00:00:06 John Daub: Greetings. Good evening, everybody. Hi. It's now about 2:30 in the morning here in Tokyo, and I thought I would take you on another one of the series of live streams I've been doing with you, walking Sunday nights in central Tokyo someplace. Because during this time, Sunday evenings, the whole city is just the quietest as it can be. And at 2:30 in the morning, it can't get any quieter than this. We're in Tsukuda, an island just about 10 minutes away from Ginza, not too far from where I live. I thought I would show you this local place. I've been here before, but the alleys here are so extraordinary, a lot of them with nagaya (old row houses) in alleys that have been surviving since the 1920s or 1930s, just a long, long time.

00:01:04 John Daub: You can get here on the Oedo Line and Yurakucho Line, I think this is Exit 6. If you come up from this exit, you get into Tsukuda. So let's get started. The alleys here are legendary. If you walk this direction, which is Exit 7, you'll get to Monja Street, and we've been there before. You can get Tokyo's famous monjayaki (teppanyaki-style savory pancake) cuisine. This is the last convenience store we're going to see for a while because where we're going, you're about to enter 75 years ago. I put a map in the description so you can check out this area in the center of Tsukuda. I'll tell you a little bit about the history as we go along. There's a red bridge, which is so picturesque. That's the link to this bridge, and we're going to be there in about five minutes.

00:02:17 John Daub: It's so peaceful at this time of night. I'm always, quite often up at this time because I'm editing video since it's so quiet and peaceful, and it's nice to be able to take a break on a Sunday night. Warren K is in the house, 12:30 p.m. lunchtime in Toronto. It's the witching hour in Tokyo. There are loads of alleys here. Here's one, but we're going to pass this one. Looks too safe. There are lots of alleys in Tsukishima as well, and another night I'll come and do the alleys over there because they're just as interesting, if not more. But this area is so beautiful during the day. It's just at night it's so different. It's one of many areas with really interesting alleys. We'll start with this one. This one's level two out of five. It's always a little creepy at night. You're the only one around here.

00:04:28 John Daub: Is that Jennifer French? I saw her chiming in. Hey, Edo, how you doing? Edo from Netherlands. Hi, John. Finally catch a live stream. Keep safe in the alleys. Get something to drink. All right, I'll try to get something before I leave here. There's a vending machine over there. Jennifer French, thanks for the dense live stream. You're very welcome. Today we saw an old building from the 1960s that was very historic. That was a good live stream earlier. I was there in 1993. Whoa, it hasn't changed that much, has it? Look at this. Sunday night, all of the parking areas are empty too. This is a one-car parking spot. They've made this whole parking computer and everything just for one car. From 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., it's 100 yen for every hour, so for 12 hours, 1200 yen or about $12. Pretty pricey. I know a cheaper one in the area.

00:05:29 John Daub: All right, let's go. This alley is level five out of five. That's so narrow. Tsukuda has a lot of alleys. Each of them will take you to the same place. This one's not so bad. In between here are houses, and people have been living this close together since the Showa era. A lot of these buildings are... Oh, there's a nice-looking alley here. Hey, Air to the Ron's here. Are there many electric car charging stations? Not here, but they're increasing quite quickly here in Tokyo. Dimi DM writes, drink a beer for my birthday. All right, if we can find a beer vending machine, I'll get one. Happy birthday, by the way. Let's go through a couple of alleys. That one looks too tame. Let's go to that level five. No talk of Slender Man, okay? Just cool.

00:08:19 John Daub: That's level five out of five. Pretty narrow. I like this alley. This one is really nice. You can see somebody had flowers out. All of the doors are really close together. I like how people have the trees and plants outside. Very homey. Hey, Ranjit's here. How you doing? Air to the Ron going, quadruple one. Look at this little shrine here. The festival here in Tsukuda, T-S-U-K-U-D-A, is one of the most colorful in Tokyo. Now we're in the center. There's the red bridge I was telling you about.

00:09:32 John Daub: Tsukuda's history goes back all the way to the Edo period. This was basically just a rock, an island in the middle of Tokyo Bay right off the Sumida River. This island was only approachable by ferry from the mainland. Living here were Osaka fishermen. They couldn't go on into Edo, and they would catch the fish for the shogun, for Tokugawa. I know that because there's a sign there that told me. Because they had Osaka culture, it was pretty colorful here, different than Edo. They had their own characteristics, lifestyle here on Tsukuda. This is original, very solid ground. But Tsukishima, which is the station we started at, is actually soft ground, all manmade. That came in at the end of the Edo period or Meiji period, and then they've been extending Tokyo out into Tokyo Bay for the last 150 years, a lot of manmade islands. But this is an original rock, so pretty hard ground. That's why you have a lot of high-rise apartments that have been here for 30, 40 years, because they could build on the solid ground on this island. If you look from the river, it looks like a little mini-Manhattan because there's a ton of skyscraper mansions. When we say mansions, we mean condos or apartment buildings in one really tight area. These are called River City 21. I often come down here; there's some nice shops, supermarkets, and a nice post office there.

00:11:37 John Daub: This is the sign I was telling you about the history of Tsukuda in the Edo period. This canal here has been here for hundreds of years as well. There's also a shrine in the center. Maybe if we're lucky and we get to 700 likes, I'll take you there because it's even creepier. We're gonna need 700 likes for that. Hey, John Poe's here. Detroit here, missing Japan so much. You'll be back here soon. Matt Newcomb, first time being able to catch you live. Here's a little super chat. Thank you, Matt. Awesome. There's a vending machine; I'll see if I can get something over there. Hey, Alex Shouzo's here as well from Berlin. Look at that old mailbox here. This is a street, not quite an alley, but we're gonna get into some older alleys. There's a nice one that I'm gonna take you on the left side over here.

00:12:54 John Daub: The scaffolding that you see here is actually this building is a sento (public bathhouse). A lot of the residents, when they didn't have baths back about 50 years ago, didn't have indoor plumbing, you could go to the public sento underneath here. You can tell because this building has a really big chimney. It's closed now. You can see it says men and women. There's the shrine. I'm not going there until we get 700 likes because it's really scary. I need courage. All right, let's get moving. Hop on, Raidsend. Hello from India. At the end of the street there are some of the antiquities from the shrine. I believe that's the omikoshi (portable shrine). It's in the alleys.

00:14:20 John Daub: This is a very traditional street here, this alley. It's a little bit wider, but there's something I wanna show you here of historical significance. And I'm whispering because I don't wanna disturb the local neighbors. Everyone's asleep. It is here, an old water pump from back in the Taisho era [?], a long time ago when there wasn't any plumbing into the houses, where people would come in. It's hard to find these in Tokyo, but you can hand pump the water and it still works. I'm not gonna do it because it's gonna make some noise.

00:15:33 John Daub: Hey, we got a new member, Ted T. Welcome, new traveler. Thanks for joining, Ted. Hey, Mo B's here, Moe. Konnichiwa, John. Konnichiwa, Moe. In Japanese, we would say Moe-san. Oh, it's just a little playground. Oh, so okay, this is the bridge, Tsukishima Bridge, that goes over the Sumida River. We're gonna wrap around now, show you another alley, and take you to where the old shrine is. We're getting closer to 500 likes. Again, if we can get to 700 likes, I'm gonna show you a 600-year-old shrine. Pretty crazy. I'm saying that to build up the anticipation. Again, it's about 2:45 in the morning.

00:17:27 John Daub: Hey, Danny's here. How you doing? Oh, there's the portable shrines up ahead. It is interesting, isn't it? People leave their stuff outside. Again, this is such a quiet place. It's a really good neighborhood to live in. It's hard to find apartments here in this area. About 10 years ago, a friend's mother was working at a real estate agency. That's that really scary alley from before. She had found an apartment inside of here in Tsukuda. I went to go check it out. It's really narrow inside there, a little bit darker. But the thing is the walls are so thin. The neighbors are very close. Whoa, somebody's here. That's something that I decided not to do it because the rent was a little bit expensive.

00:19:40 John Daub: So this is the portable shrine, the omikoshi used in the festival. It's on display here at the end of the street, which is really cool. You have some of the shrine's antiquities that you can see in here in the middle of the night. Check that out. And this omikoshi is very nice. That's, I don't know if that's solid gold, but it's gold plated. Something of great value up there. The only person awake at this time besides us. Wow, they're moving fast. This is a beautiful shrine. This is the end of the street here, completely deserted. I thought this would be a great place for Kanae to dance, just to dance right there and I'll film her with a couple of cameras. It's a pretty wide open space.

00:21:04 John Daub: We're about a hundred yards away from the shrine. While you guys are thinking about what to do, just click the like button. I'm gonna get a drink. No, it's not gonna be anything hardcore. Red Bull. Not exactly what you want to buy in the middle of the night. Vending machine. This looks like an old liquor shop. Pickle. It's got milk in there. That's good for before going to bed. Coffee's not gonna do it. All right, better get some Picole. Pickle's pretty interesting. It's a sweet, like a sweetened milk, like a candy milk, like a very light yogurt drink. Yeah. Like 50 likes away from going to the shrine. So hurry up and click the like button, okay? Come on. Hey Farhan, welcome. Farhan's a new traveler. Tony P's in the house. That's why it's so quiet. How you doing, Tony? Hope it's a lot brighter where you are.

00:25:06 John Daub: I'm gonna go shrine now. Go right here. This is pretty scary. I don't really want to go to the shrine. Do I have to go to the shrine? Centuries-old shrine. All right, you know what? I'm gonna do that. This is Tsukuda, this island here. We're here on the edge where the Sumida River is. I started here at Tsukishima Station, and we've walked through the alleys in this area. Here's the red bridge. And this is the tip. This is a place where I often like to go to relax. And here's the shrine, Sumiyoshi Shrine, which is very old. Kind of not wanting to go there. All right, let me show you the river before I make my way. Even Tokyo Tower's lights are off. Space Needle's asleep. Or it's underwater. I don't know which. The best way to do it is just to do it. Don't cry about creepy shrine. It's actually a very beautiful shrine, just really old. And at this time of night, exactly the best place to be hanging out.

00:27:33 John Daub: Hey, Johnny Gonzalez is here wishing me well. Thanks, Johnny. Stay safe, John. Big hug from my family to you and Kanae. Yeah, Kanae went to bed like five hours ago. Gate right there. Where it starts. Take a right and just down the center. That's my bicycle. It's at the end of the street. Dark alley. Can hear the houses cracking. That's what really creeps me out. I don't know if you can hear it, but hear the cracking of the houses every now and then. I kind of didn't expect anybody to be there. I'm sorry. But there was somebody, and he was like, well, I'm sorry. I don't think any bad people are here. If you're a bad person, you don't come here. You go to like Ginza or Kabukicho. You don't come here. It's a good people place. Gosh, that was really giving me a heart attack. He was right there. Yokosan, be careful not to take any ghosts with you from the shrine at night. You mean they follow you?

00:32:39 John Daub: Peter Nankoro, ring the bell. I'm not ringing the bell. Peter Kim, thank you for risking your life for us. You're very welcome. It does feel like I'm doing that. Hey Cheryl. These walks remind me of the videos night walks BK, before Kanae. Midnight live streams were really fun. Now all you need is a good scream. Plus I think that's how it... love it might have something. Seeing somebody back there really creeps me out. Oh yeah, I want to ring the bell, wake up a thousand people who probably think it's a fire or something. Here's my bike. I can't ring this bell. I'm not even gonna ring my bell. This is rude. It's a pretty weak bell too. Any questions? Your water fountains all over the city. It's a monster in there. I found that flux capacitor. Oh look at that. When I got close to it it turned on. This is the flux capacitor. Peach juice. Do you see that? When I walk closer to it the light went on. It was dimmed. Pretty cool. Someone's always watching you.

00:36:18 John Daub: Some construction and removed one of the nagaya. There's a big space here. They built something in its place but that's the spy house, auto light. This is still Tsukuda on this side. This is one of the new apartment complexes. I kind of prefer the older nagaya but they have been building quite a lot, removing some of the older ones. They have some of the history up. It's good. A little old boat. But they have been taking, removing some of the older buildings just because of earthquake proofing and putting in new ones, but a lot of the old ones still remain behind. I'm just afraid that one day they're not going to be there anymore, so it's good to record the history even if it's a live stream here walking through the town. Hey Alexis is here. How you doing? Hey John, how's it going? Get something from the vending machine on me. You got it. London V, you're not following me. All these people in the chat going oh I'm behind you, look at the ghost, oh don't turn your left because it goes there. Oh my gosh there's a zombie following you. Is that the best you can do? I'm gonna freak me out. Actually fly to Tokyo and then tap me on the shoulder. All right, anything less than that not enough.

00:39:08 John Daub: Look at this. This is an old yakitori shop here. That's an old barber shop. I like the family businesses, the old businesses that have been around for a while. Oh that's that shack right there is the old yakitori shop, billowing smoke in the evenings, but I'm afraid that they might not be around anymore because of the pandemic. Mr. Das, I'm going to do an in-person super chat after the pandemic. Speaking of which, some people have done that. It's a little bit unusual. I remember somebody stopped me and put 500 yen in my hand and go here's an in-person super chat, go buy something. And I'm holding the 500 yen and I said okay. So we took it into a convenience store and bought some drinks with it. It was in the summer, pretty hot. That was so nice though. Yeah Mr. Das, we are waiting for you to come back and do a live stream of the live stream for you in Tokyo. Yeah that'll be great. It's interesting though, you know in chat, it's not like you know I just... I'm okay, you can do it, I'm grateful but it's kind of weird. It's like here here's my Suica card, can I super chat you electronically? I don't think that's possible.

00:40:56 John Daub: We're back at Tsukishima Station and on another night I want to do this again but I want to take you next time to the other side. That's Tsukishima, this is Monja Street and I actually have gone down there at night with you. One of the best monjayaki shops is on this street as well and the alleys on the left and right of Monja Street. We're so late that's when the garbage trucks are coming around. The alleys on the left and right of Monja Street are so scenic and they're dying out really quickly. You can see the skyscraper right in the middle of your screen that is brand new, came up about a year ago and it took out a lot of really good nagaya. But it can house like a thousand people so maybe not a bad thing. Warren K writes, have you and Kanae seen a ghost in Japan? I have. Silhouette is a new traveler. Silly wet welcome. Peter Nankara, ringing the bell will not get rid of the ghosts. Who told you that? I told you that. Spidey 6180 welcome new traveler. You ring the bell and get rid of the ghosts? That wakes the ghosts up and then they attach on you and when you get home then they detach and attack your wife in bed. Who teaches you this stuff?

00:42:31 John Daub: Ham is here, snack on the way. Thanks Ham. It's a little bit late to be eating. Even the McDonald's is closed. I saw a ghost when I first came to Japan. I lived in a place called Okazaki, my first hometown was Okazaki, and in Okazaki I lived 50 meters next to Okazaki Castle. Okazaki Castle was where Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun, was born, and the water from his first bath was drawn from the well that was 50 meters from my house, from my window. One night, before I saw the ghost, it was a lead-up to it. The water faucet in my very small 1K apartment would go on in the middle of the night. I would wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, and the water was on. Not just a drop, it was on. I thought maybe there was an earthquake or something wasn't tightened, so I would just turn it off. This went on for a couple of weeks. 1998.

00:44:28 John Daub: I remember one night in the middle of the night, I just got up, and I could hear the water on, and I was going to stand up to go turn the faucet off, but in front of me I could see an outline of a woman, I believe crying. It scared the hell out of me. I froze and I didn't move for what must have been like an hour. The water was on the whole time. The only thing I can think of, it wasn't an evil ghost. I believe it was a way of communication, and somehow the water was coming on from tears. The ghost was a woman, symbolized tears. I remember being shocked for a very long time. Eventually the ghost went away, and I guess it was from me acknowledging that she was there. Then I went up, turned off the water, and I didn't go back to sleep. The next day I did not want to go back to my apartment, but I eventually did, and I never saw the ghost again. But I did end up moving as a result of it.

00:45:50 John Daub: I was teaching at an English school there. I've walked by that apartment since then, but it was very scary. It's been 25 years ago. In my mind it's a lot more vivid than it really was. I know I saw something. I'm pretty sure. Meaning I know I did because you can feel it. It was the outline, the shape of a woman crying. It gives me the creeps thinking about it. So after you see something like that, you know that there's something going on here that's deeper, supernatural stuff in the world. It deeply affected me. No harm came to me. Nothing bad happened. I wasn't destroyed. It wasn't a horror movie. I don't think it's an evil thing if you do see a ghost. After the sighting, the water never turned on again. Maybe the ghost went to another apartment. I never saw her again. But I really would like to go back to Okazaki Castle and ask some of the people there some of the history of the castle. It's a recreation from the 17th century. I'm curious to know if anybody was killed or any women. Maybe they have some drawings. Maybe there's a way to identify who it was. And then go to the shrine by Okazaki Castle and give a small prayer for the spirit of the ghost. You always show respect. Even when we went past the shrine, I did bow. You don't know who's watching. It just makes sense to show respect at all times.

00:48:22 John Daub: David Lee is in the house from Hong Kong. How you doing, David? I appreciate that. Muzazu! Sorry. Welcome a new insider. I actually have some travel notes coming in the beginning of March from a trip to Kochi, some inside information on that trip when I went to film the Yosako show. Talking about that ghost story really brings back some pretty creepy memories. I don't think I can walk through those alleys again, but I'm going to have to because my bicycle's over there. You have one more alley in you? Can you guys do one more alley? Alright, let's do one more alley.

00:49:01 John Daub: After I finished at Okazaki in 1998, I took a job with the same company to help turn around schools. I became kind of a turnaround manager for the school, going to schools that had big problems or somebody got fired, and I would turn it around. They sent me to Hiroshima for the next job, for only three months. I used to walk past the Genbaku Dome or Atomic Bomb Dome several times a week, going in to eat in the restaurants or meet friends. It really moved me to walk past that Atomic Bomb Dome. I'm sure there's lots of ghosts in the city of Hiroshima. If people ask me where my favorite city to live in was, I will say Hiroshima. I just really love that city, the people, the food, the vibe. Everything is there. The weather's nice, protected with the Inland Sea and Shikoku on the island. Hey Shane, that red colored Super Chat will keep me warm through this next alley. I appreciate it.

00:50:49 John Daub: Alright, did we go through this one? Dear children conveys the image of the Buddhist Chief Priest who resided at Ueno Kaneiji during 1715-1738. I can see the tree in the middle there. That's so amazing. I didn't know about that. I can see the branches of the tree. Do you see it? Up there? It's very hard to see, just make it out. That's amazing. It's in between all of these houses. That is awesome. I love this neighborhood. That's why it's so clean because there's a temple in the middle there. Alright, my bicycle's over here.

00:56:12 John Daub: There are some extraordinary stories in the city of Tokyo. I love living here because every time you think maybe there's not enough content, you find another amazing story or something that just blows you away historically, just like today. Today in a live stream I went over to Tsukiji, an area not too far from my house. I introduced Tange Kenzo's creation, the headquarters for Dentsu, which is the largest advertising agency in the world. That live stream walking around that building is fascinating because in the 1960s that was the image of a future Tokyo. Now they made huge compromises probably because of budget on this building, but what remains behind is an abandoned building in the center of Tokyo right near Ginza of the world's biggest advertising agency. We walked around it today and that was fascinating. If you haven't seen that live stream, check it out.

00:57:20 John Daub: Alright, I'll see you on Discord, okay? Thanks so much everybody for watching. We did an hour. Again, click the like button if you do like this. I will do another Sunday night midnight walk, which is Sunday morning in the US. Good morning. For me I'm going to bed. It'll be Monday. It's actually already March 1st here. See you everybody. Thanks, Shane.