Anjum is here. Make. Make her a pie. That's not a bad idea. Make her something. Yeah, this is not a bad idea.

00:29:56 John Daub: All right, guys, let's. Let's go for a ride. Just for a little bit. Let's go see what the international Forum Is like right now. That's in. That's in. Yurakucho. Hey, BS Fatboy. Welcome to the pate. My hands are so cold. There we go. All right, are you ready to roll? All right. I'm not looking at the screen right now. I'm looking at the road. So I'll be back with your chats in about 30 seconds. We're going to go around the corner here. You can see the snow is really coming down. The flakes are getting bigger. We're going to pass the French Cafe. They went in Shibuya too. Oh, I had my mouth open. Got snowflakes in it. It's like a kakigor. Here's the International Forum. Oh, look at that. Izakaya. Oh, it's a hakata mutsunabe restaurant. Oh, den. Very nice.

00:31:30 John Daub: This is where the weightlifting venue is for the Tokyo Olympics. Wow. Oh, mama. Ha. I'm gonna go in here under the tunnel. When you ride the bicycle, the wind hits your hands. It's so cold. Ah, it's so cold. All right, guys, let's. Let's move on ahead here. I don't think it's cold enough to get frostbite, but it is at. It's at 1 degrees. It's at 1 degrees Celsius, which is like zero. All right, I'm gonna go take a right and then go towards Ginza. Here's. I'm gonna use the back. Back road so it's safer. Mostly taxis out. I don't see very few. Very few normal cars. Look at the snow coming down. That's Tokyo Station. The Yai sudden. That's if you go this way. But I'm gonna take you on a little ride before I go back. See if I can get some more. More goodies for Kanai towards Ginza, which is this direction. We gotta wait for the traffic. Traffic light. By the way, for those of you that are taking night buses and stuff, this is the bus station.

00:33:09 John Daub: On this side, it's. There's a Willer bus station which is separate from the Junior highway buses. So you might want to mark that down on your mental map. I know you all have one, But nothing is accumulating. It's pretty much just this. It's about 5pm I'm on my way home. I'm not. When you. When you don't take. When you do social distancing and you don't take public transportation, you're gonna be okay. Masks aren't gonna do anything in. In the cold. Riding your bicyc. Thanks, guys. We got to 500 likes. Awesome. Now you know what the next plateau is? It's a thousand. Gonna hang a right here. Let's go down this alley towards Ginza.

00:34:13 John Daub: Snowing is not as much right now, but if you. If you go back in the playback, if you're joining us now, you'll see that the snow is really coming down in front of the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Not a lot of people up. Foot traffic, as you all know, is way down. It's a Saturday. Most people are watching tv, streaming something. Oh, there's Eyebrew. Oh, that's a. That's the Pull up bar. Where? That's the pull up bar. Where. Oh, hello. Hey. How you doing? It's cold, isn't it? How you doing? Oh, that's me. Yeah, I was following you. Oh, yeah. Like, how far were you following Tokyo Station? I was at Tokyo Station. Whoa. I'm mobile now.

00:35:18 John Daub: I'd shake your hand, but we're doing the social distancing. What's your name? Hello. What's your name? Well, I go by mala culture on YouTube. Okay. From Taiwan. Oh, awesome. Is it easy traveling around Japan right now? I came up from Osaka, by the way. Okay. I'm actually living in Osaka right now. Oh, right. It's crazy, right? With the snow. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was. I was like. Earlier, it was like snowing, so. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. All right. I'm gonna. I gotta keep going, but it's nice to meet you. I don't actually have any cards. I know. Do I have any? Hold on. I can check real quick. Sometimes I have a backup. Yeah, I don't have any cards. I've suspended my. My. Found me, by the way. Yeah. Oh, sure. Thank you. You're welcome. Be safe, okay? Yeah.

00:36:51 John Daub: All right, so now we're in Ginza. I could take you through some of the alleys. Turn around. Hey, David, I gotta go and get something for Kanai. I'm looking for some more white state gift. So I think if I go. I think I got the cake settled. Maybe I should go get some chocolates, huh? I don't think a lot of people are buying the chocolates. Let's go down this alley here, and then I'll show you Ginza really quickly, and then I'll cut you loose. This snow's kind of dissipating. The precipitation is not as strong as it was about 30 minutes ago. But it's still pretty neat to go around the city of Tokyo and see how. What it's like in the middle of March with snow. I'm still really, like, confused. David. This is weird. Hey, Alex. Are Italians.

00:37:52 John Daub: I don't. I don't know on the situation. I think it depends on which area you're from. Jnto, Japan, national terrorist organization, has an amazing website that is updated almost daily with things like this. And I know that the Prime Minister is going to be giving a speech tonight. Everything could change. That's another reason I wanted to send things at the post office. Make sure it gets on the plane like tonight. Japan Post is so fast. And by the way, if you're thinking of joining the postcard club, I got about 20 more. I made some more printed up for this month so you could jump onto Patreon. I will send them on Monday. I'm on a bicycle. I'm not looking at the screen, so I don't see. I just look at the screen every now and then. But actually, if I look at the screen, I see where I'm going. Just also digitally looking through the screen, It. Left here. Oh, my hands are frozen. All right, I'm gonna get off here. Let's see what Ginza's like.

00:39:28 John Daub: Yeah, it's. Okay. Oh, mama. Oh, it's so cold. Welcome to Ninja Ninja. Not Ninja Rats. I saw the comment. Welcome to Ginza Yonchome, which is the big intersection here. In the center of Ginza, there's the Nissan building. And I'm panning around and you can see there's a little bit of precipitation, a bit, little, little bit of snow falling right now. Mitsukoshi right there is under construction. The facade, they finished the entrances to the station. New exits and entrances to Ginza Station, which is really nice. And then right above us is Wako, which is a department store. Historic department store. This building, pretty historic. They ring the bell once an hour and there you go.

00:40:38 John Daub: Pretty cool, huh? When. When Snowkio is in full. Impact. Thanks so much for watching. Leave a comment below, let me know where you're from, what you think of this. I'm gonna be taking around the cherry blossoms next week, but I'm gonna be staying inside and going off peak hours just to be safe. And if you're traveling in Japan, please do.

00:41:12 John Daub: Don't take any risks, guys. Wash your hands and be safe out there. I know it is a tough time to be traveling. I wouldn't recommend coming to Japan right now. But if you are, please, please, please be safe. Think about your family before you go out to that drinking place. Have a nice day, guys.