00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings and welcome to the beautiful city of Tokyo on a warm cloudy day. This is Monzen-nakachō. You can get here on the Tōzai Line or the Ōedo Line (Oedo line). We're here to go to this place which is infamous, Mister Donut.

00:00:19 John Daub: Yes, donuts are a Japanese thing, I guess, in a way. How you doing? I'm going to go inside and try a taste of spring. Today is the first day of one of my favorite times of the year where the flavors of spring come out in the donuts. This is sakura (cherry blossom) and green tea matcha donut season. I've already actually bought them. It's in a really beautiful bag. Check this out. It's like I've gone shopping at a department store.

00:00:50 John Daub: But this is what it looks like to go shopping at this Mister Donut. Everything's behind glass right now. You get the tongs behind the glass and you get the donuts behind the glass. But these donuts came in a box. You can see there's the commercial up here. This variety is called Saku Matcha. It's a play on words, and I'm going to explain all of that right now. So let's go eat this beautiful bag of donuts.

00:01:28 John Daub: In this campaign that they're doing, there are five kinds of donuts here. I'm going back to my usual place. There's like an electrical box, which does make this street food actually, because I'm going to eat this on the street. But this is also where the police box is. It is really loud right here. How you doing everybody? So I'm going to unbox these here. Actually I'm quite impressed with the way that Mister Donut has done this.

00:02:07 John Daub: It's fast. I just don't know—donuts would be considered fast food? But it's done in such a way that it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful that I actually get excited to go and buy donuts. And I only do it when the campaign... I think the last time I bought Mister Donuts was a midnight snack run or the Pokémon mochi donuts from last year I believe it was. Let's just unbox this. This is just too exciting. They've really classed it up with the matcha colored bag. Mister Donut is doing a collaboration with a Uji matcha company down there in Kyoto. So I like it when Mister Donut does some collaborations. Look at this bag. It is a pretty nice looking bag.

00:02:56 John Daub: Inside the bag we have here... See this? Look what they've done. There's like a tray in there. Okay I'm just going to pull the whole tray out. It's lunchtime anyways. Wow. Check this out. They've done a pretty good job. And I've done a good job of mucking it up. I'm going to leave the bag right here. So I've gotten three of the five varieties of donuts here. And I guess because of the pandemic they've put them in little houses. So you have to open up the houses. But also when you pick them up with tongs it makes it easier to pick up the donuts by the flap instead of by the donut itself. Sometimes you'll break it up in there. So I've got three different varieties out of the five. Let's open them up and try each one. So buckle in. It's time to eat some donuts.

00:03:58 John Daub: And John who should be on a diet should not be eating these donuts. Oh and by the way, I want you to stay tuned because I'm going to take you about 100 meters down the road. And I have some exciting news. The cherry blossoms in Tokyo are budding. That means they're about a week to 10 days away. It's so exciting. And I'm going to show you the beginning of a bud right after I eat these donuts. Donuts come first.

00:04:27 John Daub: Alright. First up. This campaign is called Saku Matcha. Sakura means cherry blossoms. Saku is the verb to bloom. So Saku Matcha means blooming matcha. Which is kind of a cool name if you think about it. If you know the Japanese behind it it's pretty cool.

00:05:17 John Daub: Alright you know what? I'm going to move over here. It's a little bit quieter. It started smoking. I guess this is for the traffic lights or something. When you're out here in the city you're in the elements man. You're in the elements. Alright here we go. So you can either delicately open it up or you can just rip like that. I'm going to do what I'm doing right here. Look at the little cherry blossom balls on there. That's beautiful. So really really delicious looking matcha icing with sakura flavored pellets. All with white creamy vanilla something running all over it.

00:06:38 John Daub: Alright let's give this a try. Taste of spring. It's very good. Now the donut itself is made out of sakura. So it's not just the pellets. But the actual donut has sakura flavor to it. That's interesting.

00:07:36 John Daub: That air is coming out of the donut. The air generator compressor thing is like oozing out pollution. What's up with that? There's a speaker blasting enka (Japanese ballad). This livestream is going sideways. Maybe it'll turn off. All I can hope is that this generator turns off. Alright. I can't finish that donut. I'll finish it later. Because we got two other ones.

00:08:33 John Daub: This one looks really really good. Now what is really interesting about this donut is... Check out this video I just uploaded on the new channel. It's a really good video and you'll get to feel with me what did that 311, the Tōhoku earthquake feel like. The generator just died. Awesome. Thank goodness. What the heck was that? It's like a city generator.

00:10:10 John Daub: Check out our Discord server. It's free. Alright, let's get some more enka here. It's a lot quieter. You never know what's going to happen when you go live. Alright, watch this. Cha-cha. Look what they've done with this thing. It's insane. This red bean anko (sweet bean paste) with sakura flavor inside there. Surrounded by a matcha icing. And then in the middle of it, it's like a kinako (roasted soybean flour) mochi. Oh my word. This is complete and total insanity. And it deserves my respect.

00:11:21 John Daub: It should be eaten by somebody much more beautiful than myself. And it's got a very pink looking donut bread base. I'm going to just lick it like I do with the way I eat Reese's peanut butter cups. But that's not good TV. That's not good YouTube. So I'm going to put the donut back together like it was meant to be. And with the beautiful sounds of enka in the background. Itadakimasu (I humbly receive).

00:12:14 John Daub: Wow. That is so good. That's really good. Now the anko paste is naturally sweet. But it's got a slight sakura taste to it. That matcha icing gives it a buttery-ness to it. And then there's that mochi surprise in the middle. Who does not like mochi? Very soft mochi. Very, very delicate. That was good.

00:12:48 John Daub: We have a final one here just to try this out before I take you to go see the cherry blossoms. And I gotta go get Kanae some mochi pound cake. She wants some mochi pound cake. Alright, you could delicately open it up. So I'm gonna do it instead of ripping this time. Ooh. This one looks really nice too. But this pound cake has been cut up. So there's something inside there. Oh, I like it. I like these little sakura balls too. They're crunchy, like cookies.

00:13:53 John Daub: Alright, we have to open it up to show the guts. This is a matcha cream in here. It's pretty good. They're using a matcha flavored pink dough. I do like these pellets on top of here. Let's give it a go. Now unlike the pound cake, I don't have much of a mochi mochi springiness to this donut. But you can see inside, the matcha cream, very, very nice touch. Very delicate matcha. If it were wasabi, that would be so much cooler though. I really wish it was wasabi. They should make every fifth donut a wasabi donut.

00:15:29 John Daub: This one is very good. Now this one is different because there's nothing on the inside. Mmm. This one is better. I like to have this cream on the inside. It's a little bit better. Hands down, the one with the mochi on the inside, that one wins.

00:16:14 John Daub: Alright. I'm gonna make my way over to cherry blossoms right now to give thanks for 500 likes. I'm asking. I think we can get there. It's a community activity. So while you're liking it, I'm gonna walk now through Monzen-nakachō and burn off these donuts. I think it's gonna take more than a 100 meter walk. But I'm gonna take it to the river where I've gone before to show you the progress of the sakura. I believe they're a week away, but the budding is beautiful. Spring has sprung and my friends in Philadelphia and on the east coast of the US have told me it's 75 degrees Fahrenheit in America. What's up with that?

00:17:03 John Daub: You came here for donuts. You're now getting some sakura. I do like Monzen-nakachō. It's got this really cool vibe. On the corner of Eitaidōri and Kiyosumi-dōri.

00:17:32 John Daub: That's right. I thought this was a Yoshinoya. They just changed hands. Interesting. This is a new restaurant. Oh, that tempura looks awesome. No, sorry. It's soba with a... Is that aonori (green seaweed flakes)? I've had this before. It's so good. It's like a seaweed looking tempura thing that's so crunchy and good and mochi and delicious.

00:18:06 John Daub: Why America continues to hate on the metric system? I don't know. I think because the Europeans are doing it. That's the reason not to do it. The history of why the US doesn't accept the metric system is very interesting and goes with... It's because of lobbying in the 19th century. I believe the early 20th century. There was lobbying by a screw manufacturer. A bolt and screw and bolt manufacturer that said it would cost them a minuscule amount of money in today's terms to change their system. So they lobbied Congress and they said no to the metric system. That's how that happened. And now it's just a source of pride. We're different. Feet and inches, baby.

00:19:27 John Daub: Here it is on the riverside. Saku-saku matcha donuts. I think we can go in there. Okay, the gate's open. It's good news. Take a wide berth. He's vaping. I guess vaping is kind of new in Japan. I don't see too many vapers.

00:20:41 John Daub: All right, check it out. Look at those buds. Do you see what I'm saying? Focus! Ah, these are the sakura buds and we're so close. Why the iPhone never focuses? It's like the Panasonic GH5. It just doesn't focus. We're very close. Which is good news because that means next week I start doing cherry blossom live streams to bore all the people looking for a real adventure. This is the newest one. This is the 12 Pro. And I can't believe I have no control over the focus of the camera on a Pro camera.

00:22:23 John Daub: Look how wrinkled he is. That sign looks really cool with all of the cracks in there. You can't make this wabi-sabi (aesthetic of imperfect beauty) sign any cooler.

00:22:54 John Daub: Donuts! I still have some in there. Sakura and donuts! The matcha cream is so good. There's an amazing balance and there is a little bit of sugar on it. Hands down, really good. In two weeks, this area is so beautiful. But it's hard to see it. You can't see it without the blossoms. When there's thousands of white blossoms start to take over the tree branches here, you're not going to be able to see that bridge anymore. You're just going to see whiteness. And it is amazing.

00:24:04 John Daub: Yeah, I'm going to do some cherry blossom livestreams and I'm going to try to rent a car and get out of the city of Tokyo. Try to get to the countryside a little bit. Go to places where there aren't a lot of people. That's really what I want to do. But this is one of the canals and they used to, during the Edo period, this is the main course of commerce because the roads, you know, it's hard to carry a lot of goods. They used the canals to get goods around the city of Tokyo, very much like Amsterdam. But you don't see Tokyo in the same way. The canals are a little bit bigger, but they're just as beautiful if you can imagine. I wish Japan had a culture of having cafes along with the waterfront. That would be really, really nice. But we just don't have that here, which is a really, really shame.

00:24:57 John Daub: So let's head back to the station. Because my bicycle's over there. Just kind of a short livestream. Yesterday's livestream was really, really... Oh! Hey! Pigeon! While I was driving the other day to Costco, I noticed a huge grouping of pigeons! I saw your cousins in Makuhari and Chiba. Tell them I said hi.

00:25:34 John Daub: Pigeon fine. Yeah, she said that to me while I'm driving. And she meant to focus on the driving, not to focus on the pigeons. But how could you not? They're beautiful birds. That's the mating call. Ah! Oh! He's got a friend up there! Just two of them! Oh, you're already taken! Is that what you're trying to tell me? Sorry. I didn't mean to use the mating calls, dude. I didn't know. I'm sorry. I'm gonna back away. They're looking at me funny. Sorry. Respect. Sorry. Enjoy your day together. I was never here. They're very crowish. Very angry looking.

00:27:03 John Daub: See, look, I have the bag. Alright? It's for that one person who said, don't litter. I'm not littering. I would never do that. I love my neighborhood. My area. This is the Fukagawa, by the way, if you're not sure. Fukagawa has a culture of having boats. Just check out that flowerpot. It's shaped like a boat.

00:28:07 John Daub: Hey, I see Italian bombshells here. You see this? You know what they've done here? They said putty, putty, but they've made it crunchy on the outside, so when they cook it in the pan, they add in a little bit of water with flour, so that it adds this crunchiness that goes all around it, and it's just so delicious. So many different kinds of gyoza (dumplings). Why aren't you here? Come hurry up and vacation to Japan the second that they open the border. Get a ticket and get your behind here. Wow! This has green onion gyoza with pork. Looks like matcha, but it's not. It's negi (green onions). Oh, man. Looks so good.

00:29:24 John Daub: Over there is where you'll find the shrine. I'm not gonna take you there this time. I'll go back during the day again. I've already done a livestream there once with Kanae, I believe. But just to give you an idea of the area that we're in, this is Monzen-nakachō. The Fukagawa Edo Museum (Tokyo Modern Museum) is not too far away. It's a pretty good museum. I've heard good things. Kiba Park is right here, which is a huge, grassy area. Built on trash. And Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station, which is the garden, and lots of cafes are in the area here. Blue Bottle opened up their cafe here a while ago.

00:30:15 John Daub: And this is where I am right now, Monzen-nakachō. Mister Donut is right here. Cherry blossoms are all along here. And the... Actually, it's not the Fukagawa. It's the Oyokogawa. Where did the Fukagawa go? This area is supposed to be famous for the Fukagawa. There's Eitai-bashi over there. And Fukagawa Park. But you can see, you get here with the Ōedo Line and the Tōzai Line. It's nice. It's very nice.

00:30:57 John Daub: Do you ever notice that they make those buttons so big for the elderly? That's such a nice little detail. I haven't used one of these phones in a long time. Alright, that's all I have for you. I don't know why I'm hesitating, just because I'm always so sad to say goodbye. But it is very quiet without you in Japan, and until you can come back, I'll be here for you.

00:31:36 John Daub: I was just in a New York... I put some links in the Discord server, but you can see me on an NBC New York interview that just aired yesterday that's now on YouTube. And I was on the BBC World Report yesterday for about a four minute interview about what happened up in Tōhoku. It was the 10th anniversary. You can check that out on the Discord server as well, I believe. Yesterday's broadcast at 7:25 AM Greenwich Mean Time. And we're almost at 100,000 subscribers on the new channel. Thanks everybody for joining me on this donut adventure. I gotta go back to get Kanae some more donuts. I better do that right now. So, I'll see you in the next livestream tomorrow. Mister Donut! Happy Spring, everybody!