00:00:01 John Daub: Welcome to Okachimachi. As people are crossing the street here, this area is one of my favorite places to go and it's famous for being the bargain bin of the city of Tokyo. How you doing everybody? I'm here in Okachimachi, which is between Ueno and Akihabara. And I'm shouting because it's loud. We're not that far away from the JR Okachimachi station. Everybody's turning right. Thanks a lot. That's great timing for a live stream.

00:00:34 John Daub: We're going to be exploring this neighborhood. There's the Narita Express, but the Yamanote line and the Keihin-Tohoku line for Japan Rail. That station is just right over there as well as Ameyoko Market (あめや横丁, famous market street). I'm not going to be exploring Ameyoko too deeply, but in this live stream I'm going to be taking you around the alleys and showing you some of the discount shopping that is available if you do come here. Because it is more than just Ueno and Akihabara in Tokyo. There's Okachimachi. And there's one of the entrances right there. Now, Okachimachi station was established in 1925. And it's one of the main stations on the Yamanote line.

00:01:22 John Daub: How you doing, everybody? This shop is called Takeya. Takeya is very famous because it has that purple color. Do you see? The skyscraper building is completely purple. You cannot miss this building. It's kind of amazing. And I would consider this to be probably the cheapest department store in Japan. I always go shopping here and somehow they're really good at underselling everybody else. We're going to walk around this. In fact, I could probably just do the entire live stream around Takeya because it's more than just one building. It's a lot of them.

00:02:03 John Daub: Look at these. This Fanta, for example, is 58 yen. That's like 50 cents for this premium peach Fanta. That's insane. Right? How do they do it? Probably near the expiration date. I'm not really sure. Green tea for 65 yen for a PET bottle. Super cheap. And you're going to find Kit Kat bags for like 200 yen. You'll find senbei (rice crackers) for 150 yen. Oh, look at this gyoza flavored senbei. $1.60. Crazy, right? It's right here off of the street. So you could just take whatever you want. You can get whatever you like and put it into a shopping bag. And then this lures you to go inside where the prices are still pretty cheap. They even have masks here being sold for a pretty cheap price.

00:03:13 John Daub: And what makes Takeya really unique? It's more than just the purple color and the cheap prices. It pretty much dominates most of Okachimachi. And I'm looking right over here at this map. Let me show you where we are right now. This is Ueno Station. This is one of the big hubs of the city of Tokyo. There's Ueno Park. There's Ueno Zoo. Everybody knows Ueno. Here's Okachimachi. And the next station is Akihabara. It's just sandwiched between two of the biggest areas that every single tourist knows about. Now the station is right here. Okachimachi Station. The north exit. If you come over on the other side, not where Ameyoko Market is, you'll find Takeya here. And this whole complex around is like Takeya. It's pretty crazy.

00:03:59 John Daub: So let's walk around first here. And I'll take some of your questions as we're walking. Okay. So let's walk around because this is the live stream. Thank you. I see Edo is in the house. Hi, John. Get something drink nice underway. You got it. I'll see what we can find because here I'm going to guess that it's going to be really cheap. Wow. How much are these tissues? Box of Kleenexes. 300 yen. Usually it's about 400 yen at the supermarket, I believe. So save about a dollar.

00:04:42 John Daub: All right. So this is the main shopping Takeya. But if you keep on going, you'll find a lot of things. Do you know where the supermarket is? Oh, there it is. What is it called? Okay. So this is the main shopping place in Takeya, so you can find the items. You can find the supplies. There's a shopping cart. Oh, it's a shopping cart. All right. Let's look over there. Let's see what we can find here. Oh, this is called Takeya. Yeah. For $10 for that bag, it'd be a lot more. And there's the alcohol pump outside, which is good. It'd be a lot more if it was in the normal supermarkets. The only problem with it is that you have to come here to get it. They don't sell this stuff except in Okachimachi.

00:05:46 John Daub: They also have a furniture shop and a bunch of other shops. I just wanted to bring you back into the alleys here. Now we're going to circle around. But Okachimachi and Takeya are like synonymous. If you're a local. Because if you don't know about Takeya, you're probably a tourist. It's a true story. I actually had a shoot at Ueno Station and I'm just riding my bicycle back. So I thought I would show you around. So this isn't going to be a very long stream. But it's going to be a good one.

00:06:29 John Daub: One apple can typically sell for $3 to $4 in Japan. The apples are much, much bigger than in the United States. I don't know how they do it. Maybe it's genetic modification. I don't know what they do. I don't think so. They're all pretty natural. But Japan has so many varieties of apples here. It's crazy. The big ones. Well, apples grow at different all different kinds of sizes, right? So the big ones will go for a higher price. And the smaller ones will go for a smaller price. But if you want premium apples, you're going to have to pay a premium price.

00:07:04 John Daub: We're going to be back this direction here. We're going to end the live stream back at Takeya. Okay. So let's cross the street and I'm going to take you towards Okachimachi Station. And get a quick look at what makes this place the bargain bin. So we started at Takeya because everybody starts at the same place. Ameyoko. Ameyoko is so famous as a market between Okachimachi and Ueno. But there's so much more to this place. You just have to kind of investigate the alleys. And the longer I live here, the more I discover. In fact, I don't think I've been to every alley in Okachimachi, which is weird. Because I've been to a lot of places around the city of Tokyo.

00:07:47 John Daub: So. They knocked down a building that was here. I forget what was there. There's a lot of construction going on. So when you do come to Tokyo again, it's going to be a completely different Tokyo. HarmanDevSingh writes in here, can you make videos on work culture? Different professions in Japan. Yes, I can. But we're in a pandemic and it's really hard to get access to go into anyone's private business. And most people are telework right now. They're not working in the office. They're working at home. So it's not the best time for that. But it's a good suggestion. And that's something that I will consider.

00:08:28 John Daub: Whoa, Tully's got pancakes. What? Discovering something new every day. So this Starbucks is really interesting. I'm just pointing it out because the second floor, they took the windows out. So it's like sitting outside, which is good because a lot of fresh air getting in there. So now we're pretty much on the fringe of JR Okachimachi Station. This would be again, this is the budget bin of Tokyo. Everything is on sale here. You can discount a little bit, but usually the price tag that you see is already so darn cheap.

00:09:17 John Daub: This is the back alley. That's not Okachimachi. The lights are flickering just because it's what is it? 100 hertz. This cycle makes it flicker. Viewers always tell me what the problem is and I never remember. I just know that Tokyo, the Kanto region is just weird and everything flickers. Unless you have a shutter speed of 100. That's the secret. This is the exit for the Oedo Line. You can see the exit right there in the center of your screen. Right near right behind the Lawson's. It's a pretty bright place and a lot of the buildings are not very tall. It kind of retains that old Showa period feel to it. The buildings are three, four at most five stories high.

00:10:14 John Daub: I don't know for how long. I have a feeling, though, after the Olympics and sometime this decade, most of these buildings are going to come down and this is going to all be built up. I don't know if it's going to all get renovated or changed up a little bit. We're going to cross the street. I'm now underneath JR Okachimachi Station. So the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line go past here as well as I think the Shinkansen goes by here but doesn't stop. The Tohoku Shinkansen, which will make a stop at Ueno Station, which is the next one up. You can walk from Ueno to Akihabara in about 35 minutes and cut through here and it's a pretty good walk.

00:10:58 John Daub: 3.50 a.m. writes in. Love that area. Me too. It's one of my favorites. There's about, I'd say, 30% the usual foot traffic as on other days. So this road will take you towards Ueno. This is technically not Ameyoko Market. It's the side of it. But right away you can see the bargain bins already start. This is London Sports. They've been here for ages. I don't know what the relationship to London is. It just says it. But you can see they have just the prices are like so cheap. A pair of shoes for $17. Backpacks. There's some tennis shoes for $60, $70. Name brands. $50.

00:12:04 John Daub: Now you have to definitely check to make sure it's not a knockoff. You have to check. You never know. You get what you pay for. Aloha John! For some apples to take home to Kanae. Ah, Brandania, that's awesome. Kanae is in kind of an apple phase. So she will much appreciate that. This is also a place that's very lively if you want to eat outside. Right? If you want to come outside and eat with locals on the street, this is where you would come. Shimbashi is another great place. But Ameyoko retains that like local feeling.

00:12:39 John Daub: Meaning, this is Taito ward (台東区). Okay. They call this area Taito ward. Taito-ku. And the people here in Okachimachi are very friendly, very easy to talk to. It's a lot of tourists that do come here. They will sit outside at some of these restaurants and they just start talking with locals. Usually old guys that have been going to the same places for years and years. It's because this is one of the areas where those old places stay in business. They haven't really left yet. And that makes this a really special place. And one reason that I like to walk through here every now and then is just to make sure that those old businesses aren't gone. Because over the course of the last year during this pandemic. We've lost a lot of businesses.

00:13:25 John Daub: The alleys here are infamous too. Wow. Just walking around. It's pretty cool. Papa Dut writes in here. Always love watching the content, John. One of the best shows. Thank you. It's because I'm having fun. It's the secret. You got to have fun. What are they selling here? Oh wow. Tantanmen. This is a restaurant. It's a ramen shop. Looks like they got some pretty good ramen. What? That looks like duck ramen. Wow. That looks like Michelin star type of ramen. It's too pretty. Ramen should be a sloppy bowl of oily soup. Man, I'm getting so hungry.

00:14:19 John Daub: But you can see like not a lot of people are inside eating. And they really space it out. This is yakitori. Some grilled fish. The prices are very, very competitive. Or actually they're just outright cheap. That's $2.50 for a draft beer. 290 yen. Beer for 250. Very cool. The thing is though, like we're seeing this happening too. Lots and lots of new shops. This is mozuku tamaki, which is like the body parts or full of the animals being grilled. But when chains come in and new places come in, the price is going up. And the older population, they can't afford that.

00:15:09 John Daub: So that's another thing. Another reason why I'm kind of hoping that some of these older businesses like the one right here, you could tell because the sign looks like it's from 30 years ago. That's how you, that's a marker. These places still have the same kind of prices, the same kind of price point that they had maybe 20, 30 years ago. So you know what you're going to get. But they're disappearing. On the left and the right, you can also see loads of shops that spill out. They're going to slide onto the street a little bit. A lot of clothes stores. A lot of, I don't know, like military stuff. Because the Ameyoko, many people believe stands for America.

00:15:52 John Daub: So during the occupation, they would sell a lot of goods that were left over from like things that they were selling on the black market from the US military. A lot of that still kind of sticks around this area. But we're losing some of those businesses too. This is an old enka shop where they're selling like traditional music of Japan. And I hope we don't lose little teeny corner shops like this. You need them. We need to keep them around. As well as those hat shops. I can never find my size in Japan. Just to be honest, people got really big heads here. Compared to me.

00:16:36 John Daub: Hey, my Goso-san is in the house. You must get something to eat while you're here. Itadakimasu. I will try, but... Getting something to eat makes me feel better. It means me taking off my mask, so I have to be really careful. But I'll see what we can find here. Maybe take it to a safer area. As you can see, this is more of a military surplus looking store. You'll find some really good bargains here. Let's just take a quick look. Take a quick look at the prices. That's about $60 for these bags here. What are those bomber jackets? Whoa! They might be authentic because that's about $700 for that one in the middle. Looks warm though.

00:17:25 John Daub: Lots and lots of bargain bins. Now, that might be new stuff, but if you look around a little bit more, look inside the shop, you'll find some really good discounts. Again, it's like some of this stuff can be used. Some of this stuff is new. That all determines the price. When the tourist boom was happening, these kinds of shops were popping up. Like specialty shops for gifts for people to take back home to their country. But without the tourists here, these have been going out of business more and more. And that's kind of sad. I'm just hoping that they're replaced with something that's not like a Disney shop, which I don't think would fit in this street.

00:18:07 John Daub: Hey! I saw you sneaking up on me. I know you're kind. How dare you get almost on my feet? Just thinking about going inside the shop. He's going inside the shop! He's just standing there. We need more crows to balance out the population of pigeons. Crows are the boss, but they're on vacation. Oh, here's a green tea shop. This is Ameyoko. You can tell because the sign says Ameyoko. And there's a shop with America Ya on the top there. Stars and stripes are blinking. I like that.

00:19:09 John Daub: You'll find loads of dried fruits and nuts at really low discounted prices. And yeah, you can bargain a little bit here. But don't push them too hard because the prices, if you compare them to other places, are already so cheap. And in Japan, that's not much of a culture, especially in Tokyo. But you can bargain. Ayo. You can bargain in Osaka more than you can in Tokyo because there's more of a culture of it in Osaka than there is in Tokyo. Bargaining is not something that I do at all anymore. Which makes me rusty because if I start to travel again, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to bargain with anybody because I'm so used to not doing that.

00:19:50 John Daub: This shop here is really interesting and some people might miss it. It's in some of the guidebooks. But in the basement, there are loads of shops here with spices. Asian spices and things that you might want to use for curries maybe. That's downstairs in the basement. I'm not going to take you there because there's no signal. But it's good for you to, especially if you're a resident living in Japan and you want to do some cooking from like Thai cooking or Malaysian or Indonesian or something from the region. They got goods down there. Including an entire pig face which has freaked me out last time I was down there. These people eat the face. Never knew that until I came to Japan.

00:20:39 John Daub: The sign above there says Ameyoko. And I hope they never change that retro looking sign. But they do clean it up a little bit. On the left and the right, you can see loads of shops. Not a lot of people right now. Usually this is shoulder to shoulder. So there is some social distancing going on just naturally because there's not a lot of people here. But that's basically how it goes. Inside, underneath the tracks, you'll find some more shops. Now none of these shops are chains, right? All these shops are still local owners, entrepreneurs. A lot of jewelry is what you'll find underneath here. Or specialty items like lighters, Zippo lighters with designs on them. You'll find a lot of that in there. You can bargain a little bit again. But don't push them too hard. If you find something cheaper somewhere else, they will make sure that they beat them though.

00:21:57 John Daub: I'm going to go check out the other shops. Wow! Let's check this out real quickly. I smell so many spices right now. Over the last 7-8 years, Japanese sellers have left. And sellers from other Asian countries have come in. And the smells that come from this market are as much Japanese as it is now. Like Korean, Chinese, Taiwan, Singapore. You get Malaysian. You get all sorts of unique smells wafting in the air here. That's really good. Hey, Zappto71 is in the house from Australia. How are you doing?

00:22:55 John Daub: I'm going to take you around a little bit. I don't want to go too deep into it. But I'm pretty much at the end of it. Ameyoko is also one of the three pillars of Okachimachi. Now I don't want to... Actually, I don't want to go to... I'm kind of afraid. I'm kind of afraid to go to my friend's shop. But we're going to peek in on him. Alright? I don't want to go there because every time I go and say hi, he gives me a bag of candy. I like to go there, say hi. And his daughter is living in the United States. And he knows about Kanae. And Kanae's family lives in the area.

00:23:40 John Daub: Okay, here it is. I just want to show you from a distance because I don't want to... Go back a sec. I don't want to be too... Get in the way. No, he's telling his dad. No, don't do that. Don't do that. He's telling his dad. This is Shimura Discount Chocolate Shop. And... No, no. I got to run away now. I got to run away. And what they do is... I'm kind of shy because I don't want to... Look, he's telling... I know that's why he's putting his head down there. He's telling his dad. No, no, no. Don't do it. Don't do it. No, no. Don't do it. They get a bag right there. And for a thousand yen, they fill that bag with all sorts of goodies. It is incredible. Alright, I'm going to escape before he comes out and gives me all the goodies.

00:24:22 John Daub: Okay. I found you. I found you. How are you? Oh, that's right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. How are you? I'm good. Good? Yeah, I saw you at the restaurant on Akihabara. Yeah. I didn't know you were looking for animals. Sorry. How are you? I'm fine. It's been a long time since I came out to this area. It's quiet. It's quiet, isn't it? No, it's not. When will someone come? I don't know. Before the Olympics? Before the Olympics? I don't know. I don't know. It's been a while. We are introducing 1200 people to this area. Thank you. How long have you been here? 40 years. 40 years. He's been giving chocolate away making people happy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We will come back with your wife. We will come back. The cleaning is still going on right? A little bit. A little bit. We will come back. Thank you. You are so kind.

00:25:43 John Daub: I knew that he saw me. The reason why I am so protective of small businesses and I check in on them is because of that. Once they get to know you then every time. I was hiding from him. He still told me that John is outside. How does he know? That's really nice. I will go back there later on. I don't want to go back with a bag of candy because I am seriously on a diet. It's not working. Let's go this direction and explore. I like these outdoor alcohol pumps.

00:26:29 John Daub: If you do come to Okachimachi definitely go in and see Shimura. It's empty. Nothing came out. I'm not going to touch anything. Definitely come and say hi to Shimura because he is part of the soul of Ameyoko and 40 years. I don't want to see him leave and throw him all the business that you can. I got to support your friends. Oh there is the governor. That's the governor of Tokyo on a t-shirt. Yuriko Koike. Social distance. There is the new prime minister and Abe-san. Abe-san is very strict. Do you wear a mask? His mask is always a little bit too small but we still like him. He did a good job. The best job he could do.

00:27:27 John Daub: Wow, Ellis would love that umbrella. Look at that. He is one of our viewers. He is a big big big big Doraemon fan. Alright, we are going to get to the end of the street. I want to show you just a little bit more of the Okachimachi area. Circle back around and we are going to head towards back to Takeya. A name that you have to remember. The Purple Shop. Hope the signal is holding in. You can hear some elevator music in the background as you shop in the street. I tried a social distance by slaloming. Wow, that's so cheap. That is a time sale. Those are some cheap cheap goods. None of which I need. Keep going.

00:28:31 John Daub: Okachimachi. Give this a thumbs up. It encourages me to do more because we got over a thousand likes yesterday. I'm back out here today for you. It's called love. They removed the shoe shop. I guess it was an ABC Mart and they are going to put in another building. I'm not quite sure. Not quite sure. This area is always evolving. I mean the city of Tokyo but Okachimachi was one of the places that never did. It kind of stayed the same. Thank you for the 16 thumbs up. I don't think that helps but it helps me. Moral help. Mari is here, a new traveler, welcome. This shop is closed down. Is it from Covid or is it because of the I think they are just construction. I think they will be back someday.

00:29:49 John Daub: Alright, Ameyoko is pretty much done here. I want to show you the one alley and then we are going to cross the street to a different side of Okachimachi. That's the side that not a lot of people are going to see. I'm going to show you the street food because you write street food in a title you get like a million views. Look at those kimono jackets. These look pretty warm. What's the material? They look like nylon or something. There is some firework looking chrysanthemums on the inside. Pretty stylish. Shimoda san told me that it was very very quiet these days. It's nice to see a friendly face. I'm just still in shock that they saw me. He knew it was me. How did he do that?

00:30:58 John Daub: This alley is I would call this candy alley. You'll find loads of candy shops. I guess we can take a quick look. I want to just show you. Do you remember that stretchy cheese place that everybody went to? That's gone. This is another bargain bin shop. I bought a lot of running shoes here. I think they changed though the running shoes area. Very colorful. It's the real deal. I like the Japan baseball jerseys. That would be a pretty good gift. They sell that in the basement of that building. Here's another shop. You get loads of bargain bins. This is a swimming wear. If you're going to buy swimsuits probably the cheapest place.

00:32:04 John Daub: Oh is that Sasai san? It looks like Sasai. Probably. Probably. Could be copyright infringement. Not quite sure. The fact that I knew that that looked like Sasai san. Probably is. It's a gray area. I often come here looking for some of the new Kit Kats. This shop here in the corner. I spy the entire collection. How cool is that. What do they got that's new. Let's take a quick look. It's like Ichigo milk. What is this one here. Champagne. They still got the sparkling wine one. Interesting. And strawberry cheesecake they had. Strawberry cheesecake Kit Kat. The green tea Tiramisu was the best. Oh they got the Takoyaki.

00:33:13 John Daub: Do I dare? Do I dare? Oh we gotta get the 650 likes. I'm not eating Takoyaki with this like like area. You need 600 likes. I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna count to like 15. 650 likes I'll get one. It's up to you. It's up to you. That's so weak you guys are so weak. 4 please. 4 please. Thank you. Thank you. Sayaka I can't wait. Sayaka I can't wait. Who do you think I am. Of course I'm gonna put these in my mouth really quickly. Get sick.

00:35:03 John Daub: Let me get the tripod. Hey look you still gotta get the 650 likes. Keep going keep liking. I sanitized that squeeze bottle. Okay hold on I'm gonna I gotta get the tripod out. I didn't expect to eat anything. Look what you've done. Come on just give me some likes. Because you're kind people. Love is in the air. It's called love. Alright I gotta eat this way. Woah. They just got a new thing of mayonnaise. Hold on. Maskless. This is for all of you. This is takoyaki. And we got 600. And this is when you know if you ask people very nicely they will give you. 650 likes look at that. The dancing katsuobushi. Just have to make sure. Make sure I kind of stay away.

00:37:19 John Daub: Now what's sad is I'm actually eating on the counter of the out of business stretchy cheese shop. It's gone. I got a little bit of mayonnaise. I was just kind of scared with the squeeze. But oh. I can't eat this you know what's gonna happen if I eat this. Alright you know what. I know the pandemic is dangerous but you know what's more difficult. What's more dangerous. These hot balls of takoyaki. You all know I'm gonna just stick it in my mouth. And burn the skin off the roof of my mouth. I'm not gonna do it. You can use that do it emoji all day long. I gotta. They put in some big chunks of tako in here. Look at that. Now I cut it open. It's time to blow. It's not as bad.

00:38:48 John Daub: The goo went down to that. Oogula. That thing in the back. And it burnt my oogula. Does the skin peel off your oogula? Does it have skin? Who wrote that. Peso it burnt my oogula. John Daub 2021. Working on a book there. Look protect your oogula. You don't want that thing that that thing that's in the back. You know the one you look in the mirror and you can see it sometimes. Protect the ugly oogula. No I did learn. This is why I'm in fear. It's like just. It's molten lava. Would you eat this. If we weren't in a pandemic I'd go back to that sauce. And just drain the sauce inside there. Like you wouldn't see any white. It would just be all sauce.

00:40:34 John Daub: Alright we're good. This should have a sign that says oogula safe. So we know that you're not gonna burn. Cause this is so big and so hot. That goo just starts sliding down. And it touches the oogula. You start to gag reflex in there. Hit ya. Who wrote this. I miss goo tako yucky. We have frozen ones here. And you know it. Alright we gotta get moving. This is boring some dude eating tako yucky. Oh yeah this is really interesting. You gotta eat a hole and blow. I think I'm gonna hamster for this. Save it for later. Alright run away run away.

00:42:36 John Daub: It's sad that the stretchy cheese shop is gone. I live far enough away where I can't take back that tako yucky. And Kanae prefers the other tako yucky. Actually no maybe she likes this one. She says the gindako is too oily. My oogula hurts. Alright last area. After I got detoured. Look it's such a bargain bin. They don't dress the mannequins fully. They just get to the bare necessities. Just the scarf. It's so kachikachi. In Ginza that would never happen. I love it. This place has so much personality.

00:43:37 John Daub: That's really nice. Interesting masks. I'm gonna be wearing a mask. I'm gonna be doing a Shinkansen episode in April. I just got permission to film on the Shinkansen. See if I can get PVG to join me. It's gonna be pretty epic. I guess the masks have really gone down in price. They used to be like $50 for the same thing. Now they're back down to normal prices. Japan did pass a law for price gouging. That brought it down to earth. I'm gonna cross the street right here. And the reason why is because back in the day I actually stayed at this capsule hotel. Oh it's a green light. Actually it's blue. This is Okachimachi station.

00:44:54 John Daub: We've just left the influence of Ameyoko. But this is still Okachimachi cause that's the station. And this way is that. Whoa stay away from that guy. That guy just hacked a loogie. It's nasty. So this is the 24 hour sauna. It's still, the president still owns it. It's called Presidento. This is a place for only men. Men only. Let's take a quick look see at this capsule hotel sauna. That guy's going in to take a bath. So you can go in here and rest for 3 hours. It's $14. Which is kinda neat if you just wanna take a nap or something. You can go in here in the afternoon. Get internet access. It's pretty clean. If you get here any time between 4am and 9pm. During the day you can rest all 12 hours for just $30.

00:45:58 John Daub: I guess it makes sense cause why would you sleep at night in a park. When you could sleep here right? You can sleep here until morning. You can stay here for $30. That's so cheap for the middle of Tokyo. No tattoos though. Especially if they look like that. Cause that would make you a gangster. I gotta get out of here this music is killing me. Okachimachi's got a load of budget options. But you kinda have to look at them. They're kinda hidden away in the alleys.

00:46:35 John Daub: Chicago African writes in. If you get 1000 likes you have to get a beer. You have to get a beer and drink for Kanae at the end of the livestream. I got a long bike ride. I got a long bike ride ahead of me. You're not supposed to drink and drive. But I do plan on doing a home cooking episode real soon. And that of course will involve some cans of beer. As I speed up my walk to social distance from a dude that's hacking again. Is that the hacking guy? I'm actually walking on the street for social distancing purposes. This is how we do it.

00:47:29 John Daub: This is a new Uniqlo. This is a new Uniqlo. That's really impressive. And if you get into the window there on the second or third floor. You have a pretty cool photo looking down into Ameyoko Market. We're walking over towards Takeya again. Our hacking man is gone. At sunset this is such an amazing view. So Japan. You feel Japan in this kind of market. With all the new buildings just kinda losing the personality. It's becoming too watered down generic chain shop garbage. There's a fish market in the basement here by the way a lot of people don't know that that's why there's a fish right there you can go down and they have some pretty good discounts on fish.

00:48:24 John Daub: This side the back here is actually Okachimachi as well and I did a livestream here at Christmas time because I couldn't film at the Akihabara KFC for the Christmas chicken because there was a maid cafe pimp that told me I couldn't film because he said he didn't want his maids to be in my shot so I complied and the pimp wasn't wearing his mask properly and he was getting really close to me and he was freaking me out so I kind of kept backing away from the pimp which I guess as in it's someone who's trying to negotiate backing away and showing weakness is not a position of strength so I understood this I had more to lose than the pimp so I left park my bike here and I did a livestream of the KFC here. Pimp is not a bad word by the way because they use it on MTV pimp my ride pimp my crib it's normal it's in the dictionary.

00:49:55 John Daub: Listen really closely you can hear the 430 Bell. I remember you and your kind hey where you going totally ignoring us. Totally ignoring us. I think that pigeon was dancing to the Yamanote it a Yamanote day jingle did you hear that. Let's go underneath here I'm gonna take you down to the other side the Keihin-Tohoku line is right above us we're cutting across underneath. Doing a thang ginger hot what does that mean that's not your everyday chicken. Ginger hot reminds me of ginger from Gilligan's Island I think they said that back in the 70s. Ginger hot well that tendon looks so good cherry blossom shrimp tendon what hand down hand down nice.

00:51:46 John Daub: I was not impressed with you know ya curry I had that once it was all right you can get in and out really quickly because they have a vending machine you just pick from here they're famous for their katsu curry pretty crazy. There's a nomihodai (飲み放題, all-you-can-drink). Okay this goes this is another street that'll lead to Ueno station and you could actually walk straight this way get to Akihabara in about 20 minutes true story I'm not gonna do it good I choose not to I choose to defy the powers to be. Nomihodai all you can drink 29 dollars it's pretty cheap. Bars can bin. I've a friend is a restaurant owner here and he calls the nomihodai go-moku hold I because people waste whenever there's a nomihodai all you can eat or all you can drink with these they waste so much food it ends up putting a lot of stuff in the trash so he doesn't like to do it just out of a multi-night principle not everybody eats everything that's on their plate let's just say.

00:53:15 John Daub: And i'm sure in another country if it was a all you can eat place it's going to be a lot worse but in japan they still waste a lot especially if they're a little bit tipsy it's going to be a lot more on the plate. There's a lot of jewelry shops back here this is also part this is the the third pillar of okachimachi jewelry. Alright so back here i'm just panning around this intersection rolex jewelry over here some rings lots of shops there's a couple of shops down there there's one right here endo endo any endo innuendo is that real nice thai massage. Thai massage is hurt now.

00:54:27 John Daub: You can get to okachimachi by walking okay but or riding a bicycle but the Hibiya line will take you to Naka-Okachimachi. There's also a Shin-Okachimachi and there's nothing there so you don't want to get off at Shin-Okachimachi get off at Naka-Okachimachi and you can just walk straight this way it'll take you to Yodobashi Camera uh which is not that far away if we walk this way it'll take us back to the purple shop. For those that have been watching this long do you recognize that purple building. What's it called t-a-k-e-y-a Takeya it is the cheapest department store in japan everything is ridiculously cheap it's like at least 50 cents cheaper there than in other shops very very inexpensive.

00:55:27 John Daub: Nicholas Lezak is here order the one kilogram pizza from domino's it's one kilogram of cheese i believe i just learned to chat so i'm behind in the times welcome yeah you know domino's japan is a place where you can get a lot of stuff and you can get a lot of different things that you can get at the same place but japan is always innovating their pizzas they have some really unique ones the toppings here like off the charts bizarre the one thing i don't know if they still have that special they have like this ultra cheese one one kilogram of cheese that's two and a half pounds of cheese.

00:56:03 John Daub: All right i asked kanai if she wanted to get it and i said if we're going to get this we're going to get cheese crust too but she said no but you might have changed her mind so a big thank you. Cheese how dare they one pound of cheese is a lot but 2.2 pounds that's what i believe what a kilogram is that's outrageous. And we're back where we started any last questions before i dismiss the class. Hello from morocco this is a part of the live stream where you can write in where you're watching from if you're too shy to leave a chat behind that's a simple one where you're watching from and don't say antarctica because there's only one person there and i only in antarctica he's not watching right now it's one of the viewers.

00:57:20 John Daub: You notice there's nobody from new york because they're all asleep lightweight. Lucky for you my bicycle is about 100 meters down the road. That smells so good. Sing it in a different voice for copyright purposes. Stone ishiyaki means stone grilled so it's on hot stones because that's the best way to cook yakiniku on hot stones. Oh this is at the takeya special mask department they're like a mask department pretty cool face shields all the goodies here pita masks for 480 yen on their own pita masks only help you with pollen but coupled with another mask slightly better slightly better.

00:59:14 John Daub: All right and there's me bike. How you doing long time no see. All right everybody thanks so much for watching um yeah it's been pretty good one hour of walking around this area it is one of my favorite towns lots of bargain bins and i hope maybe you discovered something that might be of interest to you if you are staying in the ueno akihabara area it's not that hard to to just walk this way tokyo and this is one of the reasons why i do a lot of these neighborhood walking shows is a very navigable place on foot you'd don't need to take a subway two or three stops you can walk it in almost the same amount of time only take subways if it's like five stops or more and you're really in a hurry and in that case take a taxi.

01:00:00 John Daub: All right you cheap people your taxi started 480 yen right now uh 440 yeah and if you have more than one person it works out pretty good works out pretty good um any last questions. Class rage relief rates in is a rage relief hey from miami what are the current restrictions on travel from the u.s i'm not really sure from the u.s nobody is getting into japan right now so so it's just just me and whoever's here right now is making content that guy was trucking uber eats. Next stream is probably tomorrow i'm thinking about doing a twitch stream tonight because it's been a while um and i want to show you guys what i'm doing right now i'm doing a twitch stream tonight and i want to show you um what the moderators got me as a christmas present so i got a christmas present from our wonderful moderators and i want to show you what they gave me so it might be a twitch stream in tonight.

01:00:59 John Daub: Jan writes in here how much what a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood probably seven or eight kilograms over a course of a day is that good is that good enough. All right everybody looks like we're at the end it's fizzling thanks for getting me to 872 likes because we totally could have gone over a thousand and who knows what i would have done but you failed in that respect viewers but i'm still going to keep doing this because i love you stay safe everybody stay warm in the u.s and in europe i know how cold it is there we have 20 degrees celsius weather coming this weekend so um if i can find a way to stay safe i'm going to do some more outdoor live streams but it's getting harder on the weekends because it is more crowded um but since i'm here anyways it was a nice live stream that we could do uh stay safe stay warm and i'll see you guys in the next one bye and i'll see you tomorrow if not tonight on twitch all right bye bye enjoy the last 20 seconds looking at this shop here special luck smells really good.