00:01 John Daub: Welcome to Tokyo Station. That here is the modern Ochi side of Tokyo Station, an iconic view. And in this episode, we are going to be going to the best Shinkansen train spotting area in the city. How you doing, everybody? It's a beautiful spring day.

00:21 John Daub: This building was built, I believe, 1912, 1913. I always get it wrong. But there's a story behind that, too. I've actually taken you to this building before. It's right here.

00:29 John Daub: How you doing, everybody? Hey, Jason. Hey, Anna. I saw you there. This is the KITTE building right in front of us. This is the main post office and where I send almost all of my Postcard Club postcards. I send it from inside of here because they give you a Tokyo postmark on there. So if you're just in the Patreon Postcard Club from Tokyo where I send you postcards, definitely join us.

00:52 John Daub: Up there, there's already some people. We're going to be going there in about two, three minutes. But I thought I'd show you the exterior this time. This is a new building. It was built about... I want to say like five years ago. It was completed. The old Tokyo post office was not nearly as nice, but they've baited in sort of the old classic look to it with a new style. It's got that white, nice white coating to it. So let's get up here to the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I think it's like the sixth floor, but we're gonna find out.

01:24 John Daub: Inwards to the top deck. It's kind of exciting.

01:34 John Daub: Last time I was up here, which was about a month ago, I showed you Dr. Yellow, which is awesome. You don't get to see that very often. It's very rare. It leaves every seven to 10 days.

01:47 John Daub: KITTE in Japanese, which is the name of this building, means stamp. It's got these beautiful ceiling to it. So there's an elevator right here. And I'm going to take you up there right now.

02:34 John Daub: Sixth floor. Wait, it only goes up to the fifth floor. We're almost there. Sorry about the signal.

02:55 John Daub: We're inside the KITTE building. I'm going to show you the inside. This is probably the best live streaming spot in Tokyo. All right, we've reached the fifth floor.

03:05 John Daub: Are we still there? Air to the Ron flying train. Actually, that'd be pretty cool. The Shinkansen goes so fast. It sort of does fly off of the rails.

03:20 John Daub: There's restaurants up here on the fifth floor, but because of the pandemic, there's really not a lot. Let me show you down here. Whoa. That's a pretty nice view of all these shops here. All right, let's get them move on to the top.

03:44 John Daub: It's free to come up here, by the way. I actually didn't even know about this until actually didn't know about this until about a few months ago, which is crazy. I know a lot about the best train spots. I don't know why I missed this one because I guess I just saw it as the post office building.

04:08 John Daub: All right, here's the Sky Deck. This is called KITTE Garden, which is not a 360 view, but it's a pretty good view of the whole area. Follow these nice people out. So Sky Garden has a map. The map looks like this. I guess it's more like a triangle, but I think you can go around. All right. Interesting. So we're going to do a 360 then.

04:33 John Daub: Hey, Michael Sassano, John would be cool if you could get a drone shot inside Tokyo Station. I know I'm trying to get drone shots of the Tohoku Shinkansen, but I guess there's some rules against it. I'm trying to figure out the policies so I don't break any rules.

04:56 John Daub: The E5 and the E6 traveling together through farm fields through rice paddies would be pretty awesome. Now I've taken you to this spot to see Tokyo Station several times in the livestreams. You see that right in front? It's a beautiful shot of the exterior of Tokyo Station.

05:20 John Daub: I see Tony P's in his high flying desk chair. The renovations for Tokyo Station were completed about, I don't know, like seven, six, seven years ago. But we're ongoing from about ten years ago. And I remember they did a lot of work on the exterior of Tokyo Station. They did a projectile mapping on the exterior of Tokyo Station. I actually uploaded that to another channel. I think that might even be available, like a John Dobb channel from 2010. So they made this really old facade come to life. It looked like there are a bunch of clocks and moving parts on the exterior of it. It was pretty cool.

06:00 John Daub: So that's where we started. You can see the Olympic countdown clock right there in the middle. The torch is now somewhere near Nagoya, I believe, making its way. And behind that is the Tokyo Station. Behind this old Marunouchi building here, Marunouchi exit of Tokyo Station, is the new station. And we're slowly walking into that direction. Behind it, you can see the signs. That's the Yaesu side right there. And this building going up is going up so fast. It wasn't there a year ago. It's going to be completed in record time.

06:42 John Daub: There it is on the right side. You see it? That's the Hokurinkansen. That's what I was hoping for. I'm trying to get a shot for the postcard club. It's going to be this shot, guys. I'm ordering this shot. So if you want to sign up for the postcard club, you're going to get the Shinkansen and the exterior of the Tokyo Station.

07:06 John Daub: It's going to be a pretty wicked shot. And you're going to see me take it. Well, maybe. You'll have been to this spot the day that I took it. A beautiful sunny day. Look at her. The Tohoku Shinkansen glistening in the sun on Platform 21. Why do I even know that information? Because I was there sitting for a while.

07:27 John Daub: Wow. I don't think we're going to get a chance to see Dr. Yellow. But if we did, that would be pretty cool. It's also lunchtime right now. Not a lot of people out and about because of the pandemic. But again, state of emergency is over so we can travel freely, which is really cool.

07:51 John Daub: I think the Tohoku Shinkansen is going to be making its way. It's going to be departing. And on the other side is the Tokaido Shinkansen. And you actually get to see the Tohoku Shinkansen. You actually can go from one to the other without exiting. You have to exit. It requires a different ticket. So this makes it difficult for those that are trying to go from Osaka to Tohoku. You definitely have to change at Tokyo Station. There's no question about it.

08:13 John Daub: Let's see if we can follow this. I'm going to set up my tripod and get some pictures here.

08:22 John Daub: That train is going to Osaka and it's racing the Yamanote Line, which is in the lead. Now that she got in the lead, but the Yamanote Line is catching up quickly. It's going to be a close race. Local train versus bullet train. They pretty much have to go the same speed. But just to show you how long the Shinkansen is, there's the end of the Yamanote Line. And you can see the Shinkansen hasn't ended yet.

08:54 John Daub: There's the end right there. That's a long train. 16 cars, I believe.

09:11 John Daub: There's an ant on me. Hey, no free rides, ant. How did that ant get on me? I've been moving the whole time.

09:23 John Daub: So you're going to see two Tohoku Shinkansen E5s. I think that's a Hayabusa, but we can't see from this view. Along the platform, there's a Hayabusa. And if you look at the platform, if it's connected to the E6, which is the red one, the one that goes off to Akita, it is pretty much like a football field 100 yards or more moving at 300 km per hour. That is pretty cool. I don't know how quick the French TGV and the other trains go, but the fact that the Shinkansen is as long as it is and it's going as fast as it is, it's pretty amazing.

10:09 John Daub: And they picked up the speed in Tohoku. I believe these go over 300 km an hour. I think they go 320 now in some spots.

10:17 John Daub: You have the Yamanote line making its way in. I think that's the Sobu Yokosuka line. It goes from Chiba to Yokosuka. I'm not sure. The green car is a double decker. Do you see that?

10:36 John Daub: So you can get seat reservations. And usually this train is crowded going home in the evening, but today it's going to be fine.

10:55 John Daub: Hey, I see Jang Chi-min is in the house. You have just purchased Kanai's lunch. Thank you. Janine, Carl, how you doing guys?

11:09 John Daub: The Tohoku Shinkansen, these Tokiwa green Shinkansen don't depart very often, but the Tokaido Shinkansen, you're seeing another departure and they leave about every 5 to 15 minutes. So I'd say regularly 10 minutes. So if you miss one, don't worry, there's another one coming.

11:29 John Daub: This one looks like, this is the Tokaido line. This looks like the old Tokaido line. The Tokaido line is one that if you take a local train, you can get to Tokaido. If you take a local train, you can get to Osaka. It takes forever. But you can do it. It stops almost at every stop on the way. Sometimes you have to change trains at Atami and again at sometimes Hamamatsu or Toyohashi. Very few of them. I think only one goes all the way to Nagoya without having to change. Almost all of them change in Atami, I believe.

12:10 John Daub: But I've done that so many times on a ticket called the Seishun Juha-chi Keeper. Seishun Juha-chi Keeper. Juha-chi means a train. It's 18. So it's kind of like an experience. Oh, look, you can see. I got it. You know what I should do? I should take a picture of me right there doing the opening of the train and have a friend with the tripod here. That would be pretty cool shot. And I'll stand there and take the opening. And yeah, that's a good idea. Just use a really zoom lens in there and you get the, you can feel the size of Tokyo Station.

12:58 John Daub: So I'm right now in the corner. I'm in the corner of the KITTE Garden. And this is the best view from this angle.

13:03 John Daub: Oh, no, we just lost the Tohoku. The other Tohoku Shinkansen just departed. Shoot. I wanted to get that departing, although it would have been only a few seconds. But from this angle, let me pan around and give you an idea of what the from from this point and that's the opening. Do you see this lip here? That's the opening of the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station. So you can see as I pan from here, you can enter in here. And if you have a ticket, you can cut through all of this underground and get to the Marunouchi side, which is the old dome in the center of your screen right now.

13:40 John Daub: That's right. And just a blink. GG na. Got it right. The Tohoku Shinkansen is gone.

13:53 John Daub: So there are a couple of places mostly over towards, I don't know, the Tohoku Shinkansen. The thing is, it goes underground. Like a subway. I can see the mess of wires. That's crazy. All those wires giving power to all these trains.

14:20 John Daub: There is another Shinkansen again. They're like every five minutes. There's different ones that the Nozomi leave about every 10 minutes. And then in between there, there's the Hikari, which has a few more stops in key places. And then there's the Kodama, which is. I think that means echo in Japanese. It actually stops at every stop. And I prefer it. And it's not that much slower. If you like the Shinkansen and you want to have a more relaxed ride, take the Kodama because it'll get it'll take you longer, but you can really stretch out a trip if you just want to ride the train. There's no reason. Sometimes the Nozomi is too crowded because that's what the one everybody's getting on in Tokyo. And you get a chance to really slow it down. Get off on the platform. Sometimes you can get an eki-ban. If you're riding the Kodama, you have 10 minutes at certain stops. It allows you a chance to get off the train for a second, stretch your legs. Don't stretch too long because you might miss the train. But I think if you get the JR Rail Pass, you can't take the Nozomi. You have to take the Kodama.

15:34 John Daub: I hear a train coming in. A lot of these sounds are so iconic to Tokyoites. There's the Hokuriku Shinkansen coming in. While the Tokaido comes in from Osaka. The Hokuriku Shinkansen is coming in. The Hokuriku Shinkansen just arrived from Kanazawa. How cool is that? That's super exciting.

16:09 John Daub: This is a great place to grab a bento from the station on a beautiful day like this. And you can sit here, I guess, and eat it out here on the garden. There's loads of space. It's very relaxing.

16:25 John Daub: Andrew Fort Wayne's here. Tasty Chronicle writes in here, some vending machine money for future non-carbonated drinks. Stay away from the caffeine stuff so you can get better night's sleep. Tasty, thanks for thinking about me. I'm really tired. This is why I'm up here. I'm up here because I want to get some shots for the video and also take the Postcard Club postcards or leave it in the tent. So it's a little later than usual. I gotta order it today after I take this picture.

17:03 John Daub: Did you see the two nubs? Let's follow the Yamanote line out. Go, go, go. Looks like a model train from up here.

17:19 John Daub: If you do like these train spotting spot episodes, click the like button because that's how... Oh! Just in a blink, it's gone. There were two. Now there's one.

17:37 John Daub: You can't take your eyes off of them. If you do, you might miss it.

17:42 John Daub: There's a Starbucks on the other side of the station, the side, the Nihonbashi exit. If you take a left outside of there from the Starbucks, you can see the Tohoku Shinkansen fly by. Oh, I just saw it right there. It's on the corner. You can see it sort of on the rails. That's also a nice train spotting for the Tohoku Shinkansen in Tokyo. But the problem is that it goes underground. That's why when I do Tohoku Shinkansen livestreams when it's running, it's often cut off by the signal.

18:30 John Daub: Yamanote line is a very long train as well. But let's count the Shinkansen together, shall we? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

19:00 John Daub: I think I lost count somewhere. Seventeen, eighteen? Did I get that wrong? I think I lost count somewhere. Seventeen. Somebody counted seventeen. I don't know. I got eighteen. I don't even know why. Yeah, Michael Turner, you got it right. It could be sixteen and a half. Somewhere between sixteen and eighteen. I'm pretty sure it's sixteen.

19:42 John Daub: So to get from the... Oh, is that the next Narita Express? Man, it's a beautiful window on the front. Yeah, that's the Narita Express. Very pretty train. It's got that big bulb on the front. It's a great view if you're driving the train.

20:22 John Daub: I've still got my eyes peeled on this. Oh, another one just pulled in. Another Tohoku Shinkansen just pulled in. If I was a real train otaku, I would have the schedule in my hand and would be able to wrap off all the stops that that particular train would be doing. I can't do that. The Hayabusa train, which is the E5, the Tohoku Shinkansen, is ten cars. Cars ten to three. Or is it... Oh, we get a departure. That looks like it's also the Hokuriku Shinkansen or the Joban Line. Joban Shinkansen. The Joetsu Shinkansen, could be. They both go sort of in the same direction. It's nice and fun. It's nice to talk trains. I could do this all day. I don't know. What do you think?

21:22 John Daub: Is this one of the best spots for train spotting? You can see Tokyo Station is always going to be the main hub. Shinjuku is a big station. I got that. But Tokyo's got the Shinkansen. It's got all of the national trains running through it. It goes up to Hokkaido. It goes down to Kagoshima. All these trains... Well, actually, you have the trains in Osaka for the Sanyo and then... But that's not the point. The point is that you get such a wide range of the trains here. This would be probably the best train spotting spot in the world. I don't know. That's a bold statement, isn't it?

22:01 John Daub: Look at that. Yeah, the Tokaido Line and the Shinkansen together. Sandwiching. Another Tokaido Shinkansen. Two Tohoku Shinkansen. And the Hokuriku Shinkansen. And here comes the Yamanote Line. Doesn't want to be forgotten. It's a power spot. This is such a power spot. I can feel the power of the trains. Exciting. Where all these people could go anywhere. How come I'm not on one of these trains? This is actually the last day of my pass. So I could jump on a train and go somewhere. But I can't. I got to go tomorrow or the next day. Because of the baby who's sleeping right now. So I got a chance to escape for these pictures here. So I'll be back in an hour.

23:01 John Daub: So let me swing right by this way. And give you one more last view. From here you get a better shot of the exterior of Tokyo Station. This is the old modern Ochi side. For those that are joining us. Click the like button if you like this kind of content. Train spotting is one of my hobbies.

23:25 John Daub: Some people like to go to cafes and watch people. I like to go to cafes and watch trains. It's kind of cool. There's the Shinmato building. And the Mato building right there. And a beautiful open plaza here. Lots and lots of sunlight. The city of Tokyo. And in about a year you're going to start to see the construction. I believe they're already starting to flatten it out. Of the torch tower. The flame tower. I forget what it's called. It's going to be the tallest building in Japan. 387 meters high. It's going to be right here on the horizon. You're going to see that starting to be built. And then I think it said it's going to be completed in 2027. So there's some time going on here.

24:02 John Daub: Here comes another what looks like a Hokuriku Shinkansen. Entering into the Tokyo Station. Pretty exciting.

24:26 John Daub: Wait. If I went to Yon. I should have told Kanai. Hey Kanai I'm going out to get some lunch. She said okay just bring me back. Bring me back a bento. And then I go all the way up to Sendai to get it. Pretty cool. They come back. Here's your lunch. Where were you Sendai? Talk about delivery. Same day service.

24:59 John Daub: Sendai is about 90 minutes from Tokyo. So it'd be about from door to door. I think you can do it in three and a half hours. That sounds like a challenge. That's what you would call a special.

25:06 John Daub: Yesterday I filmed some hyperlapse inside of Tokyo Station. I got permission to film hyperlapses. So you can see from Yaesu Station all the way to the platform of the Tohoku Shinkansen. It's a pretty cool hyperlapse. While I was there I asked Kanai what do you want for lunch. And she said she wanted an ekiben. And I said okay. So I got her a Sendai Gyutan self-heating ekiben. One of the ones where you pull the yellow strings and it starts to heat up. It's a self-heating bento. And it was really good. I got two of them. The only thing was it's pretty pricey. It was $16 for one box lunch. But the quality of the beef tongue was really good.

25:55 John Daub: Sendai is quite famous for Gyutan. I think it's made from a famous shop. So we did have an amazing day. I don't think we're going to get the same thing. But I'll buy her a bento from the area. Lunch is one of these in-between meals. Oh, we panned down. Check it out. These people do not know they're being observed from a distance.

26:30 John Daub: This is the Narita Express. I think it's the Narita Express. I'm not... There's lots of other trains. This could be the Azusa I thought was started from Shinjuku that goes towards... There. But I think it is.

26:49 John Daub: And the exit is... Narita Express is pretty expensive. But if you're connecting up with a Shinkansen and you have a Japan Rail Pass anyways, it kind of makes sense to get that, doesn't it? Just jump on there. If you don't have a rail pass, the Keisei line is a little bit cheaper. And in fact, you can ride the local Keisei line. And it takes you roughly about the same. And you connect up at Yawata Keisei or Motoyawata for the Toei Shinjuku line. And you can jump on the subway, which is cheap. That sometimes is the cheapest option. But you're only going to save maybe 15 bucks. And after a long flight, you're kind of stressed out. At least I am.

27:27 John Daub: Taxi is expensive. The average cost for taxi from here to Narita was... Uber was 27,000 yen or $270. And if you take a regular taxi, it's cheaper. I think it was 2,400 or $240. From here to Narita... The airport is quite a ways. To get to Haneda, it's about... From here, about 10,000... No. At night, about 10,000 yen. And during the day, about 8,000... 7,000 to 8,000 yen. From where I live, it's about 5,000 to 6,000 yen, depending on the time of day. There's a 20% premium on taxis after 10 p.m. Till 5 a.m., I believe.

28:15 John Daub: All right, there's a train leaving. Oh! We just got a second Tohoku Shinkansen. Two noses popping out.

28:28 John Daub: I think that the Tohoku Shinkansen has the most unique nose of all the trains. It really is long. And I don't know if that gives it any extra speed. I just know that it makes it cooler. Because it's so long. Whereas the Hokuriku Shinkansen right there... Not quite the same nose. But I don't think through the mountains it travels nearly as fast. When you get to the Sea of Japan side, I don't think it hits the same speeds as on the main line.

28:57 John Daub: But Tohoku has been redone. I do know if you do ride the Akita Shinkansen, which jimmies across from Morioka. So that's the red one that's connected with the green one. The E5 and the E6. The speeds are about half of what it is. It's much, much faster than the usual local trains as we see the Hokuriku Shinkansen taking off. But not nearly as fast as the normal Tohoku Shinkansen line going to Aomori.

29:27 John Daub: The thing with the Tohoku Shinkansen... And my argument on why maybe... It's not the greatest. It has the best trains. But the line itself is so much in tunnels. It's sort of depressing. When I was filming the Ekiben episode a couple of days ago... I was a little bit depressed that we were in tunnels the whole time. Not depressed. I should say frustrated. Because we were in tunnels all of the time.

30:15 John Daub: Sorry, I might have missed a couple of Super Chats. I do apologize. There's still some bugs in the app. Two random crap three right in here. I don't see any reason the Shinkansen trains aren't completely automated.

30:35 John Daub: That's a good point. I think they might be in the future. Oh, there's a point. There's a point in Yurakucho when these two trains come together... You have them going on the left and right of you very closely. And I did an episode on that. It's pretty cool. If you catch them right once an hour... You feel the wind of both the trains rushing past you. Sometimes one's going one way and another one's going another way. You just have to catch it at the right time. I did it on that livestream. That was like two years ago at Yurakucho Station. That's a power spot, man.

31:17 John Daub: And then when I was doing it, other people went over there and tried to do the same livestream or the same episode. It's cool. I think more people should go and do that. Try to find amazing train spotting spots and soak in the power of the green side.

31:29 John Daub: I can hear the music echoing. We should have a departure any second now. The door is closing. Please be careful.

31:49 John Daub: I don't know. Wouldn't it be pretty cool if Peter was doing the voice of some of the Shinkansen trains? That'd be pretty interesting.

32:13 John Daub: There goes another Tokaido Shinkansen. And I believe that's the two Tokaido lines.

32:28 John Daub: PPG is the voice of ANA for the announcements. I thought it was the voice of Disney. But it's funny though. When all the voice artists... And they have a really cool clubhouse that they do. I'm not on clubhouse that much. But Peter's on clubhouse a lot. And they have a pretty cool clubhouse. Like a voice artist's clubhouse. And you get the voice of JR Tokyo is in there. Josh Keller, who is a friend as well. And you get other narrators, other voice talents. So you hear these iconic voices in one clubhouse. It's pretty cool. I'm trying to get Peter to do Discord with me. The competitor.

33:13 John Daub: I think we just lost the Tohoku Shinkansen too. You blink, it moves.

33:23 John Daub: Yeah. All right. So let's see if we can get the 500 likes. I'm gonna walk this way. Before I start to take some pictures of the Shinkansen.

33:37 John Daub: Thanks everybody. I appreciate you coming and spending your afternoon a little bit with me here at Tokyo Station. It's beautiful. KITTE Garden up here. On the sixth floor. It's free for everybody to come. It's got an amazing view. You can walk. I don't know. I would say like 180 degrees maybe.

34:01 John Daub: But on a beautiful sunny day like today. Offers a nice view of the city of Tokyo. The old and the new. That's that contrast a lot of people like.

34:18 John Daub: Now you can see down the street here. The traffic on the other side. That's the road I... No. On the other side. That's the road I take to get home. I came by bicycle again.

34:53 John Daub: Any questions? I think I'll go catch up on John's videos. I do have the sushi video which is done. I thought I would upload it last night but I was so tired. I couldn't make... I wanted to do one more look at it with fresh eyes.

35:19 John Daub: Temperature is like a very nice 20 degrees Celsius maybe. I don't know. I don't know what... Is that like upper 60s? Lower 70s? Perhaps.

35:32 John Daub: Train dance instructional videos someday. Matt Gamer. That's... Maybe. I can make up a couple of pretty cool dances that will inspire the world or uninspire them. I don't know. Depends how you feel about that dance. The kids liked it.

35:56 John Daub: You're very welcome. Murph580s. Thanks so much for joining me. Tasty Chronicles. Laughing over there on the other side of the Pacific.

36:12 John Daub: I might do that. Best spot... Best train spotting spots of Japan. There's so many of them. And that's a reason to go out sometimes. Some people go to tourist attractions. I go out to like farm fields to find nice perspectives to take pictures and stuff. So it just makes it unique. And that's where we started the livestream. Right there. Pretty cool.

36:40 John Daub: Thanks so much for watching everybody. I'll have another livestream. I was hoping we'd get to see Dr. Yellow but they don't announce when it will be leaving. That's an interesting train. I'll see you in another livestream tomorrow. I will do a Q&A. And I want to talk to Kanai about the whole process of having a baby in Japan. It was really cool. My friend Paolo did a really good episode on this. So there's not too much that I can add to it. He had his son nine months before we had ours. So he's done most of the baby stuff. It's almost redundant to do it right now. I'm sure we might have a different time. I don't know what you take of it. But in a livestream I wanted to talk with Kanai and see how she's doing. And how some of the differences between the US and Japan. Some of the things that we went through that was unique and different. So giving birth or having a baby in Japan. It's different. In some ways easier. In some ways it's just like what? And those are the things that we'll talk about. Have a good day everybody. Thanks for joining me on this beautiful afternoon. Not a lot of people out and about.

38:01 John Daub: Warren Van Toronto. Lunchtime soon. What's Tokyo Station's Ekiben like? It's really good. There's an Ekiben Matsuri inside there. Where they have bentos trucked in at 5am. Because the trains aren't running yet. So they can sell them here in Tokyo Station. That's dedication. Always fresh. No preservatives. The Tokyo Station one is one of my favorites. But it's a little pricey. $17 I believe. $16, $17 for one.

38:35 John Daub: Appreciate it. Thanks guys.