00:00:00 John Daub: The area of Koto Ward. That's the Sumida River right there. Check it out. In the distance, you can just see a water bus making its way towards Odaiba. I don't think it's going to be turning left towards us. That's a shame, but that's okay. This is a direction in which a water bus might turn. And in this episode, we're going to be taking a look at this neighborhood, the pier, the station, and some history. Yes, above those apartment buildings is Tokyo Skytree. How you doing, everybody?

00:00:32 John Daub: Welcome. This is going to be pretty interesting because this isn't a place that a lot of tourists come to. This isn't a place where you'll see international visitors going, whoa, look at the beauty of Tokyo, which is a shame because it actually is a very beautiful area. I've been to Tokyo Skytree a couple of years ago and I've done a couple of Q&As there. This is an original island right here, meaning it's not man-made. It's an actual rock that has been here for many centuries. And then they built a man-made island on it. That's why you have these tall skyscrapers on the point there. But it separates the Sumida River and the other canal, which I believe is still called Sumida River, going in this direction towards Toyosu. That's Eitaibashi, Etai Bridge in the distance. I've covered that in a live stream as well.

00:01:32 John Daub: Beautiful blue bridge illuminated at night. Really stunning on the skyline with Skytree in the background. And this direction is going towards Koto Ward, which is one of the 23 wards of the city of Tokyo. In the distance, about 500 meters straight ahead is Monzen-nakacho, which is a big station to know. Really cool shitamachi (old Tokyo neighborhood) feel. A lot of drinking places to go. Much cheaper area of the city to stay. And it's about a 15-minute bicycle ride to Tokyo Station. So not too far away. There on the right side, you're starting to see it. And I'm going to feature this a little bit in the video. And I might go back there and give you a tour of it in another live stream. That's the Meijimaru. It's a ship with a lot of history. The Emperor Meiji, back in the day, I believe like the 1880s, maybe 1870s, 1880s. He rode the Meijimaru, that ship from Hakodate to Yokohama Port, which is pretty cool. So the Emperor rode on that ship and now it's docked here near the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. And if you've ever been in this area or lived in this area, that is kind of an iconic place for this area and for Koto Ward.

00:02:47 John Daub: Alright, we're going to be making a left here where my bicycle is parked. How you doing everybody? Welcome to the city of Tokyo. Beautiful day. June 1st is here, which is awesome. And in fact, you have here about 30 minutes to get this postcard, this is going out to Donald in California. Thank you Donald for signing up at the last minute. The new postcards are coming out in about an hour. So this is one of the last ones I'll be sending out for this month. Thank you so much. I'll be putting it into a mailbox if we see one along the way. Alright, the anchor gives it away, right? This is a port town. And they do have cruise ships that will stop here. Welcome to Koto Ward. We just crossed from Chuo Ward to Koto Ward. There's my bicycle straight ahead. This is also a water bus stop. Echijima is the station. And you know, there's no boats that actually stop here at the moment, just because of the pandemic and the state of emergency. So all boats are cancelled at the moment. But there's a map and I will show you a little bit of it. And the water bus does go from Asakusa and does go by here.

00:04:23 John Daub: Alright, here's a map of the course. This will give you an overview. Oh, is that another water bus? I thought I saw the water bus. If I see it, I'm going to run over there real fast. Tokyo Mizube Cruising Line. So here's Sensoji Temple in Asakusa and the Sumida River. You can see there's several water bus lines. This is Echijima right here. So it's not too far away. And Odaiba, which is the stop for a lot of the boats, are here. But some of the boats will go towards this direction, to Toyosu. If you really want a long cruise, it's pretty cool to go all the way from like Senju or up here, down the Sumida River all the way to Kasairinkai Park, which is right next to Tokyo Disneyland. And one of the largest kandensha (Ferris wheels) in Japan is right here too. So it's a pretty interesting trip. Again, if you want a really relaxing afternoon, that's the way to go. There's Tokyo Tower or Tokyo Skytree in the center. Let's explore this park.

00:05:53 John Daub: I guess they're getting ready for the end of the state of emergency, which was extended, by the way, to I think it was June 20th. Well, take what you can get. This is the Sumida River. This is my home. I love this river. Again, if you're going to be spending more time in the city of Tokyo, I think it's really good to live along the riverside. It's pretty relaxing. Good place for running and walking. No traffic signals. That's Toyosu in the distance. And now we got a better shot of the Meijimaru from this direction. The university and there's a museum on the other side of the street. It's pretty neat to go in there. I've been in there once a long time ago. But it might be time for a revisit. Meijimaru on the skyline of Toyosu. That's a lot of new skyscrapers over there. Some shopping malls. The old timers don't want to live there because they know it's a mountain of trash. That's what the island was built on. The young people don't care. To the right is a swimming pool. And all the kids from Koto Ward and the neighborhood can come here and swim in this summer. I'm not sure if they're going to open it this summer. Again, despite the fact that the U.S. is in a much worse situation. Japan wasn't like that a year ago. We won't be reopening, it seems, for a while.

00:07:24 John Daub: Hey, Eddie G. Greetings from Sydney. Thanks for sharing Tokyo while we can't visit. And I hope you can make it back soon. Look at that cute little pigeon. Hey, I'm on your side, buddy. Hey, you're famous. He's an Echijima pigeon. All right, we'll see if he makes another trip around town. Maha's watching from Egypt. Welcome. It's nice to see people from all over the world, which is pretty cool. This park is so scenic. I love being on the other side of where I usually hang out, over there on the corner. Now, there's many ways to get here. From Tsukishima Station, which is the Oedo Line, it's about a 10-minute walk here. It's not too bad. There's that point that I like to hang out. It's such a beautiful place right there on the river. So to be on the other side of it is kind of neat. I don't come here that often. So it's a 10-minute walk from the Oedo Line at Tsukishima Station. That's also connected to the Yurakucho Line. And from the other side, from Monzen-nakacho, it's 500 meters or about 10 minutes walk to here as well. And Monzen-nakacho has got some great restaurants, really good nightlife.

00:09:01 John Daub: Check it out. I don't think a lot of people who even live in the city of Tokyo know about Echijima very well. It's not a really popular place, but you really can do some relaxing here. Some beautiful park benches. Bring a bento, enjoy an afternoon with a beer or something and watch some boats go by. That guy's got a... It's not a beer, is it? Looks like some tea. Have to investigate him. Get some sunshine. On the other side, beautiful cherry blossoms during the spring season. As well as this side. And Chuo Bridge, you see that right there. Connecting Tsukishima Island with Shinkawa, which is also a man-made island right there. All filled in back in the, maybe the Edo period. The first man-made island in Tokyo right there. And this bridge, Chuo Hashi, if you just go straight, you go straight to Tokyo Station. So it's pretty convenient from this spot. Tokyo Station is an 8-minute bicycle ride, if you go fast. I go pretty fast. Looks kind of like Singapore, doesn't it? Look at these white benches in the sunshine.

00:10:17 John Daub: Monzen-nakacho is really nice. Visited the sake shop izakaya you pointed out in the earlier video. And had a great time with locals. Hi from Vancouver. Can't wait to revisit. I can't wait to have you back here too. Hey, look at these guys with lightsabers. Part of the empire. They got some concrete in there. Power to the emperor. Look at the red lightsabers. That's the one that they used for the empire. They're the Sith lightsabers. That'd be pretty cool if they had double lightsabers. Yes, Japan loves these light sticks. They're short ones. More like daggers. That was the smallest concrete truck I've ever seen in the history of concrete trucks. That was not a lot of concrete in there. I guess they're maybe repairing something. That looks like a government boat going by there. There's more than one.

00:12:05 John Daub: See, Erdőran is here. Did you use to marathon train here? I didn't marathon train here. With most of the marathon training, I was living in Shinozaki on the Edogawa River. And on that river, there's no traffic lights going all the way to Gunma. You could probably go straight all the way to the center of Japan. That river is pretty long. But the Edogawa, I would train and the longest I ever did was, I think, 37 kilometers training on that road one day. I went pretty far out to like where there's a highway that I looked on the map and go, really? I went that far? I think it was 18.5 out and 18.5 in. So what is that? 37. Yeah, something like that. I was in good shape back then. I'm still in good shape. Hey, we're getting close to Eitaibashi. This park is pretty nice. You'll find dubious looking dudes here, apparently like to hang out with their shirts off, which is unusual for Japan in the city. But I will not mock them because I would do that too. I'm a dubious individual myself.

00:13:24 John Daub: All right, let's get around here again. Right there. You can see the point pretty clear now. I just wanted to come out here and get a better view from this angle. I like to walk in this area. I run around here now as well. You see the steps there. You can sit there and watch all the boats going down the main route here. That's the main route. They don't come too much on this side. I think they're from Philippines. Pretty cool. If you go this way straight, the boats hit Toyosu and they can wrap around going on the other side of Tsukishima Island towards past the Toyosu fish market to Odaiba. So you can go around that way. But all canals here lead to Tokyo Bay. Slight breeze, which is really nice right now. No bugs. It's pretty nice. And here's the volunteer who keeps the park nice and clean. Thank you, sir. We'll see if there's a vending machine. I'm looking for a mailbox to send Donald's postcard. I think there's like five minutes before these postcards expire. These are the May postcards. The fast-handed mochi makers of Nara. Nakatani-do. Mr. Nakatani was nice enough to let me film a couple of times over the course of the years I've been making videos. Happy guy. Quick hands. He could be my Mr. Miyagi. Maybe one day.

00:15:33 John Daub: All right. Let's go down a little bit. Walk this direction. And then I want to take you over towards the Meijimaru and maybe towards Echijima Station to give you a quick look around. I'm not sure exactly what the value of going to Echijima Station is. The most unpicturesque station in Tokyo. It is just a cement block above ground that connects you to underground. I believe it's a JR station. And maybe the Keiyo Line hits there too. This bridge connects Tsukishima and Tsukishima with Monzen-nakacho. Chuo Ward. And this is where we are. Koto Ward. Nice breeze. I'm sure it doesn't make the video any better. Makes me feel better. And for those joining us, right there in the left side is the Meijimaru ship that Emperor Meiji rode from Hakodate down to Yokohama back in the Meiji era because he was Emperor Meiji.

00:16:34 John Daub: Look at these dudes. They look very official. Open the port! Open the port! They're researching it or something. Yes! Let me in! It's pretty cool. I want to see water buses stop here. Because if water buses would stop here, then that would be really brilliant. Oh, we can see that they're keying in the secret code. Ding ding! I think I saw the secret code. Should I try it out? What's the point of going down there anyway? Alright, it's a dead end right here. Yeah, that song comes from James Bond's Moonraker when he saw the secret code. He went in and saw the poison that Jaws and that bad French dude with the Doberman pinchers did. It's a good movie, Moonraker. I like Jaws. He's a good character. I don't think it's 4321. Although, that was my zip code when I went to Ohio State University. It's 43210 was the five digit zip code. I thought that was pretty cool for the time I stayed on campus. One of the more famous zip codes in the US. Ohio State. 43210. They thought they were 90210. Tried to make t-shirts with it. Tried to be cool. But I don't think it went very well.

00:18:31 John Daub: See the tail of a whale. I am going to be going up to Tohoku in a couple of weeks to do some live streaming up there. And filming a video for JNTO, which is pretty cool. Helping them out for the pitch to get tourism back to Japan. It's nice to work with that big agency. Alright, let's take a look at the map really quickly. For those that are watching us, you probably want to know exactly where we are. This would do the trick. As you can see here, we are on the red spot that says you are here. That makes a lot of sense. Echijima is the theme of this live stream. This is the Sumida River. Or the Sumida-gawa. It goes this direction. This is also the Sumida-gawa here. You can see just branches. This is the point that I usually take you and eat sushi and hang out and go for walks. I love it. Because it gives you this clear view towards Eitaibashi, which is this beautiful blue bridge. But water bus and some of the other cruises start to go this direction because there are some shopping malls here. There is Nakasu-no-hama Park, which is really pretty connected to the bridge. We kind of went there. We went underneath there. I might take you there for a second if we have some time. But on this end, this is Echijima Station. Right here. It's not that far away. But it's a very inconvenient line. Keiyo Line is not one that people take a lot. I think it might be better to walk from Tsukishima Station, which is the Oedo Line. And much more practical. As well as the Yurakucho Line, which connects the Yamanote Line to here. Or you can just ride a bicycle for 10 minutes from Tokyo Station. That all works too.

00:20:17 John Daub: Loads of little bridges as well. This area is known for its bridges and canals. Tokyo is like an Amsterdam. A lot of people don't know that about the city of Tokyo. You have tons of canals that run through here. Lots of canals also in Tsukishima. You can see the former Tsukishima Island ferry boarding service. There wasn't a bridge here back in the Edo period. And they would cross the ferry from here to here. People living on Tsukishima, which is this rock. The rest of it is all filled in. It's all man-made. But this is an original rock that was in the middle of the Sumida River. It was where Osaka fishermen lived. And fish and give the fish to the shogun. Tokugawa. They all lived. And I guess the shogun wanted to separate himself from the Osaka. So they put him on an island. So there you go. And in the whole scheme of the city you can see on Google Maps. There's a link in the description. If you want to know exactly where I am and take a look on the Google Maps. You can do that. It's kind of neat.

00:21:31 John Daub: Koto Ward. Famous for stuff in Koto Ward. They have a lot of the Bay Area stuff. Koto Ward does. And a lot of the venues are in Koto-ku. It's also an island. There's also a lot of man-made islands in Koto-ku, I believe. Made out of trash. Yumenoshima is one of them. Dream Island. Which is made of trash. I believe it's all the garbage from World War II is also in that area. They just took a lot of the debris and made islands out of it. Which is kind of smart. Across the street over there. Here's a sign showing Oshiage. Not too far away. Is the Meijimaru Museum and the Maritime University. I actually don't know how interesting this is going to be. The station. The JR station is pretty bland. Again, it's not something that I think it's even worth showing. Maybe just the entrance to the Maritime Museum here. I think I'd rather show you the little park underneath the bridge. Having second thoughts of this game plan. Here's the Maritime Museum. It's not a big museum. But it has a lot of history. Again, going back to the 1870s. It's as old as Ohio State University where I went. Which is pretty cool. Again, Japan didn't really have a navy. If you look back at the history. They didn't start making ships until... If you ever read the book Shogun. There's an Englishman. Blackthorne in the book. John Adams I believe in real life. And he helped to build the first naval ships for Japan back then. And was a personal friend of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Anjin-san. Right. Toro Toro Porco's got it right. Anjin-san. I connected very strongly with that book when I read it before I came to Japan in college. It was an amazing adventure. And I've done a live stream here where you can see in Nihonbashi a marker that represents the location of where his house used to be. Which is so cool that they still preserve that history. And you can close your eyes and you can feel how it was in the Edo period. And the fact that Anjin-san had a house right there in Nihonbashi where all the merchants were back in the day must have been such an amazing sight for him to see. I wish they had video back then. YouTube. Why weren't you around in the 17th century? Gosh. That would have been awesome.

00:24:24 John Daub: That mini series, I think produced by CBS back in the year 1980, is still a classic. With Richard Chamberlain playing Blackthorne. This scene opens up with a samurai boiling in oil. I don't know if it was oil. I think boiling some of the sailors to torture them to get them to talk or whatever. It's pretty nasty stuff. Rude awakening. But for many Americans, that mini series, I think it was over the course of five days, was the first introduction for Americans to Japan. Modern Japan. Because following World War II, you didn't really see a lot of Japan in the 1960s and 70s. It was a place that was rebuilding really fast. And just so far away. But it got people thinking about Japan through the 80s. That was before Japan really started to boom. Pretty good mini series. You can get that on Blu-ray. But it would be cool if Amazon or Netflix would stream that. Richard Chamberlain should have won a couple of awards for that.

00:25:37 John Daub: Oh look at this. Is that our white feathered pigeon friend? He gets around. Alright let's get down here. Take a look at this park. I think this is more interesting. And maybe we can get underneath the bridge. Find a little secret place. This is Aioibashi. So this is a little teeny island under the bridge where trolls like to hide. Maybe a percentage of you who think you can get a snide remark in. This is where you guys would be hanging out. Troll central. Every now and then in local areas of Japan, you'll find these public neighborhood signs telling you the rules of the park. I like these 1970 looking illustrations. This one the kid obviously should not be playing with fire. So it looks like a firecracker or something. What is that guy doing? Is that an early form of planking? I guess he's always trying to hurdle into the water. Don't do that. It's pretty much saying here you can water the plants though if you have a water pot. There's a place to wash your hands. Don't put your gomi (trash) here. No motorcycles. And it's a friendly looking guy. Public notice from the city of Koto Ward.

00:27:12 John Daub: We're welcomed by two pigeons making out. Caught on live video. I got you guys. I saw you. You were necking. Oh you don't. Don't you dare try to get away. I have you caught. Look you can go to this table all you want. Just do it again for our pleasure. Just do it. Don't be shy. Look how they're standing apart. I caught you. All right. You know what? I'm just going to go from another secret spot. And I'll catch you in a different place. Oh look. No don't pretend like you don't even know each other. I saw your beak all in those feathers. All right. I think I'm the only troll here. I like to have fun with our feathered friends. Pigeons are nice. They keep you company. And they look out for the crows. Whoa. I haven't been here in ages. Check it out. Underneath the bridge there's like this really weird... Oh do you think there's a message in that bottle? There's a message in that bottle. Save our souls. We're trapped on an island in the Pacific. No maybe somebody should try to fish that out. I think any bottle you find floating in the river you should check and see if there's a message inside. All right. Check this out. You can go underneath the bridge but it's got like this Mario Super Mario Brothers hoppy thing. Some people are making their homes underneath here.

00:29:19 John Daub: Oh there's our white feathered friend. Hey I remember you from not too far away. That's our strange headed pigeon friend. You remember him? It's the same one right? He gets around. All right we're on the other side here. That was interesting. There are some people living underneath here. Seems like a nice place to call a home. I think it's a nice place to call a residence. Seaside. Japan does have homeless living here. Usually very unfortunate situations. Families usually take care of family here but sometimes people just leave. I met a homeless lady in Kanazawa and we camped next to one another and her family just had disowned her. I don't know. I wouldn't elaborate on the story but it's very sad. All right there's the Meijimaru. This looks like some yatabune (pleasure boats). Like where they have the parties aboard them. Right? It looks like they're docked here. It's pretty cool. I know Jacqueline it is a bummer. I don't want to bum you out but it is a problem. And just like with mental illness, homelessness is not something that is talked about too much in Japan. My friend Greg from Life Where I'm From has a pretty good three part series on homelessness in Japan. You might want to check that out if you want to take a look into that topic. One reason I don't cover it or at least not for a while is because he did such a good job with it. Shout out to Greg Lamb who is one of the good YouTubers here in Japan making awesome content that inspires. Authentic. That's the way. Greg's stuff is authentic.

00:31:35 John Daub: Meijimaru right there from the Meiji period. And there's one of the locks in here and when there's a tsunami or the water goes up they close these locks. And I've experienced that maybe four or five times during an earthquake where they sound an alarm and the locks close and it makes sure that the areas don't get flooded. It works for a few meters high but obviously if it was anything like the 2011 earthquake we would not have that same kind of protection. Whoa. Look at him. He's just hanging out underneath the pole. Pigeons know how to chillax. We can learn a lot from our feathered friends. This is the pole position. Oh there's our white feathered friend just went that way. Sorry for swooping you around that way. How do you do sir? I'm new to the area. I was just wondering if you knew of any attractions. Any comment? Are you from this area? Hey gosh. You're shy around here. Sir is there a vending machine here? Many viewers have been asking for the convenience of a vending machine. A cool relaxing drink. Anything? Comment? Nothing? It's hard to get anything out of them. Sometimes they'll fly and bring you to one. But these are a little bit shyer pigeons. Look at that one. He's pooping on the top of the stone lantern.

00:33:31 John Daub: Suarupa. What's that mean? Did I just say something I shouldn't too? Oh those are two that were making out earlier. Look now you're going apart like you don't know one another. I know the secret. We all do. We were there. All right. Look at you guys. There's more of you. Whoa. This is like a Hitchcock movie. Oh my God. Look at this. Is that a crow in the middle? That's a black pigeon. He's a spy. He's in the middle. He must be like royalty. Whoa. This is a Hitchcock film. Yeah, that's right. We need one cat to even the score. Pretty cool. Pigeon politics. Looking down on the humans. Hello sirs and ma'ams. I'm new here. Would like you to point me in the direction of a vending machine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The nearly thousand people here would love to have your guidance as well. And we respect the pigeon population. Bow down to the pigeons. Here's the royal jester. Bow down to you, sir. We bow in humility. Please don't hurt us. Okay. Just walk away. Obviously, I'm not worthy to even be confront. All right. Is John asking Toby for help? That's not Toby. That's like Toby's nemesis. These are Toby's nemesis. It's another gang. Okay. They're pigeons. It's totally different species of creatures. They're kinder. And they will help humans every now and then. Mostly help themselves. So there you have it.

00:35:41 John Daub: Oh, this is closed. This would be pretty cool if they open this up too. It'll take you to the Meijimaru. Meijimaru is open until 3 p.m. daily. But because of Corona and everything, it's not open. I'm not sure. But it's open all the time. So you check the website. There's a website to it. But I will try to do a live stream and take a look in there. There's some pretty good artifacts. And inside the boat, you can get the style of the Meiji period in there. It's pretty neat to see how they lived aboard ships like this. Three masted ships back in the day. So we'll do another live stream from the Meijimaru. I think it's a pretty good idea. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

00:36:21 John Daub: Hey, Mr. A. Bassens. Turn the camera around. There's a question here. I'm new to your live streams and chat, but have been watching all your videos. Thank you. They are awesome. Thanks for creating great videos for Japan, a place I would love to visit someday. That makes me very happy that this is a place that you'd like to come. I know there's a lot of other pretty cool places you could visit, but for me, this is my home. So the more people who come to visit Japan, the happier I am. It's been a long time since I've seen some smiling faces of visitors. So Mr. Bassens, please make your trip here. If you have any questions, ask away. In fact, I think in the next 10 minutes or so, I'll jump into Discord for fireside chat for a little bit. I'll go on the other side of the bridge. That's a good idea. So Nosh, UFO Bob, and our moderators, I'm going to jump into Discord after this live stream. If you're interested in talking in a fire chat kind of a format, very much similar to Clubhouse, jump into the Discord. Join us over there and you can ask me a question. I'll take some quick questions over there about living in Tokyo, this neighborhood, in Tsukishima. Places to visit. If you have a question about how to plan for your trip here, you can jump on in. Just for like 15, 20 minutes, I'll be in there. The Discord server fireside chat. See you there, everybody. Thanks so much for the support. Donald, I'll put your postcard in the mailbox as soon as I see one on the way back. Have a good day, everybody. It's pretty nice out here. See you on Discord.