00:09 John Daub: Hello everybody! Welcome to the riverside here in Tokyo. This is a canal just off the Sumida River, which is the main river going through central Tokyo. This is Chuo Ward, the central area like the five boroughs of New York. Over there is one of the first cherry blossom varieties that will bloom in the city of Tokyo. And guess what? Today, they're blooming. They're actually sprouting out here. So I'm going to take you up along the riverbanks and show you one of the most beautiful times in the entire year, cherry blossom season, which kind of officially starts today since the Kawazu Sakura (river cherry blossoms) are blooming. They're beautiful pink colors.

01:04 John Daub: And I'm going to show you what they look like. This is sort of my neighborhood. I live not too far away from here in Hachobori. I brought you here before in a previous live stream, but we're going to walk up the stairs now and give you a chance to look at the early bloomers, Kawazu Sakura. So they're not ume (plum) blossoms. They're actually sakura (cherry blossoms). Do you see them? We're a little bit early; they usually bloom late February to early March. I brought a light to really bring them out because one of my favorite things is to come at night to look at the cherry blossoms. And that's what we're doing right now.

01:52 John Daub: I know this has been such a tough year, but the hope the cherry blossoms bring is a lot. Last year, the cherry blossom celebrations were canceled, but that doesn't mean they don't come out. Check it out. You can see many are still just buds, but they're going to get there. In a couple of days, they're going to be even more beautiful. Look up here. Wow. I came here about 10 minutes ago to scout it out, and I didn't think they would actually be blooming, but they are.

02:31 John Daub: Believe it or not, if you look in your emoji on an Apple iPhone or any smartphone, sakura is one of them. I believe this pink one is the cherry blossom, and this one in particular, the Kawazu Sakura. I'd say it's about 50% bloomed. There's still a lot of buds on it. Let's go take a look at another sakura tree over here. The ones underneath the city lights give you a better chance to look at it. Let's look at the lower hanging ones. Really pretty.

03:19 John Daub: [inaudible] Very cool. Oh, here's a really pretty one. Look at that little bunch there. Wow. If I was a bee, I would just plant my stinger right in there and never leave. Are they edible? I don't know. I don't have the guts to pick one off the tree and take its life for a gastronomical experiment. I'm going to leave them on there. Very pretty. You can see the city of Tokyo driving by on that bridge in the distance. So pretty.

04:11 John Daub: The ones here are still budding. We're getting closer to having 5G here in Tokyo. I'm guessing by cherry blossom season in April, I'll have 5G to bring you this in maybe 4K. Who knows what the YouTube app is capable of. The limitations in live streaming right now is the YouTube app; they're throttling it at 720p no matter how strong the signal is. So I'm hoping those YouTube app designers kick it up a notch. This one is right underneath a bench. You can come here with your lunch bento, a drink, a couple of beers with a buddy—probably want to social distance still—and be right underneath a beautiful sakura. Wow, such a beautiful pink color.

05:32 John Daub: If you want to see some more sakura, click that like button. If we get to a thousand likes over the course of this, I'll take you to another beautiful spot in Tokyo. I like to consider these a glimmer of hope. When you see these sakura, they make you pretty hopeful. These have not bloomed yet. Life—that's what the sakura are. In Hachobori, not too many of them. This one is a more traditional sakura tree, the Yoshino variety, and they're just kind of budding out. Oh, wait—this is a Kawazu Sakura, maybe a bigger one. I do see some buds on there. I think this is the same variety; it's just going to take a little more time before this one blooms.

06:56 John Daub: Craig Kawaguchi's in the house, welcome Craig. Let's check out another one over here. I saw Johnny Boy California. When do you think Japan will reopen to international tourism? I'm not really sure. Right now they're not open. It completely depends on the country, and I was hoping all of you would be able to come back to Tokyo and see the cherry blossoms this year. But I think it's going to be country by country, depending on your situation and the vaccine rollout. What is the percentage of your population vaccinated? Is the infection rate lower, which reduces the risk of transmission should you come to Tokyo? There's so many variables.

07:44 John Daub: I really don't know, but I imagine by mid to late spring there might be some tourism, but you're going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to make it here. Probably PCR testing before and after, quarantine for a few days if not two weeks, come through a tour agency that takes responsibility for testing you perhaps. We will see, but they got to return tourism to Japan soon because the economy was really reliant upon it. Especially with the Olympics coming. I think half the population is in a hurry to get back, and half could care less. But you know what I care about? Cherry blossoms. This is so cool. I didn't think they would actually be out. Bradania's here sharing the moment. I did not think the cherry blossoms would be out at all, and here they are.

08:48 John Daub: Let's see if we can get some light on this one. Ooh, the backlighting's nice. Little glow. Carlos Mitchell, sharing some of that passion. The best advice is just to be a little bit more patient. Check in every couple of months. It's not going to be for a while. It's just so pretty, isn't it? I'm trying my best to get my nose to smell these, but the pollen in the air from the Japanese cedars is making it really hard to smell anything. I don't have solid plans to go to Hirosaki or travel yet. We're still in a state of emergency, so we should stay local unless it's important work.

09:51 John Daub: I'm kind of limited to my neighborhood and where I can go by bicycle. The cherry blossoms in Hirosaki are one of the most beautiful festivals in Japan, around the 23rd of April almost every year. I wanted to go last year with Kanae; she's never been there. It is so beautiful, one of my favorite spots. Hirosaki up in Aomori is very famous for the apples, which are really good there, and Hirosaki Castle and the cherry blossoms around Hirosaki Park. I was there in 2017 for the festival and have been wanting to go back for a very long time.

10:44 John Daub: Dimidm asks about Clubhouse. That's a new social media app that you can use to visit clubhouses like the one Peter von Gomm invited me to. I tried a live stream Q&A with PVG on Clubhouse. If you haven't used the app, you need to be invited by a friend, but it was a lot of fun. Whenever there's a new platform, why not try it out and see the potential as a community to connect us. There's cool features like having a conversation with PVG about Japan, interviewing, inviting people in to talk. The audio quality was really good. I just joined Clubhouse, which is only for iPhone and not on desktop yet, but it's a new platform—kind of exciting.

11:52 John Daub: Kawazu Sakura—I believe there's a sign in the front here. They're always a little bit early. WX WRX turbo, thank you, welcome. There's actually a sign here for the Kawazu Sakura from Chuo Ward right there. That's proof this is that variety. Maybe if I part the way here, you can get more information from that QR code. These Kawazu Sakura bloom in late February, but they're early this year. I'm happy for it because I was having a pretty tough day. Coming out here to the riverside to see these beautiful blossoms with the sun setting just saves the day.

13:03 John Daub: These are so much more beautiful in 4K, but we're live in Tokyo right now. It's about 6 p.m. here. Boy, that's gonna be something in a couple of days. We've been having such warm spring-like weather while the rest of the world is in a deep freeze. I had not shorts today but was walking around with the windows open indoors. I see Chicago. You can have a beer—I don't think we're gonna get that on this live stream. I'm definitely not gonna go past 20 minutes or so, but it's really nice to share a little bit of the blossoms with you.

14:10 John Daub: Hey D Mob from Europe, how you doing? Love the colors. Before I leave here, I want to thank you all so much. I'll get some video of it and post it in our Discord, so check that out. I'll probably put a story on Instagram too of some of these up close. If you're not already on Discord, get on there. I'll post a couple of videos. Cherry blossoms—I'm a cherry blossom fanatic. I love jumping into these flowers and really getting deep into them. It's amazing. I did not think—I cannot believe it. It's like the U.S. is freezing right now, Europe in the coldest weather ever, and here in Tokyo it feels like spring. What's going on with the world?

15:14 John Daub: When you see these Kawazu Sakura out, it does make you feel a little happier. Again, it's not ume blossoms; these are sakura. The normal cherry blossoms in Tokyo, the Yoshino, come out around the 20th of March, in about a month's time. We'll start to see the buds coming out. They're white. These are the pink ones, the emojis on Apple's iPhones. This is the exact one—I believe it's a Kawazu Sakura, the emoji for cherry blossom season. Pretty sure. I like it at night because with the black sky and a white light shone up into the trees, you get amazing shots. It's better if it's even darker, and the blossoms just dance on camera.

17:01 John Daub: It is mesmerizing. I always thought they didn't have a fragrance—they kind of do. But I can't smell that much because of the kafun (pollen) from the Japanese cedars. No, stop asking me to eat. I'm not going to do it. Why would I ruin the flowers to eat it? No, I'm not going to eat them. Bugger off, eaters.

18:17 John Daub: This area is called Hachobori. I brought you here before. It's a beautiful, quiet neighborhood about 10 minutes from Tokyo Station, pretty central. This is one of my favorite bridges over here. There's a shrine at the end of the bridge, really nice. That bridge is famous for the cherry blossoms. It's an old iron bridge built in the Meiji period. This is Shinkawa, Hachobori Shinkawa, a man-made island. These are the Kawazu Sakura. Really pretty, huh? I can't believe they've bloomed. I'm kind of in shock. Without the light, that's what it looks like, and with the light, this is it. So much better when you bring a pocket light.

19:47 John Daub: Happy birthday, J-Hope. Michael Sasano, glad I was able to catch this live stream. Thank you for taking us on these fun adventures. You're very welcome, Michael. I wanted to do this live stream earlier, but I was waiting for the sun to go down. A lot of people are stopping to take pictures. When you have the light on, it is really pretty. Looks like it's about 50% bloomed. This variety is not as voluminous as the others, but it does have a pretty good flower. The sun has completely gone down now.

21:12 John Daub: People really want me to eat this. These blossoms just came out after a cold winter, and some dude with a camera eats it to entertain 700 people? Come on. I'll let the people put it in mochi. If we were in the countryside with thousands of them, I might, but let's not ruin nature. Let's just look at it and enjoy. You can sing a song about them; you don't need to put them in your mouth. Toby (crow) would not eat them. Toby eats food. I've never seen a crow swoop down and eat the blossoms. Crows are smart enough to eat trash, at least a chicken bone or something. It's a flower; there's no nutrients in it that I know of.

22:30 John Daub: I would eat it if one had fallen onto this shrubbery, but none has because they're just new. They're just born. You don't eat a baby, do you? Peso, would you eat a baby? No. Let the baby enjoy the goodness of Earth. Flower, welcome to Mother Earth. There are humans out here that have compassion, will love you and appreciate you from a safe distance. And then there are humans like Peso that will eat you and stick their tongue all over your yellow fringe area. If you see Peso, blow yourself away before he gets a slimy mouth on you. All right, that's pretty cringy. Let's move on.

23:43 John Daub: That's all I had to show you. I thought I'd take you to the shrine, but there's not much over there. Let's go back where we started and show you the last look of these cherry blossoms from the riverside. Watch your step. I do love this little area. I'm usually going towards where Sumida is, along the Sumida River, but these flowers are best appreciated from the small canals here. It's a little warmer, not a lot of wind, sheltered from the buildings. This isn't the Sumida River, but 100 meters or less gets you out to it.

24:42 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching. I appreciate sharing this experience with you. The cherry blossoms will be blooming in a month. Next week, I'll take you to the ume blossoms if we can get a thousand likes. I just want to make sure you all really like the flowers. These flowers are connected to warmer weather and hope. That's what I cling to—hope. This is Hachobori along the river. If you look on Google Maps at Hachobori, you'll figure it out.

25:55 John Daub: Tomorrow, I'm still not wanting to do the Lego set Tokyo now because it takes four hours, and I don't want a four-hour livestream. So what I did for tomorrow, somebody wanted to see tsukemen. I went to the supermarket and got two packs of Nissin cup noodles tsukemen. These are fresh, not freeze-dried—one from Hokkaido and one from Kyushu maybe. We're gonna try two tsukemen for lunch, and I'll see if Kanae's interested. I'm gonna try to cook; it's not gonna go well. This is the reason to subscribe.

26:50 John Daub: Definitely check out Clubhouse if you're a member—just John Daub or at Only in Japan. The new channel is getting really close to 100,000 subscribers; I believe we can get there by end of February. That fan video you sent in is gonna get published at the milestone. We're 4,000 away—awesome! Took less than a year on the new channel. Thanks for the support. Don't congratulate me yet; it's a community thing. Without you, we don't have a channel. 100,000 is one small milestone towards 1 million. I'm just happy to tell stories. Soak it up! There's one little Kawazu Sakura tree there in the corner—not ume, but sakura. They're blooming in Tokyo, at least this variety. Thanks everybody. Hit that like button, and I'll see you in another livestream tomorrow morning where I attempt to cook. Gonna be kinda messy. Bye, everyone.