00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Akihabara. There's the Yamanote line just cruising out of the station. And we're here to discuss this building right in front of us. This is the Sega Akihabara Building No. 2. It's been an iconic building for the last two decades. Coming here at the height of when this became kind of a tourist center back in 2003. And this building is going to... well, it's game over for this building. It accepts no more 100 yen coins.

00:35 John Daub: How you doing everybody? It is a hot one today in Akihabara and I thought I would come out here and pay our respects for this. The news broke. Somebody had noticed a sign that they put out there. There was no press release that this building with the orange stripes on here is going to be no more. And a lot of you who wanted to come to Japan to Akihabara before this pandemic broke out and had to cancel your trips, you won't be able to see this building. I don't know what's going to happen to it. If they're going to just take the Sega logo off of the orange stripes or what. What this building is going to be used for.

01:13 John Daub: There goes the Chuo line here in Akihabara. We're live. Had said that this building was actually a radio building where you can get radio parts and build radios. And I believe that because Akihabara has such a deep history with electronics going back to post-World War II, when this was a home appliance center. And now around the year 2000 Akihabara turned into video games. And then around 2005, 2010 it became maid cafe central, when this genre I guess broke out. And now maid cafes are kind of on the way down. Not even the tourists here are able to help support them. A lot of the old maid cafes have already closed shop at least for now.

02:07 John Daub: But let's take a quick look see at this Sega Akihabara Building No. 2 and say goodbye to an icon of Akihabara. After we take a look we're going to wrap around the block here. And I'm going to take you to the Denki-gai (Electric Town) entrance for Akihabara Station. And we'll walk around this neighborhood a little bit. Because I know that a lot of you really love Akihabara. It's one of the places that's so high up on your itinerary. It's nice on a summer day. A lot of you could be here, but you're not. I am, because I live here.

02:57 John Daub: Hey Chessy, Chessy, thank you from Hong Kong. As you can see right here, the sign is real. It says thank you so much for your patronage. Sega Akihabara Building No. 2 will be closed on 8/30. True story. And I was informed about this from our viewers who saw this news break on other sites. And it is pretty sad to say goodbye. Someone's really chowing down on that grilled corn. Hey look at the rubber duckies. Hey we're going to have to try some of these games. Give some love to old Sega World. So maybe I'm going to try to get one of these rubber duckies for Kanae Daub.

03:48 John Daub: I guess we can go in here and try to film a little bit. So let's do a quick in and out. If we lose this signal I'm going to be out in a second. So just want to say goodbye to this building. And we're going up the escalators here. How you doing? Arigato gozaimasu. Photos are okay. Alright. So let's see if we can get some nice shots in here before we say goodbye to the Sega World. Whoa. A lot of good memories were here. Whoa there's a lot of UFO catchers here.

05:39 John Daub: So there's other game centers upstairs. I want to get up there to the other floors. I'm afraid to take this elevator. Maybe the escalators on the other side. Let's go take a look over there. Whoa. That's pretty. That's a towel. I might have to come back and try some of this stuff. Alright. Let's keep going up. We're saying goodbye to the No. 2 Sega building. The August 30th in just about three weeks. It is the end of times for this one. Oh there's a classic.

06:57 John Daub: How do I get out of here? I'm trapped in Building No. 2. I guess the only way down is elevator. These buildings are so old. Alright. Let's wrap around one more time. Now I'm inside of the building. I hope you guys are seeing this in beautiful 720p. We're going to be leaving the building in about a minute or two. I got to take the elevator to get down. There's seven floors of games here. Whoa. These are like, whoa. We got to say goodbye to these things. These look awesome. There's nobody here. I should try one.

08:33 John Daub: We could only film on the second floor and then the higher floors are all closed. So let's say goodbye to this and then go outside. Alright. Goodbye. Number two building. So many memories. We're going down. Signal should get better when we get to the bottom. Here we are. We're back down. Hey Marty. Irvan's here too. Play anything. Alright. Let's get some UFO catchers. Watagashi. They sell it right in here.

09:21 John Daub: Let's see if we can get some UFO catchers because we want to support our local neighborhood UFO catcher. These pillows are comfortable. Look at that. They're cute. What about these school girl people? What's good? 100 yen. Cheap. I'm trying to get some coins. This building is open until August 30th. What will happen with that? I don't know yet. I asked the staff what this building will be after the 30th and he says he wasn't sure. So let's go in here and get some gachapon everybody. Not gachapon but these are the ones that are going to be in the building. These are UFO catchers. I wanted to try this little rubber ducky one because they're pretty cute. I figure I can get at least one. This is 100 yen.

10:46 John Daub: Button start. I figure I can get something, right? How do I do this? Get it. Get something. Do it. What is this? I'm not giving up so easy. Take two. Round two. Fight. Start. I can get this here. This one looks deeper here in the back. I can get this here. I can't go any further than that. Okay. This should do it. Here. Push the button. Ready? It won't go any further. Here we go. I figure this is as good as it's going to get. You have 30 seconds to adjust it. I learned this just right now. We're going to get that one little guy. Do you see him? We're going to grab him. Ready? Three, two, one. I got him. I totally got him. This is messed up. This is why I never play UFO catchers. It is so rigged. There's no way.

12:25 John Daub: People are laughing. Marty said to play any game and I think I accomplished that. Chicago Africa and John win something for Kanae Daub also have people press like and subscribe this video. Everglades Safari rocks on. Thank you, Marty. I think it's rigged. They're trying to get the last bit of 100 yen out of loyal followers of the Sega World. You know what? I might go back in here. Let's walk around the block and take you on a little trip. I'm kind of sad to say goodbye to this place. It's always been an amazing backdrop for videos that I made. All right, let's walk around really quickly, and we're going to wrap around.

13:20 John Daub: I like to go around because I know that this neighborhood, Akihabara, is changing so quickly. Maybe we'll come back and support this taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle) restaurant and have a taiyaki. I'm building up some hunger by walking around a little bit. But we're live in Akihabara, and I'm taking you around, saying goodbye to the Sega Akihabara Building No. 2, end of times. If you weren't sure where it was located, there is Akihabara Station right there. And it was just out the Denki-gai, the Electric Town exit, and then to the right here, right by the bridge, Manseibashi Bridge. That's also where the vending machine restaurant for the katsu sando (pork cutlet sandwich) vending machine is. So you get a nice sandwich over there.

14:09 John Daub: There's a maid from Maidreamin. That's the chain. They're the only maids that you really see in Akihabara these days. The city is always changing. There's building number one over here. Do you see that? That's underneath the Chuo line. And Sega World Building No. 1 is very clearly marked with the number one. That's still going to be here. There's no worry about that building. So at least there's one building, that fairly famous red one here, that'll still be there. But number two is gone. It sort of can't be helped. But Akihabara, the makeup is changing. We only see maids from Maidreamin, which is a shame. Maidreamin. Like the McDonald's of maid cafes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. McDonald's serves a pretty good burger, sort of.

15:17 John Daub: Because there aren't a lot of people out and there are virtually no tourists here, the signal should be a little bit stronger than usual. Akihabara Station has finished almost all of its renovations. I think all of it. It was really in bad shape for a long time. And now they took Radio Kaikan used to go all the way up to here with the sign. They moved that back. Put the iconic Radio Kaikan sign up here. And it gives it more space for people to walk, which is great for tourists. Because Akihabara was never made for tourists. In around 2006, 2007, 2008, this place was really popping with tourists. And then after around 2013, 2014, wow! It was like you couldn't even see the street. There were so many tourists in Akihabara. It just became a mecca for the anime manga. As anime really started to take off internationally, this became almost like a mecca.

16:25 John Daub: Although anime and manga, they just sell stuff here. This is not actually much of a cultural part. That would be Jimbocho, which is where Shueisha is. And a lot of the publishers are located that actually make it. But there's not a lot of things to see like here at Akihabara. It just seems like Sega owns Akihabara. There's Sega number 4. Which wasn't actually... I came here with NHK to film about 10 years ago. I was filming here for NHK Tokyo Eye. And this was an electronic shop. And there was a guy who would rap in the corner there and get people to come in. Because he was famous like an electric vocal rapper. Right on the corner there. And I'll put a picture of that on Instagram a little bit later on. That was a pretty good shoot. It was about the sounds and sights of Tokyo. And you could hear lots of different sounds that were only specific to the city of Tokyo. And that was one of the guys. And now it became the iconic red for Sega game centers.

17:48 John Daub: But I guess somewhere between 10 years ago and a few years ago, Sega took that corner. The pandemic has taken down this souvenir shop. A lot of the businesses in Akihabara are hurting really badly. It's closed until further notice because of the... Oh, it's just closed today. So it's open on other days. But not today. And this is the adult shop. 18 and over only in here. And you'll find a lot of unique things. I've only been in there half a time. Actually haven't been in there completely. So let's go cross the street here. And I'm going to take you around the other side. I'm not going in there. It's a family show.

19:30 John Daub: This Washington Hotel right here is... I've also filmed there for Tokyo Eye for NHK a while ago. Inside they have a train otaku, densha otaku (train geek) room. Where there's a train set. And you can go to the front desk and get the train that you want to use. A train set that goes around the room. And it's a special room that's always reserved like two or three months in advance. But if you go to the Washington Hotel and you call them, reserve the train room. Not a lot of people know about it. Maybe it is famous. But that was a pretty amazing episode. I thought maybe I would do that for the new channel. A little bit of wind here right now. There's the iconic... I guess this came around the same time that Akihabara came in. This is Yodobashi Camera, which many consider to be the biggest electronics shop in the world. China might disagree. I'm sure they got some big ones over there.

20:35 John Daub: That's where you can get the creme brulee donuts. And the cakes that look like meat. And things like this. Does anybody want a creme brulee donut? Click the like button if you're interested in creme brulee donuts. We're here for those joining us to say goodbye to Sega number two building, which is these iconic orange streaks on there. I'm looping around Akihabara now. I'm going to be taking you back there in about ten minutes. But if we can get to around 800 likes, I will buy some street food right up here. Which is going to be pretty cool. Because I'm hungry. Hey Kenny. I think the light is turning green here. Kenny Riddle. That JR Hotel Mets next to the station where you're standing besides now is newly open. Great place to stay if you're staying in Akihabara.

21:51 John Daub: We're getting close to 800 likes. It's up to you. The community decides if John eats or not. Welcome to Will Riley. An insider. Thank you. I just published last month's insider guide on Koya-san. Which is this amazing town. Sort of like Tibet in Japan. Exclusive for insiders and postcard club and Daimyo members on Patreon. Wow that's a long line to eat some ramen. Honda Ramen. It smells like humanity underneath here. Is that me? I never know if it's me or if it's somebody else cause it's so hot. Oh wow we're almost near 800 likes. Did not expect that. Alright. Let's get some street food here. And then we're going to wrap around and head back towards the Sega No. 2 building. Say goodbye to an iconic building here in Akihabara.

23:13 John Daub: Let's see if they have the raw beef. Oh they do! If Mike Chen is watching, Mikey. This is what we wanted to get last time Mikey. The raw beef meat cake. And then there's the katsu... the katsudon cake. It really does look like a katsudon and some ramen cake. I've eaten them all. I like the mini ones if you can't eat a full one. Yeah Mikey Chen and I were here eating and... Alright let's get one. Creme brulee donuts. Okay. There's not even a line. What's wrong? They put tapioca inside of a choux cream. Oh Nosh Abroad's gonna love that. Him and his tapioca obsession. I'm torn. Do I get a tapioca? You know what? Nosh can go eat the tapioca himself. Chimney donuts. That's a Czech Republic thing. Chimney donuts come from the Czech Republic. Kanae Daub and I had that when we were in Prague the other day. But the other day I mean like six months ago. Eight months ago. Christmas market.

24:33 John Daub: Alright let's try a creme brulee donut. These chimneys look good too. This one has tsubutsubu (poppy) kiwi. Interesting. Look at the kiwi inside of there. And there's a whipped cream with yogurt in there. But we're gonna have to go creme brulee. Oh that looks good. Onion gratin pie. That's interesting too. Now stick with creme brulee. Then creme brulee donuts please. Creme brulee donuts. Thank you very much. As you see the Shinkansen shink and bye. Okay let me break on through to the other side. I have wet tissue to clean my hands with the 70% alcohol.

26:19 John Daub: I'm gonna put you guys on a tripod. We're gonna try this creme brulee donut for the 1000th time. I think most of you have seen me eat this mama before. She's filled with delicious gorgeous custard. Ah! Pan up. Shane's here! Shane happy belated happy birthday. We're gonna dedicate this donut to Shane. Shane this donut is for you brother. From Akihabara to middle of nowhere Canada. Is that bad to say? He's up there. Here we go. Oh yeah. Look at it. It's burnt sugar on top of that donut. That's the Narita Express going by there. Almost nobody on it. Alright let's give this donut a try this way. It took me 25 minutes to ride my bike here. I think I'm gonna be able to burn this off. Itadakimasu. Oishi. Super oishi. Shane, omerito. I can't send the cake to you. Takes too long. I'll just eat it for you.

28:34 John Daub: Akihabara is turned into a really good... Raymond had a cold drink. You got it. I'll get one on the way. Thanks for that. DHL is pretty fast. But I don't have a DHL account so it takes a little bit of time. Alright I want everybody to hang in there. We're gonna be heading back to the Sega number 2 building. Say goodbye to this iconic building. We're wrapping around here. A little bit more to go. I just needed some energy with this creme brulee donut. This last bite is for... The donut is dedicated to Shane but this little piece of creme is for Irvan. And the rest is for the rest of the community. Because you have to share. So happy birthday to Shane and everybody else around the world if I ever missed your birthday. Creme brulee. Take care of your family. Onwards.

29:56 John Daub: Manseibashi Bridge is right here. So we're going to walk now. We're gonna walk underneath here and come back around. We're gonna walk underneath the Yamanote line and come back to Sega number 2. Gonna take us about 3-4 minutes. And on the way I'll see if I can get a drink. I'm melting. Average temperatures in Japan in the summer, you know like 32 to 38 Celsius which is in the 90s. But it's the humidity that kills. It just sucks the life out of you. I do livestream on an iPhone 11 Pro on a DJI Osmo Mobile 3. I do have wireless mics but the connectivity sometimes will kick out more than the 4G.

31:29 John Daub: And for those complaining about the quality and the length, I can totally explain that. Most people don't get the notifications until 30 minutes in. We want everybody to watch so the videos will be an hour long maybe. It's at 720p because YouTube throttles the signal. Even if it's strong because if the signal were to get weak, you could still make out the picture if they start up as an HD 1080p livestream. And the signal dies a little bit, it looks even more unbearable. So 720p is a compromise. It still looks fairly good. But three years ago, two years ago, I couldn't even livestream in 720p. So we can see that the technology is continuously improving. And I don't think it's going to be very long. Maybe in two months when 5G phones hit. And we'll be able to take advantage of that 5G signal. And maybe get some 1080p and 4K livestreams. Which I'm very excited about.

32:37 John Daub: But this channel Only in Japan Go has always been an experimental channel. A place where I can use this as a blank canvas. And express myself. Take you on location shoots where I'm shooting for other shows. Share with you a piece of Japan. And since a lot of people can't make it to Japan right now, I made it the mission to take you with me. And share places that maybe you'd want to go. Or you'd want to see too. Which is Akihabara. People complain about the length all the time. What are you going to do? It's a livestream. Longer is better. And the fact that 50% of the people are watching till the end kind of is a testament that maybe it's kind of working. So I don't get too bent out of shape with complaints.

33:27 John Daub: There's the Gundam Cafe. No I'm not going there. I promised Kanae Daub I would try to stay in the open. And away from people. So right now you are walking in Akihabara. It's not me. Because I'm taking you with me. The secret shrine is this way. For those that don't know. But it's now that secret side alley is open again. And if you are too afraid you can just go around the back. Where I exited in that video. Oh the wind is strong. I love this intersection as well. We're getting close to wrapping it up. But I'm going to take you across the street. And then through the alley where all the maids are. Be prepared for maids. Let's see how desperate these times are. Because the maids get more aggressive in recruiting people when there aren't any people in there.

35:47 John Daub: I see Jeremy Tan has just become a Patreon member. Thank you. Thanks for signing up. Whoa. What is this? Learn Japanese with video games. This is new. If you're interested in this one, I guess you can QR code that thing. Just take a screenshot and open it up in your Chrome browser or something. That's pretty interesting. That they made a game out of exploring Tokyo and learning kanji. Shinjiru (believe). Interesting. You heard it here first. No more games. We're going to hang a left here. It's the usual route. You guys all know where I'm going. We've got 2000 people watching. Definitely click the like button. If you like Akihabara and you want to see more streams from here.

37:13 John Daub: Every time I come here I have a different kind of a topic or something new to introduce to you. There's Super Potato for those... let's see how they're doing. This is also kind of way to confirm that these shops are still in business. Looks like Super Potato's doing just fine. Video games in general have been really huge. And Kanae Daub and I, we've been wanting a Nintendo Switch for a long time but we just couldn't get our hands on one. Not that many maids out here today. It's pretty calm. Alright she's really trying hard to get new customers to come in. This is so much like a video game. There's the Colonel right there. Colonel loves a good maid cafe. Crispy and juicy. Can't even look us in the eye. Totally ignored me now.

39:08 John Daub: This is my friends a vending machine company. I'm gonna call him and see if we can get inside one more time and highlight this because I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm gonna go ahead and get inside and... that was really interesting. Alright let me wrap it around now. We're going to say goodbye now. This is the reason for this live stream. We're saying goodbye to Sega Building Number 2. And since so many of you had to cancel your trips or can't make it to Japan, I thought I would bring you with me and about an hour live stream and kind of pay our respects to this building. And for many of you who can't probably make it back until 2021, this might be your last chance at a look at it live. Maybe mine too.

39:48 John Daub: Oh look at this there's some drinks here. What do we got? No no no I tried this salty lychee yogurt and I wasn't too happy about that. It's just salty and sweet. No I don't want any Red Bull. No rich green tea that sounds pretty good. Pump pump pump knows about the mannequin waffles. Interesting. Leon Sin Chua sad to see Sega 2 closing down. Yeah indeed. Okay I can do it. I can get this by Suica. Yeah and somebody told me that King Wong's here. Vending machine fund incoming. Thanks mate. I'm thinking that this orange tea looks really refreshing. There's something about this that makes me think it's going to be refreshing so I might get this. What do you think it's between green tea, mugicha (barley tea) and orange tea? Send me your comments. 10 seconds: orange tea, mugicha, barley tea or green tea. Somebody kept saying orange so I got the orange. Oh oh this feels so good. I'm overheating. I'm surprised that this iPhone hasn't been overheating.

42:02 John Daub: I'm not a germaphobe but in these times I sort of am. I mean if that plastic statue is a germaphobe why shouldn't I be right? I mean what does he know that I don't know? That's a full towel that they put on there. This is a nice gachapon. Let's keep on going. Over here on the left side they're selling beer here. I haven't seen that before right on the street. There it is over here on the left. Now in the center of your screens that is the Sega Building Number 2 that we're saying goodbye to. And I'm pretty sad because this has been the backdrop of many Only in Japan episodes and now it's going to be gone. And about 30 minutes ago I asked one of the staff members what is this building going to become and he didn't really know. He just said that he's just gonna have to transfer to another place. I don't think he loses his job.

43:04 John Daub: But I'll tell you what this replaced. This used to be, as I said about 30 when I started the live stream, this used to be an amateur like a make your own radio shop. So people would make radios and parts would be in there and there'd be a lot of sellers selling electronic parts where you can make your own radio and stuff like that. This building came about in I believe the year 2003. Before 2003 it was something else. It's pretty good. It's refreshing. Whoa so that looks pretty tough. There's some pretty interesting gachapon. That looks like Kanae Daub. Kanae that looks like you. All of it. Whoa. Retro cars it's awesome. What that's so creepy. What is that that's so creepy. Alright let's get Kanae Daub one of these. Oh no I don't have any more coins. No no what zombies. I don't think Kanae Daub would want that anyways. She gets angry when I buy your plastic stuff. She's like why are you buying this you know I don't gonna like cherish it forever and ever.

44:55 John Daub: Chuo Dori (Central Avenue), the main street. This goes to Ginza if you go straight this way for about two and a half kilometers. Get my mask on here and one last look at the great Sega Number 2 Building here in Akihabara. I'm already kind of sad. They actually have announcements for the other buildings I believe so there's stuff coming in the Sega buildings all over Akihabara. But there's the goodbye sign saying this building will cease operations on August 30th which is a Sunday. Sega Akihabara Building Number 2 will be closing on August 30th, the Sunday. Sorry about that. Thank you for visiting.

46:14 John Daub: So there you have it. I'm going to move over here to the corner. I'm going to take some questions and go through some of the people who have helped to back the show. Mr. Clayton Michigan fan laughing at your lack of coins. Hey go screw the blue Ohio State Michigan thing. Alphas you know it's welcome to the travelers. Yeah I'm so thankful for all the support guys for this. Right behind me is the building here. I took you inside so you might want to take a look at the playback. You can go up and film up to the second floor then they kind of prohibit you from filming I think. I'm not sure I didn't ask. Lovey uh takelo orange tea barley tea. Mr. Clayton oh I'm so sorry Mr. Clayton I saw it too late. Thanks you for the bad news. I don't know that's all I want to deliver to Michigan anyways. Thanks mate go Big Ten.

47:16 John Daub: King Wong uh I gotta find some waffles uh apparently. Kyle Dryer give us an episode where you have to buy one thing from every food vendor and see. That's actually pretty interesting. Better be a long bike ride. Yes I am worried about my health so I haven't been eating a lot of the junk food as the Chuo line goes by in the distance here. I just want to make sure. Nagi a hi John great work visit me is the park. That might be one of the things that I go to visit early next week. Mario Jose welcome to the new traveler. Mur 580s thanks for another great stream. That donut was good. Fall in three one one get some street food. You got it we're gonna do this another street food episode maybe in... Wayne Cobra B-Bop thanks guys.

48:17 John Daub: Photo look Hawaii sorry I missed this earlier we walked by the Sega building a bunch of times. Thanks for showing us again one last time aloha. Thank you everybody wonderful. Mad Hatta Marty yeah guys appreciate it so much. If you were going to that weird vending machine you just want to go straight and then after the bridge you want to make a left. If you're going to the weird vending machine installation go straight make a left it's about 100 meters. You can't miss it because it smells like a weird vending machine area. Yeah. My bicycle is right over there. I guess I can take you over there for the next five minutes or so. If you do have some questions go ahead hit me up. I'm happy to answer them about Akihabara this area anything that you have to talk about.

49:00 John Daub: We'll do another traveler's update at the end of next week. Things are changing pretty quickly. News to report but yeah for us this is the last time I'll be in Akihabara probably in August. Maybe I'll be back in September. Everybody wants to do a fair variety of different locations. We come to Akihabara quite a bit but it's always a very popular place for people. And once again if we get over a thousand likes I typically will come back because I know that you guys want more content from this area. Oh it's a hot day today. My favorite part of Akihabara I'm here that is actually the back alleys after this area where all the maids are. The back alleys on this side where Gachapon Kaikan is there's a lot of history back there. And if you go on the other side of the station the back alleys over there are pretty cool. There's some more retro game centers on that side that people don't know about. They might not be in business anymore but there's a ton of things that you can see here that you probably haven't.

50:07 John Daub: Maybe that's what I do. I go on the other side of the tracks and show you underneath the Sobu line going towards Asakusabashi. Maybe that's gonna be something interesting. I like that walk between Asakusabashi and Akihabara. It's about 10-15 minutes but you can see a lot of old buildings and some of the history of the city of Tokyo. And there you have it everybody. Boom on the corner of Chuo Dori. We have the infamous Sega Number 2 Building. Goodbye Sega Number 2 Building. We love you. You've given us years of those really retro orange stripes and we love your posters of manga characters with very little maid clothing things. Thank you Sega. Thank you also everybody. Have a good day have a good night wherever you're in the world. Click the subscribe button like button. New episodes coming on the new channel. I've been filming a lot this Friday so take a look for that. Bye guys from Akihabara. I'll get something for Kanae Daub on the way home. She doesn't want stuff from Akihabara she likes flowers and things like that.