00:00:05 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Ginza. This is probably one of the central areas of Tokyo. I say probably because the Imperial Palace where the Emperor lives is the center of Tokyo, but we're not that far away. How you doing everybody? On the weekends, a lot of you know because I've taken you to Ginza so many times, especially on the weekends, they close down the streets. It is one of the, I guess you would call it a date spot, and I wish that Kanae Daub could make it out here with me, but she's a little bit busy.

00:00:35 John Daub: We have a typhoon rolling through Kagoshima down in the southwest in Kyushu, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those people down there that are going through a pretty tough time right now. Here in Tokyo, you can see that the sky looks a little ominous here. There's some dark clouds over in the distance, and it gets kind of blue up the alley, which is Chuo-dori (Chuo Avenue) here. And then it's blue skies on the other side, but we've had downpours two, three times all day, so kind of weird weather. That's September, the typhoon season.

00:01:05 John Daub: This livestream is a pretty good time. It's a pretty good time for those that are in Australia and Singapore, those waking up in Europe, good morning. Ohayo gozaimasu (good morning). And for those in the United States, if you're still up, what are you doing still up watching this? Because this is like 3 a.m. for New Yorkers. But I do appreciate you guys being with me here. Edo is in the house from Holland. Get something nice from your Dutch fan. Thank you, Edo. Irvan is here. Awesome. Despite the strange time, our family is awake. Great to see the Only in Japan community here.

00:01:41 John Daub: I'm going to put my mask on because when you're in a crowded area, you should have your mask on. And when there's nobody around, it's okay to take it off. But just as a reminder here, you can see the Mitsukoshi lion has his mask on, and therefore, so should I. So follow the example of the lion. Across the street is the Nissan building, which has some pretty cool concept cars. And you can see some pretty cool cars. Real cars going down the street. I think you can just stay on the corner here and check out some amazing automobiles going by.

00:02:15 John Daub: But in this episode, I'm going to take you to some of the back alleys because they're filled with amazing little teeny bars and restaurants and things that are certainly, I guess you would consider, off the beaten path. And we're going to find some of those right now in this live stream. So from here, I'm going to take you over here by the Apple store. And we're going to hang a left. And go down and I'm going to show you some alleys that I discovered when I was working here about 10 years ago. I was working in one of the alleys at an English school. A lot of people really love to take selfies here. It's a nice view because, once again, only on the weekends and the holidays do they close down the street, Chuo-dori (Chuo Avenue).

00:02:57 John Daub: If you were to go straight, it would take you to Akihabara and Ueno. See some smiles there on the other side. Watching. This is Ginza Yonchome (Ginza 4-chome) or the fourth intersection at Ginza. And it's probably one of the most expensive properties in all of the world. Where it used to be in the 1980s when they had the bubble era where the yen was so powerful back then. Nowadays, fluctuating political and monetary instability these days. All right, we're going to hang a left here. Start to look at some of the alleys.

00:03:46 John Daub: Thanks so much, everybody, for joining me. If you do like this, these kind of neighborhood walks, give us a thumbs up and click the like button. And leave me a comment below if you're watching this in playback and how you wish you had stayed up all night to watch this. I'll be back in another livestream again. I like to hit different time zones. This one's good for our friends in Singapore especially because sometimes it's just a little bit too late or too early. Especially the night ones. I think that Australia and Singapore are about two hours ahead, I think. Of Tokyo.

00:04:20 John Daub: So I used to work at an English school called Gaba. In this building, it's called Cine Switch. And this right there, you see the black and the white sign? That's an art house movie theater. So you'll find some things that aren't in the bigger movie theaters there. Some local art, locally produced documentaries and stuff. It's a pretty neat little cinema. And I have found some good movies in there. It's kind of hit or miss. So it's in these back alleys of Ginza that you really start to find a lot of nice, interesting things. And we're exploring that right now.

00:05:07 John Daub: Hey, Mir's here! Welcome to the Travelers. Got a couple new emoji coming up into the Travelers as well as our Insiders travel notes. You don't get a lot of cars going down these alleys. Mostly because of the pedestrians. But every now and then you want to get out of the way because these people might be yakuza (Japanese mafia). So to speak. They could be associated so you don't want to make them upset. The restaurants, I think you've already seen this in some of my live streams. But the restaurants, there's even a number to associate to it. Have complied to all of the laws here.

00:06:01 John Daub: What are you doing? Oh, magic! Wow! Thank you very much! What is this restaurant? Wagyu? Wine bar! Thank you very much! I'll introduce you to it. I was like, what's he doing? He did some magic! That's awesome! Alright, we'll take a look at this as soon as we get around the corner of the alley. So this is the wine bar for this area. That's nice. I guess when you're going to make an effort like that, we should give the guy. Whenever he gives me a ticket and it has a big steak on it, I pay attention. Oh, very nice. Thank you. And this is the wine bar, Kazan. If you're in the area, that's nice of him. Entertain us a little bit.

00:07:00 John Daub: It's a nice car. There's a lot of nice cars here. There was a bar up here. I remember when I was teaching English at the Gaba school there. At night, every now and then, sometimes I would work until 11 p.m. But every now and then, I'd finish around 9 o'clock if there were no students booking lessons at the time. And we would leave and go into one of these bars in the corner. I believe it was here. Just that, you know, Ginza is always... It's always evolving. It's always changing. And one year, something might be here. The next year, it's completely gone.

00:07:40 John Daub: Here's an Ebisu beer, which is really popular. They seem to have a bar back here. And that wasn't here last year. That's interesting. A lot of places have gone out of business as a result of the pandemic. And I don't know. Kanae Daub and I just try our best to support the neighborhood as much as possible. That's kind of neat. They got Ebisu. Ebisu Gochiso Sauce Set. You can get an Ebisu beer and unagi don (grilled eel rice bowl). Looks like some agar (agar jelly) and a... What is that? Like a gyukatsu (beef cutlet)? Some beefkatsu? That's a pretty good deal.

00:08:26 John Daub: You know, there's also a Lion's, which is... I think that's a Kirin Lion or is it Suntory Lion? I forget the beer chain. But there's a couple of beer halls here. And I guess it's just Ginza's history of having... Like a foreign influence to stuff. They have these beer halls that resemble... Oh, no! It's gone! See what I'm talking about? How quickly these change, these alleys? There used to be a really nice bar. It looked like a shack made in an old house. But I guess because of the... Because of Tokyo trying to renovate and get rid of all the old buildings, make them more earthquake safe, we've lost a lot of... Lost a lot of history. At least my history.

00:09:20 John Daub: No! You can see there's one shack over there. Don't worry. There's a lot of alleys here. There's no end to the alleys. This building won't be here for much longer either. Both these buildings will be gone. Look like late 40s, early 50s, just built after the war. Here are a couple alleys here. This is closer to Ginza Ichime (Ginza 1-chome). Nothing there. But here in this alley, there's a nice flower shop. At the end. This is kind of what the vibe is in Ginza. And as the lights go down, you can see the sun is starting to set. You start to see little glowing lights down these alleys.

00:10:08 John Daub: Alright, let's keep going back the way we came. This is more Ginza Ichime (Ginza 1-chome), which is the first intersection. We're gonna walk back down. This side of Ginza is also where there was a scene in the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice, where him and Aki are racing out of Osato Chemicals. And they're racing down these alleys in Ginza. And I've been trying to watch the movie and find places where they filmed. And one of the streets is, we're gonna go through there, where Bond-san and Aki were in that little race car. And we're cruising down the streets of Ginza. A lot of that was filmed, I think, at Pinewood Studios. But there were a couple of scenes where they were, I guess somebody was racing in a car through Ginza for that movie.

00:11:04 John Daub: So we're gonna go and find that. There's a lot of little history from You Only Live Twice, with scenes here in Tokyo! Woh-kyo! Woh-kyo! Hey now! It's a nice car. I wonder whose car that is. Should we go and touch it? I don't think so. It's got like a scar on it. Okay, let's walk along. Ginza Koya. That looks like a really high-class restaurant. What kind of cuisine do they have? There's some unagi (eel), some wagyu (Japanese beef), looks like a sukiyaki (hot pot). Nice.

00:12:02 John Daub: Alright, let's go sneak our way into an alley. There's a vending machine alley that I want to show you. Oh, that looks really good too. What do we got here? Bowls of spaghetti for less than $10. I like how they put seaweed on this. Do you see that? This is spaghetti. That's Japanese-style spaghetti. That's $8 for Ginza. That is a steal. And I like how they put seaweed on it. I guess that's what makes it Japanese spaghetti? But Japan has a way where it takes Western foods and they make it their own. They'll add things like this to spaghetti. That's like mentaiko (spicy cod roe) and ikura (salmon roe) on spaghetti. And that makes it Japanese, I guess. It's pretty good. It's interesting to eat Western foods that have a fusion of Japanese in it.

00:13:06 John Daub: This alley that this guy just went down, there is a secret convenience store here. I believe it's a Yamazaki Daily store. I used to, when I was teaching, come here to get stuff because it was the closest vending convenience store. There aren't a lot of convenience stores in Ginza. And the one that they do have is in this alley. I bet you that this Yamazaki Daily store has been here for decades. And they just don't want to give up the spot. But it's really deep in the alley. Look at that. How do you find this unless you're a local? The entrance to this Yamazaki Daily store is a dead end. It comes in through here and it dead ends around there. That's crazy.

00:14:12 John Daub: Oh, here. Are they open? I've seen this advertised, but I haven't stayed here. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not getting in. Forget your omotenashi (hospitality). I'm not going in there. But you can see the food sets that they have here at the Muji Hotel. It's very Muji. The setups. They have the food. That looks good. Hey. No. Just close it. Alright. Forget it. You can go see it on their website. Okay. Let's see some more alleys. Door's too smart. That's right. It's too smart for me.

00:15:04 John Daub: Hey, Tojiro's here. You can also see the ladies in kimonos come out when the sun sets. That's true. Check out this little bar here. I like the way that in the alleys, they can spill some of the things out. That's why you want to get off of Chuo-dori (Chuo Avenue) where we started. And you can see they have these really nice menus out here. And you'll find something to eat. They're just starting to open now. After 5 p.m. Look at this little bar. And they have tables outside so you can just drink here. But it looks like a little teeny alley bar with a nice turn of the century light there. And I guess at night they turn this on and you get some kushikatsu (deep-fried skewers), some deep fried stuff on sticks.

00:15:57 John Daub: A lot of these businesses here, they have been here for a century. So this shoe store looks like something that's family run. And Dakota... Who created the art for our Fireworks Festival has a shop here called Dakota. But this looks like a shoe shop that might have been here for a while. Lloyd's Footwear England. A lot of these shops have... Maybe this one looks like a chain. But a lot of these will be family run shops that have been here for a few centuries. And then there's shops that just change hands every six months as brand names come in here to set up a satellite shop.

00:16:35 John Daub: When it's written Amazing Wagyu in English, I think that they're appealing to you. Just saying. A5 is something that Westerners really love. See, write that in there so it looks premium. I like the price of that. All these drinks are here for 300 yen. It's pretty good. That's very on Ginza-like. Don't expect that in Ginza. Oh, this bar is really... Look at this. It's just a little teeny cubby in the side of the building. The bar... I think you have about 30 centimeters inside there until you hit the bar. Whoa! Look at that speed menu. It's so fast, it's blinking. All you can drink and all you can eat for about $35. It's a good deal.

00:17:31 John Daub: The parking garages are interesting. If you want to see something pretty neat, you see the cars pull in here into the center. And it spins the car so it can go right into the parking garage. It comes out, spins the car, and then you get out. So it's pretty neat to see the spinners inside the belly of this building. Sometimes they go down to the basement. It's a little like electronic Ferris wheels and stuff. I'll show you the inside there. The guy pushes a number and the Ferris wheel goes around and brings you your car. You can hear the bells of Wako.

00:18:36 John Daub: This one's really hard to find, this alley, because they're doing some construction on the building right now. But you can see there's a restaurant in here. And you wouldn't have known about it unless you'd seen this sign here that says, eigyo-chu (open for business), meaning the business hours are right now. I've had... Is that a bar? Oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowl). This is an Oyakodon restaurant here in the alley. Hopefully we got a signal in here. But this looks like a pretty old Oyakodon restaurant that... Wow, I can smell the Oyakodon. It smells so good. And that ball stands for sake (rice wine), meaning they're serving sake in there. Nihonshu (Japanese sake). It's closed right now.

00:19:27 John Daub: A lot of these bars in the alleys here, this is right off of Chuo Avenue, have been here for decades. And they'll probably survive because the clientele are... This is clean. I want you to think about this. This is an alley in central Tokyo. It's spotless. It's like somebody scrubbed it clean. Oyakodon is chicken and egg on rice. It's amazing. It's all been cooked together with the dashi (soup stock), salty fish soup stock, which is an amazing compliment to each other. This is an alley. It's incredibly clean. No smoking in Chuo Ward, so you're not allowed to walk and smoke. Not all the wards in Tokyo, there are 23 central wards. Not all of them have this rule, but Chuo is pretty strict with it. Police, I've seen them fine people who are walking and smoking. So watch your back because the cops are strong here.

00:20:41 John Daub: And then look at this. This alley dumps us right here in the center of Ginza. Isn't that wicked? That's Yonchome (4-chome). That's where we started the livestream before. Alright, let's get back to this main street and we're going to cross over to the other side and find some more alleys. Look at the blue skies. I did not expect that today. So we walked around here. And now we're going to walk this way towards this area, okay? It's cooled off quite a bit. The humidity is way down. Yesterday, it's interesting when you ask about the weather, it seems like September 1st, the humidity really takes a dive. But because we have a typhoon coming in, it's bad. It's bottled up all the humidity again. So the last two days were pretty humid and now it's starting to dissipate once again as the typhoon kind of rolls by now.

00:22:13 John Daub: But typically September 1st, the humidity starts to really take a nosedive and it's so comfortable by September 10th. You kind of wonder how... What happened to that summer? It's just like a violent ending to summer. Like a crash. After the 31st of August, you can feel autumn start rolling by. And then it's just like a storm rolling in again. So I think that the street is shut down to 5:30. There's the concept car. Some of you might like this. I'm just going to do a little pop in. Somebody's got to jump in and just break through the window. Do it! Yeah, it's not the same without Carlos. Michael Sassano's here. I'm thirsty. Time for happy hour beer. I like that. We'll see what we can find, Michael.

00:23:16 John Daub: Slice of Japan neighborhood walks and surprise street magic. What a combination. Thanks for the amazing stream. You're welcome. And Difference Engine, DE. Hey, John. Thanks for showing Ginza. It's my birthday. Happy birthday. But nowhere to go because of the pandemic. Well, you're here in Ginza sort of with us. And Jennifer French is here. I love your neighborhood walks. Thank you, Jennifer. We love Jennifer. Jennifer, I just actually sent your postcard out. Oh, hello. Oh, really? Oh. We're walking around showing some of the amazing cars here. Hey, thank you. That's nice. Oh, there's a cool car right there. Check that out. I just want to get in these and drive away.

00:24:12 John Daub: The person who does not wear a mask cannot enter. That's a good policy. No mask, no entry. That's nice. He was watching the live stream. I'm always just slightly social distancing when people come to say hi. It's a little surprising. It's all right. This is Chuo Avenue. If you're just joining us, they shut down these streets on the weekends. And we're looking at alleys. So we're going to hang a right. It's this side of Chuo Avenue that is really a little bit more historical. The other side still has some alleys but not quite the same. And it's always changing. But the places in the alleys kind of stay the same.

00:25:10 John Daub: That's not a real dog. But I think they're trying to emulate Hachiko. But Softbank... Whoa. Not quite Hachiko. But I think they are trying to get that feeling. I don't know. I stopped using Softbank about three years, two years ago. Because the service was not that good. But it always goes up and down. There's no one cell phone carrier, mobile carrier that's better than another except for Softbank. But Docomo is known for being in more locations and having more towers. So you usually have a better signal for live streaming with Docomo. There's the Ginza 6 doing pretty well. Nice view from the top. There's a garden up there. You can look down on the street, down on the people. Especially on the weekends, it's really nice to get up on that corner there. You see? Right there. And you can see down towards Wako and Chuo Avenue. Pretty far down there. You can see all the way to Kyobashi.

00:26:39 John Daub: Alright, we're hanging a right. Gonna go alley hunting. But as soon as we find a couple of them here, I wanna take you a little bit further down towards Ginza Corridor. And I'm gonna see if they opened it up. I'm kinda curious. I think that they did. But there's some really amazing alleys on this side of Ginza going towards Shimbashi and Yurakucho. So that's where we are right now. So you can see down these streets here. They don't allow cars. On this particular street. But some automobiles can go here. The back entrance to the Uniqlo, which is the biggest Uniqlo in the world, is a good meeting spot. It's a lot easier and a lot more stress-free than the entrance where there's usually a thousand tourists hanging out. I usually go through the back entrance. You can park your bike there for like 15 minutes before the security come and tell you to move it. So whatever you wanna get, make sure you know in advance. Get in and get out.

00:27:53 John Daub: So between these buildings are alleys. And uh... Which alley do I wanna go into? There's some... Alright, let's go through here. I think we can hang a left and a right. Kyubey Sushi, which is one of the top sushi spots, isn't too far from here either. Look at this old restaurant. Is it a restaurant? I think they sell chopsticks in there. Traditional Japanese stuff in there. I don't know how much longer these alleys are gonna be here either. I'm always kinda worried about that because things change in Ginza so quickly. Do you see this? Back in the day, this could've been an alley. Cause now that this building kinda cuts through what used to be an alley. See, we're losing it already.

00:29:06 John Daub: You have to be careful with filming back here too because... See, look at that hostess club has all these flowers celebrating something. Guess they just reopened. This is also where you'll find a lot of hostess clubs. I don't know how they're doing these days but you just wanna be careful with your filming back here. I remember I was filming something on a tripod. A car pulled up behind me. The driver came out and then he just told me to get out of there. He didn't even have to say anything. But he looked really angry. Cause whoever was in the car didn't wanna be filmed. Just saying. Just be careful filming in Ginza. I'm mobile so I'll be able to get... Probably make a quick getaway.

00:29:49 John Daub: Cryoflames. Me and my friends Isaac and Smiley wanna go in March. Do you think it's possible? I think anything's possible. But I don't know if Japan's gonna be opened up. It's pretty close. But you know, book the flight and just make sure you're able to change it. And cancel your hotel if you do book it. Make sure it's something open. Hey Maior! Hey Johnny boy, love to watch your streams. You are awesome. I love that. Thank you. And Shubha. Shubha Tirumale. Get a drink. Hard to talk through the mask. It is hard. Rob C. Welcome to the travelers.

00:30:24 John Daub: Alright, let's go through this alley now. You can see there's a couple of shops in here. You never know what you're gonna find though. Like, you could find trouble. Maybe. Or garbage robbers. This guy looks like he's stealing the trash. It's saying don't throw your trash here basically. You have to pay to throw your trash away. It's just telling people don't come in here and leave a bag of trash here. Look how clean these alleys are. This is crazy. It doesn't even smell like pee pee either. Just saying because, you know, alleys usually don't smell. If you've ever been to New York, alleys kind of smell like pee pee. Just saying.

00:31:17 John Daub: That alley was pretty weak. Let's go look. I think there's another one over there across the street. This is the new Hyatt Centric Hotel. This is one. Somebody had asked me about this. They just opened up probably to a bad situation because nobody was there. Nobody's really staying in any hotels. They've got a fake fire going on here. They're closed. Temporarily closed because of the COVID. That's interesting. Hey, Ranjit's here. Get some mochi. I'm feeling you on that one.

00:32:18 John Daub: Look, because of the construction, I'm not seeing... I don't see as many of the alleys as before because of the construction. Look, there used to be a building there. This place is always changing. Yeah, there's going to be some lags when I walk through the alleys, but hopefully they change. Look at that old car over there. Do you see the car over there? What is that? It's a nice looking convertible. Wow, that's a nice looking car. Oh, man. Just car hunting. You can do that here. Just bring a chair and watch the cars roll by.

00:33:27 John Daub: All right, this is the street. I believe that he drove from the other side into the... main street over there. For James Bond's, he only lived twice. There was one cut where Bond-san, I believe, made a left. There's another sweet car. What is that? Nobody blasts music except in Roppongi going down the center. Like college campuses, there's always, you know... That was the dream. The seniors would go down the top down, blasting music, controlling the nightlife. Remember when I went to Ohio State, and who was it? Eddie George, a Heisman Trophy winner, had a convertible and he was driving around. That was pretty cool.

00:34:20 John Daub: All right, here's an alley here. It looks pretty clean, though. It looks like a lot of these alleys have been cleaned up while I've been away. But there's a bar over there. You can see just a little sign. Those are the places that really have a lot of... that are pretty interesting. There's an old whiskey bar on the other side. I don't know how I'm missing it. I hope that they didn't go out of business. But Kanae Daub's dad also knows a lot of these behind-the-scenes places. We got to come back with him one of these days.

00:35:16 John Daub: Because the rent has always been pretty high in Ginza, the population... This was one of the main shopping areas, especially for luxury goods going back for decades. And it was at that time that they started to build... Every single little corner of Ginza had a shop in it. So a lot of families had bought little teeny shops in the alleyways because that's all that they could afford. But people would walk all around Ginza and discover these places. Everybody knew where they were. So that's why the alleys of Ginza... Even today, they still kind of surprise you. But you have to kind of know these shops because they don't really advertise anymore. And their customers are the same customers that they've had for decades. Generations, I guess you could say.

00:36:06 John Daub: There is an old button shop that I filmed for NHK. There's nobody around here. Old button shop that I filmed for NHK. And I guess he said five generations they have been selling buttons in this shop. And you could find any single button that you can imagine in this shop. It was one of the most amazing things. And they don't do business like that anymore. A little alley button shop going back to the Edo period. This is Tsukiji-bashi (Tsukiji Bridge). And I believe this is where Jiro's restaurant is down there in the basement. Yeah. I don't think he works there anymore. He's kind of old. His son's there. But apparently the sushi is not the same. But they still charge like $300 for reservation. Maybe Sushi Saito might be a little bit better.

00:37:03 John Daub: This is the Tokyo Plaza with a really nice view on that corner looking down on the intersection. And Sony still has not built anything here. This used to be the old Sony building. But they've taken it down and created a jungle. It's kind of neat. But I'm not too interested in this jungle. I'm more interested in alleys. So we want to go and find some. But it's kind of neat. Alright, in we go. They moved the Sony building for now is inside of the Nissan building. And I think they have a few floors in there. So if you want to go take a look at the new A7S III or some of the new Sony cameras and gear that have just been introduced. That's a pretty cool looking Porsche. I didn't think it was a Porsche until all the logos and stuff on it. Wow. And I don't live too far from here. And I'm nowhere near being able to afford a Porsche. And I don't think I'd want one either. The parking. It's just the parking is about the same price as the car. Just double the price of the car. Because you're going to need it for the insurance and the parking.

00:38:40 John Daub: Wigs. Be a new you. Okomeya.net. What are they serving here? It looks like sushi. Maybe. He's explaining something. Food, bro. Looking for the alleys. A lot of them have closed. That's my favorite katsudon (pork cutlet rice bowl) restaurant. But never go there. It's down this alley. I'm not going to introduce it to you. Because I don't want you to go there. Because I'm mean. I don't want anyone to go to my Katsudon restaurant. Just forget I just introduced that to you. Erase it from your mind. What is this? A new Asics store? What? It's weird. A6 kids shoes store.

00:40:15 John Daub: Look at that. Mercedes Benz. US SUV Mercedes Benz style. I've never seen one of those before. It's a pretty sweet ride. Was that a Ferrari? That's not a Ferrari. So a lot of these businesses have changed hands. There's the Kumamoto Prefecture store. You can get some Kumamoto stuff. Little plushies of... Whoa! That guy's an aggressive driver. Aggressive. Awesome. It's more awesome if you can make a little squeal on the tires. Like just a little... Slight... This area is more of a restaurant nightlife area of Ginza. Of course there's some really good bars back on Chuo Avenue. But when you get closer to the Imperial Hotel, which is where the Queen of England stayed. Queen Elizabeth stays there when she comes. She hasn't been for a while.

00:41:33 John Daub: They did take the menu. I believe they still serve the menu that the Queen had when she came to visit. It's on special request. You can eat the same food that the Queen ate. Oh, there's the... Right there. That's the school. This is a school. And there was a controversy. I think I introduced this before. They had to wear Armani suits, which are $700, $800 per student. It was required that all the students had to have Armani Japanese school outfits. Go Google that. Ginza School Armani uniform. It was pretty funny. And that hit the news wires of this elitism. And I guess they changed the uniforms. I'm not sure.

00:42:22 John Daub: That's a high-class ramen shop. Looks nice inside. Let's take a quick look-see. What I learned is that some of these older ramen shops... Tomato ramen. This is good for those that are vegetarians. Interesting. Very interesting. Shoyu ramen (soy sauce ramen). Looks good. What I learned was that some of these really old shops, the owners are filthy rich. Okay? But they don't want to renovate the inside of the shops at all. Because if they were to make it cleaner inside, they would lose their clientele. So they usually have cobwebs and dust. And it looks like 1965 in there. And then around the corner, you'll see a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz.

00:43:20 John Daub: Hey, now. What have we got here? Summertime. All right. It's September, but I'm still feeling summer. Let's go take a... Let's go explore. I think this is beyond maid cafes. It says soba (buckwheat noodles). It's beyond maid cafes. Look at the details. All the wires and pipes. Very cool. That's what I'm talking about. This is so much character. So much personality. I just saw a lady with a kimono walk by, too. It's kind of neat. When you catch that walking through an alley. It's these alleys here that are pretty memorable.

00:45:31 John Daub: So we're going to walk through this way and hang a right. And I'm going to show you Ginza Corridor. And I want to see if this scary, creepy alley is open. Because this is one that I wanted to show you with a buddy of mine. But they shut it down for renovations. And I think that they might be done. Whoa. I can hear the crows. It's a cool looking building. I didn't notice that big chochin (paper lantern) up there. Izora. That's a pizza restaurant. You wouldn't expect a pizza restaurant in the heart of Ginza in such a Japanese looking building. I wonder if there's something unique about their pizzas that make it special. Is there something Japanese about it? I don't see anything special. I'm interested, though. Look at the entrance to it. It looks very Japanese. And it's a pizza restaurant. It's bizarre.

00:46:38 John Daub: Pero. Isn't that? I think that means butt or dog. Isn't it? In Spanish. Oh, yeah. I've been here before. This alley has been cleaned up. I guess it's because of the construction. I hardly recognized it. I've walked down this alley many times. But that building was always there. Staba. This here is Ginza Corridor. And if you ever want to come at night, you're not sure where to eat, you can walk the Ginza Corridor. And you're probably going to find it. They have a lot of options. And these are almost all restaurants down this street going between the Imperial Hotel. This is just behind the Imperial Hotel. Do you see that striking building? I think that's the Imperial Hotel, right?

00:47:36 John Daub: Ginza Corridor. And I know that they've been really hit with a lot of closures because of the pandemic. So we've lost a lot of restaurants there in Ginza Corridor. This is what it looks like at night. When the sun goes down, it's a little bit more vibrant. There's a Hub English Pub down the street. I used to go in there until I lost my point card for nine months. I went there to have ten years worth of points accumulated. And they said it had expired by one day. And they wouldn't reimburse me. So I stopped going to the Hub Pub. I don't need them. I would have gotten a coupon for like $500. But it's too bad. All right. I want to show you these alleys here. Walking down Ginza Corridor.

00:48:20 John Daub: I'm going to take a look. Is that a pimp-colored BMW? Really? Really? Hold on. I'm looking. It's red. That's not a... If it was like a brighter red, maybe. Awesome. Rev it. Do it, dude. Awesome. Should have peeled out or something, did a wheelie. So that would have done. Oh, they got some goodies in here. That looks like mochi (rice cake). Hey, who asked me to get mochi? I should go get some. All right. I'll go get some mochi. It's kind of like street food, right? Some wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets). All right. I'm going to get some wagashi. Let's see here. We're going shopping for some wagashi.

00:49:42 John Daub: Let's do this. Enter we go. That looks really good. Konnichiwa (hello). Mame daifuku (bean-filled rice cake) hitotsu onegaishimasu (one please). 106 yen. I'm sorry. I have 6 yen. Thank you very much. Sterilization. Here's the receipt from this place in Ginza. It was 206 yen. Still 8% sales tax for food items. Yeah. I've stopped here before. I think it's like deja vu. So I'll eat this around the corner here. Whoa. It's a kakigori (shaved ice) shop. Look at all these kinds of kakigori here. What? That's so colorful. Japan knows how to make shaved ice really unhealthy. They find a way to make everything better, I guess. Wow. They've been on TV it looks like. That's when... You know, once you're featured on TV in Japan, it becomes... The lines out the door for the next three days really are insane.

00:52:00 John Daub: This is the outdoor Pronto. It used to be a Pronto. Now it's a toro gastro bar. What does that mean? Gastro. I just see the word gas. Looks good though. Maybe they cook it with gas. Nice. Welcome to Nathan Adams, a traveler. All right, we are here. So you can see underneath the Yamanote line there is a 24 hour... Oh, there's the Shinkansen going by too. It's pretty sweet. This is my favorite area to walk at night. Underneath the Yamanote line, underneath the tracks here, you're going to see tons and tons of restaurants. It's a little bit different than where we came from the first 50 minutes of the stream, pretty much in the Ginza area looking at the side alleys. Now we're more in the Yurakucho Hibiya Park area, kind of on the fringe of Ginza.

00:53:07 John Daub: And you can walk down here. There's some restaurants that spill outside, old school Showa era places with little stools that you can eat on the street. They have a couple of seats outside, I guess. During these pandemic times, it's probably better to eat outside. But you can see there's actually a shortcut that you can get to Shimbashi really fast if you wanted to. But it's a little bit different. There's... In between here, and this was under construction for a long time. I hope the signal stays strong underneath here. The Shinkansen is rolling above us. This alleyway, do you see it? All right, this alleyway was closed for a very long time. And I'm going to take you down here. You can see there are tons and tons of restaurants underneath the track, in between the tracks, in an alley.

00:54:01 John Daub: I know that if I go through there, I'm going to lose the signal, but it's a pretty cool place. The lighting is beautiful because they just finished renovating it. This was closed down for the longest time. And honestly, if you were to ask me, I think that this probably had ghosts in it or like there must have been some bad stories of things happening down that alley. All right? There has to be because it looks like that kind of an alley. But Japan surprises you. You know, maybe it had a better history than I think it did. All right, this is new. It's called Ramen Alley. All right. I guess the name of it gives it away. And we're going to have to come and take a longer view here. But it's been closed down. I guess they never really opened it because of the pandemic. I'm not sure. But right now it's closed here. That's weird because it's dinnertime, so you wouldn't expect it to be.

00:55:01 John Daub: All right. You can. There's a Schmaltz here, which we've done a live stream at before. That has an interesting history, the Schmaltz. There's one, two, three, four, five, five ramen restaurants. That's it. And a pizza place. How could you call this a ramen zone? That's so not ramen, right, Samantha? That's so not ramen. And look at Schmaltz, man. This German chain has taken over Tokyo like they're crazy everywhere. There must be at least 30 of them in Tokyo. All right. These three ramen shops do look good. Fukumori, Shinsen and Shinpu. That's from Hakata. From Fukuoka. Where's this from? Kanazawa. This is from Kanazawa. And this one's from Tokyo, Setagaya. So three different kinds of ramen. You know, ramen you can taste. Whoa, magic price. 300 yen for a beer, but it's closed.

00:56:11 John Daub: SV1616 found the ramen emoji. Very cool. I'm going to cross the street here. I'm going to show you the alley just a little bit on this side, and then we're going to go right down the middle. A lot of restaurants. Just opened up. These are all brand new underneath the Yamanote line. I think that's a good thing that they renovated it because every time the trains would roll over these older places, it looked like dust would be collapsing into your food. It was kind of unstable, but now they've cleaned up and craft beer and pizza. These places were like made for me, like Western dudes that just want to escape their wives for a night. This looks like a place that Peter von Gomm and I would come and hang out for a couple of hours. What does it do? These are the restaurants. These are so not Japanese. The live fish market. If they're serving fish and chips, somebody pinch me.

00:57:04 John Daub: Oh, this is kind of, I would love this place. This is a Thai restaurant place. What is this? Khao San Road? Thai Yat Thai. Yat Thai are like food stands. So this is a Thai food stand restaurant. That looks really nice inside there. All right, let's take a closer look. Whoa. I think it's connected to that ramen alley. That looks really nice. And the menu here is pretty cool. They got like a tower of beer. She looks happy. Sort of. I guess everything is 999 yen. That's a pretty good deal. I think those fish have seen better days.

00:58:17 John Daub: All right, let's go underneath the tracks here. I don't know for sure if I'm going to have a signal, so let's eat this mochi right here and power up because we're going to need it underneath there. Oh. I've taken you several times already this direction, and that'll take you to a ton of other restaurants, including two German restaurants. The Hofbrauhaus has a chain here, like a branch of the Hofbrauhaus. And then there's a Bitburger has a restaurant right next to it. So you have two German restaurants to try out over there. No, the Hofbrauhaus doesn't have any music or anything like that. It's kind of disappointing, I think. Slightly disappointing. This though won't be. This is... This is a mame daifuku (bean-filled rice cake). So this should be pretty good. I will pick something up for Kanae Daub when we go back.

00:59:13 John Daub: And I love the manhole inside of a manhole right here. I'm digging this. Whoa. I think that's some rice flour on here. Oh, nice. It's so naturally sweet. It's not that sweet at all. This is what I love about Japanese confections. The beans have a natural sugar taste to it. They didn't add any sugar to it. I like this. I think this is tsubu-an (chunky sweet bean paste). It has the chunks of beans in there too. So it gives it a nice consistency. It's different than if you just had the mochi. It'd be a little bit boring, I think. Too creamy, but the beans give you something to bite into. Mmm. I approve. So does my shirt. Oh, no.

01:01:17 John Daub: That's a nice looking crepe. I'm going to go get my car right there. Wow. Do it. I didn't know there was a 300 yen bar here. All drinks are 300 yen. This used to be something of a meat market. I remember going in there and I was like, wait a second. There's a lot of guys in here. That's the Imperial Hotel. That's where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their honeymoon inside this hotel in the 1950s, I believe. And there's a picture inside of the hotel in the lobby of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, looking outside of the window and having all these photographers and paparazzi taking pictures of the two of them. Marilyn Monroe was looking stunning, I'll tell you that.

01:02:24 John Daub: These all look like the gangster cars from Grand Theft Auto. All right, we're going now into the alley. This signal might drop off a little bit. If this signal stops, I'm just going to turn around, okay? But I want you to experience a little bit into this alley just to kind of feel the ambiance inside of here. This is one of my first times coming in here too. Whoa, this is pretty cool here. This is nice. You can see bottles of shochu (distilled spirit) ready to feed the customers. A lot of the tables are empty, which is, I guess it's a little bit too early, but I would love to eat here. I got to bring Kanae Daub out. I could sit right here. It smells like grilling fish and meats and a little bit of booze. It's coming through my mask a little bit. Wow, this is a yakiniku (grilled meat) place. Check out the meat in the window. Yes. Whoa. I guess this is just ice. I don't know what you do with that.

01:04:02 John Daub: How deep does this go? This comes to the end here. Yurakucho. So if you were to go straight, it would take you to Yurakucho where there's another alley. So we're basically just following underneath the tracks. I'm glad that this is open. This is where, whoa, people are running at me. Are they real people or ghosts? I don't know. They're real people. But this is a secret corridor, a shortcut. I have flour all over. A shortcut that'll get you from Yurakucho to Shimbashi without having to go through any traffic. This is Ghost Alley. Do you want to go? All right, we need to get to 800 likes and I'll take you down Ghost Alley. I don't want to go. There's a reason why they were running because it's kind of spooky down there, but we need 800 likes. I'll take you down there.

01:05:22 John Daub: Okay. We're underneath the train tracks right now, which is pretty cool. This was closed down, this alley, for about, I don't know, for almost a year. But they've done a pretty good job if you look up. No longer does it look like it's all dirty up there. They've kind of renovated it, cleaned out all the rat nests or whatever was up there. And it looks sanitary again, if it ever did. Well, that was fast. Okay. So you want me to go there? You want me to go there? I'm going to go this way. This is somebody else's here. It's not as scary. Wait, the dude's turning around. Okay, good. Oh, it's so hot in here. Do you hear that? Wow, there's water.

01:07:37 John Daub: Jeff Ang's in the house. Get something for you and Kanae Daub. Thanks, Jeff. Hey, they got a vending machine. Too bad none of them have beer in there. I'm kind of, I could use a cold one. All right. Do you see the smoke in this tunnel here? They've got two fans to try to dissipate the smoke. Let me get out here. This alley will take you all the way. Now that you know it, you can come here. I'm going to take you out here. You're going to know exactly where we are. We're still in Ginza, by the way. So between Yurakucho and Ginza. This alley has been closed for over a year. And now that it's opened up, it's a shortcut to get all the way to Shimbashi. You can go in between the two, underneath the Yamanote line for almost a kilometer. I think it's even further.

01:08:28 John Daub: And I don't know if that ramen place is opened up. There's like a ramen street. Once that opens up, you can get to Shimbashi in about 10 minutes. It's all between the tracks and the alleys. And this is a secret alley. I don't think a lot of tourists know about this alley. All right. This Yakitori place has been in business, I believe, at least 50 years. And they serve like this motsuyaki (grilled offal), which is like parts of the parts of the pig. Oh, my God. What do you mean? It's the sort of thing that people have just thrown away, but they find a second purpose for it. And that's kind of cool. We can see the smoke coming out of here. Yeah, pig organs. I remember I came here to eat and you can see that's a pig right there. He's thrown in the towel. He's not going to win at this place.

01:09:20 John Daub: I filmed here for NHK at least twice, and we ordered some weird stuff. One of them was with Jennifer, actually. What was that, 2010? And we had a pig... Pig boobs which is really weird. I don't know what we ate but it was weird like all the stuff that you wouldn't eat they just grilled it and you ate it and that was... It's like a chicken that's a German restaurant I was telling you about Hofbrauhaus. Half broi yeah they made me eat like pig boobs it's weird this one's called Baden-Baden and the other one I guess is the Hofbrauhaus I don't know oh is that the Hofbrauhaus right there right. Can I and I ate there about a year ago it was double the price of Germany which is kind of surprising.

01:10:36 John Daub: So now that you know this alley with the smoke just steaming out underneath the Yamanote line underneath the Shinkansen with the trains rolling by this is a pretty sweet place to get a beer come early okay it's first come first serve. If you're wondering, there's Bic Camera in the distance there. So the vending machine corner is just over there. Do you want to go actually see that? I don't know. Not a lot of graffiti. There's maybe three. There's three graffitis. All right, we're going to roll this way. This is a pretty cool restaurant as well. This one is an izakaya (Japanese pub). It's not an old one. It's made to look old. But at night right now with the sun going down and the sky just a little bit bright, it's pretty colorful in the backdrop.

01:11:28 John Daub: If you walk out there for about, oh, I don't know, like 50 meters from here, I'll show you really quickly. This is a picture a lot of people have been putting on Instagram. So it's Insta-worthy. But this building I don't think really has any history to it. But it's made to look like it's old. So it's kind of a cool picture. But if you go about 50 meters from here and you look back at it, it's pretty unique. Let's see what's playing here. It's kind of nice with the lights. It just came on here. If you have a wide-angle lens, it looks a little bit better because you can get the trains and the Shinkansens rolling by. Godzilla's over there too. I've shown you that like 100 times.

01:12:32 John Daub: These are the kind of alleys that I was telling you about. You see they have these vinyl sheets that spill out in the streets a little bit. In the winter, they keep the sheets up because it keeps the heat in a little bit. But you still feel like it's a yatai (food stall), which is eating at a food stand. Yatai are the food stands. It's very nice. Okay, we're going to hang. We're going to hang on the left here. And I'm going to... I'm extending this because we got to... Can we get to 1,000 likes? If we get to 1,000 likes, I'll show you the vending machine corner because I'm quite interested. I think it was James, Happy Rails James, who said to walk down this way. Maybe I'll come back here with Peter von Gomm one night and we'll live stream the walk.

01:13:19 John Daub: I'll see if Peter von Gomm, one of my friends, wants to live stream the walk from Yurakucho to Shimbashi at like this time of night. It's kind of nice. Because the restaurant lights have just turned on and the vibe and the smells here are really... It's interesting. It's really... It's kind of exciting to be outside at this time. These have changed hands, these restaurants here, at least 10 times over the last 20 years. The same restaurant has not been in that location. And here as well. I guess it's like one of these unlucky locations. But, yeah, there's not a person in there. And I don't know why. They're right on the corner.

01:14:32 John Daub: All right, let's get across the street. I'm very worried about... I was looking this direction because you can see down there to Ginza. That's where I started the live stream. Sun is just starting to set here. The Yurakucho concourse has seen better days too. The letters falling apart. This has become a real touristy place. I've never seen anyone local eating there. I think it was big during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And now it's just kind of become where all the tourists eat. If you want to eat a real place, you want to go down that way to that tunnel underneath there. The yakitori there is a real deal. This one is... The prices are inflated. I guess that's what they did. But they don't want to fix this. You'll find that some places want to keep it looking retro or else they lose that selling point. It should look like Showa era, I think.

01:15:37 John Daub: I like that though. Right? Like now that they're cleaning up the area, it looks too clean. Which is what makes me worry about this. Right here. And it's dark and there's nobody there and this is scaring me, folks. I'm actually really worried right now. I knew that they were thinking of closing down the vending machine corner. But it looks like they actually did. What? Are you... Are you seeing this? Are you guys seeing this? What? I'm a little devastated. Oh man, that's a shame. That's a shame. A lot of memories here at the vending machine corner. I guess... The pandemic. Really did some... Really did a number on it. I didn't expect this to be gone.

01:17:01 John Daub: Yeah, you know, the city's always changing. It's just kind of a shocker. The news hasn't really picked up on this at all. I don't know when that this happened. But... Yeah, this is kind of a shocker to me. I don't know. I know the... I know the guy who's been running it for a while. He had a little snack bar in there. It was part of the... It was right here. And now it's gone. Nosh. Nosh brought a nice share of beer here. It's gone. Nosh, what am I supposed to do? I wasn't going to kick the ball and go inside and make a little tent and cry. Oh my gosh. There's no... There's no information. No smoking area. I guess they kept on violating it. They kept on violating... Oh, this is where I filmed. I filmed here too. Wow. All the vending machines are gone. Oh man. That's just a... Bummer.

01:18:27 John Daub: I remember he... I did talk with the owner last year. And he said that there's a chance that it might close just because of the rules. And the smoking laws has made this... People couldn't stop smoking here. But... Yeah. The outlines on the walls are the real ghosts. Yeah. It is a shame. I did not expect that. So we've lost another one. Not just the buildings in Akihabara. But we've lost... Lost a good friend in the vending machine corner. There's some other ones. But it's just not the same. That one had some history to it. And I... I really wanted to... To spend some time with the owner there. Just get... See some of his old pictures about the place. And... And... Take down the history. But we've lost it. So... That opportunity is gone. Oh, what a shame.

01:19:25 John Daub: We've come a long way. Oh man. Frank the Tank's here. Thank you, Frank the Tank. And David Lee from Hong Kong. Much appreciated. Thank you, David. Deckstar is a new traveler. Futshikato. Well, thank you from Europe. Nathan Adams. Hope that you can make it back again soon. Boy, it looks pretty... They've done something with the inside of it. Look. That just doesn't seem to fit, though. That doesn't really fit. That's not ramen. That's kare udon (curry udon). It smells so good. That's curry udon.

01:20:37 John Daub: The Hopping Fox writes in. All right, guys. And as always, big thanks to the mods. Big thanks to the mods, indeed. Thank you, all. Our Discord server, by the way, is getting close to 10,000. 10,000 users on there, So you might want to go and check it out and you could discuss this live stream Talk about the places that we've lost and some of the memories that you've had We have about 2,000 people active on the only in Japan discord server just chatting away And I think we have about 15 or 20 Communities in there as well as a special patreon community with a family there can all talk without you know The other people in there it's kind of neat as well as you can do voice conversations and things that like. This Discord's been pretty cool a place that I go to Take the pulse of the channel with the 10,000 people in there I think we're like 9200.

01:21:26 John Daub: And by the way before I end this live stream as I walk back to Hope they're okay as I end the live stream as I walk back towards my bicycle I just want to say that the thank you to everybody the Kickstarter project has five hours left on it Five hours. We're almost at six million yen I Didn't think We would get to five million and we're almost at six million yen that's sixty thousand dollars We've raised for fireworks and on Tuesday. I talked with the oh It's just closing I missed it. I just talked with the Japan fireworks Association And we're we're seeing what to do with the extra money. What can we buy? How much more time? What other kind of fireworks can we get and we're gonna discuss this I'm going up to Omagari At the end of the week to go and see them start to manufacture everything in the sea If they can set this to the music the intro song to only in Japan and See if Peter von Gomm can do a little little voice-over for it for the speakers It's gonna be a lot of fun Just but if you're if you'd like a postcard or get the documentary the DVD the blue, it's not a blu-ray but a or a dbd Is it just a downloadable documentary of this the manufacturing and the Japan fireworks industry and inside look at it? yeah, gonna want to support in the next next six hours before the opportunity's gone.

01:23:19 John Daub: So there you have it pretty comprehensive pretty comprehensive trip here we had fedrickson thank you from from sweden i believe swedish kroner uh we we walked all the way around ginza we started here at uh ginza yonchome walked out through the alleys here came back around walked down to the other side past the uniqlo into the alleys here came back around to the ginza corridor walked through here uh through the corridor a little bit worked our way back then we went uh saw the ramen alley saw some restaurants here and then walked into this really cool underground corridor between the tracks here that's where we were then we walked out uh walked out towards the vending machine uh corner and it's gone there's um hold on a second yeah right there then we walked out to about here and it was out of business so now we're back here and i'm gonna end the live stream in about about two minutes from now that's awesome you guys could join me oh it's a green light okay never let a green light go to waste grit your teeth and run testing out the osmo mobile 4.

01:24:39 John Daub: Ginza looks a lot different than it did when we started right hope everybody in europe has a good morning and those that are still asleep in the u.s what are you doing awake those that are watching it's pretty incredible thank you for jason if you have any if you have any comments leave them in the in the comments below i'd love to hear from you and i try really hard to read them and and respond if i can uh you can take it to the discord server and say hi in there uh the mods will put the link to the discord server in the chat as well as in the description we're fighting hard to get the ten thousand in there and i have a new episode on uh wagyu coming on the new channel very very shortly very cool ben hodgson's welcome welcome new traveler all right folks there you go don't turn your back on me join us on discord i gotta go back kanai's making something for dinner i think oh no no i'm supposed to pick up thai food okay okay i gotta pick up thai food she sent me a message so i gotta go back to the thai restaurant it's all good.

01:26:26 John Daub: And i'll leave you with the last 20 seconds you can see just how different the city looks now with the lights down this is where the jamie's bond cars sped out of the aki and sean connery sped out and they turned right this way i believe in the james bond movie you only live twice just one scene all the buildings have changed since then and this is also where the 1970s the first mcdonald's was i believe right here i believe it was here right next to ginza yonchome which is the big intersection that mcdonald's uh a lot of gi's anybody who is stationed here in japan or was here in the 70s would know that this is the location of the first one of the first mcdonald's in asia i believe was here in in tokyo i believe i i believe it was here and when i came here in 98 i think that there was a mcdonald's here but it wasn't the original location and that mcdonald's was over there and then ginza closed all the mcdonald's after that i think it was 1998 there was a mcdonald's right here in ginza not the original location but it was really interesting um and the original location is uh something something that's uh i try i try to protect because the longer you live here the more you see it leave so yeah.

01:27:56 John Daub: All right the last 20 seconds i want to bring you out here to the center they've opened up the street again and it's just until 5 30 and uh no longer can you walk down chuo avenue but when you can it's pretty nice show you uh wako department store the night lights lights down just pan around here for the next 20 seconds as i say goodbye there's the bell typhoon's hitting down in kagoshima stay safe if you're down there stay inside stay sheltered i'll see you all probably tomorrow in another live stream i'm going to start traveling again the middle of the week coming up a lot of places i'm going to be taking you over the next two months so get excited and don't forget to subscribe see you everybody