00:00:01 Train Announcement: The next station is Akihabara. J-1-3. The doors on the left side will open. Please change for the Sobu Line (Sōbu-sen, Sobu Line) and the Tsukuba Express Line (Tsukuba Ekusupress, Tsukuba Express).

00:00:43 John Daub: Greetings! Welcome to Akihabara! This is the platform at the JR Akihabara Station. In this livestream, I'm going to take you on a short walk around the streets here. I try to come here every month to get an idea of how this city is changing. Akihabara has changed the most over the last year during the pandemic, as a lot of businesses geared towards foreign tourists are gone. So we're going to see what's left here together as the Yamanote Line makes its way out of here.

00:01:19 John Daub: Welcome everybody! If you've never been to Tokyo, Japan, you're about to get a dose right now. That's the famous Yamanote Line that goes around Tokyo. On the platform, you can see quite a bit. That's Akihabara. That's the Yodobashi Camera Akiba, which they say is the largest electronics store. China might have something bigger, I'm sure. Vic's in the house. Canada, welcome!

00:02:02 John Daub: We're going to be taking the Denki Town or Electric Town exit. Land of anime and manga. It's good to see the V de France is still there. Some of the cafes. Electric Town exit right here. Let's go down. This is kind of a neat escalator. It goes flat for a little bit. Usually on a Sunday, this place would be packed with people. I'm shocked at how few people there are here.

00:03:13 John Daub: There's the Electric Town exit right here to the right. Wow, there's a ramen place right inside, right off the platform. You get ramen in Akihabara. That's pretty cool. For the next 15-20 minutes, seriously, it's going to be a short one. I just want to take a look at the streets. Give you an idea of what's here, what's not here. Because for me, personally, I want to know out of curiosity. Ah, choux cream.

00:04:11 John Daub: Akihabara Sega Building number 4 is still healthy. The number 2 building went out of business last year, around August. This one is doing okay. But all of these games are still in the works. The game centers have done something interesting. They've moved the UFO catchers to the bottom because they might make the most money. And the video games to the top. You can see Demon Slayer and some of the other games are making marketing moves. Even from the exit of Akihabara Station, you see manga and anime making their way.

00:04:54 John Daub: Oh, look at that! You know what that is? That is the coronavirus mascot. Or, please save us from this pandemic mascot. I forget the name of it, but she's here in Akihabara too. Or he. I'm not really clear on that. There's so many mascots in Japan. That one is an ancient one for diseases and stuff. Amabie (あまびえ，yokai mascot for warding off disease), yeah, that's right. Amabie is the name of that mascot. Good catch there, Angelica.

00:05:18 John Daub: The Tsukumo Building is still gone. I was wondering if they were doing anything with it. These hamster tubes are infamous outside the exit of Akihabara. And the banners are still here. I guess they're using the building as a post board. But the tubes are empty. Usually there's people in there that look like hamsters going up and down. It's pretty nice. Sad. Ario knows what I'm talking about. And that Pablo Cheesecake place is gone. You can see it's shuttered up.

00:06:02 John Daub: It's just an empty white building. Eric, I don't know if Eric's watching. This might be a good place for an office. Right there! Boom! He definitely would do pretty good business. Radio Kaikan (Ra Ajio Kaikan, collectibles building), which has become a skyscraper. It used to be much older. I guess there's collectible shops. I haven't been in here in ages. Looks like they're doing okay.

00:06:41 John Daub: Now look. Oh, there's a building right there that's shuttered. So this guy, he had shops all over the place in Akihabara. And now he's just got one left, which is in the old electric area. He's one of those guys that likes to turn their collars up because he thinks it's cool. Oh, that's gone! It's true! Right on the left side, you see that building? This used to be a tax-free shop with a lot of electronics and used products is gone. This shop here, probably teetering. Again, the rents are probably really high here. I can't imagine, unless they're doing a lot of business, they can stay afloat.

00:07:55 John Daub: This is the building that a lot of viewers said to go and check out that's now out of business. And I'm looking at it right now, and I'm in disbelief. We can't lose anymore, man. I mean, I wonder what it's going to become. This intersection here, we're underneath the train line. Check it out behind me. It's empty. That's crazy! Look at it! It's so empty! I don't even remember what this was. It's abandoned. All the signs are off of it. It's an empty building. Even the signpost here is empty. And the windows. It just looks bare. It's so out of place in Akihabara, which is the very colorful place here.

00:09:22 John Daub: I got some of those little figures you balance on a cup in there. Right, so Nasha brought it. Guess they had all sorts of different shops in there. We're going to cross the street and get a wider view of it right here. This is the intersection with the sandwich vending machine. Manseibashi Bridge (Manseibashi, Manseibashi Bridge) is right here. The sandwich vending machine is here. I took Mike Chen there a while ago. Weird vending machine area is over here. We're not going to go there. This is the Sega 2 building, and we're going to walk around this neighborhood here.

00:10:09 John Daub: I'm just in shock seeing that building looks so empty! Here is the Sega number 2 building that's gone. Another iconic building with tubes that go up the side of it. You'll get another view from when I cross the street. But this went out of business last August. And I was hoping it would turn into something. But it's not. It's still the same. There's no signage or anything anymore. But you can see all the sign boards and everything just blank. Left open for another business that might want to buy it.

00:11:10 John Daub: Let's cross the street here. There's gachapon everywhere now. Businesses are trying to survive by selling anything that they can. So there's been more gachapon machines popping up. Especially on the street, which is considered a little bit safer than going inside. People don't want to go inside too much. We're still very much in the pandemic here in Tokyo. Although America is opening up, Japan looks like it's going to be a while. This is the Sega number 2 building that's still abandoned. But it looks silver now. They've really cleaned it up. I guess it's an effort to get a new vendor in there. But check it out. That silver is gleaming. That building looks like it's brand new, doesn't it?

00:12:03 John Daub: I'd like to rent that. But it's going to cost a fortune for that whole building. Hey guys, if you do like the Akihabara street view, this kind of stuff. The reason I keep doing it is because you keep clicking that like button. So if you do find this content interesting, send me some support and likes. I appreciate it because that's how I gauge if a content is successful or not. It's a good place to buy lots of figures and collectibles here. That shop sells everything, including booze.

00:12:49 John Daub: A lot of people, especially the maids, are really shy about photos. But they don't seem to mind that much. They want any attention that they can get now. It can be the new Only in Japan office. This absolutely could be. This is so sad. Look at it. Now you can see both those buildings abandoned. Do you see it? It's really awful to see this. Abandoned buildings like this. And there's another abandoned business across the street here. Check this out. I think we saw this last time. That's abandoned over there and it's for lease.

00:14:00 John Daub: Onoden is still doing okay. He's been here for ages. There's another kick-ass car. Let's go this way. We're just going to wrap around real quickly. I'm going to bring you around back to the Chuo-dori (Chūō-dōri, main avenue) in a bit. I'm just kind of looking around and making sure that some of my friends' businesses are still here. We made friends with a guy who had a little radio shack. Not the actual RadioShack business. A shack that had radio parts. For real. I don't think he's doing too well.

00:15:09 John Daub: There's that bloody pulp of food right there. Made from Wagyu. Here's that mystery machine. It still seems to be doing well. Although they're all available. So the CEO must have just arrived and filled it up. KFC is doing pretty good business at lunchtime. There's a Tsukumo has a lot of shops here. That wasn't the only one. But that was a main one. The hamster tube building across from the station. So Tsukumo is still in business. It's just they're in business in other places. Honkotsu Ramen (Honke Tsukemen? [?], ramen shop).

00:16:21 John Daub: We're basically here on a trip to see what's in business and what's not in business here in Akihabara. As the rain starts to come down a little bit stronger. Again, UFO catchers on the first floor of all of the game centers has been the standard now for a couple of years. I guess it's just they found a way to make more money from it. What the heck is that? Check it out. Boost latte. What? I don't know if I'm kind of scared to try that. It's coffee. It's a coffee drink. It's not coffee. That's scary. Boost latte. What?

00:17:10 John Daub: Maid Cafe Alley looks a little suspicious here as we walk around. Super Potato is okay for anybody who is worrying. Super Potato is always going to be okay. I think they got mail order stuff that you can order off of their website. One day we'll get access to go and film in there. They've said no a lot of times. This is the Maid Alley. They don't like their pictures taken. I'm not actively trying to film them, so we're good. There's At Home, which is one of the first maid cafes in Japan. It seems to be doing good business. There's a line out the door.

00:18:19 John Daub: Just for anybody who doesn't know about the maid cafes, there's an entrance fee and a beverage food fee. That might give you help, give you some insight into the whole process. And there's a set menu. You get food like that. And they put cuteness in it to make it more delicious. I don't think it works, but it just depends if you believe in Tinkerbell and Magic Dust. We're on a mission, okay, folks? We're on a mission to look for businesses that are not here anymore so we can get upset. That's new. I never saw this one. It looks like a local business Asian food market. This was not here before, I don't think.

00:19:19 John Daub: But none of the tourists are here right now. We're not going to go any further down Chuo-dori. This is the limit. But I will go around this intersection. The old shrine, the ancient hidden shrine that I showed you in a livestream in 2017 is still there. It's been renovated. It's brand new, kind of. And looks nice. There's a sea of umbrellas right now. We're going to cross the street here and take a look down Chuo-dori from the corner. It's a pretty iconic view. And a lot of the international media takes this shot. Especially of Akihabara.

00:20:39 John Daub: Yeah, this corner is... If you get the angle right, it's really nice. Especially at night when it's raining and the streets are wet and the light is glistening from the streets a little bit. A little glare. And then you have the Sobu Line going by. But it looks like on the other side, not many businesses have gone under. It looks like it's okay on this side. We're going to walk now back underneath the bridge here. See if we can find a vending machine. I'm going to stay away from that Boost coffee. That looks scary. Go Go Curry is doing good. People still got to eat.

00:22:00 John Daub: Everything looks okay. Charles & Jr. went out of business. It was still there. Sometimes I forget the location of stuff just because I haven't been coming regularly here to check up on stuff. So I do that now just to get a lay of the land. The Sega No. 3 building is doing okay. It's just No. 2 went out probably because of the rent. Usually on the weekends they close down Akihabara. But on a day like this, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do that. Charles & Jr. I think only has one shop in Japan, which is in Akihabara. A lot of businesses came here to kind of pick up on the Tokyo Olympics media buzz from that. But obviously that's not going to happen.

00:23:19 John Daub: I'm just in shock that we lost all those businesses. They're just abandoned buildings. Carrie writes in, it's so quiet. It is. Have you been to a Butler Cafe? I've heard about it. I know people who have gone there. I probably am not one of their target audience. Unless it was for a TV show or something and they paid me to go. Maybe I would go. But I don't think I'm going to go to Butler Cafe. These maid cafes and butler cafes, they're not really a thing anymore. They've become too mainstream. And I want to talk to my friend Patrick about this. He's more in touch with the maid cafe scene.

00:24:34 John Daub: For those that are joining us right now, I want to say thank you to everybody supporting it. Definitely click that like button because if you want me to come back next month to take a look at the vibe of Akihabara, I'm going to have to get to a thousand likes on this and then I'll know for sure our audience is into it. I like to come back here and see what's still around. Right now, not as much as there was last month as we lost this building, which I guess sold a lot of figures and stuff. It's just an empty building. The windows have never been cleaner. Seriously, I don't think they've ever been this clean. It's very eerie and very worrying, folks.

00:25:31 John Daub: I think Japan is more in a hurry to get tourism back than ever. But the public is not into it because the vaccine rollout was super slow. Although it's starting to gain momentum. I reported about four days ago at Yoyogi Park that 485,000 people per day were getting vaccinated. And that's still short of the one million per day goal of Prime Minister Suga. But I think that the situation is going to continuously change and get better and better. And I'm an optimistic person, except some days I think it's not. It's a little bit harder to stay optimistic. But right now, I think it's still 70 and over or 65 and over. It's still people that are quite old that can get the vaccines.

00:26:20 John Daub: There's a mass vaccination site that I might be able to take you to next week. To give you some insight. And I, as a reporter, I'm curious too. I want to know what is actually happening at these vaccination sites. How fast are they going? Is it comparable to what happened in the United States? What was happening at stadiums and things like this? We're going to find out. But a lot of people here in Japan want tourists to return. In order to do that, the population here must feel safe. And they just don't right now. Not yet. Mahi Mahi writer, thank you for becoming an insider.

00:27:14 John Daub: And those are the hamster tubes at Tsukumo building that I showed you before. The Tsukumo colors are still there. Sort of still hanging on right there as people dodge the rain. I'm getting wet here right now. Any questions before we cut this off? I actually don't watch anime that much. I leave it to the professionals. This building on the side here is new. Newish. Toby (crow) stays away from the rain, I think. It's something about him melting. I don't know.

00:28:43 John Daub: That's new. It's like a Showa era shokudo (Shōwa jidai shokudō, retro diner). So that's new. That used to be a different business, but they sold out. So that's a new restaurant right there. The adult video shop is still here. There's a Yamanote line above us. So we'll go this way. Slightly