00:00 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Kyobashi. That there in the distance is Ginza. We're not gonna be focusing on this area. We're gonna be focusing on this area just across and across this bridge here is Kyobashi. It's a very historical area that had a lot more significance back in the Edo period, but today it's sort of like a commercial center. It's actually east of Tokyo Station and just north of Ginza, which is this direction. I've taken you down Ginza so many times before I thought today I will take you to Kyobashi. This is the history. For the next 30 minutes or so I'm gonna be walking around this historic neighborhood.

00:45 John Daub: This is the perfect starting off point for this because that marker says Kyobashi. This is what it looked like back in the Edo period. Of course, I'm gonna start with a little bit of history here. Where we're standing right now, there used to be a canal and they filled in that canal, I believe around 1949, not too long after World War II. You see that there? Beautiful wooden arched bridge was filled in and this road was put in its place. The original Kyobashi connected Kyobashi just a little bit further on was Nihonbashi, just in this direction. Eventually you'll get to Akihabara and Ueno if you keep going straight on Chuo Avenue. And in this direction you'll get to Shinagawa.

01:31 John Daub: But again, this was filled in and then it became just a road. But the bridge here was absolutely beautiful and it was busy and connected what was the commercial center of Kyobashi, which was bigger than Ginza back in the Edo period. Now Ginza is much bigger and much richer and has that name brand. It could have been Kyobashi. This marker right here, and I'm giving you a little pan around, this marker signifies where Kyobashi started here. If you do come to the Ginza area, just walk underneath this highway bridge near Ichome, which is the first neighborhood of Ginza, Ginza number one. You'll find this marker and a little bit of a plaque which is written in Japanese. It's hard to read, which kind of tells you a little bit about Kyobashi. Again, there's some rocks here probably dating back to the Edo period just to give it a little bit of a historical marker. It's actually if you do want to find this marker, it's very easy to find. It's just right in front of the police museum, which is closed. It's been closed for a while.

02:39 John Daub: So here we go. Let's walk around Kyobashi. It's quite windy today, so I had to set up a new mic that allows me to get a little bit better audio on windy days. Let me know if you have any audio problems. There's the Shinkansen going by in the distance over there. Again, this is not that far away from Tokyo Station.

03:13 John Daub: This building is kind of new here, and we're getting now, we're walking away from Ginza towards Kyobashi Station, which is all underground right now. But this building, which is I believe Bridgestone's headquarters—Bridgestone, the tire company, but they also make bicycles—put in this new skyscraper maybe less than 10 years ago. It's a beautiful building. The first four floors have lots of green on it. And down in the basement you'll find loads of restaurants. Montbell has a massive store right there. So you can get some outdoor fitting stuff, which is very useful if you're going to be climbing Mount Fuji. Even in July, when it is super hot here in the city of Tokyo, it's freezing up on the summit of Mount Fuji. You need a really heavy jacket. I once got my stuff for a climb of Mount Fuji right there.

04:16 John Daub: This marker is very significant, too. It tells you one kilometer from Nihonbashi. And this Route 1, which starts at Nihonbashi, which is a kilometer away, was the original Tokaido (Eastern Sea Road), which was made famous in woodblock prints showing all 53 stations. So this is a very historical part of town.

04:41 John Daub: It's so historical, beer is represented here, because we all know beer is an important part of Japanese history. So we're right on top of Kyobashi Station. You can see it marked with the metro symbol, the subway. If you're looking for a hotel and you can find one in Kyobashi, pretty nice area.

05:23 John Daub: I guess you could say the original Tokaido, but there's only one Tokaido. The Tokaido represents the road, the Tokai Road, which started at Nihonbashi, Japan's bridge, which is super ugly because I've already had a discussion on this in other live streams bringing you over there. They filled in the canal. Now I'm looking back at where we were. We started that overpass over there. That used to be a really beautiful wooden bridge, and now it's just a highway going underneath it.

06:01 John Daub: So let's take a look at some of the businesses here in this Tokyo Square Garden or TSG. Wow, that's a good looking burger. Shimonoseki Sushi, probably from down there in Yamaguchi. Is the Dasei store still here? I don't see it. Dasei 23, which was the name of the sake bar. This is where I filmed a couple of episodes there, and I don't see them on the map anymore. Probably moved to Ebisu.

06:43 John Daub: All right, let's take a quick look at the map here. So Kyobashi is linked here with the Ginza Line, but not that far away is the Asakusa Line, which is the Toei subway line. You can probably walk there in about 30 seconds. Both of those are good alternatives if you don't want to go into Ginza. It's only a five-minute walk from one station to the next. But if I pan out a little bit, you'll see right there on the left side is Tokyo Station. So it doesn't take really much walking at all to get to where we are right now.

07:27 John Daub: Let's cross the street and make it to the other side. Again, after World War II, this whole area was pretty flattened, and it made up what we call Shitamachi (downtown). This area from here in Nihonbashi was the original part of Shitamachi. Before Shinjuku and Shibuya started growing, this was a really prosperous area of the city.

08:09 John Daub: Alright, let's make our way this way, because there's another famous part of Kyobashi that I'm going to show you. If you do like these historical walks, definitely give me a thumbs up because I need the encouragement. Wow, it's really windy today.

08:41 John Daub: Alright, this building in front of us, not the one right here, but the next one, it says Meidi-Ya. The first two kanji is actually Meiji. And it's an import store, one of the first, and foreign goods came into the city of Edo back in the day. I'm going to say Meiji era because it says Meidi-Ya. So the Edo period ended in 1868, which is so long ago. It's right on the fringe. But this is the headquarters for this really big import store. And you can see they've kept that old building, and it's not as tall as the one that's now towering above it.

09:31 John Daub: I see Isoko really loves Meidi-Ya. Me too. When I came here 23 years ago, we really didn't have a lot of foreign goods. Like if I wanted to make pumpkin pie, for example, I'd have to come here to get the pumpkin. Things like that. The spices, I could only get them here. Some of the wines and other booze that I wanted to drink, maybe for an event, I could only get it here. So Meidi-Ya is a very historical part of the city of Tokyo. And now they have stores all over the place. This is the headquarters up above. I believe these are the offices.

10:22 John Daub: Wow, and they are promoting Dasei right there, one of the sakes of Japan. They are probably the best at marketing. This shop has changed a lot over the last 23 years I've been living in Japan as well. But it's got that old feel to it. I like it. It looks like a shop that could be in London or something. 1889. So about 20 years after the Meiji Restoration. And if you come to the side of the building, you'll get some of the history full blast right there. That's the Showa era and it goes all the way back to the Meiji era with this guy. And you can see... What? Is that one of their first products? Wow. It's like a Koiwai butter. It's interesting. You'll find a lot of goodies in there. And just walking around Meidi-Ya itself is like a museum.

11:40 John Daub: If you keep going this way, you get out of Kyobashi and you start making your way over into Nihonbashi. There's kind of a border at the next intersection. So let's go one more street over. Thanks a lot, truck. As we take a look at the Marriott Courtyard. It's a newer hotel. A lot of little cafes. Great place to jump into if you have an interview or meeting that you want to do and you're meeting up at Kyobashi Station. I've done that a couple of times.

12:27 John Daub: Looks like LG and Kubota have an office here. And I wanted to bring you over here for another one. But there's another reason. If you take a look around, this area is really getting taller and taller. Loads of skyscrapers coming in. And I don't think we'd ever consider taller buildings in Tokyo. We just have the real estate prices higher because the demand wasn't as great as it is now. But Tokyo is still growing as a city. And with the new technologies, despite the earthquakes, which we had a big one just a couple of days ago. And there's a construction site right now building another high-rise building. Building at Kyobashi No. 2. This is the second intersection of Kyobashi. This place is going to get like Chicago in a couple of years. I got a feeling.

13:18 John Daub: Let's cross the street now. Make our way over and check out some of the alleys. Very much growing vertically.

13:53 John Daub: Again, if you're looking into the alleys here for really old buildings, it's super hard to find because World War II just wiped out so much history here. Didn't wipe out these vending machines. It's a pretty chilly day. We had spring-like weather yesterday. And then an evening cold front came in. And a little bit of flurries yesterday night. And today, just kind of windy and cold.

14:34 John Daub: So if you look at some of the alleys here, they've become really generic because of the new buildings that came in. And nobody builds cafes and restaurants and the like here. Because this is still a central business district. And after World War II, when all these new buildings came up, most of them are salarymen, kind of people working 9 to 5 or 9 to 8 jobs. And as soon as they finish work, they kind of leave this area. And on the weekends, there's really not a lot of people here.

15:15 John Daub: Here's another alley. Again, I'm thinking 20, 30 years ago, maybe 50 years ago, before all these new buildings came in, probably a lot more vibrant than it is today. But you might see little remodels. Little reminders, like this stone lantern here. And if we keep going down this alley, there are some low-rise buildings that are still holding out. Here's an old soba shop. It's got its noren (door curtain) hanging outside. Probably not a lot of customers. One just came out right now. Almost this stuff looks like it's sold out.

16:44 John Daub: All right, now I'm looking here at these two alleys. We're kind of in between what was an old river that was filled in to make for a highway. This is the Chuo Highway and the road, Chuo Avenue, which is this direction. And in these alleys, it is really quiet. I would love to have seen more residential places here. Then I think there'd be more cafes, there'd be more restaurants in the Kyobashi area, but we don't have that. Again, a lot of these alleys have just become kind of generic. Let's go down this one, and then we're going to make our way to one of the main streets. The alleys are super clean, though. There's an old restaurant that looks like it's been here since the 80s. That's a weird-looking shoe shop. Looks like it could be in Innsbruck or something. Boy, I like that alley.

18:25 John Daub: Hey, Trevor Becks here. Stay warm and hydrated by stopping somewhere to grab a drink. In Ohio, we began getting lots of snow and ice. I've been watching the news, and I see how the U.S. is getting an Arctic blast. It's pretty cold over there, all that snow. A lot of trucks jackknifing on the highways. Be careful out there. We're supposed to have 60-degree weather this weekend here in Tokyo, just to spread the love here. Maybe some of that warmth will make its way west.

18:58 John Daub: All right, and the alleys just kind of die out here. I'm sure maybe this was one, but they put a fence there, and now you can't get through anymore. Old barber shop in the distance. Let's go this way. We're going to wrap our way around and then come back on the other side where we started.

19:22 John Daub: I'm doing one of these neighborhood tours. I've been doing a series of these over the last year and a half, mainly because of the last year, because we have to stay inside or stay local because of the pandemic. David Kimura is in the house. Get something good for you and Kanai. You got it. Kanai told me about a gyoza shop near here that I'm looking for. What is that flag? Is that Slovenia?

20:03 John Daub: You'll find really unique restaurants, too, in this area. Again, this is an old area. A lot of Westerners would live in this area back in the olden days before Roppongi became kind of the expat central with all the embassies moving there after World War II. Oh, this is Croatia. Okay. It was nearby. Only one Croatia restaurant in Japan. Really? Interesting. One of my favorite countries. I really loved being in Croatia. Split and Zagreb back in the late 2000s. A long time ago. This restaurant is called Dobro. Oh, here's a menu. Oh, very Italian-influenced. Look at that. I'll be back. Lottery. The payouts for the Japanese lottery is nowhere near what we saw on the news last month in America, which is like a billion dollars lottery winning.

21:36 John Daub: Hey, Brenda McSee. Brenda Mc is here. Aloha. Just got my Kickstarter package in Hawaii. Love the towel. I'm so happy. They've started to reach all destinations in the U.S. and they're trickling from town to town. So if you're still waiting on your package, be a little patient and should get there within the week, I think. USPS has been having a tough time.

22:03 John Daub: All right. We're cutting back over to the street where we started near Chuo Avenue. Restaurant Sakaki. Lot of little teeny cafes, restaurants, family-run businesses. Some of them that have been here for generations. They don't make sense really to have a restaurant maybe here. Maybe Ginza is a little bit better. But they probably have been in business for so long. Family-run businesses in the same spot. It's not advantageous to leave. Here's another Chuka restaurant, Chinese cuisine, Mikiya, and a hanko shop, which are wooden chops (personal seals). You can get business cards here.

23:01 John Daub: If you are coming to Japan as an English teacher, it's a good idea for you to get business cards. But get them here because the size is important. I think it's like 91 millimeters. The cards here are slightly bigger than the cards in the US for business. And you want to have them uniform size. If you do get business cards, make sure that they're the same size as, let's see here. It tells you the size. Yeah, 55 by 91 millimeters. You have to have the standard size. If it's a weird size, it's not really appreciated in Japan. You just feel different. You try to be creative. Make a stick of gum out of your business card. Kind of look a little foolish. It's hard for people to take you seriously. But you can get hankos made here. I think they can do it pretty quickly, too. The rubber ones, I think, are now 3D printed and they can do it while you're waiting.

23:55 John Daub: I wanted to walk this way because this is Takaracho. And I wanted to show you how closely some of the stations are linked here in Tokyo. Takaracho is on the Asakusa Line. It'll take you the next stop is Higashi-Ginza and Nihonbashi going the other way. They're very close. So sometimes if you look at the map, you don't have to change trains to get there. Sometimes it's quicker just to walk than it is to wait for the train and change, right?

24:31 John Daub: Hey, Chicago Africans in the house! Stop at a store nearby and get a snack and drink. Waiting across the street here. It is really chilly. One of the difficulties with getting... I do appreciate that. One of the things that's really difficult right now because of the pandemic, it's hard to get access to film inside of restaurants with permission. They pretty much don't want you coming at this time. I'm hoping after the vaccine, which started the rollout yesterday or two days ago, where 10,000 healthcare workers are getting the initial vaccinations right now. After the vaccine starts coming around, I think some of these businesses will start to want to attract more business again. And I'll have more opportunities to livestream inside with permission, which I think is very important. Not having it makes it really hard because then you're doing everything by stealth and nobody likes that. Except for me, you, us. You know what I mean? Fearless likes that in the Philippines. The Pfizer one is the one that Japan backed early and I think they have a couple million of the Moderna ones. AstraZeneca was also one that they backed. But the need for Japan is not as great as some of the countries in Europe and North America. That need is much bigger.

26:22 John Daub: Wow! There's a discount on sweets. What is that? I thought that was an egg, like an English muffin on top, but that's the pudding. They put cheesecake on top of, like a soufflé cheesecake on top of a cup of pudding.

26:41 John Daub: One of the things that I don't like to do in the livestreams, especially historical ones, is talk about world affairs. I have never been in this museum. And I don't even know if it's a museum. I just wonder if this is where they have a lot of the film archives. And I'd love to get my hands on these and use this in an episode of Only in Japan.

27:23 John Daub: I see Air to the RON. Got the goodies in the mail. How many steps a day do you get? Not enough. One of the great things about doing the Only in Japan Go when I'm here, when I'm here during the state of emergency, I get to get outside a little bit in my neighborhood and walk around. Whoa!

27:45 John Daub: Alright, two things here. I remember when I was walking, about 12 years ago, when I started teaching in this area at GABA in Ginza, which is this English school. This cafe, I remember walking by here quite a bit. It's called Bless Coffee. I had never heard of this coffee chain. I didn't even know it was a chain. But then I saw another Bless Coffee in another part of the city. I was like, what? So it's an older kissaten (coffee shop), but it looks pretty modern. I was walking down this alley too, and check it out. At the end of it, it looks like a really old Showa era, Taisho era building. So let's walk this way. See what we can see. I know, my friend Indy, it was like Bless Coffee. Really? Interesting. I've never had a Bless Coffee though. It sounds very spiritual.

28:52 John Daub: Alright, check this building out. This looks definitely like a Taisho era building with windows. But if you pan up, there's this really ugly green 1970s looking building on top of it. So it's very confusing. Like what? How'd that happen? That's a weird design building. I gotta check this out. I love it when I find these. I had no idea about this one. Some really weird looking buildings. Why is it sloped like that? It's not a very inspiring alley. There's an Apa Hotel right there. Which means there are some cheap hotels within walking distance between Tokyo Station and Ginza. And there's the building that I showed you about 15 minutes ago.

29:55 John Daub: Oh, I do have some postcards to send right now. They're going out. So Trevor, yeah this is Trevor's card from January. Trevor, this is re-sent for you. I'm sorry it didn't arrive. And this is Anne in Crescent, California. And Nick in Gatton, Queensland. There you go. It's on the way. From Kyobashi Post Office. Cool.

30:30 John Daub: Oh, DIOS! This company, I believe, cleans the offices. I remember taking the Joban line from Ueno Station up to Iwaki, which is where I used to live back 20 years ago in Fukushima. More than 20 years ago now. And I saw a fleet of about a thousand of these little DIOS trucks. And I wondered what they did. And apparently this is the team that cleans a lot of the offices in Tokyo.

30:56 John Daub: Kyobashi's not a really big station. It basically just serves as a subway station now for the Ginza line. Which you can see over there on the other side. We're right now back onto Chuo Avenue. That's an entrance to Kyobashi on the other side. If you like these neighborhood historical walks, give me a thumbs up. Encourage me to do some more of these.

31:35 John Daub: That's an interesting green little front there. Wow, that looks spicy. This is the Negi Chili Oil Gyudon. And there's a 29 cent discount. Because the 29th is Niku no Hi (Meat Day). I think you remember last month Peter and I ate an all-beef burger at Moss Burger. Well, February doesn't have an all-beef day because the 29th is cut off. We get only the 28th. But they're still doing their meat campaign anyways.

32:32 John Daub: This is the site of the original Kyobashi. And we're back where we started. Hey! But there's one more place that I just want to walk around to make this complete. We're going to go in this direction. Just wrap around real quickly. That shop, it says Brother at your side. I believe this is one of the headquarters for Brother. Which is a copy machine company. They make telephones and fax machines. Other stuff. I bought a Brother fax machine once and it was awful. So I never bought them again. The support was also in there. And they did a really bad job supporting me. This was like 18 years ago. So I can't say if they're the same or changed.

33:17 John Daub: But on the other side of the street, there looks like there's some monuments. But right here, if you didn't join me at the start of this, that is the original, in the center of your screen, Kyobashi marker. Marking the start of Kyobashi. And I have a picture of it right here. This is actually, this original print is in Brooklyn. So you can find this woodblock print in Brooklyn in a museum there. It's pretty amazing. So this beautiful wooden arch bridge used to be right here. But no longer there because they filled this in in 1949 after World War II.

34:05 John Daub: Alright, let's cross and see what's over there. I think Hiroshige was the woodblock print artist at the time. He made a hundred scenes of the Edo period. And that was one of them. So what do we got over here? You walk around the city of Tokyo, everywhere you go, you're going to find these historical markers. And you don't know what it is because there's almost no English in it. And I can't even be sure I know what this is here. It says Edo on the top here. So this is another marker for, I believe, a building that was here.

34:53 John Daub: Let's decipher this. Looks like some kind of dance. I know that there was a, this was, Kyobashi was a big commercial center. But there's some English here. It's kind of hard to read. But I'll do my best here. In the 15th of February, 1624, the founder, Kanzaburo Nakamura, known on the stage as Saruwaka, has erected a theater tower of the Saruwaka Nakamuraza in this very place which was then known as Nakabashi Nanchi in order for, announce the opening of the theater by beating the drums from the tower. This is the origin of the Kabuki drama in the city of Tokyo, which was then called Edo. What? So this marker, like this is stuff like I don't even know. This is the spot of where the original theater was for Kabuki back in the Edo period. And they moved the Kabuki theater over to the other side in Higashi-Ginza, which is I think just maybe a quarter of a mile down the road from here. This is what this marker was. I just walked by this hundreds of times and never even knew what it was. But I'm kind of laughing at myself. Because in this, there's like a bunch of spelling errors and missed letters. But I think they did a pretty good job. At least they had something in English. But back in the Showa era, there weren't really a lot of people who could do that kind of work to help erect the monuments that were in English.

36:43 John Daub: And get another marker for another market that was here I think. But there's loads of little teeny places to bring a bento or lunch or coffee and you could sit outside on a nice sunny day. On the site of what used to be the original Kabuki theater. No longer here. This is Chuo Ward. One of Tokyo's 23 wards. Chuo, which means central. But back before World War II, there were actually 35 wards. Nihonbashi and Kyobashi combined with Tsukishima and Hachobori to create Chuo Ward. Which is now one of the 23 wards. I think I don't know if Tokyo Station is Chuo Ward. That might be Chiyoda. It's pretty close.

37:34 John Daub: This is an interesting little building here. Hey Mr. Tatsu's in the house. Is it illegal to beer and ride bicycle in Tokyo? What are you driving at? Uh, yeah it is. Actually, it is illegal to do that. Any kind of drinking and driving, even on a bicycle, is illegal. And in fact, if the police stop you, and they do to check bicycle registration, because there's a lot of stolen bikes in Tokyo, and they smell alcohol on your breath, you could get in some really big trouble. Because bicycling drunk is a crime. So it's something to think about if you've gone out to an izakaya (pub) and you think, it's not as serious as driving a car, but it's still something that the police take pretty seriously.

38:21 John Daub: Um, Mar is here. Konnichiwa from Texas. Uh, can you say hi to my husband, Tai? Hey Tai! We love your channel. Thanks Mar, it's nice to hear from ya. Stay warm over there in Texas. Never thought I'd hear myself say that. Hope everything's going well down there. Uh, hi John, maybe you can get a little treat for Kanai on the way home. I absolutely will. Actually Kanai sent me the location of a gyoza shop near here. I'm gonna see if I can pick something up. It's an interesting building. This looks like a little restaurant, and they're selling, of course, Dasei. Everyone's selling Dasei nihonshu (Japanese sake). Interesting. They got some jazz going on here, lunch menu. What is it, a little buzzin' little restaurant cafe? Tempura teishoku (set meal) for a thousand yen. That looks good. So no English menus, but the thing is in Japan, you're always gonna get pictures with it, so you can just point to that. And there you go. Makes it easy. Nobody's in—oh, there's one person inside. A lot of the businesses are doing a lot better with takeout.

39:36 John Daub: So we're just gonna walk around this area before I make my way back to the start. But the alleys are where it's all about. This is like a standing bar. Yeah. Probably doesn't open up until later on, but it's gonna be fun in the day. Sure, after the livestream, take it over to the Discord server. It's free. You can join us there. Uh, type in and we have about 25 communities. Food and drink, accommodations. Um, we have resources on the pandemic here, and all sorts of stuff that might be of interest to ya.

40:22 John Daub: So this is the last area on our tour today. This is where Peter von Gomm and I, about a year ago, did a pull-up competition, and he lost. On a technicality. Although I would've beat him anyways. And what is their pull-up bar doing in the city of Tokyo like right there? It's weird, right? I totally destroyed him. The most pull-ups I ever did was 31. This place here is a craft beer joint, uh, called iBrew? It's usually pretty crowded. So I stopped going there when the pandemic hit. But it's nice to have a little teeny neighborhood park like this. And there's loads of them. Um, that on the other side, underneath the bridge, is Ginza. That's why I cannot cross over to Ginza, because this is a Kyobashi stream. As much as I like Ginza, it's all about Kyobashi. This area is designated as a non-evacuation zone due to low risk of widespread fire. Interesting. It's good to know.

42:06 John Daub: Hey, Rezal Raypins here! Happy belated birthday, I finally caught a livestream! You did! What kind of businesses are there in the area you've just passed by in this stream? I've always been curious what other people are doing at work. Most of the businesses, you know, it's hard to say, but I can tell you that this building here, I believe is the headquarters to Bridgestone. We passed it on the other side. And there's lots of restaurants inside these big skyscraper buildings, but it wasn't always like this. Um, again, there's the Shinkansen passing by, what is a construction site and soon to be another high-rise building. But it was, uh, like a... Before Nihonbashi, this was sort of the financial center.

42:58 John Daub: Beautiful... Is this ume (plum) blossoms? Let's see if I can get the name of the tree. But just two days ago, I brought you to look at the Kanhizakura (winter cherry blossoms), the first sakura that bloomed in the city of Tokyo, and this one really looks pink, and actually it's past 100% bloomed. So this one might be ume blossoms or a variety of ume. Okay, there's a marker on the other side. Check it out. After this truck. He waved at me, he said, just hold on a second, I'll be there. Ah, this is the Kanhizakura as well. This is the same variety of sakura tree that I showed you 48 hours ago in another livestream at sunset. And it's pretty.

43:52 John Daub: Walking around the city of Tokyo, you'll find these little reminders that we are living in a natural world. Despite all these skyscrapers, there's always one tree. And the best trees for sakura and cherry blossoms are the ones in your neighborhood that you walk by all the time. The reason why? It's because like 50 out of the 52 weeks, you see them in a totally different state, and then for two weeks out of the year, they become super special. That's what I love about the sakura trees in my neighborhood. And these Kanhizakura are the first variety of sakura trees, cherry blossoms to bloom in the city of Tokyo. And you're looking live at them right now in Tokyo. This is a big one compared to the ones I was at the day before yesterday. Wow! Yeah, I would say this is full bloom for this one. Beautiful.

45:02 John Daub: Let's walk over here. See if we can get a closer look at some of the blossoms. Yeah, you can already see the green popping out of the branches there. Mr. Jo-John, this variety of sakura tree blooms in late February, but they're about a week early this year. And I believe that this sakura, the Kanhizakura are the ones in the emoji. If you do use emoji on your iPhone or something, you'll see a cherry blossom. I believe that this is the variety, Kanhizakura. Really nice.

45:49 John Daub: Alright, let's walk around this building, the Tokyo Square Garden building, and we'll put this livestream to rest. Any last questions? Mr. Das, that tree is called Josh, according to the other trees. What will we do without Mr. Das? I am planning to do an at-home livestream soon, and I've got an Asahi with your name on it, brother.

46:20 John Daub: Oh, here's another place to park your rent-a-cycles. These are the city, the Tokyo City rent-a-cycles that you have to reserve online. Let me see if I can get the resources to you here, so you can get in advance, maybe install that app or something. It's called Docomo Bike Share, okay, by NTT Docomo, and wow, there's like now 800. There's a QR code. You can just take a screenshot and then scan this too, but all the central areas of Tokyo are served now by this, so you can download this app, which will help you get a bicycle if you want to in the city of Tokyo. It's 150 yen for 30 minutes, but I think you can rent them for 24 hours through the app. What this really does is, like, if you're just going for a short distance, you can ride a few stations, and then just leave the bike there. You don't have to bring it back to the same spot. That's sort of convenient, because it helps you see the city when you see it by bicycle, and if you can just do 30-minute hops every now and then, and then drop the bike off and forget about it, it's pretty cool. Yeah, the app is only available maybe for if you're in Japan, but knowing about it, when you land, I think you can install the app. I think also if you search for Docomo Bike Share, the website will come up on a computer screen.

48:13 John Daub: Yeah, I remember when this building opened up, and all these new restaurants popped up, and I wanted to go in them, but they needed reservations, except at lunchtime, and I just lost interest, and I've only been to one of these restaurants. And we're back! Maybe I'll get one of the sakura cakes from Starbucks here, and take that back to Kanai too. They just released a new cherry blossom variety of food. It might be a good gift.

49:04 John Daub: If you have any questions, now would be a good time to write it, or leave it in the comments below. This has been Kyobashi, a walkaround for the last 50 minutes. I hope you enjoyed it. This is an area, again, if you're staying in Ginza, at Tokyo Station, Nihonbashi, this area, this is right in the center, was the original Shitamachi back in the day, in the Edo period, before Shibuya and Shinjuku started to really grow on the other side of the city. This was a commercial center, and it kind of went away when Ginza popped up, and took a lot of the name brand stuff. They all just went on the other side over there. But Kyobashi, to me, it's a pretty cool place. I get a lot of memories here, walking from one side of Ginza to Tokyo Station, or towards Nihonbashi. This is my neighborhood, Chuo Ward, and I'm happy to have been able to share with you for a little bit of time. Stay safe, everybody. Have a good day. We'll be back with another livestream tomorrow. Tonight I have an interview with NBC in New York City, talking about my life here in Japan, which is going to be pretty cool. And I'll let you know when that airs. I think it's a local NBC affiliate in New York City, which is pretty cool. Looking forward to that tonight at 11pm.

50:37 John Daub: Grizzly Moxie, welcome new traveler. Torotoro Poco's back. May Only in Japan blossom with subscribers. I like that. Hi, John. How you doing? Been a fan for years now. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you. And the new channel is very close to 100,000 subscribers. If you don't already know, I have a new channel. I think we're about 3,000 or 4,000 subscribers away. So, hit me up on there. Only in Japan, John Doe. Bye for now.