00:00:00 John Daub: To Tokyo's Christmas market in Hibiya. This is an event every year. Whoa! The Lindt chocolate booth is snowing. Look at this. Wow! And all through the house, there was snow. It's probably real snow. Oh my god, it's real snow. How do they do that? Well, it's something. Yeah, it's snow.

00:00:53 John Daub: That's awesome. This is Hibiya Park in Tokyo and every year, they have a Christmas market. The last live stream that I did, there was another one. I got kicked off, the app just crashed, but we're back again. During the pandemic, they're still holding a Christmas market but it's a little bit different. The numbers of people that are allowed in here are limited. You have to undergo a temperature check as well as have your alcohol pumps at every single stand and we're supposed to be practicing social distancing and no yelling or shouting apparently. Although, who would do that anyways? I just bought a couple of Christmas ornaments and I'm on my way out. We're gonna leave the Christmas market here and the opera. And the doll that has no legs but moves by wheel. It's interesting. Stay warm, everybody.

00:01:58 John Daub: For those that are joining us for the first time in this live stream, I did get a Christmas mug. This is the Christmas mug. It's really nice. If you do go to the German Christmas markets, you get something similar and you get to keep the mug. One glühwein (mulled wine) here and this one had real apples in there that were boozed up. One of these is about 700 yen or about six and a half dollars, maybe five euro, which is kind of expensive probably but how often do you really get to come to a Christmas market? I think it's cheaper than a ticket to Germany. There's an actual opera singer over there apparently. Let me just take you around a little bit for this live stream so you can feel the ambience. And then I'm going to take you out to the streets of Tokyo where I'm going to show you what the Christmas lights are around, which is kind of nice because I know that Christmas around the world and a lot of places has been canceled in the UK and probably here in Japan too if things get even worse. But actually everything's been pretty good.

00:03:07 John Daub: What? Donuts on hot cocoa? Has anyone ever seen this before? That is pretty cool. I like the way that they do it. Just put the donut right on top of that. That's a pretty nice idea. Now you got to pay a 500 yen deposit for the mug, but you get to keep it. The mulled wine. Oh, there's a Kinder Punch, Kanae. So they do have a Kinder Punch here. Here's where they show you the wine. 1200 yen for the first one, which is about $12. And then 700 yen for the second one, which is $5 less, meaning that the mug costs about five bucks. All right. So there you go. There's the Christmas market. We're going to now leave this area here. Thanks for joining us. I know the other app crashed and I could not get back in it.

00:04:20 John Daub: We're going to leave the Christmas market here. I'm going to show you the entrance and then we're going to walk the streets of Tokyo looking for Christmas lights to feel that spirit. We'll go past the Godzilla statue on our way. Merry Christmas, everybody. Thanks, everybody on the West Coast of the United States for joining us late at night. Everybody on the East Coast is probably sound asleep. That's the Imperial Hotel where the Queen of England stayed and Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their honeymoon inside of it. A little tidbit of information. Apparently before this building came in here on the side there, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were on the second floor and they waved to the international press and took pictures. And there's a picture inside of the hotel of Marilyn Monroe. Sorry, folks, we just got to deal with the fact that maybe I'm in a crowded area. This is the line now to get in. It goes about 100 meters back and it's one in and one out right now. So they want to keep the numbers low to decrease the chance of infection, which is good. This isn't going to be a crowded place, but I'm really happy that they still decided to hold the Tokyo Christmas Market 2020 and did it in a pretty good way. I can feel a little bit of the Christmas. I'm going to want to come back here and it's going to be hard not to want to come back here because it's just so cool. This is the front gate to get in. This looks like the gate to get in the Oktoberfest. It's a little bit bigger.

00:06:02 John Daub: A lot of people in the line are social distancing. They're trying to stay a couple of meters apart. That's good. All right, let's get to it. Let's go walk in the streets of Tokyo for the next 30, 45 minutes or so because I got to get back to my bicycle, which is near the international post office because I sent some postcards out to new members. That's right. So it was that window and inside there's a museum inside of the Imperial Hotel. You don't have to stay there to go to the museum. Go in through the central entrance of the Imperial Hotel here in Tokyo and take a left and you have a museum with so many artifacts. All the famous people who stayed there. Jean Reno stays there and he's got a bunch of pictures. Presidents have stayed there. Kings and queens have stayed there. The Queen of England, what she ate when she stayed here is still on the menu. So you can get the same thing. Pretty interesting. Looking back right now at the Christmas market. We just crossed the street. This is Hibiya Park and this is where they hold that Christmas market every year. I'm pleasantly surprised that they are holding it this year. All right, let's get to the Christmas lights here. We're going to take a little tour around Tokyo. The Christmas market, by the way, it's free to enter. But you have to pay a deposit for the mug.

00:07:18 John Daub: There's an entrepreneur set up a little stand outside. So we're going to walk past the Godzilla statue and then down towards the Marunouchi side, the Yurakucho side, where there are a bunch of Christmas lights. The Christmas lights that Kanae and I walked to about two years ago. I think we did that walk. It's quite nice. Thanks for sharing the link if you can. In the last live stream, I don't know if the moderators can do that, but I can't jump back in there once I start a new live stream. I don't know what happened. It just ended and I couldn't get back in. Sometimes it happens. So you got two live streams instead of one. This part of Yurakucho and Yurakucho kind of means like it's kind of like an entertainment district. This is where Toho Cinemas has had. If there's like a walk of fame, it would be here because the Japanese actors, they had their handprints used to be on the ground there, but they moved it somewhere else. We're going to be making a left in a second. Good morning, everybody. Good evening. If you're on the West Coast morning on the East Coast, an awkward time to be doing a live stream, but we live in awkward times.

00:09:25 John Daub: Hey, Tortora Porco. Merry Christmas. John, thank you for bringing the joy to the community. Thank you. Ho ho ho. So every time I get a super chat, I have to say ho ho ho because I'm wearing the hat. But the hat is actually very, very warm. So doubles as ear warmer. So Tortora Porco ho ho ho. Air to the Ron. Tea for Kanae in the new mug. Ho ho ho. So stupid. They got L.L. Bean in here. That's where I buy all my clothes. It's a small one. Kichijoji has a bigger one. All right. There's a Toho Cinema that I was telling you about. They used to have an old cinema, but thankfully they renewed it, made a really beautiful one inside this new skyscraper shopping mall building. They did a lot of new things here. Toho Cinemas is famous for Godzilla. And in about one minute from now, you're going to have an eyeful.

00:10:56 John Daub: See, even at this when they have a sale, it's still 10% more than in the US at normal price. So it's still cheaper than getting a ticket to go back home. It's hard to buy clothes in Japan. Westerners have wider shoulders, so none of the shirts fit. I'm a medium in America. I'm an extra large in Japan. It's weird, right? That bike got busted. No parking here. They give you a warning and if they come back again and your bike is still there, they cart it off. Gotta be careful. This is the front of the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya building. In front, you have the steps that are illuminated over there in the distance. Hey Road Tunner, happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Awesome. That up there above us is the ferocious and very dangerous. Do not mess with him. Godzilla. We'll get a closer look. But right now I want to send out a couple of postcards.

00:12:34 John Daub: See here. I didn't get a stamp for these here. This is your postcard here. Here's Nicholas in Staten Island and Bela just went out there. It's a couple of other people. Edward James. There you go. Here's the postcard. So I guess I got some more available and they have this year's stamp. The year of the cow or ox or wagyu. It depends how you look at it. And this is John's from Spring, Texas. There you go, John. On the way. Spirit of Christmas. That's pretty cool. This is also the time of year where the mailboxes change. Let me show you right there. So instead of this being international, this becomes general mail and this becomes nengajō (New Year's cards). Nengajō are the special end-of-year postcards that Japanese send to family and friends and business associates. But typically this would be international and special mail and this would be normal letters, but they switch it starting around December 15th.

00:14:15 John Daub: All right, let's get a quick look at that Godzilla. Used to be a really pathetic, small looking, not very scary Godzilla right here. And it was the Godzilla where some dude was inside of the costume. So they removed him and they got wise and said, look, let's reboot the Godzilla statue. And we're going to make him look ferocious. And if you angle it right, it looks like he's about to conquer the city. That's his chin. You can walk up there and get a better view from up to the second floor, but it is a pretty imposing statue. There he is attacking Toho Cinemas. Robin Harpie and welcome new traveler. You've unlocked some pretty cool emoji. You've unlocked the emoji of me wearing a mask. Oh, there's the Wendy's. Check this out. They have this new mushroom burger. It's pretty hardcore. Wendy's used to be part of Dave & Buster's when they came in, they failed. And then they came in together with First Kitchen, which is another Japanese chain. So Wendy's is now part of First Kitchen. So it's not an actual Wendy's. It's like fusion Wendy's. Oh, there it is up there on the menu. I don't know. Delicious or gross. Burger King has something called an ugly burger here. I don't know if they have that in the US. It's the bacon mushroom melt. Add some bacon to premium American buns. Oh, do they know what they're saying? Of course. American buns are premium.

00:16:49 John Daub: It's a shame that Baby Got Back is a copyrighted song or else I would completely be singing this. Baby got premium buns, right? All right, let's go. It's time to get to the lights here. No more hustle, no more chit chat. Let's get to it over there. Ladies, gentlemen, that Christmas tree marks the beginning of a new adventure. We've crossed sort of this area of Tokyo, which is not that big, but we are now going towards Tokyo Station. This road will take you straight to Tokyo Station and lining it is a lot of beautiful Christmas trees. But this view here is also quite famous. So as we cross it, I'm going to go really, really slow. You get the Shinkansen, the bullet train going by and the Yamanote line making its way around with Ginza in the distance. So that's Ginza where all those bright lights are. Let's see if the Shinkansen goes by. Yes. Cross your fingers. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Have a merry Christmas to you and me too. And you, but mostly me. A little bit of you, but spirit of giving. It's mostly you and me. Us.

00:18:44 John Daub: All right, where's the Shinkansen? I was really hoping. I'm trying to drag this out a little bit because I know the Shinkansen. Shinkansen. If you say it three times and click your heels, maybe it'll come. Shinkansen. Shinkansen. Shinkansen. Damn you, Shinkansen! If it does come, I will swing you back there. But first, let your eyes and brain melt with the LED beauty of this Christmas tree right here. Let's see how close we can get and get in other people's pictures. No, it's turned it off. There's a Shinkansen. Why have yourself a Shinkansen? Oh no that was the Narita Express, sorry that wasn't the Shinkansen. Ash D you said it but it didn't do it. I guess you gotta keep trying. There's so many LED lights it feels like my brain's gonna melt. It's really bright actually. The iPhone is diluting the brightness of it. It's gone to like f/22 or something. All right let's get out of here. Everyone's taking pictures of me, I'm kind of in the way. All right no Shinkansen. Pan left. Let's walk down the center of Tokyo. This is the Marunouchi side of Tokyo and is very famous.

00:20:20 John Daub: A little bit of baseball trivia here. Actually I'm gonna give you the answer. In 1934 I believe it was, the Babe Ruth came to Japan to promote major league baseball and he came across by boat and there's a really famous picture of Babe Ruth in Japan in a convertible car driving from the back exit of Tokyo Station and it's got one of those straw hats on. I think the one that Lou Gehrig ate in Pride of the Yankees. Ah, Peninsula Hotel has a Christmas market and it's kind of expensive too. There's a gingerbread man and it costs 30 dollars. Oh my god it's true. That one is 60 but it looks really good. I'm gonna get out of here before the staff kicks me out. All right let's get out of here and even if I got it Kanae would angry and smack me. So what were you thinking? I said Marty made me do it. Let's cut across here. Sometimes you're gonna find really pretty Christmas trees in here as well. Some of these office buildings they have like inviting Christmas trees. It's basically just saying come inside and see our Christmas tree.

00:22:03 John Daub: Yeah I guess I believe these are ginkgo trees. Oh this is the new store I've never seen this before. It's called Micro Food and Idea Market and they got Christmas tents inside there. Interesting. This sign here says that the store complies with Tokyo's coronavirus protocol. They don't have one of those stickers. Something wrong. Doesn't really feel like Christmas in there though. Looks like Seattle or Portland. Oh no there's a Christmas decal and like I pointed at it and the lady looked at me. It looks like Portland or something. Let's get back to the Christmas lights. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree. You're actually a ginkgo tree. You didn't want the lights but they put it on you anyway. They'll be on you until the middle of January. Oh ginkgo tree, oh ginkgo tree. Your nuts fall down and they really smell. For Christmas trees, inside of the JP Tower building, which is where you get stamps. That's where I send most of the Only in Japan postcards. Inside of there, they have a massive Christmas tree usually. But last year they went all digital or something. It was like a hologram tree. It's there but it's not.

00:24:39 John Daub: Oh look, Royal Copenhagen has a Christmas tree. Let's stop and admire and do a little peep and tom shot. Oh Copenhagen, oh Copenhagen. Your tree is blue and white and gold. I like your city. Tivoli amusement parks and red hot dogs and gameldansk. Oh Copenhagen, oh Copenhagen. The Danish people say Copenhagen. Alright, we're getting closer to Tokyo Station. I hope this puts you a little bit closer into the Christmas mood. I know I am, feeling it. Hi from Denmark. Sorry. Skål. Tack. Good job. Maybe that's Swedish. I'm not Swedish there. Merry Christmas. Let's see over here, they had some sort of. Let's cross the street. There's some sort of weird Santa design. Let's take a look and appreciate it. I'm a fan of Santa. I've never been on the naughty list as far as I know.

00:26:44 John Daub: Alright, hold on a second. It says here. Wow, I'm on the screen. It shows my temperature. I'm 35.4. Do you think if I run in place I can increase my temperature? Alright, let's look at the design here. So special Christmas, Misia. It's a picture of a man wearing makeup and a stash. I like that. Special. Alright, let's get out of here before they kick me out. Who wrote that? Harshal writes in here. Haha, amateurs. It's 32 degrees Celsius in Mumbai. That's like, you know, 80s. How dare you rub it in? You've probably never seen snow, huh? I remember much of my family has never seen snow in India. There's something beautiful about snow. Snow cones. Yellow snow. Snowmobiles. Snowmen. Rumpelstiltskin.

00:28:19 John Daub: Alright, let's see anything else going on here. Don't see any more Christmas trees. This street is often shut down on the weekends too for Christmas markets. Not Christmas markets, but like neighborhood markets. And it's kind of nice because this is what we would consider to be like the central business district. This would be like the financial district, okay? So, on the weekends there's really not a lot of people around. So to attract people to come to this area on the weekends they do stuff like this. And they also add a little market where they have some food trucks that were coming in here. But today it's Monday, so it's open to traffic. Taxi! Alright, 32 might not be 80s, but it's pretty close. One of the best spots for Christmas lights might be Omotesando. I really like walking down Omotesando. And Roppongi is pretty nice too. Okay, look, alright, from that point they close the street. Let's have a quick look-see around there. Hey, Florence is here! I miss Japan a lot. Thank you for going around the Christmas markets and show us from Singapore. Thank you, Florence!

00:29:50 John Daub: Florence sent me masks at a time where I needed them. I needed masks. Florence might have saved our lives. I really appreciate it, never forget that. Alright, from there the streets are closed. But we have to do a Frogger and get to the other side. Hey, Ian Lay is a new traveler. Thank you, Ian! Ho ho ho! Florence, ho ho ho! I have to do that, I said that I was gonna do that. I have to keep it up too. So, introvert otaku's here. So, when's John's Christmas album dropping? Captain Anorak writes in here. Donation to John Daub sings what he sees, Jukebox. Oh, traffic cone, oh traffic cone. I can sing, I can do this all day. You bring us light and safety. Illuminated from a light inside. You feel, you give us warmth and safe journey. Oh, traffic cone, oh traffic cone. That orange is so dynamite. So you can do that with anything, pretty much. This is how you start getting dislikes on your video though. Oh, walking man, oh walking man.

00:31:32 John Daub: See, if you start doing it, you're gonna get people just get upset and they unsubscribe. I feel you. That the 16% that are like, oh gosh, what am I doing watching this? Garbage. Let's go inside here. Alright, we're gonna get off the map now, alright? We're gonna go to Main Street. Just looks like the same thing for the next 200 meters. So we're gonna go off, off Broadway here and Marunouchi Dori. Just kinda go in this courtyard. Oh, this is where Kanae's sister got her wedding pictures taken. I don't think 4G goes in here though. We'll see. Introverted Otaku writes in here. Next time, I will have a giant traffic cone in my living room. That's, you know what? I saw those giant traffic cones at a home center. These big stores. And it was about $120. And for some reason, I just wanted to get one. But I know that it would be dumb. It's pretty in here. Hey Anna, Merry Christmas. John and Kanae. Thank you Anna from Philippines. Ho ho ho.

00:33:09 John Daub: Get that sparkle in your eyes. Alright, it's nice in here, this would be pretty cool. Sit down and have a hot chocolate. I should probably serve some hot chocolate. Alright, let's get out of here. I'm not that impressed with this thing. I guess I don't appreciate art enough. No, maybe I should appreciate. Stand here and appreciate a heart. A heart of art. I don't know. Merry Christmas to Papa Dot. And Hashirama is a new traveler. Welcome, we're like two new travelers away from a new emoji. They give us a YouTube lets me have an emoji depending on how many people have signed up and we're like two away. Hey look! They gave the cow a Christmas hat. It looks like me. Hope you're feeling a little bit Christmassy. You know the traffic cones are synchronized. They're walking in synchronization. Not only are they dressed the same, they walk the same. Are you still, look, they're still doing it. Awesome, did you see that? They're synchronized. You have to look at the little things. You never know what you're gonna find if you notice these things. Sure. Two or three of you noticed.

00:35:04 John Daub: Alright, let's get out of here. Mike D's in the house. If you ever record a Christmas album I'll definitely be buying it. Yeah, it'll be that tune you heard from last year. Oh Christmas Cone. Oh Safety Cone. Um, Oh Walking Man. All the songs will have just oh in front of it. Oh with an oh. Ah, there it is, oh Christmas tree. Gotta have a song for Kanae. Kanae Claus. Look at this tree. This is pretty. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree. Your LEDs are copious. I shall circle you and appreciate. I like the colors. I promise not to defecate. Oh Christmas tree. It's hard to find words that rhyme. Not one of my strong points. It'd be funny if there's a squirrel inside. This looks real. You think there's anything real in there? No? A chipmunk or something? I'd like to see an animal. Like a resident pigeon, yeah.

00:36:34 John Daub: On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six mockingbirds, two roasted hens and a partridge in a pear tree. Is that a pear tree? I don't know, but I don't think it gets enough sunlight. They should probably open up the roof. Let's get out of here. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven mockingbirds, six French hens, two purple ducks and a cameraman with a LED light. Or is it a tungsten light? On the fourteenth day of Christmas my model gave to me three lovely smiles, two Ultraman's eyes and poses one Godzilla. La la la la la. There's a lot of people getting here like getting wedding photos and stuff. I can't even do it cause my mask is on. I'm sucking in my mask. You see that? He's part of the empire. He's got a lightsaber. I'm filming him, I better back away. I think that's the one that took Luke's hand. That's the pose that they do. There's another one. They all have the same pose. Down behind that car there's another empire. Part of the clones.

00:39:22 John Daub: He's not my father. You're not my father. See what the empire does? Do you see that? This is what they did. They took that used to be part of the rebel force. See what happened there? See that? Look it's and they're all the same. Look at that shop too. Rebel force. Look across the street. More. They're all over the place. Just don't admit part of the rebels. Oh this is during the rugby world cup last year they had a lot of events on the street. I don't see any Christmas trees. This is a nice little shop here. Happy birthday dad. Happy birthday. How did they. No. That's what they did with Han Solo you remember? They put him in carbonite or something. That's a Han Solo thing but in reverse. Like the inverse of the statue. The thing that they did. I see what's going on here, right? Carbonite. Yeah they carbonited them but in inverse carbonite. Because Han Solo was in a big block and these are like the inverse of that. The block is inside them.

00:41:39 John Daub: Alright so this is pretty much where we end our experience together. I hope this brings a little bit of Christmas cheer. A little bit of a smile. As I walk off my two cups of glühwein. We're gonna take a look at one more Christmas tree. He's looking left and right. It's solo empire. Deck the halls with boughs of holly. Fa la la la la la la la la. Tis the season to be jolly. Fa la la la la la la la la la. Woah. Look at the Christmas tree here. Oh it's really pretty. Look at that. But it looks like it's copyrighted music. So I'm gonna kinda get out of here. Arigatou gozaimasu (thank you). Nigete nigete nigete copyright. Sounds like. You know why do they. I don't know how to play copyrighted music actually. Don't report on me. Report on them. Better check their licenses. Deck that building management. Fa la la la la la la la la. Royalty free is the way. That's a nice tree. I like what they've done with that there man. Looks like candy.

00:43:33 John Daub: Alright there you go. So this is sort of the vibe. I feel like for the last hour and a half I'm in a little bit of Christmas there. Feels a little bit of Christmas here. So Christmas is not cancelled in Japan but it is severely subdued like in most places. But this walkway is one of the best places for Christmas lights. There are stores along the way and at the end of it if you were to go back this way you have the Christmas Market. A livestream that I did that crashed about 45 minutes ago. So there you have it. I hope this is a useful livestream that psychs you up. I'll put some chapter playlists, a chapter menu in here so you don't have to watch the whole thing. And watch your back because you don't know when the Empire might just make you a mannequin. It's not Christmas yet but we got four more days. It's gotta feel like it. Mike D right? Ginza bells. Ginza bells. Ginza all the way. Ginza is 300 meters in that direction actually. Hey. That's a good one. Hey. Santosh is here. How you doing Santosh? All the way in India. Oh man. We so wanted to visit India too this year.

00:45:00 John Daub: Mike D will buy an album. I do appreciate that. Everybody thanks so much. I'm gonna come back here with Kanae in our private time and maybe walk around a little bit over there at the Christmas Market if it's warm enough. Next week it's supposed to get really really cold in Japan. Like minus. It's already minus up in Sapporo. But it's supposed to get really really cold here in Japan. Some snow is possible. Niigata had a lot of snow the other day. So I don't know why it's Christmas. It very rarely snows in Tokyo because its weather is very much like Washington DC I would think. Sendai is more like New York where Washington DC is more like Tokyo in terms of weather. Yeah. And if you want like Alaskan weather just go up to Hokkaido. It's pretty cold. And if you want Canadian weather just stay in Canada. That's probably my best advice. But it's nice that we get a chance to do this. And just four more days and Christmas is over. And we have to pretend like it's Christmas for another month because it's so cold and miserable without Christmas in January. Just like a month I want to erase. But I gotta soak it up while I can. Stay safe everybody. I'll see you again tomorrow in another live stream. Got a lot of stuff that I want to show you before the end of the year.

00:46:11 John Daub: Oh and if you want a postcard I still got a bunch of them. Sign up in the postcard club. It's going out tomorrow if you do it. I'm taking the rest of them over. I gotta get some more stamps at the international post office over there. But they're going out tomorrow. Merry Christmas everybody. See you. Stay warm. Stay safe. Peace out. Trevor Beck. I am your father. Wahahahaha.