00:00:00 John Daub: Greetings! Welcome to Ginza after hours. It's now around 12:30 in the morning, and you can see the streets here are pretty deserted. On Sunday nights, especially, it gets like this all year round. It's pretty interesting to see my city, Tokyo, like this. Now there are cars going by—mostly taxis, sometimes garbage trucks. The city is still going on.

00:00:36 John Daub: How you doing, everybody? I got all late here. In this live stream, I'm going to take you around Ginza after midnight, looking at the streets and seeing what it's like at this time. It's actually the safest time to be going around the city. This is not that far from my house—I actually walked here in about 15 minutes. So yeah, it's local. Let's go.

00:01:03 John Daub: Let's start here with the Nissan building that you all know. I've been here hundreds of times to Ginza. It's just so much different after hours, right? Look at this—this is a concept car. They always have beautiful concept cars here. I can't see inside. There's some pretty cool concept cars, but after hours you really can't see much of anything. I love these new entrances to the Ginza subway line. They've done something really modern looking. The lights kind of haze at this yellow, futuristic yellow, like a spaceship in the movie Aliens with pods of monsters coming out. They just closed the door to the Ginza subway line. So they run about midnight—not many people out here.

00:02:08 John Daub: Here's Ginza Yonchome, the main intersection. That's Wako Department Store right there. If I pan up, you can see 12:30 midnight. So let's have a quick look around. Because of the pandemic, there are a lot of people out running and exercising when I was walking here. It's the safest time where you don't really have to wear masks because there's nobody out. It's very safe—you can social distance because everybody's sleeping. But it's also one of the things I love about Ginza. It's one of the most peaceful times, and Tokyo is such a safe city. You can do something like this—you can't really in other cities in the world, I think.

00:03:07 John Daub: I also wanted to talk about yesterday's earthquake. I was really lucky. I got back from Akita going through Sendai an hour before. Had I gotten on a Shinkansen an hour and a half later, I would have been stuck in Sendai because they stopped all the trains up there. But I'd gotten back about an hour and then the earthquake hit. I was actually in a FamilyMart getting pudding for a late-night snack with Kanae Daub across the street, and the earthquake hit. Everything was shaking violently. It was a 7.3, probably something like a 5.8 in Tokyo. It was pretty strong, lasted for a while. It was really bad—much worse up in Sendai. A lot of news media have been calling it an aftershock, which I can kind of believe. It was not Godzilla. I don't think it was Godzilla, although it has not been confirmed that it wasn't. Let's just put it like that.

00:04:25 John Daub: In the middle of the night in Tokyo, you'll find loads of construction. It just makes sense to do this in the middle of the night, and I think most major cities are the same way. There are a few YouTubers living up there—Chris and Sharla, I think, are up there. I know that Tohoku is a place that's dear to me because I lived up in Fukushima. I lived up in Iwaki City in Fukushima for a while. It was my second home in Japan—my third home. I've moved 17 times. So I have kind of a special feeling towards Fukushima and the people up in Tohoku. I really love them up there. What has happened over the last 10 years has been really tough. So peaceful.

00:05:33 John Daub: Are any stores open in Ginza now? No. All of the hostess clubs, all of the late-night places—they're all closed. And if they are open, it's something private. But I don't see anything open, and I'm actually not going to go into the alleys back here. Because over on this side there are a lot of hostess clubs that you've probably seen, but I probably shouldn't be going to. There you can see some kōji (construction workers). Part of the empire—looks very similar to Darth Vader's lightsaber. But we'll just be staying away from that side. The air is clear. It's actually quite a warm night.

00:06:25 John Daub: Tomorrow around 6 in the morning it's going to rain, and a reason why I'm doing a livestream now is number one, late at night is a lot safer, and number two, tomorrow morning it's going to rain. So I really don't have a chance to go out at all—this is it for a little while. I've got some indoor stuff to do next week, and I have been staying indoors for about a month inside of Tokyo, except for last weekend where I had a promise of a job I had to do—go up to Akita and film this before the state of emergency was called. They did not cancel the event; it still went on, and I was asked to go up there despite it. And I was happy to do so.

00:07:18 John Daub: Alright, let's go around the block. Let's take a look at some of the alleys. It's pretty creepy right there. Hey, bigtles. Peppy, thank you for the wonderful content. You're very welcome. Thank you so much for watching and being a part of this adventure. Again, this livestream would be boring if it wasn't for you making it more fun. Just joining me, hanging out in the middle of the night as Kanae Daub sleeps—beauty sleep. I find I don't need any beauty sleep because it would not help me much at this stage. Didn't matter to the emperor, did it? He looked grotesque, hideous, a thousand years old. Yoda, not exactly the looker, but the power in his little green fingers. I don't think Yoda ever slept—if he did, it was like a power nap. Let's be honest. Happy Valentine's Day. I thought it would take you to a romantic middle-of-the-night abandoned Tokyo livestream. That's right.

00:08:45 John Daub: In that direction is Don Quixote, which might be open actually—I think they're open until about 2 a.m. And I'm going to stop at the next post office because I have some postcards to deliver to some viewers. So this is a midnight postcard drop as well—they're open. Look at all that empty space to eat lunch at. How many of you miss Japanese convenience stores? Click the like button if you like convenience stores. Just click the like button if you like livestreams, and like this stream because it's fun to click the like button. Hey, Jennifer French is here. Hey, Jennifer, it's nice to see you. This is more of a zombie apocalypse livestream. Magnificent Meal's back—how you doing? From Denmark. I might have to stop for some snacks now. As the kitty gets bigger and bigger, the incentives to stop get bigger and bigger.

00:10:40 John Daub: So the alleys of Ginza—I always love them more than the main street. This is really interesting. Do you see this right here? This is the back of Ginza Six, and this is the bicycle parking lot. There's no attendant here, so I guess we can get a little bit closer. This is the Ginza Six bicycle parking lot. And you can see here it looks like these are quite small, but it's all automatic. So you put your bicycle tire onto here and then that's it—it'll just automatically take it into this elevator and park it somewhere. Then you would go in here, bring your validated ticket or IC card, and you could pay for it. I think it was only 100 yen. So it's open 24 hours a day so you can get your bicycle, but you can pay for a month. Well, that's not too bad—$15? Not too bad. It's 100 yen for two hours if you don't have a pass. That's pretty interesting.

00:12:33 John Daub: Oh, there's FamilyMart. So we're heading back to the main street, Chuo Dori (Central Avenue). We're going to cut across there and then just go around where the Apple Store is, back down onto the other side of Chuo Dori. And then we'll call it a night because I might not need beauty sleep, but I do need sleep a little bit. Air to the Ron—your sleep schedule seems crazier than mine. Thanks for all the content. You're welcome. And Dugan—snack time. I think we're getting calls for it. Actually, it's not cold at all compared to Aomori where I left from Shin-Aomori yesterday. It's actually pretty warm—it's almost like spring.

00:13:43 John Daub: We're back on Chuo Dori. That right there would be the largest Uniqlo in the world, in the center of your screen. It's pretty nice. You can go up there and it gives you a nice little bird's-eye view down onto the street. But really on the bottom of Ginza Six right here is the best view on the corner. There at the top of your screen is an awesome view that allows you to look onto the whole street of Ginza going down towards—I guess this is the direction of Akihabara. Let's cross the street here. I see Shane is chiming in—how you doing, Shane? Looking out for crows, cats and ninja rats. If you see any ninja rats, let me know. All right, let's go down Miyuki-dori then. I remember I've seen ninja rats here when they closed down Tsukiji Market about two and a half years ago and all of the rats had nowhere to go. So they came to Ginza because, you know, if you're going to go anywhere you're going to go to where luxury is if you're a rat. So you can see them still in the alleys here and they've been trying their best to fend off the ninja rats. But how do you catch them? They're ninja rats. They used to climb the poles of old Tsukiji, but because there's no more fish, no more scraps, no more food, you will see them scurrying along the alleys that they were never here before. In fact, I think if you put a piece of food in the middle of the street and just stand back, you'll see a cat-sized rat come out and eat that thing.

00:16:08 John Daub: Look at the glow on the streets—I love that. There's this kind of magical creepy glow. Anything can happen. Actually, I don't really need the mask because there's nobody around here—it's just us. Let's see what they have in the vending machine here. This could be a horror movie. What do they got here? Coke, Real Gold, Emerald coffee, Georgia Kilimanjaro, emerald—soup, shrimp bisque? No thanks. Oh, as I got near it, it turned on the light—interesting. Corn soup, black coffee, hot drinks, Nihoncha (Japanese tea). That'll keep me up all night. Speaking of things that'll keep me up all night, looking right there—I've never tried this. These Pepsi refresh shots—this is new. The Boss Columbia coffee—interesting. I could actually go for a Tansan Suji. Tansan is carbonated water. Or another thing that might be really good is mugi-cha (barley tea). This Jurokucha (16-tea blend) is also really good—it's got quite an original taste to it, and there's no caffeine in Jurokucha. Actually, maybe Jurokucha might be the best thing to get. Let's get a Jurokucha. It's got 16 different teas blended all together—sounds healthy.

00:18:32 John Daub: I'm not supposed to touch anything. I gotta alcohol my hands—alcohol wipe here. Jurokucha. This is from Asahi—yeah, this is one of my favorite teas. But I did notice that when I drank it on a train and I wasn't exercising or anything, the tea would sit in my stomach for a while and it kind of made me a little bit sick. So I guess you have to keep moving around—it's kind of a heavy tea, like a grainy tea. That was good. Thank you. Thank you for those who said buy a drink—I did buy a drink. All right, let's do some window shopping. Ginza—look at that alley over there. Not a soul. Wow, that was a pretty nice car.

00:20:22 John Daub: Let's cross the street. I found it—there's a Gap right there. Somebody asked me, what does Gap stand for? And I thought it was like Great American People or something. I don't remember what Gap stood for. Does anybody know? I haven't been to a Gap in two, three years. Most of my stuff comes from like L.L. Bean or something—they got like old man fashion. My favorite spot in Ginza would be not here—I don't know. Where's my favorite Ginza spot? Probably the back alleys of Ginza on this side. Maybe. I kind of like it. And I like Yurakucho, which isn't Ginza—Ginza is too high class for me. I'm like a low-class guy—I'm not really a Ginza guy per se. More of a Yurakucho and Shimbashi guy—I want a little bit character. I don't have anything to shop for—there's nothing that I want. I only want like food, wagyu, sweets, beer, beer nuts. There's nothing really that I want here. So I'm just kind of a Ueno guy, I guess—I'm not a Shibuya guy. That'd be like Paolo or something—he likes that Shibuya area, Harajuku.

00:22:56 John Daub: And here's the Apple Store—let's see what they got. That's window shopping. What if we saw a ghost in there? Is this—this feels wrong. It's just strange that there's nobody in there, right? It's just a little weird—Apple ghost. All right, let's go around the alleys on the other side here. I'm going to go this way towards the bicycles. So this is Matsuya-dori, and Matsuya-dori is—this is where the first Starbucks is. This way—the first Starbucks in Japan is right down there, 1998. I know because I was here when it started. It's like, what? A little piece of America? I'll take it. Oh, there's a mailbox—okay, good. We're going to do postcard drop together.

00:24:18 John Daub: Yeah, I like Yurakucho—I like underneath the Yamanote line. Some of the tunnels are there. But if you ask me where I like, I love the alleys of Ginza. There's loads of shops and places that you don't know, and then in the alleys there are little teeny alleys going this way too. Alright, this is a mailbox—let's do it. So who is this? This is going to Solomon in Florida. There you go. This is Elliot in Florida—that's from the Kickstarter. This is Timo in Australia—Vic. This is Simon in the UK from a place called Coventry—sounds like a nice place to live. Laura in Burbank—Burbank Laura, there you go. Who is this? Susan in Singapore—how are you doing, Susan? There you go—it's on the way. Hey, Miles—Miles in the Philippines. Alright, here's Christian in Germany—hey, Christian, there you go. And there's Mate in Hungary. And hey, Von! This is Von's for Australia. A little bit later than usual, but that's Von's! Von's just went from this mailbox in Ginza. So it's all being sent from here—it's kind of cool to see yours going on the way. If you joined in the beginning of the month, I've already sent it from Tokyo Station, and it'll probably be there like early this week.

00:26:31 John Daub: You're welcome. You forgot mine—Shane! No! Yours is already on the way, Shane! Oh my God, I sent yours on February 3rd or 4th—they went out pretty early. So it should be coming—well, actually Shane, yours comes a little bit later than others because you're kind of further up there—Manitoba? It's a cool place. Alright, it is kind of creepy, right? Not sure that's very cool. Hey, Tom Wong's a new traveler—how you doing, Tom? Guys, I will stop into a convenience store if we can get to a thousand likes, because I have already ate—there's nothing I want, but I will do it for you, because if you love me, I will love you back. That's the way it works. Until then, I'm going to wander the streets. Need a thousand likes for this thing—it's up to you, the community. We're like halfway there. I think there's a FamilyMart at the end of the street.

00:27:44 John Daub: It's kind of creepy—it's an old family-run shoe store from a few decades. Remember, I talked to a lot of the owners in Ginza when I was doing an NHK shoot about ten years ago—we were scouting this place out for Tokyo Eye and looking for old businesses that had a tradition. We found one shop that was a button shop—Ginza Ichome, and they'd been selling just buttons for generations. Just buttons—all sorts of buttons, hundreds of buttons. It's insane—I loved it. So we featured them in the Tokyo Eye back in 2010, eleven years ago for NHK. And I still believe it's the same guy—he's been working there for several decades. He's timeless.

00:28:51 John Daub: 617 likes—far cry from a thousand. We've got almost 1,500 people watching—come on, we can do this. I'm walking the streets of Ginza at almost 1 a.m. Hey, Brinkers! New insider—welcome! Welcome to the family. I just had a secret stream for insiders—the hotel I was staying at in Akita two nights ago. It was a pretty nice livestream—you get a chance to see kind of a fusion room between Western and Japanese style. That was an insider's livestream available in the community tab from a couple days ago—that's kind of neat. This window could be a zombie—so it's not moving. I love walking the streets at night.

00:30:22 John Daub: All right, I'm gonna take a turn here. Now we have a choice—click the like button, I pop into a convenience store; don't, I'm not. Pretty simple rules—easy to understand. I'm fascinated with these parking garages, right? This is the car goes here and it spins the car around so you don't have to make a turnaround. But I'd love to go inside there and see what it looks like inside the carousel—they have kind of a parking garage carousel. That'd be a pretty interesting episode to do. A lot of these alleys though have changed quite a bit. I never saw this before—I remember there was a couple of bars and restaurants down this alley, but it seems like there's a new building there. So historically, the alleys of Ginza were a lot more vibrant than they are today because Ginza is a place that is constantly changing and some of the older buildings from the Showa era have been torn down for these newer buildings. And as a result, they've shrunken the alleys a little bit. So now you don't have alleyway little restaurants—instead you have nothing and it loses the personality.

00:31:38 John Daub: Oh, there's a car—oh, it's a deer. I thought there was a dog. Why is there a deer in a dog shop or a yoga shop? I guess it's a yoga shop. Hey, James Boardman—Kiwisando? Oh yeah, that would be awesome. All right, hurry up—click the like button, people. Click the like button for crying out loud. Don't you want a Kiwisando? All right, I'm turning—we've got a far cry. I mean, I don't want to be on the streets—look at those headless people here. It's creepy—I don't want to be around here. I'm going to turn around. There's another convenience store—I'll give you some time, y'all can think about it. Now this is the Hiroshima Prefectural Store—you don't actually have to go to Hiroshima in order to get Hiroshima goods. There's Miyajima's famous torii (shrine gate)—you can get some Hiroshima Carp stuff, the baseball team, some of the goods in there. The Yamagata store is just behind it.

00:33:08 John Daub: Hey, Ranjit—Ranjit's here, how you doing? Your card should be making its way to you in a couple of days too—I sent those last weekend, so they've been on the way. I'm sure that they're going to be delivered next week, this upcoming week. It's already Monday here—what am I talking about? Oh, that's one of Kanae Daub's favorite places—this is Eggs 'n Things. The Eggs 'n Things is up there—nice window looking down onto Ginza. Kanae Daub likes breakfast, hotel breakfast—she goes, I want a hotel breakfast. So of course, you know we don't stay in a hotel, but sometimes we'll go to this Eggs 'n Things for brunch, but we haven't been there in like a year because of the pandemic. Garbage truck—these trucks drive so fast.

00:34:06 John Daub: Just a little bit of a plug for our Discord server—24 hours a day, seven days a week talking about Japan. People have been sharing some pretty good pictures if you're travel sick and you want to go on a little trip—you can take a trip to Japan by going to our Discord server and seeing some of the pictures of foods, travel. We have a bunch of categories—the group has almost 11,000 people on the Discord server, which is awesome. It is so warm actually—I don't actually need this jacket. When I was coming out I guess I have it because it's supposed to rain tomorrow morning at around 6 o'clock in the morning. I should have delivered it from this mailbox—this is right off the main street. I think it's going to the same main post office, but supposed to rain tomorrow morning so I came out here because it was so warm outside—there's no wind, it's so warm. Check it out—no bicycles on sidewalks. That's a rule that a lot of people don't know—you're not supposed to be riding your bicycle on the sidewalks, but I see like the police doing it too. But the police are actually on patrol so they need to ride it on the sidewalks, I guess, to look at suspicious people—I'm not being one of them because I'm wandering the streets at 1 a.m.

00:35:41 John Daub: I thought Dunhill was a cigarette—one of those rich posh cigarettes that people smoked—but guess it's also a clothing store. Don't know, I always wondered why they don't serve breakfast here, right? They should serve breakfast sandwiches or something—there'd be really cool. James got it—I think James is the only one who understood. Brad Donnie—how maybe Matthias Batz has said click that button. We're like a hundred and thirty likes away—that means I will stop in and if they do have a fruit sandwich that would be perfect. Perfect. So this is the main avenue for those that are joining us—the main avenue in Ginza. This is Ginza Nichome, which is the second intersection in what is considered my backyard. I like to call this my backyard—I don't live too too far away. I can walk home from here and I definitely don't live in Ginza—nobody can afford that. But I'm close enough where I can take a quick taxi to Tokyo Station and jet off to Osaka or up to Tohoku at a moment's notice on purpose because that's the nature of the job. I find a story—I can jump on the Shinkansen and get there and film it. But it is very beautiful at 1 o'clock in the morning—you're right. Happy Valentine's Day to everybody. I thought I would bring you a zombie apocalypse scene from Tokyo to celebrate love that had no meaning.

00:38:07 John Daub: It's getting late—I gotta get back home. 1:05. Yeah, I did have a good Valentine—thanks for asking. I did have a pretty good Valentine's Day because Kanae Daub got me some chocolate from a local confection shop. Tokyo's got loads of local bakeries and confection shops—she bought one from a local confection shop that we like to stop in. She bought a lot of stuff. We both don't like the Japanese way of Valentine's Day where the girl has to buy the boy the chocolate and on White Day the boy reciprocates. But you don't have to—you don't have to give the girl the chocolate unless they gave it to you. It's sort of not fair, right? But I've had a lot of friends who actually fell in love and got married as a result of White Day, Valentine's Day, because the girl has to take the initiative. And usually people are so shy so it gives them a reason to contact a boy that they might like without looking desperate in a way, I guess. It's like lighting a match but you're giving them the match and say light it—my heart is on fire for you. But you know, it's still not fair. Because Kanae Daub's like, it's not fair—it's Valentine's Day, why do I have to give you the chocolate? I said, in Japan we do as the Japanese do. But I probably should have gotten her the chocolate anyways.

00:39:32 John Daub: Hey, Gillian NYC's here—love the live streaming, keep them coming. You got it. Ouroboros, welcome as a new traveler—nice to see you. And Mufuya fituritsu, welcome new traveler—very awesome. Uh oh, we're getting close to—I better end this live stream in like 15 seconds. Then I don't have to go—I don't have to get anything. I'm not even hungry. But now I'm obligated to get something, right? Oh my gosh, really? I didn't want anything—I didn't think we'd get a thousand likes. Really? No, please don't do it—no, no, no. I don't wanna—I was just joking. Come on, don't like the like button. All right, stop liking—somebody dislike it now, balance it out. Oh come on, really? These aren't the likes you're looking for—Jedi mind trick, remove your likes. Really? I'm not—it's one. Really? This is cool—it's just all Evian water. It's creepy—that's also like a Twilight Zone type of situation. Look at this one—it's all green tea. Well that's hojicha (roasted green tea), which is still a kind of green tea. It's pretty cool, right? Only in Ginza.

00:41:09 John Daub: Okay, fine—I'll do it. Gosh, you know what? I doubted you—I should not have doubted you. Is there a—is the FamilyMart okay? All right, there's a FamilyMart over there. All right, you know what? What am I supposed to get? I'm not even hungry. Somebody write like, that's not my problem—just get something. All right, you know what? I gotta stop at the con—ah, I dropped some coins. I actually had to go to the convenience store anyways—so it works out. I have to pay my gas bill—you guys want to do that together? It's pretty weird. In Japan we pay our utilities at the convenience store, believe it or not. It's pretty weird—I know, but we do. All right, somebody write yeah, let's go pay our—ah, look at this shrine. This is pretty neat—and at night they close the shrine. There's a gate by there—that's really interesting, right? Behind a gate—they open it up in the morning. So I guess some trust issues.

00:43:11 John Daub: So we get in the mail these—I can't actually show it to you, but this is my gas bill. I'm not going to show you the front of it, but I can pay it at convenience stores and they scan it and I just pay them the cash. So my electric and gas bill is now together and it's $150. Kanae Daub likes to take long showers, I think. All right, let's go inside this one here. Oh, there's no fruit sando (fruit sandwich). No fruit sandwiches—that takoyaki looks gross. Sorry about that.

00:46:55 John Daub: George is getting seasick—don't hurl right away. Or actually, if you're going to hurl, do it now because I got something to eat and this will fill your stomach again. But you gotta pay your bills, man—this is the last day to pay it too. Cause I've been traveling, I was traveling and I forgot to do it a couple of days ago. That's all good. So we did get into the convenience store. Matt writes in here, yo snack—indeed. Mix is here—hey Mix, long time no see. Love the midnight snack runs. And hot moon is here—happy Valentine's Day to you too. Here is to help with your snacks—hope you sleep okay later. I hope I sleep well too. I actually got an air purifier—the pollen in the air is awful, especially sugi (Japanese cedar). And I haven't been able to sleep very well, maybe like three, four hours a night just because my eyes and my nose is burning. But Sharp is the best company for air purifiers in Japan anyways—they have the HEPA filters. And we got one two days ago and it's really helped a lot—the air just seems to be cleaner and my eyes aren't burning as much. So might actually get a decent night's sleep. So thank you to this FamilyMart—they didn't have any fruit sandwiches, that was quite sad. Lawson's has the Godiva chocolate curry pan—they made a chocolate curry bread. And Lawson's is the best—Lawson's is the only one who has that, but that's across the street.

00:48:30 John Daub: All right, let's give this thing a try. So what did I take? It was a chocolate chip choux cream—so that's gotta be good. I'm not going to eat the whole thing—I'm going to take it with me, but I will have a bite because I love you. It's Valentine's Day—happy Valentine's Day. Alcohol hands—alcohol wipe. Ooh—look at the chocolate chip and then icing. This is the same type of white icing that they put on the Krispy Kreme donuts, I think. Nice—I love you. And look at this chocolate. I got—okay, I'm going to bite from here because this looks too good. Oh, turn around. Whoa—that's like a cave inside there. Look at all that mud—this is ripe for parkour. Jump in there—get your mud on. Hmm. All right, I'm going to save it. Nobody's watching it at 1 a.m.—no one's watching me. It doesn't matter if I eat like a pig. I got chocolate all over me—Kanae Daub's not going to be happy when she watches this tomorrow. It's okay—don't want to look bad when you're on the air. And that's just because we got 1000 likes—it's awesome. Just hanging out, walking around the city—kind of getting a new look, a new way to see Tokyo. That's why I like the middle of the night.

00:51:26 John Daub: Oh, this is the shrine that we passed—from a distance it looks—I guess you get a better view of it. Do you see this? Little teeny shrine that's inside of this building—it's fascinating, right? This is Ginza Nichome, I think. And I'm using the iPhone 11, 12 Pro. Can you still visit cafes during the lockdown? We don't have a lockdown—so we don't have a lockdown. We don't actually have any kind of a like the same kind of situation at all. But yes, you can go to cafes—all of them have to close at 8 p.m. And they found in a study that most of the infections were taking place after 8 p.m. where people would drink too much and they would get drunk and then get sloppy and then people got infected. So they made everything close by 8 p.m. and the infections went way down. I think it's like the entire city of Tokyo—like you can debate all of the testing and oh they're not doing enough tests. The numbers have gone down and it's about 300 infections a day in the whole city of Tokyo, which is pretty good. But the number of deaths have been going up because the hospitals have been packed. And I think the UK strain is here—so we have to be a little bit more vigilant. But that's one of the reasons why the state of emergency was extended. And a state of emergency, I'm not even sure still what that means.

00:53:00 John Daub: This is the first Starbucks in Japan—1998, a little history. There's a marker or a plaque inside there—you can touch it. I've touched that—so you can touch it too. If you touch it, use alcohol—just saying. I'm going to go back to this main street—this is Only in Japan Go. Definitely subscribe. Oh, I have one more thing I wanted to tell you. Let me get out here to the main street. Welcome to Ginza at 1:30 in the morning. Whoa. All right, right here—check this out. This is the new channel, the new Only in Japan John Daub channel. We are so close to 100,000 subscribers—do you see that? We're at almost 96,000 subscribers. If you have not subscribed to this new channel, please do so. And the last video is at 60,000 views—and the videos are all really doing well for the amount of people that have subscribed. I'm so proud of you and so happy for the support—so thanks for that. All the edited videos are here—so if you don't like the livestreams, check out the—my claim to fame is actually the edited video content anyways. I used to have a channel of 1.35 million, but I gave that up because it made me—for my own sanity.

00:55:07 John Daub: Yeah, so thanks guys. We have an amazing community of people who just love being a part of this Only in Japan community—I cannot say thank you enough. We're almost there. And I have a tribute video where a lot of you had sent me in videos saying "Only in Japan." Well, I'm gonna be releasing that once we get to 100,000 subscribers as a way to say thank you. So I've turned that what would have been a Happy New Year or year in review into something where we can celebrate it and that's what I want to celebrate the community with that milestone—I thought that was pretty cool. So thanks guys—I'll see you on the Discord server, there's a lot to talk about there. But this is Ginza in the middle of the night—it is pretty interesting, pretty quiet, pretty creepy, which is essentially perfect. Click that like button if you like this kind of content. I'm going to be doing more late-night walks because it's just safer for me and it's so nice and peaceful and relaxing and makes a pretty good video. I think it's even better on Sundays because it's even quieter. And even if you visit Japan, even in the high season, if you come on a Sunday at 4 a.m. the sun is already up and the streets are so quiet—it's the most amazing scene. I've already done that at 4:30 in the morning—I was walking the streets one summer and it really was a lot of fun. It was like a zombie town because the sun is up and the streets are dead—it's that interesting. So if you do have like jet lag or something you can walk the streets of Ginza and you can feel that vibe. Thank you everybody—I'll see you tomorrow. I think I'm going to do the Tokyo Lego building together tomorrow morning. Bye.