00:05 John Daub: Hello and welcome to Akasaka Mitsuke, Akasaka, Nagata-cho. This is an area of Tokyo in the center of the city, and in this live stream today I'll take you around and give you a look at what this upscale neighborhood is like. Akasaka is a place I come to sometimes for TV appearances. TBS television has a studio just over there. I'll take you and look at that really quickly. Then we're going to wrap around because there's a lot of really unique alleys here.

00:38 John Daub: The population of Akasaka, this region, is actually not that big. There's about 17,000 people who live in this upscale area, but it's mostly company headquarters, some media companies, businesses. Lots of upscale restaurants, little bistros, beer gardens where salarymen or business people can drink at night. Lots of clubs, things like this. That in front of us, and we're starting at Akasaka Station, is TBS. You've seen the Fuji TV building which is in Odaiba, that really big silver globe in the middle of the building. And that there is TBS. I don't know, about 10 times I've been on a show called Hirunobi which takes place in this building on the first floor. One of the biggest TV shows, news programs on that network.

01:32 John Daub: Let's take a look. This is also a new building that's right above me. Check this out. This is also, I believe, one of the offices for Hakuhodo (advertising company), which is a huge advertising company. Those are the kind of businesses that you'll find here as well as Xerox, I believe, has an office here as well. That's a new building. Hey Brady! Brady's here. Great cocktail bars in Akasaka. I see somebody's been here before. I'm so happy you're doing a video here. Join me for the next 30 minutes or so as I take you around.

02:07 John Daub: Oh, you know what? I think before we go into the alleys, I want to show you something really unique about this area. The city of Tokyo has a lot of earthquakes. And many of the old buildings have been knocked down, especially after the Great Tohoku earthquake in 2011. This building though, and it depends on the owner, he didn't want to sell. If you look in front of me, this is something I think when you come out of Akasaka Station, just take a quick peek at it. Below the TBS TV building is this jungle. And this jungle is a house. With an owner that does not want to sell out.

02:56 John Daub: All the skyscrapers around it, the property price is probably astronomical. But I'm going to take you here just for a second. We're going past exit 3A of Akasaka Station. He just doesn't want to sell. And unless you find the owners and strike a deal, it probably never will be sold. Check it out. I've walked around it a few times. I've come here and filmed it a couple of times because... And the golden arches are on the other side of it. Do you see? But I guess he really does not want to sell the property or she. And it's been like this since probably the end of World War II. Just a quick look-see at this building.

04:00 John Daub: I always think it's going to be torn down. But it just stays here in the middle of Tokyo. You don't get any more central than this. It's so central. Not that far away. I believe somebody lives in there because I saw a light in here one night. And there's a mailbox that looks like it's been kept well. But the American Embassy is not that far away either, by the way. Akasaka is known for having the American Embassy. So this is prime real estate that he's got this house on. Kind of a piece of history. I would love to get a tour inside. But being right next to a television station, I'm sure that they've... He's turned down requests repeatedly. I'm sure of it.

04:51 John Daub: All right. We'll walk through here. And you can see the TBS. The entrance to the TBS station right there. Tokyo Broadcasting. And now let's go ahead to the back alleys of the Akasaka area.

05:12 John Daub: Now believe it or not, well, Tokyo has 23 wards. And just like New York has five boroughs. So these 23 wards were all shifted over time, over history. Akasaka was a ward until just after World War II in 1947. It was swallowed up by Minato-ku (Minato Ward). And now it's a part of that. But it used to be its own ward historically. It was like the 1880s all the way up to 1947. But again, after World War II, a lot of the buildings were destroyed. A lot of these buildings, new buildings came up.

06:01 John Daub: Nomura mai. Thank you. And welcome. Welcome to some new travelers as well. Thank you so much for joining and being members of the Only in Japan Go. We're close to having our 25th emoji too. The more members we get, the more emoji we unlock. That's kind of a fun thing. Is that Kai? I thought that was Kai up there. That's not Kai though. I got a friend named Kai and he always just appears randomly. That would be funny if he just appeared right there.

06:55 John Daub: So businesses are always changing here in Akasaka. For those that know the area. It's now 3:30 PM. Those who know the area probably recognize some places. Yamaya is a nice liquor store. That's a shame though. They're renewing right now. So I can't get anything. Hotel Rex. This looks new. Oh, look at that. They have like water coming down the windows there. How cool is that? But you will find some trendy shops here. As I said, this is an upscale neighborhood in Tokyo. So things are a little bit pricey. It's a little bit more expensive here. People have company money or they're looking for a quick bite to eat.

07:39 John Daub: This is a soba restaurant (buckwheat noodles). The turnover here is probably super fast. Look at how good that looks. This is a tendon (tempura over rice) with a hot soba on the side here. That costs 690 yen. What? 690 yen. About $6 for this. That's crazy. And this is 590 yen. For this. 100 yen cheaper. That's an incredible deal. And look here. That's a delicious looking hidegiku katsudon (cutlet bowl). This is 640 yen. And here they're using the kanji Japanese characters to be there. All right, let's keep on moving.

08:26 John Daub: This steak place is taking over as well. The Ikinari Steak shops. Those are some awesome motorbikes. All right. This is the first of the alley. But when you get... If you do stay in Akasaka, explore. Take a look at the back alleys. This is a neat place to stay when you're not in a pandemic, I think, because you don't want... The nightlife is not something that I would explore. There's the alley back here. Like, you could explore for two days just the back alleys of Akasaka. Get lost and discover so many new things. It's so... Like, old traditions also... Don't die here. There's... Looks like a family-run yaoya (greengrocer) or vegetable business. The peaches are just out a week ago. Now, the supermarkets everywhere smell of delicious peaches from Okayama. The white peach has also been spotted.

09:39 John Daub: Jeff Ang's here. Hi, John. Enjoying the live? Get something to snack on for you and Kanae? Absolutely. I'll bring something back for her. She's at home right now. Maybe watching. Brad Fletcher's in the house. Just a suggestion for the... Oh, hi, guys. I'm the host of the other channel. Kaito Suiju is master of the Hisui School of Batojutsu (sword drawing art) and instructor at Hisui Tokyo. Interesting. I'll check that out. I've been getting so many episode recommendations.

10:07 John Daub: And check this out. This is a karaoke place, but they seem to take bread maker bread and just take out the loaf, cut the top and the bottom, and then they put toppings on it. And this is like a karaoke specialty. Karaoke. Sorry, the signal was kind of dead in that area, but we took a look at some honey toast. Very nice. Yeah. In the alleys, the signal's not going to be so good. So, we'll do our best to keep this thing rolling. Thanks, guys, for the questions and the super chats there. I appreciate it.

10:51 John Daub: The numbers in Tokyo have been increasing. It's not nearly as bad as what's going on in the United States, but it is concerning. So, I'm doing my best to social distance, wear masks everywhere. And I'm actually... I'm actually out. If you're on Discord, you know I was filming an episode of NHK's Tokyo Eye today in the studio. We had a really good episode about how small businesses in Japan are starting to... 70%, well, here's the data. 70% of small businesses in Tokyo have seen sharp declines in sales, and half of those 70% have 50% or less business, and many of them have shut down. So, we wanted to feature on Tokyo Eye today. And we're going to show you how businesses are evolving, which is an idea that I have in an episode that I'm going to release on the new channel next week.

11:44 John Daub: Speaking of which, the new episode is done. Patreon supporters have already gotten an advanced preview of it. A reason to support on Patreon. One of many things. And you get a postcard. I love the alleys just walking around here. All right.

12:03 John Daub: Do you guys remember what this is? Do you remember what this is? We've just connected the dots. I think that's Hie Shrine. Yeah, that's Hie Shrine. This is an episode I did about three months ago where you can go through these red torii gates (shrine gates). They didn't get the motorcycles. Keeping us safe. So, this is where you can see the red torii gates go up here. You don't have to go to Kyoto in order to get that. You can kind of see a little bit of the orange right there on the side of it. I'll put a link right up here. You can take a look at that last live stream. It's pretty interesting.

12:54 John Daub: But a lot of restaurants are open. A lot of the bistros and cafes. Pretty pricey. But that's why they... Oh, I like this. Look at this style here. It's going to pan over here. They've just opened all of the doors. They have takeaway in the front. This is the new economy. Takeaway in the front. A menu here. You order it right there and they bring it out to you. Or you can eat it outside at these tables. But even the bar is there. If you do go in, they've opened the doors wide open to get some good air in there. It's a pretty neat looking business. But that's what you get in upscale Akasaka. I'll be using that word a lot because every single guidebook writes upscale. So I guess they can't be wrong, right? They're guidebooks. None of them copy-paste from each other. Which is exactly what they did. Everybody had the same words to describe Akasaka.

13:51 John Daub: Alright, check out this... I believe this is a sushi shop, right? Hold on. Oh no, this is a shabu-shabu shop (hot pot). Whoa! Check out the inside of the shabu-shabu shop. And you can see the deli slicer where they get the wagyu beef so thinly sliced. That's shabu-shabu which is really thin slices of beef and vegetables in a nabe (pot). Boiled. And it's really healthy too. Japanese hot pot or shabu-shabu. I just say shabu-shabu. But when you're doing shabu-shabu, you go like this. Shabu. Shabu. All the kids will say shabu-shabu. It's the motion of moving the meat so it boils evenly and quickly. You only put it in the hot water for, I don't know, like 10 seconds and it's cooked. Kind of takes the fat out of it as well.

15:05 John Daub: Upscale. Famima's got unagi bentos (eel rice boxes). 200 yen off of the unagi. I guess nobody's really ordering them. That's a pretty good looking bento. Devon E's here. I went to Japan twice in 2018 and barely missed you in Akihabara. Ah! During a stream that year. I'm in Akihabara like once a season. I bought tickets for September this year but obviously that won't be happening. Yeah. Hope to be back soon. Here's something for you to get some lunch. Thank you. I'm gonna put that to good use. And Suzette S for a drink or snack. This is gonna be, maybe I'm gonna take Kanae out for dinner.

15:45 John Daub: We usually, if we go out and we go out maybe once a week but we've been scaling that back to twice a week. We usually will eat dinner at when, like when the restaurant first opens because we figure that's the safest time. So we eat it from like 5 to 6 p.m. And then we ride our bicycles home. Oh, here's another really nice place. There's a bar outside. Looks like an English pub with the Union Jack on the board out there.

16:20 John Daub: Let's look back at, look back at the street that we just came down from. There's still a little more ways to go. Let's make it up this way and then we'll track back a little bit. But when you walk through Akasaka and we're walking towards Akasaka Mitsuke which is another station. It's these little alleys and the businesses do change quite a bit. But these little alleys you're going to find really trendy shops and little restaurants. This connects to another alley street on the other side. Like this one, this pizza place has been around for a few years. They're obviously because business has been pretty quiet. They're doing takeout all over the menu and the prices are down. 500 yen. That's a pretty cheap pizza. Looks good. I can see Kanae and I sitting outside. Why isn't she here? Oh, I forgot. She's got work to do too.

17:32 John Daub: I left my bicycle at Akasaka station. The studio for Tokyo Eye is, we film here, not at the central NHK broadcasting in Shibuya. We film in Akasaka at the studio here. Here's another upscale Italian place in Austria. Oyster bar. We got sushi. Oyster. Fresh blue fin tuna sushi combo and they show you the trays here so, you can even just for if you're not sure what nigiri sushi that you want, you can just come out here and point. This one is one of the more popular ones. This is some looks like chutoro (medium fatty tuna) with some ikura (salmon roe) uni (sea urchin). Some shrimp. It's the whole assortment these are pretty good although I think it's a little pricey but you get what you pay for usually and the location is really good. Akasaka is going to be always a little bit more expensive.

18:40 John Daub: Here's a kaisendon (seafood rice bowl). $20 for this thing right here. This negitoro (minced tuna), which is minced up tuna with Welsh onions, green onions, is about $10. A little bit over that. It's not a bad deal. I love negitoro. It's so like, I don't know, so soft. I love onions. I could just, I eat onions like apples. That makes me weird. Oh, did the burger place go out of business? There used to be a really good burger place here. All right, we're going to, let's cut through here to the other side. Yeah, the burger place is out of business. I didn't think that it was a hard, this is a hard place to find inside here.

19:53 John Daub: Here's another alley. You see loads of businesses going all the way down to, I believe in that direction is Roppongi. Yeah. Hey, Brenda. I'm glad if I can get to see you, if I can get you live, John. Here's something to quench your thirst. If need be. I can do, let's see if we can, I can maybe stop into a convenience store. I'm trying, I'm trying really hard not to go into places. And basically reduce my contact with other people is the best way. Craig Kawaguchi's in the house. Little dance in there. Thanks, Craig.

20:36 John Daub: What is that? Bolognese. Bologna. This is different kinds of pasta. Italian cuisine is very popular here, especially for lunch. You'll find tons of bistros, right? This looks like another Italian place out here. And you know what I've noticed? There's not a lot of business. It is 3:30. Okay. It is 3:30. There's not a lot of business. And a lot of these restaurants here, they've bought food trucks. Now they have brands. People who live in the area know about a lot of these, these bistros. They have a name for themselves. They buy food trucks and they've been going to the neighborhoods of where they live and taking their business there. And people can eat the food that they make here from the food truck. And they've been able to survive, keep their businesses going. One of the chefs will be in the food truck. And this, I've been researching this. There seems to be some sort of food truck association.

21:37 John Daub: Oh, I feel bad for this doggy. I want to take you for a walk in the park. How you doing? How you doing? Look at that. Look how small he is. He doesn't even know he's a puppy. Hey, Barry Kay. Look at that restaurant at the end of this alley here. Off of the street, you would not notice it, right? You would not notice it. It doesn't take much to trigger Shane, does it? Shane is triggered by the cute things here. There you go. Gosh, I want to buy. I would love to buy a puppy, but then I'd have to be home to take care of it. Ah, that's a cute puppy.

23:03 John Daub: All right. So here's the end of it. There are a lot of hills in Akasaka. So let me take you to another alley really quickly. We'll loop. We're looping around to Akasaka Mitsuke. Is that Irvine? Irvine. Someone say puppy. You too. The dynamic duo. It's always nice to have you guys. The Shane Irvine. I just wanna show you the bond connection here. The one reason why I also wanted to film this. I haven't been in this area for a very long time and I know that the businesses change hands so often here. It's very hard to because the rent is high. It's very hard to make a restaurant successful.

23:52 John Daub: That looks so good. What is that? Oh, Dan? Oh, that is some store of wicked. Oh, Dan. How do you do? Hanjuku tamago (half-boiled egg) baby look at that ajitama (marinated egg) what is going oh look at that how do you do that in an ondan. I've never seen that before sake 3:30 is not a time to eat but I think I will pop into a convenience store and get a drink that's the Spanish flag again a lot of embassies in this area I believe the Spanish embassy is also in this oh I've eaten there once I remember now it's like 15 years ago though the Spanish embassy is also in this area so there's a lot of influence with foreign restaurants because of that the American embassy as well which is like a fortress I rode my bicycle by there and I just I always get nervous I don't know why just it's a lot of police presence seems everybody is doing take it take away hunt it's half price the food now fried rice that looks really good it's a nice looking second menu oh and here's a glass man manufacturer since 1936.

25:13 John Daub: That's a tough year they started the business like right before the war that's a tough year beautiful look at that set the glass I believe it's it says 27,000 or about $250-300 for that that's beautiful to Koro this phone booth has seen some action can you imagine the entertainment district phone booth it doesn't get used a lot anymore but you we're not going to see these around too much longer they do take coins and phone cards and you can only get the phone cards at the convenience store I believe only at the convenience store they come they started at a thousand yen or about ten dollars but it's better than popping coins in there because the coins don't last very long gosh that takes me back to like 15 years when I first came to Japan 20 23 years ago I had to use those phones all the time the gray ones have landlines like you can hook up and get the internet from the gray ones so I would I would had America online and I didn't have a Japan Network so I used to get the phone cards for ten dollars a thousand yen get the phone I got a massive collection of phone cards I would call the United States America online download all of my emails by plugging in my Dell laptop into it pull them all down take it back to my house respond to all the emails go back to the gray pay phones upload my emails through the through the internet connection on those on those pay phones and would cost me cost me about five six dollars to do that it's crazy right.

27:20 John Daub: If you were to go up this way you'll get to Aoyama so this road will take you straight to Shibuya let's see here yeah it's about four kilometers to get to Shibuya this way and Omotesando and Aoyama and the Olympic Stadium is over there I think I'm gonna have to get something to drink I'm gonna pop into a uh pop into a convenience store I think Starbucks opened up uh last month I think a little was it sometime in the beginning of June or the end of May I don't think they had anything uh special on the menu I'm trying to quit coffee good luck with that I tried once and I had massive headaches from withdrawal and went back on this is I remember coming here for the first time Honolulu coffee about eight years ago you can smell the macadamia nuts coming out of there really good here's another one of the alleys in Akasaka you can see has a lot of personality smell the macadamia nuts oh Honolulu coffee Honolulu coffee is doesn't seem to like to feature coffee though they're featuring everything but coffee that's funny I found it there it is all right.

29:12 John Daub: So welcome to Akasaka Mitsuke we're gonna walk back towards Akasaka Station there's one of the few Wendy's I think I thought Wendy's uh joined up with another company on the other side is where you'll find the Ninja restaurant and the first Hooters in Japan but I want to point this out we started at Akasaka Station which is the Chiyoda line (green) this is Akasaka Mitsuke which is the Marunouchi line (red) and the Ginza line (orange) and you can walk to they're not they're not connected but they walk from one to the other in just about like five minutes so it's very important for you to understand uh Tokyo's geography the subway stations are quite close together you don't have to go to that subway station sometimes instead of changing trains you can get out at a station that's very close to the one that you want to go to and that'll that'll allow you a faster walk and it's quicker that way than changing trains to try to get to that station that's close are within walking distance of each other um my friends at tokyochibo.com actually have a guide on how many minutes it takes to walk from one station to the other which is super cool when that was a brilliant idea that they did it'd be funny maybe to put that to put that to the test in a live stream.

30:38 John Daub: I'm going up this bridge here wouldn't hooters be offensive in japan why are you kidding me they were embraced by here all right i got a story quick one about the prince hotel there now there's a new building here but it used to be the prince hotel and they to tear down the hotel to tear down the prince hotel instead of uh dynamiting it i i'm not sure i'm not 100 sure on this but heard that they had a machine that cut and balanced it from the base down and the building slowly sank and they destroyed the building by cutting and bringing it down and there was it took a long time but they couldn't tear down the building in a traditional way they had to cut it down from the base i don't i would love to cover that story but i remember walking down this street here and watching the prince hotel slowly get shorter and shorter as they were they were knocking it down in a in a way not to disturb the neighborhood from this uh angle you got a really good view of akasaka um going straight to hie shrine which is where the red gates are that i took you a few months ago there's a big camera on the right side an electronic store where you can get just about everything besides electronics too and the left side uh is the hooters i believe it's still there and the ninja restaurant is somewhere around here i don't i don't think they're doing too well though i can't imagine it.

32:24 John Daub: So the distance between akasaka mitsuke and akasaka station is like five minutes but they're not connected uh underground and also nagatacho which is on the Hanzomon line (purple) so if you learn your subways and i snuck a map in some of the daimyo boxes for patreon supporters if you're learning your subway you can get around the city like a champ like a pro all right let's get around here i'm going to take you back to take you back to akasaka now through another alley that we haven't visited yet i said i'm going to take you back to akasaka now through another alley that we haven't visited yet had so many business meetings in this area john kimura i see you found those emoji thunderbeard's here akasaka is where my hotel was on my last trip last year it's it you know what i think if you stay in tokyo this is a really good place if you rent a bicycle everything from here is about 20 to 30 minutes it's pretty much you don't you can't get you can't get too much more center than akasaka you can't get too much more center than akasaka you can't get too much more center entertainment is really good there's the big camera they're open but not a lot of customers going in there because it's a you know the pandemic.

34:10 John Daub: So this is what i was telling you about um there's the nagatacho station it's connected to akasaka mitsuke station do you see the two stations and then these stations you have to get out and if you walk for like a few minutes you get to where we started that's the only distance but they're not connected so it's good to know some of these uh subway lines so basically in this live stream we started here and we walked down this alley and around here and then up here and we're here and we're going to go back this way back this way but definitely explore hiei shrine and the other live stream connects with this one now and then uh um over here in the back area that old house that i showed you is the old house and then we walked down this right right around here i believe oh sorry right over here yeah and minato ku is the ward it's a big hub it's it's very convenient to get around.

35:13 John Daub: All right let's get uh and by the way i had a friend who was a model and i remember one day walking by here and i saw her picture on the wall there i was like whoa and then i asked her how much she got paid for the job and it wasn't that much but it was a pretty big a pretty big job because it's a pretty big picture whoa they have the uchiwa (hand fans) or fans out here you get these in the summer you can get them for free just about everywhere and then you can see inside of the shop they have the alcohol pumps everywhere and also some of the tokyo olympic goods which aren't selling very good because i don't know what's going to happen if at the end in 2021 i don't know just kind of feel it you know feel sad for for the situation a lot of people uh haven't been doing too well because of this all around the world but tokyo especially because they invested so heavily in it oh she's got a face shield on awesome it's nice to see people wearing face shields kanai and i were thinking about wearing them as well because it allows you to when you have a face shield on it allows you to eat nosh look away nosh boba tea look away i love the plastic models it really helps.

36:55 John Daub: This is so cheap 404 yen for this tempura that katsu don looks whoa kare katsu don set that is awesome look at that katsu don (cutlet bowl) and then it's on top of curry rice who thinks of these things it's so genius i think we can sneak into this family mart let's see if i get a drink here oh look at that they're selling they're selling bread from the window let's see see if i can get a drink here mr The boss is not here so I don't have to get something... I can get something healthy. Let's see here. Soy milk. Oh, here are the drinks. Whoa! That looks so good! Alright, what are the selections here? Lifeguard is a weird drink. There's nothing unusual today. Let's get some Ito En (tea brand).

38:43 John Daub: I'm kind of hungry. Look at that, just a piece of bacon with egg on there. I don't need it. 300 yen. Thank you. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you all. Listen, so... Oh look at that, they're in kimono. So listen, in all of the stores around, bags are no longer free. All plastic bags you have to pay for. None of them are free anymore. So this is actually a really good thing. Hey, Cosmin's here! Awesome! Is that from Romania, right? Nice to see you! I haven't been able to send the postcards. And yeah. And Devon E, I recognize a few spots you were walking through from my last time. Avoid the subway whenever possible. Yeah, you can walk around just about everywhere here. Yeah. Inuglier is here. Good afternoon. I saw Barry from earlier. Introverted Otaku! Yo, I was so curious with all of your favorite summer vending machine drink is. My summer vending machine drink? I stay simple. I just like tea. But every now and then something unique will pop into a vending machine. Yeah, those are the ones that are really good. You just try it once. Try it once, right? And Joanne and Anjun, thank you so much for being members. Really appreciate it.

40:48 John Daub: Alright, let's... Even at the supermarket, everyone has eco bags. Bags that are reusable now. Because you have to pay 5-10 cents per bag now. Family Mart wanted 3 yen for a bag. That's kind of... That's not that much money. But when you have to pay for it, I think you respect it a little bit more. And that's a good thing. I don't think we need to have all of these plastic bags anyway. Because I think 1% of them end up... Whoa! There's a big natural loss. 1% of them end up in the ocean, I think. Which is really bad. I got this. And I wanted to try this with you guys. Because it's kind of weird. Excuse me. This is a Famima bakery. This is just a piece of French bread. But they've put mentaiko (spicy pollack roe), which is a spicy fish egg on top of it. So I was wondering about that. Mentaiko. And it has like a mochiri. Like a mochi-mochi consistency to it. So this is going to be pretty interesting to eat. So let's chow down on this at the intersection.

42:03 John Daub: Spicy fish eggs. Shane, you would love this. Seeing how much you enjoyed the takoyaki in Osaka. I think you would love this. I saw that video. Shane was not a fan of takoyaki. Alright, hold on a second. I'm going to put the tripod here. Oh right, yeah. Oh right, right, right. I forgot. Kanae, I didn't forget. You have to wash your hands. Yeah right, sanitize. Good call guys. We have alcohol tissues here. Alright, here's the fish egg on here. Let's give it a try. Oh, really good. Shane, you would love this. That's really good. I'm going to save it. Mmm. In the summer, they make these bigger. You get an extra 100 ml on things. This is Kyoto Ito En Tea. That's good. So in the summer, the sizes of the drinks in the vending machines are a little bit bigger. So you get a little bit better value.

44:51 John Daub: Let's go take a look down this alley. I think we came this way. We came this way. Whoa! This leads back to the main street over there. Nothing to see here. Nothing to see. Dead end. I'll get my mask back on. For those of you who didn't hear the announcement in the beginning, new episode is going to drop tonight for sure. 100%. In fact, Patreon supporters already have gotten a sneak peek at it. We call that early access, I believe. 20 minutes long. The craziest festival I've ever been in. And that's saying a lot. I've been to some crazy festivals. Minus 8 or 9 or 10 degree weather that's 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Outside in a thong. Running around and people throwing snow and water on me. Oh my gosh. That's the coldest I've ever been in my entire life. Oh, we went. I went to some anime song DJ event there. Anime song DJing event inside. That's changed a little bit.

46:25 John Daub: Here's another typical alley. Whoa! Window shopping. A5 Wagyu Shabu Shabu. That's what I'm talking about. 5800 yen. About $50. Oh, there's tataki (seared meat). I love tataki from Kochi Prefecture. So good. Really good assortment of sashimi (raw fish slices). $15 for that. Sashimi assortment. I'm working up my hunger for dinner now. There's the boss. The boss man's right there. Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee's not just the boss. Tommy Lee Jones is the iron boss. Oh, man! That's so... Badass. Look at that. He was born to promote that coffee. He's been doing it now, I think, for over 30 years. He comes to Japan to do the photoshoots and commercials and they're so happy to have him coming back to Japan.

47:41 John Daub: Hey, the bearded bro-hame. John, long time fan, first time livestream. Welcome! What was the hardest transition for you living in Japan other than the language and the culture? Whoa! Isn't that the transition? Language and culture? The distance? When you move... I was 23 or 24. When you move this far away from home across the Pacific, you feel it. There's this kind of... Let's just say I wanted to go back home. It would take me 24 hours. I've got to buy a plane ticket, go to the airport, get on the airplane. That didn't really hit me until I first moved here. That was kind of a big deal. There's a Don Quixote right there. The Don Quixote has come in different sizes. This is a small Don Quixote and it's called a Picasso. You get kind of the good stuff.

48:47 John Daub: Now I'm okay. But back then I was like, whoa, I can't just go home. The language was also... And the culture was huge. A lot of people who come to live in Japan or maybe in any foreign country after you hit the six month period, that newness of, whoa, I'm in Japan dies off a little bit. We have what's called the six month blues. And the six month blues is... We didn't go down this street here. The six month blues is where things start to crash a little bit. You know in six months if you want to stay or you want to go. Because you've got to go through all the procedures. You start to see all the flaws of Japan after six months of living here. But it's those flaws that make Japan so awesome. We're safe. If you lose your wallet, it's returned to you. People are non-violent. But they huddle in groups and circles and they need confirmation on everything. And they're leaderless. I mean you look at all the good stuff and the bad stuff but after six months you tend to focus on the bad stuff. And every single English teacher when I first came here I said, no, that's not true. Maybe nine out of ten really did not like Japan after six months. That kind of was tough.

50:12 John Daub: This karaoke place. There's another alley that goes there. And then we're back to where we started. The business tower. I believe that's Hakuhodo's headquarters. One of the ad agencies here. We're back to where we started. A lot of yakiniku (grilled meat) places. A lot of trendy businesses. Sort of looks like a cousin of mine. Sort of. Not really. Sort of. Whoa! Coco Ichiban has got crunchy menchi katsu (minced meat cutlet). Oh, look at that! Yeah! That's so good. And if you're vegetarian you can get rid of that and anybody can eat it. They have some good. I like the way that Coco Ichi places the eggplant in a line like this. Symmetry is important. There's even fermented soybeans. Natto (fermented soybeans) on the curry. It's pretty intense.

51:32 John Daub: Kanae and I will probably, maybe we'll one of these days go out and do takeout. But we're trying really, really hard to either do takeout or eat at home. But once in a while we'll go out. But because Japan, Tokyo had 250 people come up with the virus today, it's increasing. We see that there's a spike so we're kind of worried about that. Trying a little bit extra to stay safe. That's where we started. Akasaka Station.

52:12 John Daub: BerryQ, welcome to being an insider. I'm just about to drop as well to insiders one of my secret PDFs. Information about Japan that'll help you travel here. So that'll be really nice to get some feedback. Also if you're an insider, you also if you're a Postcard Club member on Patreon I share a lot of the things on there. So you don't have to do both. But I'm very appreciative if you do. If you do, that's cool. There's the TBS building. Television. Tokyo TV. No, sorry. TBS Tokyo Broadcasting. And we're back again.

52:54 John Daub: I hope you enjoyed it. This is sort of just an overview of Akasaka. I think I certainly missed a lot of places. There's a statue. Oh, I think it's straight ahead. I kind of just missed that one. I kind of just missed it. There's a statue there. In the rainy season, they put a raincoat on him. It's like a little Buddha. And it's really cute. But it's a little bit further. It's a little bit away. In front of one of the shrines. That way is Aoyama. This way is where I'm going back home. In the direction of Tokyo Station. I hope this was a lot of fun for you. Definitely click the like button. We're kind of short. 427 is not nearly enough. You must really hate this livestream! What? If you like this pigeon, click the like button. If you want to see him cross the road, click the like button. If you want to see him stay on this side of the road, click the like button, we should say. He's doing a pretty good job of following the street. Good. Thank you. Stay safe, pigeon. Stay safe. I'm tracking you. We found him again. Stay safe, pigeon.

54:12 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching. Thunderbeard, you're a block or two away from my hotel. Really? Really? Can you see me? Have a good day, everybody. Thanks so much for watching. I'll be in another livestream. Maybe a midnight snack run is coming up. Again, tonight, if you're in the US in the morning, the new episode is going to drop. It's done. I'm really excited. About 20 minutes on the John Daub Only in Japan channel. Little heads up notice. I'll put it there in the end of this in the playback for tomorrow. You can get there really quickly. Have a good day. Stay safe, everybody. Wear your masks. Brady wrote it in there. It was a great cocktail bar. There's a lot of cocktail bars here. A lot. Joseph from Slovakia. Oh yeah, I remember. In Hiroshima I met you. Bye, guys. Oh wait, hold on. Denise, I see yours here as well. Thanks, Denise. Bye, guys.