Only in Japan Go — Transcripts
Summaries + full diarized transcripts
2020-08-31 · Ep 788 · 58m

Tokyo Midnight Snack Run Beyond Sushi Bentos

Tokyomidnight walkconvenience storestreet foodTokyo safety
Summary

Tokyo Midnight Snack Run Beyond Sushi Bentos

Overview

In this midnight adventure, John Daub takes viewers on a rare late-night walk through the Hachōbōri neighborhood of Chūō-ku, Tokyo. Filmed on the cusp of September, John highlights the dramatic shift in weather from summer humidity to autumn coolness. The journey begins with a convenience store run—not for the typical sushi bento, but for seasonal autumn beers and unique late-night snacks.

John explores the quiet streets of central Tokyo, demonstrating the safety and tranquility of the city at night. He visits multiple convenience stores, sampling items like egg salad sandwiches and tendon (tempura rice bowls), while sharing insights into Japanese culture, recycling practices, and the evolution of Tokyo into a runner-friendly city. Along the way, he showcases the Sumida River, historic bridges, and the unique vending machine culture, all while interacting with his live stream audience.

Highlights

  • 00:04:00 John introduces the midnight snack run and notes the sudden change to fall weather on September 1st.
  • 01:00:00 John visits a convenience store specifically to get an Asahi beer for a viewer named Mr. Das.
  • 04:15:00 Discovery of a custom-fit vending machine designed for a tiny space.
  • 06:42:00 Tasting the "autumn flavor" Kirin beer (6% alcohol) by the bridge.
  • 14:06:00 Observation on rural vending machines serving as the only light in some towns.
  • 24:54:00 Browsing the extensive food selection at a 7-Eleven, including uni-kama and okonomiyaki.
  • 32:57:00 Taste test of the famous convenience store egg salad sandwich.
  • 36:58:00 Trying the tendon (tempura rice bowl) with special tare sauce.
  • 45:30:00 Discussion on the evolution of Japanese toilets from benjo to high-tech washlets.
  • 49:37:00 Insights on Tokyo becoming a "running city" with dedicated paths along the Sumida River.

Timeline / Chapters

  • 00:00:00 Intro: Midnight in Tokyo & Seasonal Change
  • 01:00:00 Convenience Store Run for Beer
  • 04:00:00 Walking the Hachōbōri Neighborhood
  • 06:40:00 Autumn Beer Tasting by the Bridge
  • 13:00:00 Commentary on Video Titles & Safety
  • 23:30:00 7-Eleven Snack Hunt
  • 31:20:00 Eating at the Bridge (Egg Sandwich & Tendon)
  • 41:30:00 Sumida River Locks & Running Paths
  • 50:00:00 Supporting Artists & Gear Talk
  • 55:00:00 Outro & Health Check

Japan Travel Tips

  • Safety: Tokyo is safe enough to walk alone at midnight, even in central wards like Chūō-ku.
  • Convenience Stores: Open 24 hours with high-quality food; look for seasonal items like autumn beers.
  • Drinking: Public drinking is generally accepted in Japan, unlike in many Western countries.
  • Recycling: Recycling rules are strict; John emphasizes recycling chopsticks and containers.
  • Running: Tokyo has excellent running paths, particularly along the Sumida River and around the Imperial Palace (5km loop).
  • Vending Machines: Found everywhere, sometimes custom-fit for tiny spaces; some serve as the only light in rural towns.
  • Etiquette: Keep quiet in residential areas after 10 p.m.

Japanese Language & Culture Notes

  • Kanpai (kanpai): Cheers. Used frequently when drinking beer.
  • Chūō-ku (Chūō-ku): Central Ward, one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo.
  • Kōban (kōban): Small neighborhood police box, common throughout Japan.
  • TASPO Card: Required ID card for purchasing tobacco from vending machines.
  • Don (don): Short for donburi, meaning a rice bowl dish (e.g., tendon).
  • Tare (tare): Dipping sauce, often sweet soy sauce served with tempura.
  • Seasonal Shift: John notes the cultural observation that September 1st marks the abrupt end of summer humidity.
  • Post-War Culture: Discussion on car colors (mostly black/white post-WWII) and toilet evolution (benjo to washlets).

Food & Drink Guide

  • Kirin Autumn Beer (Aki Aji): 06:42:00 6% alcohol, higher than standard beers, marketed as "taste of fall."
  • Egg Salad Sandwich (Tamago Sando): 32:57:00 Famous convenience store item, creamy, passes the "smell test."
  • Tendon (Tendon): 36:58:00 Tempura rice bowl. Comes with separate tare sauce packet to keep tempura crisp until eating. Contains large shrimp.
  • Uni-Kama Bento: 24:54:00 Sea urchin and crab bento seen in store.
  • Souffle Pudding Cheesecake: 53:30:00 Desired dessert but sold out at the late hour.

People

  • John Daub: Host and narrator. American living in Tokyo for 30+ years.
  • Kanae Daub: John's wife. Mentioned frequently; John saves food for her and notes her cooking (nabe).
  • Mr. Das: Viewer who requested an Asahi beer.
  • Trevor (Food Ranger): Fellow YouTuber mentioned regarding "epic" video titles.
  • Live Stream Viewers: Various viewers interacted with via chat (Victor Lim, David Kimura, Shane, etc.).

Key Takeaways

  • Tokyo convenience stores offer high-quality, diverse food options beyond sushi, available 24/7.
  • The city is exceptionally safe for night walking, even in residential zones.
  • Seasonal products (like autumn beers) are released precisely with the change of weather.
  • Tokyo has invested heavily in infrastructure for runners, making it a "running city."
  • Supporting local artists and performers is crucial during pandemic times.

Notable Quotes

  • 00:04:00 "It is so bizarre how the four seasons are so clockwork here in Japan."
  • 04:15:00 "They literally designed the vending machines to fit in certain sizes so they can fit the vending machine in any kind of size."
  • 07:17:00 "Only in Japan can you... well, not in the United States. You can't drink outside. But in Japan, you can."
  • 13:02:00 "Whenever somebody puts epic in the title you know that it's epic if you have to write epic in the title then it is absolutely not going to be an epic video."
  • 22:21:00 "Get lost a little bit especially in Japan you're gonna find some pretty amazing things in the alleys."
  • 45:30:00 "Incredible back then people were going duty in a benjo (outhouse)... and now they have the most high-tech toilets in the entire world."

Related Topics

  • Tokyo Convenience Store Food Reviews
  • Night Walking Tours in Japan
  • Japanese Seasonal Products
  • Tokyo Running Routes
  • Vlogging Gear for Low Light

Search Tags

#only-in-japan-go #tokyo #midnight #convenience-store #7-eleven #street-food #beer #japan-travel #chuo-ku #hatchobori #sumida-river #night-walk #solo-travel #japanese-food #vlog


Full Transcript

00:04:00 John Daub: Welcome to Tokyo at midnight. Like, it's unbearable. And then all of a sudden, September 1st comes, the weather turns to fall. It is so bizarre how the four seasons are so clockwork here in Japan. I'm outside because I've been promising everybody a midnight snack run for quite a long time, and I thought that this would be a good place. Then we're going to take a little walkabout around this neighborhood. I don't live too far away from the Sumida River. There's some really nice bridges.

01:00:00 John Daub: But before I move on to the next convenience store in the rain, this is how much I love you guys. I'm going to take you and get Mr. Das his long-awaited Asahi. He's paid me many times in advance for one. It's time to get one ourselves. So this is bento beyond sushi. Basically, I'm not getting any bento. So follow me as we go inside and get a beer.

01:47:00 John Daub: So the selections are... Oh, they got the fall beers out already. Oh, it's the autumn beers already. Still got the Olympic logo on there. Why does this look like a beer? This wrapper has a different color on it. Ground chicken and egg. Interesting. The baguettes just aren't as popular. And then we have all of the noodle dishes down here. We're going to try something at 7-Eleven, I think. There's soba. Oh, I love a good soba. But at this time of night, very few onigiri (rice balls).

02:54:00 John Daub: All right, let's get a beer and get out of here. It's okay. Two... Three. Thank you. The jingles are pretty cool, aren't they, Jay? All right, guys. We're going to do a quick kanpai (cheers) and then I'm going to take you on a walkabout. My bicycle's right here in front of this store. I do have an umbrella in case things turn bad. It is midnight. What bad things could happen in this area? I mean, would you walk around your neighborhood at midnight in the middle of a city? Only in Tokyo is this possible. And I'm in the center of Tokyo. This is Chūō-ku (central ward), which is one of the 23 wards. I've been living here for quite a while.

04:15:00 John Daub: Oh, look at this little vending machine. It's so compact. They literally designed the vending machines to fit in certain sizes so they can fit the vending machine in any kind of size. And they found in order to fit it in this little spot, that is a very, very custom-made vending machine for that spot. All right, let's go up here to my favorite spot. Another favorite spot. Now, instead of a vending machine, I'm going to plant myself. That's a bridge in front of us. And I don't know how good the iPhone 11 Pro's low-light capabilities are. We rarely test it at night. But the Osmo Mobile 4 or DJI OM 4 is doing a pretty good job with the stabilization. It's so quiet. Oh, there's a 24-hour supermarket and a convenience store. It's a little kanpai (cheers) right here at the bridge. There's a 7-Eleven across the street. There's a 7-Eleven across this bridge. Some of you might recognize this. This is the Hachōbōri area.

05:33:00 John Daub: Victor Lim, hello from Melbourne. Hey! And Jays in the house, treat yourself to a strawberry sando (sandwich), an emergency umbrella. I got the umbrella covered, brother. We're going to go across the river, across the bridge here. I do like this area. And I did look for an apartment here, but it is quite pricey. This bridge going back to, oh, I don't know, like, it's a very old bridge. I think it was like the early 20th century this bridge was made. And it's still in operation. They really knew how to do it. You can tell by the rivets. I mean, how good is this camera? Do you see the rivets in the bridge? They don't make rivets like they used to. Sounds like a frog. All right. I brought you here in the daytime before. Hachōbōri. There is a little shrine here. Show your respects to the shrine. It's kind of neat at night.

06:42:00 John Daub: Phileas Fogg. Welcome. All right. Let's do a little kanpai (cheers) here in the light. This is awesome. This is an autumn beer. You see this? It says, like, Aki Aji (autumn flavor). This is the taste of fall. And it's September 1st. It's so bizarre because I told you when I started this, every year, September 1st, the humidity just dies like magic. And it is very true. I'm shocked.

07:17:00 John Daub: I'm bringing you over this way. Here. I do have a tripod. Kanpai (cheers), everybody. Mr. Das, this is a Kirin. I'm sorry. Just for the record, I'm drinking a Kirin. I do have... Hold on a second. I didn't come here... I did come here with a light. I brought my camping... Some of you might remember this from my indoor camping. I'm sorry. I don't know if this helps or hurts the live stream. But kanpai (cheers), everybody. Only in Japan can you... well, not in the United States. You can't drink outside. But in Japan, you can. That is the thing with the autumn beers in Japan. They take a note from Germany on this, I believe. The autumn beers are so much higher in alcohol. I can taste it. This is 6%.

08:31:00 John Daub: Does this help or hurt? I don't know. I don't know how you feel on the other side. Yeah. Ann Dugan's here. Great night for a walk. I've seen better nights. But the thing with walking at night is that the streets are wet. And the glare from the street lights kind of makes it a little bit more mysterious and interesting. And the Asian Nerd is here from Hong Kong. First thing, love your videos. You are awesome. Second thing, look behind you. We're in the clear blue. You're a brother. Jennifer French is here. All right. And Jake Lugic, midnight livestream finally made it. Indeed. Little hanabi (fireworks). Thank you, Ann and everybody. Much appreciated there.

09:21:00 John Daub: All right. We're going to be walking across this bridge. But if you look on the other side, it is a pretty nice view. So I'm going to pan around here. I put the DJI Osmo 4 on a slow pan. So let's see how slow it is at full speed. Here we go. It's full speed. Very cinematic. It's kind of too fast maybe still. Just a little touch. Just a little touch. And you can pan a little more if you just touch it right there. Oh, there we go. Oh, that's a beautiful pan. Look at that. I love this little canal right off of the Sumida River. And they put some boats in here because it's a little safe harbor. But in the daytime, on the other side, they have all these cherry blossoms. And it's really pretty.

10:15:00 John Daub: I'm going to go to the other side. And look to the right. I'm going to grab my camera. Almost there. And look at this. There you go. But the other side's fine. I'm not going to go all the way up. Oh, my gosh. Look at the gorgeous view. And what a view. And it's not too good. Look how big this is. And, you know, it looks like this is a bridge. It's not too high. And, yeah, this is what I was going for.

10:47:00 John Daub: And it's 2.7K views. I only say only because there's a lot of YouTubers who would be really happy with that but I'm somewhat spoiled having had a channel with 1.3 million subscribers. Every time I uploaded a video it got like a hundred thousand views in almost a day or something. So it's humbling but yet I think that shows me that I got a long way to go. The video that I released is called the story of the Japanese drummer, the Kodo story, which is the most amazing taiko (Japanese drumming) group of Japan. They travel around like Cirque du Soleil, which is this amazing circus group. They do the same thing but for taiko (Japanese drumming). And I think it's amazing that they bring Japanese music with them all over the world. They're quite famous in Europe and some parts of the United States and they're growing.

11:42:00 John Daub: Oh oh oh don't do that it's dangerous. I'm double my college years now. I could do that when I was 20, 21. Sorry I get amnesia. I can't do that at 46. Tony P thanks for cheering me on that doesn't help don't encourage me. All right let's get moving. Um let's wait for this guy to get by but it's a beautiful bridge. Um oh it's okay he's going the other way. Wow there's somebody gone to pray at the temple over there that's really nice. It's nice to see that at midnight. Oh that's me I was like whose shadow is that that's mine.

13:02:00 John Daub: They don't play the Christmas songs until a week before Halloween so we're still got another month. I'm so happy that you guys are joining me for another midnight snack run. These are epic and I never use this word. In fact I asked my Patreon supporters here tell me help me out with the name of the next video and one person suggested that I write epic in the title and I said no. I said whenever somebody puts epic in the title you know that it's epic if you have to write epic in the title then it is absolutely not going to be an epic video. Nobody ever writes epic unless you're Food Ranger Trevor and we love Trevor. Trevor's epics are epics but very few other epics are epics. Trevor Food Ranger is awesome.

14:06:00 John Daub: All right do I take a right or a left I'm lost now kind of lost I'm in the middle of the street. If you go straight this way it takes you to Ginza but that far in some cities out in Hokkaido and stuff the only light in the entire town is a vending machine. Like the entire town will be shut off at midnight except for the vending machine. It's kind of a weird thing. There's no street light sometimes in the countryside they just have a vending machine that's it. It's gonna be nice to take my A7S III out there in low light take a picture of just a vending machine in the dark it's pretty cool. All right there's a kōban (police box).

15:51:00 John Daub: Oh my gosh those are my shoes too. Oh my gosh those are my shoes too I would say accidentally it's taking my A7S III out here and other places that I go to is really boring and we're really just kind of like chilling in but the last thing we need to do is get our beer we're really hungry. Yeah we're really hungry. By January they have this festival where people challenge themselves and soak in a vat of ice. They literally have a tub that looks like a children's pool and they fill it with water and they dump a lot of ice in it. Then they put people... people get in there and the last one out wins or something. And I tried to live stream it, but I came too late. I found out about it. It's one of these weird festivals that isn't in any foreign guidebooks or anything but I found out about it scouting the Japanese festivals and the Japanese pages and I got here too late and I wanted to go. I want to go next year but I have a feeling that they're not going to be doing it next year. Just all of them are like cancelled through to 2021.

16:47:00 John Daub: If people are worried about the Olympics taking place, I think that it's gonna be problematic to have an ice festival in January. People have been asking me when the next time it's possible to come to Japan and I don't know the answer. But I will be giving a travel update sometime in the next week. It's been a while. Hopefully we'll be able to answer some of your questions because a lot of people are trying to book trips to come here in the next three months. It's gonna be a little bit tough to do. I don't see that 7-Eleven. No, it was on the map. I might have overshot it. I think I overshot it. All right it's hang a Louie.

17:42:00 John Daub: There was gonna be a crime committed. It would be down this street. There's nobody here when you're around residential areas after 10 p.m. in Japan. It's very important to try to be as quiet as possible. I'm talking right next to the microphone. So I sound like five times louder than I normally do. I just see tobacco vending machines. I believe yeah these require a TASPO card or a card for you to buy tobacco. But I don't smoke so I can't show you how these work. However 6% alcohol why seems stronger autumn beer.

19:15:00 John Daub: So if your Patreon supporter I put one of these in your bag. These are the... They still sell these I don't know like I think they ban these in America. These are candy cigarettes and the tobacco industry street might be behind these I don't know. Give people... give some candy cigarettes to your son he puts it around walking around and everyone looks at all the other kids say you got a cigarette you know no they don't really give those they don't I don't think they these are the bad boys. Smoke one of these this is Cobra Kai material. All right this is a candy cigarette look at that. Because geisha smoke in Japan they do I saw one once. Are we gonna have one we're gonna have a smoke from the machine it smells like menthol. I've never smoked before it's a true story. I've never put tobacco into my mouth you know why because I don't. All right doesn't really look like a cigarette. I'm smoking in front of the cigarette vending machine.

21:09:00 John Daub: That's good. I thought the cigarettes would last a lot longer oh that's so minty that does not go good with that beer I just drank. All right I think on the map the 7-Eleven should be around here and by the way don't smoke kids it's not that good for you you can eat Pocky sticks that look like it but it's not good for you. There's the famous Chūō Bridge do you see that in the distance it's one of the beautiful bridges that crosses the Sumida River. I thought about it on the bridges of Tokyo it's really really pretty. That old house here that old house kind of spooky at night. Oh there's another temple sorry that's a shrine there's a little shrine back here I didn't know about this did anybody know about this I got a light here hold on.

22:21:00 John Daub: Just you know what I tell you everybody so many times when you come and you travel doesn't have to be in Tokyo or anywhere you travel in the world get lost. Well make sure you don't go in a bad neighborhood and get lost cuz we found the 7-Eleven there. I'm gonna go to Tokyo and get lost cause we found the 7-Eleven there but get lost a little bit especially in Japan you're gonna find some pretty amazing things in the alleys like you don't know what's down there until you explore. Recycling in Japan is very very very very high the recycle everybody recycles. Eric Fernandez thank you welcome getting lost in Kabukichō (red-light district) is fine as well just take a friend maybe if anybody asks you to go into a shop just say no and you're good to go. Okay it's like oh come in and you can take a massage just say no okay you know it's not the right thing to do it's probably the wrong kind of massage in Kabukichō (red-light district).

23:35:00 John Daub: All right here's a 7-Eleven and we're gonna go check it out maybe get a snack or something I'm kind of on the sweep side but we'll look give a quick look at the bentos (boxed meals) and then try to get a snack what do you guys think if you want to go in there click the like button see if we can get to 500 likes this is pretty weak. I'm so unimpressed with you I'm unimpressed with our audience we need to get at least a minimum of 500 likes 700 I meant 700 no I'm kidding it's good okay we got past the threshold all right I can live with that. All right let's go inside here don't smash it cuz somebody like broke their phone once got angry at me somebody should smash the like button I said no man just click it. Let's go check it out I love the copy machines you can do Bluetooth copying.

24:54:00 John Daub: Wow this is interesting that's a creamy pasta and we've seen that before. Immigration cap here the bentos (boxed meals) here there's a marble nasu (eggplant) isn't the marble tofu curry rice oh there's an okonomiyaki (savory pancake) down there one if that's any good well there's a tempura tendon (tempura rice bowl) that tendon (tempura rice bowl) looks interesting I'm gonna go check it out. Look at here's some bentos (boxed meals) I might have to get a bento the uni-kama (sea urchin and crab) look pretty good too. Oh wow that's egg salad sandwiches insane we're gonna have to try this this looks pretty crazy. This one's got an egg in the middle what else can I get to try what looks interesting here well this is a nori-bento like the regular run-of-the-mill bento it's a hard call chicken I will try this here chicken I will try this here try this tendon (tempura rice bowl).

28:04:00 John Daub: We did it we got a haul all right we got some stuff where should I eat it I think I can go back up here we'll go eat it by the bridge again thank you 7-Eleven. Hey David Kimura's here get something nice for your wife David. I will but I don't think 7-Eleven is the place to do that I can maybe get some oh that's midnight's hard she's already asleep so I'll go and get her something breakfast okay I'll go to the bakery and get something nicer than what they sell there. Hey Joel H is here for Daniel LaRusso Karate Kid fan from Ohio Cobra Kai forever and the lost Jonin good morning great to see a live stream as I get to work. That's right it's now September 1st where we are and it's August 31st where you are.

31:20:00 John Daub: Now I'm taking my haul over to the bridge here because that's what we do we hunt we gather and we feast somebody does that I don't know who but somebody. Oh there's like a little table area there in the creepy Zone that's kind of the creepy Zone right by the bridge interesting so you're joining me for dinner at midnight in Tokyo right now. I showed you in the last live stream that I carry this extension pole and it's for times like this where I can make the gimbal go up just a little bit higher and these types of things are important don't worry it's dark now but I brought a light that's what we do I came prepared a midnight snack run without a light is just it's a midnight snack run without a light that's what it is okay try to get creative with words sometimes it doesn't work okay oh that's wet oh that was wet me bum is wet.

32:57:00 John Daub: You still there okay there you are all right let's see what we got here oh man it's soaked right through and I'm wearing the Uniqlo Airism ones you know the ones at least they dry fast that's a good thing. That's a good thing. I'm panning up for a reason because you can see that you can see the haul better with this light now. Now I know that um Nosh and some of the others really like this egg salad and I thought I would take a bite of this to give you all some inside knowledge. Japan has somehow made an amazing egg salad sandwich so we're gonna just try this out I'm only gonna take a bite save it for tomorrow morning shouldn't be eating after midnight especially if you're a gremlin it's true smells like egg it's actually good that's a good sign. Who else does the smell test I do the smell test with my food and my laundry if it passes it can be worn again don't tell that to Kanae she doesn't she knows I still do the smell test it's okay. Oh man you if you've ever eaten it before you know what I'm eating is it an artificial egg I don't know it could be uh tamago sando (egg sandwich) the ingredients don't say artificial egg but it does say amino which probably is MSG so there's MSG in a lot of things I don't know if it's real or not all I know is it says egg salad that's an ingredient.

35:24:00 John Daub: All right next up on the hit parade I don't even know why I got this I'm only going to just try one of these um a midnight snack is not midnight dinner all right and I'd happily send this around the world to somebody else who would rather eat this um hold on there we go. Now when you get a tendon (tempura rice bowl) from a convenience store um they put this pouch on here and see the tape here they the reason for this tape is um they don't microwave this pouch and they put this on afterwards and this is the tare (sweet soy sauce). This is what you would put on top of the tempura and she asked me at the register at the time and I said hi please heat it up and it's four dollars. But until today always do the expiration date even in Japan always do the expiration date let's open it up. Hey David Chavez I hope the postcards are getting down to you in Okinawa brother. I love sending them down I love sending David's postcards domestically because I know that he's going to get it in like two or three days. Oh oh this looks good with the head lamp it looks better than me.

36:58:00 John Daub: All right let's give this a try they have four massive shrimps in there. David does this count if I save the shrimp for Kanae does that count as something really good. Oh wait okay no no no no I gotta put the tare (sweet soy sauce) on there gotta do this right gotta do this right gotta do this right okay don't try to eat tempura without the tare (sweet soy sauce) it just it doesn't have that sweetness. Hey Jimmy's here for a cheap can of beer since some of us are not allowed alcohol before noon yeah I know that I've heard that before. All right with the tare (sweet soy sauce) it looks like this it's different huh. Um this is a tendon (tempura rice bowl) tempura on rice don is d-o-n but we would say don which is don in katakana don means like a rice bowl and tempura is ten so it's a tendon (tempura rice bowl) that's how you get to the reasoning behind the name of this and I'll go for the shrimp in the middle um what tempura is always so good and I always wondered how they get the shrimp so long does it come like this from the store I don't know. So anyways we're gonna try this out here um just keep it down this is a neighborhood it's pretty good it's kind of rubbery though.

39:04:00 John Daub: Hmm you know what tendon (tempura rice bowl) is always good though I could have bad tendon (tempura rice bowl) I wouldn't mind getting sick the next day because I'll love eating it. These are just some carrots some vegetable tempura vegetable oh it's nice I like here they put just a little bit of seaweed it gives it just a little bit of color and flavoring with the sauce that I put on there very good. This shrimp is for you I could send this to David but I choose not to I don't think it would make the flight. Is it still airmail if you send a package to the other side of Japan do they do it by truck or airmail I always wondered about that. What I love about tendon (tempura rice bowl) is when they put the sauce in there do you see that the sauce will soak into the rice a little bit and gives it that extra flavoring it's really nice. Tomo T writes in it's dark John it's because it's midnight and I'm outside typically it's dark but I'm gonna save the rest for later because that's what I do that was so good. Recycle your chopsticks always recycle your chopsticks ah that was good all right onwards onwards.

41:36:00 John Daub: Focus it's like a Panasonic camera there we go welcome to Tokyo midnight. This is um not that far away from where I live I brought you to this neighborhood before this is called Hachōbōri in Chūō-ku (central ward) which is one of the 23 wards of Tokyo oh man is my belly full it's raining. Oh this is one of the locks from the Sumida River do you see there's um Suita on the other side Suita is the name of that neighborhood I gotta show you around that neighborhood it's beautiful some of the alleys there. This is a lock from the river so if a typhoon or uh tsunami ever came they closed these locks so the water won't rush into this land um there's a siren on there as well. Don't you get any drink John Sammy I had a beer already it was like six percent man in Oklahoma I think that counts as like two beers because somebody told me in Oklahoma the beers are all three percent so I just drank like two beers equivalent in one.

42:53:00 John Daub: So in Oklahoma I heard that from a buddy of mine I don't know he said so people go across the state line to Texas and the other states to get beer because Oklahoma mandates like three percent so people just drink more that's what they told me I don't know I got some friends in Oklahoma that's weird I wonder why. Something's happening over there a 3.2 right James thanks for that it's crazy right I think I wonder how old that law is if it goes all the way back to the like the cowboy era and the corrals people were getting plowed on the eight percent brews so the sheriff changed the law maybe don't know. Kanae and I were actually going to rent a car in March and drive the west side of the U.S but that got canceled because of this so it's kind of sad. I've never had an In-N-Out burger I've never driven on Route 66 things like that I know Japan much much better than my own country in terms of travel so I gotta remedy that and show Kanae a little bit of America but pandemic hit.

44:29:00 John Daub: What's this with this fleet of red cars that's pretty cool you don't see red cars often in Japan and the reason why is people don't want to stick out so somebody told me um after World War II almost all of the cars were either black or white because they didn't have the paint or something so all the cars are either black or white and then they eventually got other colors like gray somebody decided to mix the paint maybe. There's a lot of little things about Japanese culture after the war which I'm intrigued about and how people lived back then and how the lifestyle has evolved from then to now. Incredible back then people were going duty in a benjo (outhouse) which is like an outhouse just a hole in the ground and now they have the most high-tech toilets in the entire world. It's true amazing toilets here in Japan.

45:30:00 John Daub: Dr. Scott Nick. I just uploaded a vid two seconds from your Sega. I can have it a live video. Whoa so here are your royalties. Thank you that's pretty cool. You have any questions? I'm going I got to go back home because tonight I'm doing a Patreon Q&A with our supporters on that platform and I got to be there at 1 a.m. or so. Yeah, actually I can walk you up to the bridge. You guys want to go up to the bridge? I can do that. Oh whoa, check it out. I left my bike unlocked. I left my bike totally unlocked and it's still okay only in Japan. All right. Yes to the bridge. I'm just gonna take you to the bridge real quickly. If I go here just leave the bike there, I'm not even gonna take the key out just leave it see if it's still there. It's still there.

46:55:00 John Daub: Chūō Bridge or Tsūa Bridge is kind of neat. It's a I see a lot of TV dramas filmed here. I like to go running onto this island and driving around here this will take you if you go straight eventually to you got to take a right to catch Tsukiji and then you get to Odaiba whoa that car's kind of going a little bit too fast. Oh Shane just wrote a question about the fan video. I had a lot of supporters um do video I want to do that for the 50,000 subscribers but we got to that so quickly. Shane if you're watching I'm gonna piece that together probably in the next week and get that out there as a thank you to everybody. Shane's up there in North Canada. Hey Remy gaming's here. Welcome to the traveler's.

48:07:00 John Daub: All right now you can see it's an island that island over there. It's an island that all these tall buildings. I love coming up here, too it's real nice. You get a really good view of the city of Tokyo all the buildings. Nobody's here at midnight. So social distancing is quite easy. That there is the point where my wife Kanae and I was dancing when I introduced her to the world. It's a nice little point. And on a clear day Skytree is right there but Skytree shuts off at like 11 p.m. or something midnight and it's really cloudy. So no, Skytree. But this is the mighty Sumida River at midnight and you can see it's kind of quiet. Tokyo Tower is just behind this building so you can see it if you ride your bicycle along this side. I like to go over the other side or you can see on this side. This is Chūō-ku (central ward) and you can run by the way, if you're running you can run along the Sumida River without a traffic light for I don't know like five or ten kilometers. It's really nice run. It's a great path.

49:37:00 John Daub: So over the last ten years or so Tokyo has really changed into a running city meaning they've made paths and places for runners and this is really good. And I think the Tokyo Marathon had a big part in that opening up Tokyo to running. The Imperial Palace has this amazing it's exactly five kilometers around the Imperial Palace and people are running that maybe two times you get 10k out of it it's pretty cool. Oh the wind's coming that means there's some more rain coming. But Tokyo has become a pretty good running city a lot of places to run for me you've seen me I ride my bike to the BMX Olympic venue two weeks ago and that's all perfect for running. Very few traffic lights open space really really pretty.

50:27:00 John Daub: Okay, I better get home if you haven't already definitely check out the new video on the new Only in Japan channel because nobody saw it yet. YouTube's not suggesting it. I feel bad and I love Kodo I love that group the taiko (Japanese drumming) group the performers. They've over the 40 years really innovated performance arts in Japan and put taiko (Japanese drumming) on the map so give them some love too because they livestreamed their performances this year because they couldn't put on the performance and they've lost six months of revenue because of the coronavirus. Just every single artist I feel especially performing artists I feel pretty bad for them because it's hard to generate revenue. So have to support our local artists make sure they're okay after the pandemic make sure they still got something that can pay their rent. Kanae as a dancer? So she's got friends that have been hurting as well support our friends.

51:47:00 John Daub: Hey, your Vons here Irvine, I think I'm almost there but the 12 to 24 millimeter lens are you talking the 2.8 or the 4.0 because that 2.8 is like three thousand dollars but I think we're getting there we'll be fine. I still the A7S III does not arrive until October 9th in Japan. Now mind you Sony makes the cameras here in Japan puts them together but they're released in America in September and they don't come to Japan the country where the company's from until October. It's still weird. You think they respect the domestic market, but I'm not Sony. It's just a little weird. I know the Sony lenses are pretty pricey for the GM lenses the 2.8 ones but they don't have OSS and I've been looking online for a long time to see if the Sony cameras have some IBIS internal stabilization and the lenses some of them have OSS which is optical steady shot or something. But does the OSS lenses work with the five axis IBIS inside of it to give you seven stops of stability. I don't know nobody has given any information on the internet about that because everybody just gets the most expensive lenses. That's what I've learned about Sony shooters. They seem to be rich richer than micro four-thirds. I've been shooting micro four-thirds all my like five years now. Micro four-thirds is convenient because it's cheaper and the lenses are smaller. I can fit three lenses in my hand and just one of Canon's for example.

53:30:00 John Daub: All right guys. There you go um, that's it. We had oh what are they doing this souffle pudding? That is the best dessert in the history of desserts. All right. You know what? I'm gonna get one for I'm not gonna eat it with you I'm gonna get one for our Patreon livestream hold on a second. I just saw this. It's not a pudding. It is a pudding, but it's not a pudding it's complicated get some money out of here. That's almost 1 a.m. What I do is I usually eat half and then leave it in the fridge for Kanae I don't even know if they have it. All right, let's go. Check a look. Take a look. Oh, no, they're sold out. They're sold out it's that good. There's no souffle pudding cheesecake that's a disappointment. It's a big disappointment. I am getting a little chubby. I was FaceTiming my mom and I went like this and I have a second chin but I have been starting to exercise a little bit more and Kanae was cooking nabe (hot pot) for dinner, which is really healthy vegetables.

55:28:00 John Daub: So I'm gonna I'll be back and I'll spring back into shape. Just haven't been able to run because it's my problem. All right folks. Have a good day. Have a good night wherever you are in the world thanks for watching. I'll see you guys in the next video thanks for joining me for this midnight snack run. I'll do another one of these maybe not as often because as well said Johnny's get a little chubby and because of the pandemic we're taking it a little bit being careful. All the places have vinyl sheets in front of the registers and stuff, but we still have to be really careful. I got alcohol wipes and all this other stuff. So do take care of yourself. I will see you in another livestream probably tomorrow as we welcome in September officially right now happy September everybody. Thanks, and I'll see you.

56:03:00 John Daub: Hey Bailey Bailey's here buy some Pepto for the post game on the 7-Eleven tempura side question did you get my reply on Insta if not message me so I can reply Bill and I went to college together Ohio State greatest university entire world. It's probably 99% of people who disagree. It's your problem but Bailey I did not get your Instagram messages. I don't really if you write me on Facebook to my personal account don't expect any responses just a lot of people that are upset and if you want to get in touch with me go to maybe the website and then there's a contact form do you jump through hurdles? All right, cool. I'll check it out Bela. It's nice to see you. I could use that Pepto at 1 a.m. And you got it. Is he bringing souffle pudding? Maybe one will fall off the turnip truck. No way, I'm extending this. There's no way I'm extending this Carter's souffle pudding that's what I wanted. Do you see that they put on top of a cup of pudding? They put a souffle cheesecake on top it's crazy, right? No, say no. Just say no keep going diabetes no, just take care of your health and you out there take care of your health too and start to exercise.

57:33:00 John Daub: I'll see you Patreon supporters in like 10 minutes. Okay. Bye everybody. Thanks. Nice to see you Bela gotta come here to Japan, buddy. I'll see you guys tomorrow or on the Patreon stream and hate tojiro hiya, John looks like it rained it did grab something warm to drink. I will tomorrow's livestream what is gonna be a warm one because it's so cool here. Have a good day.

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