00:00:12 John Daub: Wow! I used to live in a place where there weren't a lot of people at all. This is Shinozaki, kind of like the countryside or a suburb of Tokyo. I haven't been here in about two years, and if you've been watching this Only in Japan Go channel for a while, you've been here many times before. I've done midnight snack runs here, I've done my apartment tour here, and because I still get my hair cut from the same guy that I've been going to for the last 10 years plus, I thought I would take you for a little trip around this suburban area of Tokyo. It's a neat little town. You really get a chance to see a slice of Tokyo's life not in the center but in Edogawa-ku (Edogawa Ward). This is one of the outer wards, one of the outer centers of the city of Tokyo. So let's get our mask on and go take a look around. There's really not a lot of people during the weekdays here. I love that about this place.

00:01:27 John Daub: It's famous for the park. Shinozaki has a beautiful park and you can see that represented in the subway station. They didn't have these barriers here the last time I was here either. So I see that the city of Tokyo has been making changes. Whoa, the wind is so strong in these canals. Alright, we got this. It's like I never left and yet I did. It looks so weird. Alright, let's make our way outside.

00:02:09 John Daub: And again there's some more trees represented inside the station of Shinozaki. Here we go. I lived here from 2005 to 2018, about 13 years. And I took the escalators maybe 15-20 times. I always took the stairs because I saw this as a challenge. Always take the stairs. Let's see, is the bakery still here? Oh it's still here! Let's go out the north entrance for a second here. Wow! Amazingly nothing has changed. A lot of the businesses are still here.

00:03:15 John Daub: I don't remember that guy in the blue bicycle though. That's that katsu curry don shop that smells so good. A book shop which I don't know how they stay in business but they do. And the McDonald's is still here. Bamian, the Chinese restaurant up there on the second floor is still here. Wow, Shinozaki Ekimae Clinic. That's still here. I've been sick and used to go in there all the time. Like three times but...

00:03:54 John Daub: Wow! That does not look different at all. It just feels like where have I been all this time? Oh that's new. Oh they changed, this pharmacy shop has changed hands. That's completely different. Oh no! The Don Quixote that was here is out of business. That really stinks because when that came in I thought that was amazing because it's such a kind of quiet boring little town in a way. So I'm just going to take a deep breath. Hallelujah. When a Don Quixote came in it was like wow we got something really cool that everybody else has outside of this area but it's gone now. Things didn't last very long.

00:04:44 John Daub: I do have a couple of stories. Starting with right here these bells. These bells used to go off every single hour until about 8 p.m. and after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami those bells stopped ringing. They shook up really bad and I guess something broke on the inside, but it never turned on again after that. I never heard those bells again. So for the first six years that I lived here, I knew on the hour because I lived in that building just across the street from there. A really not beautiful pink and gray building there. It was always that color. I didn't mind so much because of the location right next to the station. I could run from my apartment to the station entrance in like 30 seconds, but it's still a good 30 minute ride to get to Ginza.

00:05:49 John Daub: There's a supermarket 30 seconds away from my door. There's actually three supermarkets pretty close to my door. So let's take a look into the south exit now Shinozaki just for a second. Hey, Eugene Holberts here. Thanks so much for watching. It's nice to see it and kind of... I'm so blown away by the past here. So I noticed that all of the bakeries have started to wrap all of their baked goods as a protective measure and then you can heat it up when you get back home. Maybe I'll get one of these before I go back.

00:06:05 John Daub: This bakery was not here. It was here when I first moved here, went out of business, and then it came back. It's changed hands so many times. Oh, look at those melon pan. Hey, Brenda Mick is here. Aloha and Cody S. Nice to see everybody. Jeff Ang is here. Sorry. Jeff's missing Japan more. This is making me miss my hometown more. There was a Daiso 100 yen shop upstairs on the fourth floor. I remember when that came in, I was freaking out. Oh, why do I have to travel to Harajuku to the 100 yen store anymore? I have it 30 seconds away from my house. That was really cool.

00:07:03 John Daub: Hey, look, they changed the sign. It says vegetables in English. Just one vegetable. Interesting. I'm gonna be like this probably for the next 30 minutes going, hey, it's still here. Matsumoto Kiyoshi. This chain came in before that. This was a supermarket called Wise Mart that went out of business. And then Matsumoto Kiyoshi came in. Upstairs on the third floor came in a gym, but that was kind of pricey. So I never went there because the community gym was just like $1.80 per visit. So I just would go to the community gym.

00:07:50 John Daub: But in front of the station here, you're going to see a lot of pachinko. And there's one right there. There's another one right there. And that building that was the Don Quixote also was a pachinko parlor. They were just surrounded by pachinko parlors. So the station front or ekimae in Japan isn't always really great. This used to be Sumitomo Ginko, the bank, but now it's a medical center. And I'm going to go just take a look at the entrance of my apartment building here. This is the building I used to live in up there.

00:08:30 John Daub: Look. What? That is so new. They tore down what was there, a parking lot, and they built a building. They built a building. There was a parking lot here. What? I'm in shock. Kanai might be watching this at home and she's shocked too. That means I'm so glad that I moved because my view is now blocked. If I was living up there, right there, my view would be completely blocked. I used to watch stuff going down in the parking lot. Now it's a building. It's pretty weird.

00:09:08 John Daub: What? Whoa, that's new. Check that out. There's a tree at my entrance. Did they plant a tree in my entrance? Whoa. And the management gave them new air conditioners. I was waiting a long time for that. You know, look at this. This is all like high class. They even changed the name of the building to something different. It was kind of weird and they put security cameras. How high class that is now. There's a tree here. What?

00:09:53 John Daub: I like the fact that they added higher gates. There's better security. That makes me feel good after the fact. Used to be some suspicious people going in there. And now they have an auto lock and there's a box where you can leave packages down underneath here. That's great. So you don't have to meet with the delivery people. They just leave it there and they tell you it's in box number one, two, three, four, five. I like that system. But there's auto locks. People can't just walk in anymore. That's so sweet. Smart. Look how clean it is. Man. I moved out and they classened up the place. Weird. Wow.

00:10:40 John Daub: This school has been here forever as well since the day I moved in in 2005. Julia International School. And I never really said hi to Julia. I guess she was the Western lady who would walk around here. But there's a lot of kids in there and they would say hello in English. They try to talk with me. They get nervous and run away. This station area is only busy during the fireworks, the Edogawa Fireworks Festival, which is the first Saturday in August. You can't even see the blacktop because there's so many people here going towards the riverside, but they get off at Shinozaki Station. And it's pretty neat to see my apartment right up there is now there's some dude in there. She could knock on it, but I can't even get in. They've added security. It's probably smart.

00:11:37 John Daub: By the way, we are 50 people away from 10,000 on our Discord server. That's pretty massive. Discord.gg/onlyinjapango is a 24 hour community where people are talking about it. And I'm always sharing photos there. What? That used to be some old guy's shop where he was selling something. I don't even know what he was selling. I used to always say hi to him. But now it's a pachinko. You take the balls here for pachinko and you get cash like around the back. They found a way to make the system work. Oh, here's the park.

00:12:17 John Daub: When the 2011 earthquake hit, I grabbed my hamster Kiki and I ran outside and we ran to this park because the ground was shaking. Wow. I'm glad that they for many years, they just would never cut the weeds here. And finally they did. And people started to use this. In fact, this is my pull-up bar. You see that? That was my pull-up bar for a couple of years. It's interesting. This is also like a garbage dump here. People were dumping stuff and now the grass has grown back. That's great. Used to be really kind of dirty.

00:13:08 John Daub: But this area, the suburbs of Tokyo, and this will take you down to the river as well. If we go straight there, we're going to walk down the back. This area of Tokyo has seen a boom and I checked on the prices of my apartment and the real estate has really gone up. So I used to pay a hundred thousand yen a month or about a little bit less than a thousand dollars a month. And now I'm paying a hundred thousand yen a month to live here, which is kind of a lot for this area, but it's not because it's Tokyo. Well, they raised the rent by, I think it was like $300 a month. So they must've really done a good job on the inside. But I really loved the tatami mats that they had inside my apartment. That was the clincher for me because it felt like I was in Japan and smelled really nice, but they got rid of the tatami mats and tatami is just really hard to take care of.

00:13:51 John Daub: But over the third, since 2005, when I moved here, so many people came out to Edogawa because it was cheaper taxes, more land, a little bit safer. Schools were good. It's more relaxed out here. You can raise a family out here. The highway is right there. That's Route 14. And you can see the highway above there. It goes towards Narita Airport. So there's a lot of good stuff here about living in this area. Boy, did I do a lot of midnight snack runs here? Let's just chalk this up to memory lane.

00:14:37 John Daub: Japanese building names are funny they are called there's one called rest in peace which i'm sure is a botched translation for obviously i think the name of the apartment now is called um cosmos or something it's kind of a weird name check out this parking garage right for the apartment building i know sometimes in the countryside they'll go up too high this goes four high how would you like your car up there it goes on like this this rotating thing before it comes down but it's kind of neat you can see it from the outside i guess you gotta imagine trying to if you forgot something in your car you gotta either wait for it to come down for a couple of minutes or you gotta climb it like spider-man i don't think i could do either.

00:15:35 John Daub: It's just so different because this building was not here before it was a parking lot so again for those joining us this is Shinozaki the town it's on the Toei Shinjuku Line pretty much at the end and i lived here from 2005 to 2018 13 years i was paying rent the landlord and the neighbors were i was really good friends with everybody and i didn't come here that often but i did a couple of times this is a gyu rib roast rib roast wow little bloody comes with a miso soup and rice smells the same wow i don't know if i'd want to live here though this is new so i'm going to take you through the community center where i used to go to which is about 30 seconds from my apartment as well.

00:16:31 John Daub: I can't even see it from here yet that's weird there's my building in the center my view would be gone yeah i can't even see my apartment anymore because of this building in the way i'm kind of glad that i left oh here's the 7-Eleven that i used to go to a couple of midnight snack runs on the left side i always hit the 7-Eleven let's see if it's still there x out of one is a new traveler welcome hey john kimura i actually you know ramsey silent has also been giving super chats to get stuff for kanai and uh just the other day i bought a massive flower bouquet i'll put it on instagram a little bit later and share in our discord server but i know what you mean.

00:17:45 John Daub: Whoa they're like all high tech and stuff what they have like all these um self check out things now i guess you just pay there's almost nobody in there but this is my supermarket of choice the way it is there are just and I used to go in here all the time. This exit's always been closed. During the typhoons though, when the typhoons rolled in, they had sandbags all through here to make sure that the water wouldn't come in. Yeah, the 7-Eleven's still there. Did a couple of midnight snack runs here. And then I would set the camera on a tripod over there. Let's go inside. I hope the signal stays strong.

00:18:32 John Daub: Kids would always be trading Pokemon cards in here. This is where all the shogakusei (elementary school kids) would trade cards. They'd sit on the floor and trade cards and stuff. And I would yell at them and they'd run away. I didn't do that. Not really. It's interesting to see inside of a Japanese supermarket like that. Very cool. So this is where you can get free water. And I would buy a bottle. And I could come here, push the button, and get you a 4-liter bottle of free filtered water. Which is kind of neat. It's an ATM. They have little concerts here too. I think they're still doing it. I think they moved it to the third floor. It's nice. This is part of the community center of Edogawa Ward. And it's really close to the station front. Ekimae.

00:20:26 John Daub: They started charging for bags too. Wow. Every store you gotta pay money if you want a plastic bag. Which is probably a good thing. Hey, we got a lot of members. Oh, Kyo-san's a traveler. Hey, Leo. And Project Tensai. How you doing? Thanks, guys. This is the west exit of Shinozaki Station. This didn't actually exist when I moved here. They built this a little bit later. In fact, this whole building was built over the time that I was here in Shinozaki. But you can see out here, it is really quiet. And I used to walk this way to go to the post office to deliver the postcard club's cards too. So I'm going to walk this way. It's a nice, what, about three minute walk to get there. So let's do that. Let's walk over there and then we're going to double around.

00:21:37 John Daub: And I want to give you, as I said when we started this, a slice of suburban life in Tokyo. And the population of this place is skyrocketing. It was skyrocketing when I left. So many apartment buildings have been going up. The result was that a lot of new shops were coming in. More clinics. More dentists. More supermarkets. Hey, Jennifer French is here. You are welcome. And our friend Chicago African is here too. You know what, I think there's a beer vending machine. Alright, well, you know what, I'll stop by and see what we can find there. I think it's right ahead. I might have stopped at that beer vending machine a couple of times. In Midnight Snack Runs.

00:23:23 John Daub: It's like nothing has changed. Here's the liquor shop. Hiromaru. This was the tallest building in Shinozaki. It used to be green. They changed it brown about 10 years ago. If I ever got lost, I just had to aim for that building and I would get back. Because some of these streets, they don't go in the grid pattern. Kind of all over the place. So these little mom and pop shops, they're probably not doing too well. Or they might be doing better because it's in a residential area. So people do have to get stuff. Alright, here's your beer vending machine here. What I'm gonna do is, let's check to see what they got here. Interesting. They do have the corn soup. You know what I like? They have these mini beers. So Mr. Das and everybody else, I can get something here.

00:24:59 John Daub: Support our local vending machine. There's a cup of sake. Oh, they got a couple other cups of sake. Alright, let's go for this really small Asahi. It's like a... 8 ounces? This used to be a... Oh, it's like a cafe now. It used to be somebody from the Philippines that opened up a little Filipino shop. But I don't think the population for Filipinos is very big. So not a lot of people went into the Filipino market. I used to go in there. I would just say, Hi, what is this stuff? Buy something and then leave.

00:25:56 John Daub: I guess there's nobody around. We can kind of go like this. I think this is the style. Look how small this thing is. They have cans that are even smaller. They're like thimble sized. I think it's 100 milliliters? I don't know why they have it. I guess it's because husbands will buy this for their wives so that they can have just a taste of beer. And it's kind of fun to do. I would buy this for Kanai. She doesn't drink alcohol, so she'd go like this. And then she would never really drink any more than that. And I would finish it. Pretty neat here. Hold on a second. Alright, Kanpai. It's cute. It's not bad. It's beer. It's cold.

00:26:58 John Daub: Now technically you're not supposed to walk around with a beer in your hand. People do it. I already know in advance that there's a 7-Eleven up the street. So I'm just going to try to make my way to the 7-Eleven and then throw the empty can out there. Oh my mask smells like beer now. Oh this is the lag zone. Yeah sorry guys. There might be a lag. For some reason, no signal gets through here. Get on the other side. This is a pretty good size. 250 milliliters. The signal should come on right now.

00:28:27 John Daub: Carrie, I do kind of miss the quiet a little bit. But after 13 years here I was really excited to leave as well because there's something amazing about exploring a new area and getting used to it. It was fresh and I think I needed that in my life at that time. And Kanai and I found a bigger place that we could both be more comfortable and closer to her family as well. I'm going to show you in a second another thing that I really loved about this neighborhood. See where that guy is walking. We're going to go in that direction in a second. So let me just throw this brewski away.

00:29:19 John Daub: Okay. They put the recycle bins on the inside. There's a park over there with a guy who used to have a yakitori stand. And he would wheel the yakitori stand out there to sell it in front of the park right there. So he used to be there at 6pm. I'm surprised he's not there. It's a Korean restaurant and a kind of a bakery. But they had this here. This goes all the way to the river. The Edo River. And there's actually carp in here. Koi. So let's see if we can find some koi. But I think sometimes the kids try to fish them or something. I don't know. The good thing about living here is kids can just go outside and play. And when they're playing, sometimes they're fishing. I don't know if they're allowed to do that though.

00:30:36 John Daub: Parents just say... You know in Japan, when kids get punished, parents don't tell the kids to go to their room. They do the opposite. They say, go outside. This is the complete opposite of the US. Whoa! That's really cool. So inside they have like a greenhouse and they're kind of... Shinozaki is really famous for having some pretty good vegetables. There's urban farming going on in there. That's the first time I've seen anybody in there. I was a little bit surprised. No koi. I guess the kids have fished them all out. Oh, there's Big A.

00:31:36 John Daub: This was the fringe supermarket. Big A with the blue sign there. It was open 24 hours but it kind of really never had anything in there. It's like a fringe supermarket. I don't... It's hard to explain. Can you see yourselves living here? What do you think? Livable? OtakuWheels30! Welcome to a traveler! Hey, Raymond Centeno's here. I'm here if you need another shot of beer. But... I'm gonna go back to that bakery and get something for Kanai as a snack for sure. She knows... There's a couple of items that she does like there that they don't make at any other place that I'll bring back and this is gonna be surprising for her. That's gonna be fun.

00:32:34 John Daub: Where are the carp? Oh, there they are! How you doing? There they are. They're hiding. I should've brought some like... Oh, we went underneath there! Let's get them out. Obviously the carp are far smarter than I am. Doesn't work. Hey! Nothing. Somebody said if you spit, they eat it. It's kinda nasty. Take that with a grain of salt. Or some spit. Alright, let's keep going. Actually, they probably went over here. This thing continues. This route continues all the way to the river. Oh, they can't go this way! They're locked in!

00:34:01 John Daub: It is disgusting. I'm just reporting... Look, I didn't do it. I'm just reporting what other kids have done. I'm just an observer. There's a lot of kids here, okay? And I do what I observe. That's what I do. Oh, hey! Look at that! Look at the little teeny one over there. Trying to hide. I see you. Hey, I see you too! Finger! That's my finger! Where you going? They're so majestic. I wish that I had a pond that I could put them in. But there's nowhere where I live now where I could do that. It was always nice, you know, if I needed to take a break, I could walk out here and just kind of hang out with the carp or... It takes your mind off of other stuff.

00:35:27 John Daub: Here comes a big one. Oh, they're gonna meet! Battle! Battle! Do it! Do it! No! You guys are friends, probably. How you doing, guys? Remember me? I'm that guy that was just sitting around drinking a beer. Remember me? No? No, they're not impressed. They're not impressed with John. Hey! I'm one of you! I could be if I take off this jacket and shoes and jump in. It's hard to talk with them because I don't know their language. Yeah, I don't see any more here. It's nice. I always thought that this was a nice place to live and when I moved out, before I found a new apartment, my landlord was like, let me try to find you something in the area. Don't leave this area! You're gonna regret it, she said. I don't know. I kind of live in a nice area, actually. I was like, yeah, okay. I kind of regret it. I get it. I get that.

00:36:43 John Daub: Alright, over there is a really nice, um, like a shrine. There's a shrine over there that, uh, it's about a 10 minute walk. It's quite far to get to. I'm not gonna take you there this time. When the festival comes back on in July, I will. But what I wanna do is I wanna take you to a house. Actually, there's like nobody here. There's like nobody here. It's like a ghost town. There's a motorbike guy. Alright, I'm gonna show you a house that's been here since, um, the Meiji period. The family, I met them once. It's right here on the corner. It's kind of neat.

00:37:27 John Daub: And if you do go around in, uh, around the city, especially outside of the city, you'll find these really old family houses. Now, this plot of land has been in the family probably for centuries. Because it's so big! Now, these days in Tokyo, you cannot buy a plot of land this big. After the Taisho era, then the Showa era, the plots got smaller and smaller. And the buildings got higher and higher. And, uh, this building, uh, is a house. Fascinating old Japanese-style house. Of course, it's undergone renovations and stuff, but I always tried to find the owner. I always wanted to go inside and film and see what it looks like on the inside, but I could never find the person except for that one time they came outside that door. And I said, how you doing? And then they just kind of ran away.

00:38:53 John Daub: Oh no! They took all the vending machines that were here away! This used to be, um, I did a couple of, uh, like a Christmas Pepsi stuff here in 2018. It's all gone! There's vending machines. That's an amazing house, isn't it? Alright, I just wanted to show you this road here, and then I'm gonna walk back towards the station. Um, again, it's, for me, this is super nostalgic to be walking around my neighborhood. It feels pretty cool to have you guys with me. Uh, hit the thumbs up if you like these neighborhood walk videos, because I get a couple of other neighborhoods in this area that are pretty unique, especially Koiwa, which is just a stone's throw away from here.

00:39:42 John Daub: Hey! You kids! You should not be doubling up! I saw that! Hey! You meddling kids! I see you guys doubling up. Only one on a bicycle! That's the wrong person. See, I used to live here. I was a, I was an elder. So I'd have to keep the people in line. Young, the young ones. I was one of those. This is a pretty neat looking cafe. I'm, I'm, I'm just joking! For the people, for the people that are, uh, like, believe everything that I do, I'm just kinda joking around. I didn't, was not an elder. That, that was a cafe, and that was pretty neat, and it looks like, um, Crystal and Gretel were there. I don't know. I'm not that old. I'm, I'm the same age as all of you. So, let's relax.

00:40:54 John Daub: Break the internet. Alright, we're going on the way back. I can't obviously go on the same street. So we're gonna cross over. Obviously there's not a lot of traffic. Check it out! Do you see what I see? Sky trees. 600 meters high in the distance. Really tall. That Sky Tree in the distance. There you go. Kinda far away from Sky Tree. Oh, tis the season! I'm putting up my Christmas tree tonight. I thought I would do it after Halloween, but I got busy. Kanae's performance was on Sunday. It's one of the reasons why I haven't been livestreaming. I'm busy helping Kanae with filming and preparing for her dance thing. I actually didn't really do that much, but I kinda helped. But sometimes I'm helping I get in the way. So I try not to do that. Try to stay out of the way.

00:42:10 John Daub: Alright, this is the Anpanman vending machine. It's pretty sweet. Literally, because it's mostly like sweet drink boxes and stuff. It's playing music! Listen. How are you? Whoa, it's talking to me. That machine's been there for ages. I'm just in love with this house. I rarely see the owners. Not today either. Not sure what I would say. I live here. You remember me? I would stalk your apartment and your house trying to get access to film it, because it's so beautiful. You let me in? It doesn't work. You'd think it would work, but... Alright, let's take this back alley here. Whoa! Twins. Hey Mario! Valentine! An insider. Guess what? I got something I'm dropping on for the insiders as well as a secret stream coming. Appreciate that. I got one of my memos coming on travel. Every couple of months I put a new one up there.

00:44:00 John Daub: Denise is here. How does an old house like that manage to stick around? I don't know. I guess the family members are stronger. Right? People seem to want to stick around here. If the kids move away, they go to university, they get married, they never come back, that's a problem. But sometimes they stick around and then if they have money or a business or something, then it's easy for them to keep the business going. Oh, he's got one of those RCA's covers for his head. That's a good boy. Good doggy.

00:44:40 John Daub: Alright, this used to be a ramen shop, but they had a fire. They had LED lights around this window and it was so bright the neighbors here I think complained because it was just too bright. It looked like it was midnight. It would be like noon. And then they had a fire here and you could see that the flames, I don't know if it was the LED light, but the flames had burned a little bit of the building so they had to repaint it over or something. But of course it went out of business. And a lot of little schools and laundromats and you'll see stuff that residents need. So let's go back to the main street here. That's an interesting little side trip. Yeah, I did miss this town a little bit.

00:45:43 John Daub: Yeah, that ramen shop, I never even went in there because it was in business and out of business so quickly. By the time I went to walk there, that's when I discovered the fire. I wanted to get my new bicycle at this shop, but their prices were too high. So I never bought anything from here. But I did repair a flat tire twice. They were very friendly. And have free air. I like that. All you can air. That's for free. Oh, there are the guys. Totally different dudes though. They're fixing a flat. Another pachinko place. Oh, this place is still in business! I'm so happy about it. They make some really good taiyaki and confections.

00:46:31 John Daub: Let's see if we can get something. Should we try to get something? Oh, they have matcha. Matcha flavored taiyaki. Alright, that's high on my list. What is that? This is kuri. This is the normal. Let's try this. That was so cheap! I'm still gonna go to the bakery for Kanai. Hey, that Lawson's is still in business! That used to be one of the DVD shops. Sorry, sorry. VHS DVD shops. I used to visit. It went out of business. And then it turned into a Lawson's. It used to be a natural Lawson's, I think. But now it's just a regular Lawson's. It was Suzuki DVD rental. And bookshop. And Mr. Suzuki, I got a membership there. And then within a year, Mr. Suzuki had gone out of business because Tsutaya opened up nearby and then put Mr. Suzuki out of business. So I was a little bit upset about that.

00:49:42 John Daub: Mr. Suzuki had a shop there and then one over there. And, uh, I tried to rent as many videos as I can and keep them in business, but you know, you can't do that sometimes. One man cannot support a local business alone. It requires the help of an entire community. My community failed. Oh, my mom got sick once when she visited and she came here. Shinozaki Ekimae Clinic. Whoa! See this Yoshinoya? I only ate here once in 13 years. I don't know why. I think when I'm at my home, I don't want to eat Yoshinoya. Just like something that you would eat if you're somewhere else and you can't get home. But since I lived right there, why would I eat Yoshinoya? It doesn't make sense.

00:50:20 John Daub: This is a great yakiniku place here on the corner. A Korean owner, really friendly. When I first came here in 1998, they didn't have DVDs. They had VHS. So when I brought a bag home, I would spend like $8 and I would get like 5 VHSs and I wouldn't go back for a week. And because I didn't really like Japanese TV, I didn't understand what was going on, VHS tapes are all I really had. I didn't have a lot of friends either because I just moved there. Yeah, Tsutaya is the Blockbuster of... Oh, there's the police station! The Koban. I remember making friends with one of the guys and he asked me how old I was. And I said, why aren't you married? I said, I don't know, man. I said, do you know anybody? He didn't. He wasn't married either. I wonder why.

00:51:31 John Daub: But police officers, they know that people that are married are less likely to commit crimes and stuff. I see they got new windows there. The coppers here. That's good. One time, so one time I... Nothing's really changed. There's still a glasses shop here. One time I found a man that had passed out in front of the station. He was just... I don't know if he was alive or dead and I didn't know how to check his vitals and stuff. But he was just sprawled out on the floor not moving. Obviously drunk, you could smell it. So I came to the police station to ask them and they said, whoa!

00:52:22 Toby (crow): [crow sound]

00:52:38 John Daub: I see you, Toby. Evil. You can't hide in foliage. I have eyes that can penetrate leaves unlike 5G. Millimeter waves. This used to be the Mister Donut. Oh! So the police, by the way, just to finish this story, the police told me, just never mind. He'll be okay. That was it. So I went home. I guess his wife came.

00:53:16 John Daub: Alright, this is one of my final stories now. So this shop here, this shop here is something else. It's a gyoza shop, which smells really nice. Used to be an oyster shop. But now it's turned into a gyoza shop. But it used to be Mister Donut. I love Mister Donut. And when I moved here, Mister Donut was very far away. There wasn't anything here. But if you look here, between the buildings, up there is my building. Okay? And there's the window right there with the light on in the center. I remember walking past here, and I walked into my door, and I walked past here, and I stopped right there. And I said, wait a second. And I went backwards here, and I stopped, and I looked this direction.

00:54:05 John Daub: There was a sign that said Mister Donut, and I could smell the donuts frying. My life changed. For two years, three times a week, I would get my breakfast here, and I would hang out here. And on the second floor, I could work and do stuff. And it was really cool. And then one day, Mister Donut was gone. I don't know what happened. It just turned into a different shop. I don't know. Shops here in Japan, they don't stick around forever. They kind of just go away. This is now a, um, some kind of beauty parlor that's closed, but it used to be Suzuki's other DVD shop. I'm sure Mr. Suzuki sold out and did okay. I know! He used to be Mister Donuts! What happened? No offense to the gyoza, but you're not Mister Donuts! Imagine having all of the Pokemon donuts and stuff. Right now, Mister Donuts has Pokemon Pikachu donuts. Very nice.

00:55:18 John Daub: I do like how the police, they're on patrol. That's really nice. Over here, the buses, so there were buses here as well, and inside of the station, there were buses. And, uh, sorry, there's a subway right there, but these buses connect and fill in the dots. And that was always really nice. Alright, let's sit here for a second and try this. Put the tripod on you.

00:56:10 John Daub: Somebody said, why is the quality of these livestreams so low? And I said, it's because these are livestreams. There's been an uptick in complaints on mobile livestream quality. My response? Some people call me the human callous. You can criticize me all you want. It's not gonna hurt my feelings. I'm not... I really have nothing to say to you. You can cry all you want. This is low quality, Raymond. I know, it's crazy. Expiration date is 25th, so these are fresh. This is called a nama taiyaki, so it's kind of raw. I don't know. I might save this for Kanai. I think you've seen taiyaki before. I wanna try this one here. I don't know what this is. This is an Edogawa, which is Edogawa, you see the fireworks? Because this is where the fireworks are famous. Looks like, and there's a coin! We saw a coin before! This encompasses all of this area, so it's a local speciality.

00:57:29 John Daub: Right, Carrie? You got it. I know, a 720p ain't that bad, but you can't satisfy people that are pixel counters. They count all the pixels, and they missed the story, and they counted the pixels. I don't know why that's so important. But they do that. Alcohol wipe. Safety first. Oh wow! It's like a little bun. I thought it was like a melon pan, but it's like a little bun. Let's see what's inside here. Oh, what is that? I'm gonna find out in a second now. I think when 5G and the phones catch up, it's gonna take a little bit of while, but we'll have full HD size livestreams soon. We had, you know what? These livestreams used to be only 480p when I started. Then they upgraded to 720. So we've seen the evolution. Next up, is full HD. Here we go. Wow! It's not like a burger, it's sweet. Itadakimasu.

00:58:27 John Daub: This, I want you to imagine a Twinkie, but it's fresh. And high quality. Imagine a high quality Twinkie. That's what this is. Alright? I wish I had a coffee. No Mister Donuts here. And this cream is more like butter. It's like a butter cream. It's pretty good. I love the confections here in Japan. Oh wow! It's sweet, but there's a little bit of saltiness to it. I like that. Good balance. Mmm. I'm bringing this home for Kanai.

00:59:44 John Daub: Wow, what a great trip down memory lane. I didn't expect it. There's my building again, and I always said if I got robbed or something, all I had to do was come outside and shout, and the police would hear me right here. Right? Hey, I've been robbed! And then the police would come out. I always thought that, but never had that situation because I think I lived in a pretty safe place. What do you think? What do you think? Leave me a comment below and tell me, would you live here? Could you live here? Would you be my neighbor? Mr. Rogers. Uh, it's a beautiful place if you have a family. I think that this is a great place to live, but after 13 years, it was time for me to live somewhere else.

01:00:30 John Daub: And now I live in Chuo Ward, which is only 10 minutes by bicycle to Tokyo Station. Nihonbashi, lots of restaurants. I can get to Haneda and Narita pretty quickly. And that convenience is what I need for this job. I love where I live. I live in a really nice place. So, um, not Mr. Robinson's. Mr. Rogers. Mr. Robinson's Eddie Murphy. I remember, I love that skit too. It's the best ever. There you go. So I hope you enjoyed this too. This connects up pretty good with my apartment tour from 2018 when I moved out. A very nostalgic moment in my life where I had to leave my apartment. I think that video did pretty good. I think it's got like 100,000 views or something. But definitely check that out if you haven't already. See the apartment that I used to live in, which is right there. The tatami room and the two rooms and the black fungus and all the other stuff that kind of scared me out. That's another reason why I had to leave.

01:01:31 John Daub: But I'll always have a fondness for Shinozaki and this neighborhood. And I'm sure I'll be back again someday to say hi. Kanae used to come here too, so we'll both come here and reminisce a little bit. Shinozaki Park, which is beautiful, is not too far away. And we can rent bicycles because I have a bicycle rental card that allows me to rent bikes. And you can rent bikes in the basement of Shinozaki Station. It's $2 for 24 hours. That is so cheap. So if you're thinking about just riding around, you can ride to Koiwa, to the river. You can ride all through nature here. Just $2 to register and get a rental bicycle. And that's kind of nice. Pretty cheap, right?

01:02:12 John Daub: I'm going to go in here and get something for Kanae from the bakery. All of you have a great day. I'm sorry you haven't been around for the last couple of days. But I have some news. Tomorrow, due to the poll that we had, I'm going to be going to Deep Saitama tomorrow. And I will take you on at least three live streams I believe I'm going to be doing in Deep Saitama tomorrow and Thursday. So get ready because Only in Japan Go is back for more in Saitama. It's kind of cool. And then next week I'll be in Fuji City. And then the week after that I go back up to Tohoku to start filming in Miyagi Prefecture where the earthquake and tsunami took place. A place called Kesennuma. I'll be back up there and filming. And I have a couple of videos that I'm going to be dropping later this week or maybe early next week. There's a lot of stuff that's been going on. Hit the subscribe button. Leave me a comment below. Click that like button and I'll be back in less than 24 hours. Oh, and Patreon supporters, I do have a Q&A coming really soon too. Get ready for that. Bye bye from downtown Shinozaki. The place I used to live. I'll be back.