00:00:08 John Daub: Hello everybody! Welcome to Ikebukuro! I'm here inside the station. I'm going to be taking you on an amazing street view walk of the Ikebukuro neighborhood as passengers get off the train right here. Check it out. Ikebukuro is one of the big neighborhoods of the city of Tokyo. There's Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ueno, Harajuku to a lesser extent, Ginza. These are all big places and Ikebukuro is one of them. It's a little bit further out of the way.

00:00:37 John Daub: Kind of isolated but in Toshima Ward. But we're going to take a walk here and I'm going to hopefully show you as much as I can of the west side. Now it's famous for this Sunshine 60. Do you see this in the center of your screen? This is a complex of four buildings built in 1978. We're going to explore that area on the outside. Ikebukuro station is a maze. Check that out. That is what it is. I don't know how you get out of here. You have to really understand where you're going to go before you plan to come here or else you could be trapped forever inside this maze.

00:01:07 John Daub: How you doing guys? When you arrive at the station by subway there are a lot Metro has a lot of really good signs to help you navigate around here. So let's get moving. Follow that escalator to the top there. Now the JR line does come here on the Yamanote line. So you shouldn't have any problems getting around. You have a JR pass. But Metro also comes here on the Yurakucho line.

00:01:56 John Daub: You have the Yurakucho Line and the Marunouchi and the Fukutoshin lines also stop here. Now I just have to find my ticket. Where did I put my ticket? Kanae help me. I can't find my ticket. Here it is. Don't worry. I got on the train here. All right. Oh wait a line and so sometimes if you don't pay enough, you have to go to a fare adjustment. Oh, that's right. I switched where I was going to go. I was going to go to Kichijoji today, but instead I came here. So these are called fare adjustments. I can't find my Suica today. 50 yen. Alright, just 50 yen. You're welcome, computer lady. This will help me get out of here. I had to pay an extra 50 yen.

00:03:11 John Daub: Before you leave, make sure you know which direction you're going, east or west. So this is going towards the south passage here. We're not going in that direction. Let's go this way. Boom, we're out. Oh, we're on the east side. Alright, right in front of you, you're going to see Tobu Department Store. Well, we're really on the wrong side. We got a ways to go.

00:03:41 John Daub: So Tobu, this is interesting here. Ikebukuro is very famous for its department stores. Tobu, the "to" means east, like Tokyo, Tobu. And Seibu, which is the other really big department store, means west. So these are the big department stores of Ikebukuro. In fact, Seibu's head shop department store is here in Ikebukuro. So this could be why it's called Seibu and Tobu. It's all connected to Ikebukuro.

00:04:11 John Daub: Alright, I'm trapped here already. I don't know where I'm going. I'm going to have to rename this. I'm just trapped in Ikebukuro Station. I don't want to go east. I want to go west. Okay, there it is right there. Alright, I got my bearings. I know where I'm going now. I'm telling you, you can get so lost underground. There's the Japan Rail and the Seibu Line, which also stops here. So you can get out this way. West exit. So look for the exit signs. That'll help you get out of here.

00:04:52 John Daub: I see Irvin's here with us. Where are you going? I'm going to the west side of Ikebukuro. I'm not really sure. Shopping, food. If I'm not sure what I'm doing, I call it an adventure. Stuff seems to happen when you go live and you're not sure. But sometimes aimlessly walking around a city is a good thing, which is what I'm doing right now. WXTrippers in the house, nice to see you. And you're with me on this adventure. In glorious 720p. One day the YouTube app will allow me to stream at a higher resolution. Until then, YouTube app team, I'm looking at you.

00:05:42 John Daub: Fernando Keller, what is the difference between the pink and the blue gates? I think the pink might be if you're doing a norikae (transfer), meaning you're changing trains. But if you see right here, you can only use them with IC cards, meaning a Suica. The pink ones are for transfer only. Pink ones are for IC cards only. And the green ones, as you see on this side, they're for tickets. But green one is for Japan Rail to make things more confusing. Japan Rail, their color is green, right? But I know that for Metro, orange means norikae or transfer and pink for IC card. So confusing. Thank goodness.

00:06:44 John Daub: It says for Sunshine City east exit. Okay, but wait. Wait, east exit of the west side. What? Let's go west exit central. I don't I'm lost. Sunshine City was built in 1978 and at the time 60 stories high was considered Asia's tallest building. 240 meters is the height. That's quite big and why they built it in Ikebukuro was because they had land. It was built on the site of the old Sugamo Prison which is no longer there of course it is now a department store.

00:07:41 John Daub: You know what west exit north the best thing is just to get out of here because it's so easy to get lost. I got out. Freedom ascend from the depths of Ikebukuro station to the front of it. This is where I wanted to be. Hey I can wait no hold on a second. Oh crap this is the wrong side this is the east side. Okay so we're gonna start by showing you the east side of Ikebukuro. I used to work here at a place called Gaba school that had a office over there. I wasn't gonna plan to show you the east side but I guess I will. This is the west entrance of the east side that makes no sense.

00:09:36 John Daub: That's this is the Metropolitan building for the arts and Kanae has danced here before. It is a massive place where you can see art performances and whatnot. Rod bars in the house thank you Ron thanks for joining us. The east side of Ikebukuro is pretty lively too there's a big camera there lots of fast food there's even some night spots with izakaya (pubs). There's a street over on this side and I'm kind of a little bit of a fan of izakaya but I'm kind of afraid to go through the station again to get there but I might not have any choice. Ikebukuro is so massive that's the only way to get around.

00:10:17 John Daub: This is also the last spot I saw another YouTuber friend of mine that went back to the United States Kevin Cooney. The last time I think I saw him was here at the Beck's Cafe on the other side. Yeah that's an entertainment area right there you can go check it out. Hey Baila's here. Mom and I are joining you today as we celebrate mom's birthday happy birthday. Happy birthday Mrs. Bayla your son turned out to be quite a man and I'm really happy that you guys are both watching. I've known Baila since he was a freshman at college. What am I saying oh I'm just really excited.

00:11:01 John Daub: Okay let's do we're descending the depths here I gotta get to the other side. How did the youtuber cross Ikebukuro station why to get to the other side. I don't know it doesn't sound more funny in my head. All right here we go right that's the Metropolitan hotel side the Metropolitan building that's the side of Rikkyo University and Ikebukuro. Rikkyo University is also a big university so lots of students come to Ikebukuro. It's also not far from Gakushuin Daigaku (Gakushuin University) and Waseda University isn't too far away either so this makes it kind of a breeding ground for young students young kids.

00:12:02 John Daub: You know what I don't know where I'm going just go straight I guess so the east exit is so I want to go to the west side oh my gosh what a way to start the live stream lost. I haven't been here I again I used to work here but I worked on the side that I came out on and I would take the same route I would get off of the Marunouchi line and walk straight to the office. I don't know where I'm going. Hold on a second it says here west exit and west exit how could you west exit north west exit south it doesn't make any sense to me. So straight ahead. Oh he's saving me. Yeah yeah that's it save the department store oh wonderful I'm lost for 10 minutes. Yeah oh this is it awesome.

00:14:06 John Daub: See you. Yeah so if I go upstairs I can see the Ikebukuro owl statue. Yeah right here oh perfect great this is Seibu Department Store. Oh okay great Seibu Department Store so just go out the exit here all right. No this way department this way. All right thank you yeah are you hungry? Short money okay I can help you out my friend. Let's see what we got here if without your help I would not have been able to get to where I'm going. All right brother how much do you need here here you go how much you need here there you go get some okay all right good luck.

00:15:10 John Daub: All right part of the super chat went to this nice man to help me out I think he needed to get some lunch. I'm gonna go get some food I'm gonna go get some lunch so I gave him about 800 yen that should get him home and get some lunch. All right you know what I gotta get out of here this is the first KitKat store was inside of Seibu Department Store as well that was funny. I just got saved by some dude that was nice of him. So did he get paid yeah I gave him about 850 yen I just like dumped out all the coins that's fine. If he didn't save me I would have been lost stuck inside of Ikebukuro station forever. I kept giving him coins and then he just said stop.

00:16:07 John Daub: I don't know John's not lost anymore so Seibu means west but this doesn't make sense to me Seibu this kanji right here means west right but it's the east entrance that's just really confusing. This used to be the largest department store in the world they say that Seibu Department Store started in 1949 and there's a lot of history with this particular department store here. Purple cat audio paying it forward you got that right that guy's lunches on me Ron. Seibu Department Store really started to grow in the 1960s actually opened up a shop in Los Angeles in 1962 that went out of business in 1964 people just went out of pure curiosity. It's one of the biggest department stores used to be the biggest department store in the world I've been told this particular branch it is the epitome of a department store it is the classic department store trying to evolve and save itself but now it's part of this Seven & i Holdings group which owns like almost half the world right now. They also are the owners of the Loft which now belongs to Seven & i Holdings I believe and I think they had a stake in Muji.

00:17:33 John Daub: So I wanted to start here on the Seibu side but that took 17 minutes to get here I was saved by a nice man who I guess seemed kind of homeless but paid forward take care of the people around you he took care of us we take care of him. I did have a 10,000 yen note but I think he wouldn't have change. Whoa what's this Star Wars pop up shop oh this is the Becker's Cafe men's clothing store. This is a very famous meeting spot here. Alright, there's an owl statue. I can't remember where it's at, but this is the hand statue. So if you're meeting friends, say I'll meet you in front of the hand statue. The mother's hand. It looks like Kanae and Leo. It's the mama's hand statue. So you can meet in front of here. It's a good place to meet people. Or what you could do, young people just say meet you in front of Becker's, which is the restaurant there.

00:19:01 John Daub: Now I want to tell you about the meaning of Ikebukuro. So this kanji here, it's pretty hilarious. Okay, does anybody know what Ikebukuro, the literal translation of Ikebukuro is? Alright, ike means pond, bukuo means bag. So it literally means pond bag. So welcome to pond bag. Anything with bag in it's not a good thing. Like scumbag or you know, pond bag. That's just a little bit of a pun. But it's a good thing. So welcome to pond bag, aka Ikebukuro. It's a very busy place. This is the central, this is the exit I usually come out. I don't know how I got lost so bad. I guess because they never take the Yurakucho line, which is on the other side.

00:20:00 John Daub: Now these days, it can be considered Prada bag because it's where a lot of luxury shops are. There's the big camera over there. And I believe that if you walk a little bit further, you can go to the other side, bypassing the station. So let's go on a walk here. This is supposed to be a short live. Whoa, look at all the smokers. That's where the fog is coming from there. It's like a smokers area. It's pretty nasty. Alright, let's keep moving. I'm moving on. My God, you don't even need a cigarette to go in there. You could just, if you need a smoke, you could just go in there and just hang out for 10 minutes. You probably get the same effect. It's pretty strong.

00:20:47 John Daub: I'll start looking at the live chat a little bit more now. I was, when I'm lost, I'm kind of freaking out. So I did that. Nostrabra. Do they have Seibu egg salad sandwiches? They might. You telling me I should go and check out there maybe on the way back. Seibu West. So then we're walking. Iken is here. Thank you. Iken from Australia. I saw that. And Train-free-cow-12. Appreciate it. Our friends in Australia friend down there. Down Under where they got winter. It's a little bit colder.

00:21:21 John Daub: Smoke salmon. To walk over to the shopping area again it is a pretty lively place they have TVs blasting music out there you feel sort of like it's Shibuya but it's bigger than life check it out. I mean I'm just gonna pan across now that I'm a little bit further away pan across the Parco department store I guess this was used to all be Seibu. Parco is a little bit younger fashion a little bit of a younger brand and then Seibu is right here the department store again it's absolutely massive. They do have a beer garden on the roof I don't know if it's open now but I have spent some time on that beer garden I think but it was hard to get to the beer garden so you had to walk all the way down to that elevator. There's so many different entrances yes there really is. There really aren't a lot of people at Ikebukuro right now let's just cross our fingers because it is the rainy season and it's been raining all day and all night so we had thunderstorms really really powerful thunderstorms last night so keep your fingers crossed that it does not rain.

00:22:47 John Daub: The last time I was here I think was with Jennifer in a live stream where Jenny and I had shot an episode on sushi and we did a quick live stream after that. Welcome to Ikebukuro's west side. We're heading towards Sunshine City so we're in this region and in that area there are a load of shopping options places to eat street food things like this and we'll see what we can find. You know I have not been in this area for a very long time and things might have changed. I'm gonna kind of walk off of the crowded sections around to the side here.

00:23:55 John Daub: If you do see something that I need to if you do see something and you know this area quite well let me know and I will take a quick look-see at that because I'm here because a lot of you cannot be checking out all of the Tokyo neighborhoods before the summer season just to see what's here and what's not. Again we've lost a lot of businesses a lot of places that were staples of the city of Tokyo are gone like the Sega World number two building Akihabara very very hard hit but I'm guessing Ikebukuro is just fine because it's more of a domestic place. I know we do get a lot of foreign travelers will come here but it doesn't have the same appeal as Harajuku Shibuya Shinjuku Ginza Ueno even Akihabara and Okachimachi. This is a little bit away from there but a lot of people will stay in this neighborhood. We're working on a kabuki show a night tour with Tokyo Sam who probably will be able to protect me from the people who would normally try to attack me. Two is better than one having a wingman is important and he knows the area pretty well he's been here for 14 years.

00:25:09 John Daub: I don't know what this is I guess they burn trash or something this tower here but it's also a symbol of Ikebukuro these are really lousy symbols this plain tower I guess it's a trash incinerator I'm not sure. Hey welcome to the main shopping street here it's pretty vibrant if there is a live camera of Ikebukuro I'm probably right in it right now waving my hand I don't know where they are located here. Alexander another YouTuber that's one of the original J-vloggers he started up in like 2006 or 2007 when YouTube was just starting out and he was friends with Tokyo Cooney my partner in crime for NHK's Tokyo Eye and Kevin Cooney was the reason why one of the reasons why I started YouTube because we would talk quite a bit about YouTube when we're trapped in these NHK locations shoot vans and he had a very popular channel at the time with I think 35,000 subscribers.

00:26:31 John Daub: This is back in when were we doing 2009 and 2010. All right Kevin had hit about thirty thirty-five thousand forty thousand subscribers and that was a massive amount back then and we would just talk about lots of things but one of them was you know his YouTube channel and he was one of the first people in Japan that was able to monetize his content because of the following. Like everything's like when was it 2009. That's like 13 years ago. I'm trying to recall conversations from 13 years ago. But he made enough for like beer money, like a couple hundred dollars a month or something, which is a big deal. And now YouTubers are making millions of dollars. I haven't seen any of that, but we're doing good. You know, YouTube can be a career. And if it wasn't for Kevin and seeing that, and he would walk down the streets when we were filming and other travelers would stop him in 2009 and go, hey, you're Tokyo Cooney, and ask for his autograph. And I remember me, the cameraman, the director, we would stop and go, wait. So he's more well-known from his YouTube channel than he is from working here at NHK. Yeah, we were kind of proud to be working with him. Celebrity. Life moves super fast.

00:27:55 John Daub: Wow, this is so empty. Seriously, students usually have lots of free time, so they would be here, but they're not. Here's Namco. Namco, I think inside of the Sunshine Building has a couple of theme parks. They used to have a big manga-inspired theme park that went out of business in J-Town or something, went out of business in 2019 because they didn't have enough people coming to visit it. Ikebukuro in general, it's always in a, it's like all the other parts of the city of Tokyo. It's always in fluctuating, growing. Things are going out of business and new things are coming in because there's so much foot traffic here. There's the Sunshine 60 building right there, right in front of us.

00:28:53 John Daub: So I usually like to go outside to enter unless it's raining, but you can go completely underground to get there. Again, the Sunshine City built in 1978 on the site of the old Sugamo Prison. Four buildings, the tallest, 60 stories high, 240 meters high. Considered the tallest building in Asia at the time. Now it's not. It's a little bit old, but it's still a nice place to come and hang out. And there's a lot of shops, of course. They do have pink mailboxes. Oh, hey. So I'm going to send some postcards from this one here. I don't want to forget. Last time I forgot. So this is going out to Ida in Singapore. And I remember Ida because she did the artwork, beautiful artwork of Kanae and I, a portrait of us. So Ida, nickname is I in Singapore. And Joshua Young. Joshua, this is yours, coming your way. It's coming down under. Thanks so much for joining the Postcard Club. From Ikebukuro, from a pink one. Singapore and Australia.

00:30:23 John Daub: All right, let's take a right here. See what we can find. It is worth exploring some of the alleys around here, too. We do have some taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle), but I just ate the taiyaki in Asakusa. Do they have some weird flavors? Maybe they have something bizarre like, wait, what the heck is that? Dudes, this is a chili dog, a taiyaki chili dog. Is that worth it? It has chili spice. And what is that? Everyone's saying don't do it. Why? Why shouldn't I do this? Get it. Ricky says get it. Everyone says do it. I've never seen a taiyaki stick its tongue out like that. It's pretty creepy. All right, we got to do it.

00:31:30 John Daub: Hi, which are chili dog. You guys. Hi. Okay. Whoa. They got a lot of options here. Hi. I got the. Oh, they have the owls. Interesting. Pistachio cream. Wow. Pistachio cream. Oh, I think I made a mistake. All right, let's move away from some of these people and then find a corner. Right here is good. This abandoned sushi shop here. Hi. I'm working right now. Yes. I guess is there like a sign on my shirt that says I'm going to give everybody money? This is what happened. I guess he told his friends. They marked me. It's unusual that you just come up to somebody and ask for money. So I'm going to walk over here.

00:32:51 John Daub: You could put a little bit unusual place. If some guy just asked me for money, that was random. I mean, I'm cool and all that, but it's just weird in Japan. It doesn't happen. I have a weak heart. It could be from all the fast food I've been eating. You know what? I think I'll just hang out in this parking lot here. I'm famous with the people who want money. All right. My mask off here. Oh, all right. Somebody. Well, it's a Sega on here. What? This is game food. This is game food. Yeah. You know what? I'm not rich. I'm rich from you guys.

00:33:55 John Daub: So this is bizarre. It does look like a tongue. Okay. From the front, it doesn't look so intimidating, but it looks like he burnt his tongue. He was eating some takoyaki. And something bad happened. Oh, gosh. You know what? This doesn't look as healthy as the other ones, but it can't be as bad. Taiyaki is taiyaki, right? You think. All right. This. I might not eat the whole thing. Just bear with me. That's it's sad to see his head gone. It's like a spicy. Yeah. Pink. It pig in a blanket. Oh, I like the chili sauce. I'm not going to finish it off because somebody said that I was getting fat. And I should be on a diet. So I have when it comes to criticism, I take it pretty well.

00:35:16 John Daub: I don't get offended ever because I don't know the people saying it right. What doesn't bother me, but it bothers other people. So when I hear names being called of my friends, I get pretty upset. You know, when people are calling my friend Lex Luthor, Jeff Bezos. Because of a wide angle lens I used on him in an episode. I took offense to that. Right. Stick up for your friends. But if you guys can call me Karate Kid all day, I'm cool with that. Because you know, I could take him. If I ever meet Machio in the streets, I could totally take him. I probably jump them like a Cobra Kai would strike first. No mercy.

00:36:08 John Daub: All right, let's do this. I'm in front of the awesome store. Pretty awesome. Yeah. It's rock and roll. Ikebukuro is also quite famous for love hotels. And I get a feeling that this is the direction of the love hotels. When a love hotel is called Hotel California or Hotel Sparkling or some really weird name. Many times out of 10, it's a love hotel. You can tell by the name. It's just there's a lot of love going on in there. You pay by the hour. If you're not familiar with love hotels. When we had a hotel crunch about four years ago. The city of Tokyo was encouraging tourists to stay in the love hotels because they couldn't find accommodations and love hotels. You can't actually make a reservation for that.

00:37:05 John Daub: You can start to see the Sunshine 60 building. You see that up there. So that's the top of the Sunshine 60. One of the tallest buildings of Asia back in its day. That's not quite as tall. But yeah, the love hotels are first come first serve. And each room is it has like a theme to it. Others TGI Fridays. You know. They have servers there and you don't tip TGI Friday servers here in Japan. So when it came to Uber Eats, and I was just confused the other day, raised the question, do you tip your Uber Eats drivers in Japan where you don't tip services? And Uber Eats started to ask me for tips at the end of the transaction. And then after they delivered it and I gave them a good I always give positive reviews unless it's like really bad. They asked if I want to increase my tip. It's like. Really? This is Japan. You're not supposed to tip.

00:38:11 John Daub: It's a good look at food truck better than my chili dog. Taco bowl. What? Let's take a quick look. See Taco bowl. That might be a good lunch, but there's no table. All right, we'll be back. Let's go. Let's rove around and see what we can find. I'm here for the shopping to chili dog sticking with me. My mask smells like chili now. I'm breathing in some spices. So we get back to the site of the prison. Back in a long time ago. And I guess they had a pond here because the name Ikebukuro means pond bag. I'm not sure why how bag got in. I'm not sure the origin of Ikebukuro, but pond bag is a pretty creepy name. Just saying.

00:39:15 John Daub: Oh, there's a Toho Cinemas. See a movie. It's not after the pandemic. A buddy of mine just got the invitation for vaccination and he's in his 50s. So I'm guessing. I'm not sure what the reason is. I'm not too far away. But there's a lot of vaccination places here in Tokyo where like not at the mass vaccination sites. They're 80% vacant. Nobody's booking for these places that have the vaccine. So we called our ward. We live in Chuo Ward. There's 23 wards in the city of Tokyo and asked them and said, look, a buddy of ours in one area of the city, he just called up and got the vaccination reservation for July 1st. So why can't we get that here? We have like a number, but we don't have a ticket yet. And they said we have to wait for the ticket in a ward, which is where I live. And so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get vaccinated, but hopefully in July before the Olympics would make me very happy.

00:40:17 John Daub: That's the last place Jennifer and I had lunch. I treated Jennifer to some doughnuts. It's weird ones like doughnuts tied in a knot. Erse's in the house. I stayed at a net cafe on the west side. And there's also a restaurant with the best ramen I've tasted in Tokyo. Hope it's still open. I'm confused with the east and the west. Seibu is west, but it's on the east side. And Tobu, which is east, is on the west side. It's very confusing to me. Maybe I'll just go to the other side. I'm going to give up this side because I'm just confused.

00:41:00 John Daub: What is that? Looks like dolls. A doll cafe. JT Nagpal India was the same delay in vaccinations to willing young people. The disaster we faced right now. It's the people in their twenties and thirties that are spreading it and getting the sickest right now. And they won't get vaccinated for a while. Older people are just not going outside or putting themselves in risk because they're smarter. That's just smart. So I'm not sure. But if you do get sick and you're older, you have a higher chance of getting really sick. And I think that that's it's good to vaccinate. We got to see our seniors first. Although I think you should be vaccinating everybody quickly.

00:42:00 John Daub: You know what? I think we're going to this direction. I'm trying to look and see what we have here. This is Bic Camera, which is an electronics store. It's massive in scale. It's pretty big. Everything in Ikebukuro and I think they had more land where Shinjuku Shibuya. These are all pretty established places before Ikebukuro. I guess there's a pond again. The name is pond bag. I think they have more land. So guess I just had more space here I know that rent cheaper here and it could be because it's a little bit of an older not renovated a little bit the infrastructure seems older here in Toshima Ward but it is a very convenient place. Walking down the street left and right you have some interesting you have loads of options if you're looking for places to eat there's a McDonald's there's taiyaki right on this corner here we can go take a look at I guess taiyaki's famous in Ikebukuro I just had one well McDonald's has melon soda really and they have grape that grape looks like purple interesting there's a taiyaki place looks local looks local.

00:43:39 John Daub: Oh I remember coming to the side there's the B Hotel I don't know if anyone stayed there. Oh this guy just crossed the street on a red light if you cross on the white areas then you have to wait for the red light but cross right outside the line here you don't have to wait I guess so I'm gonna follow everybody else if you cross here you don't have to wait but it's green anyways it's weird. Tokyo is very strict if you do decide to color outside the lines it doesn't matter so much. Yeah shout out to Peter von Gomm who is the creator of Cereal Talker a new podcast on the internet you can check it out on iTunes as well as on YouTube. And I'm looking forward to meeting up with Peter we're going to yeah PVG we're good I want to go with him to a World War II former site of a prison camp that it just depends on the weather and our schedules it's been raining all day this isn't the best day to go out there and do it. So as soon as the weather's nice and our schedules allow we're going to go and visit that but he's got a really good it's kind of a show where you can sit back and listen about crime because Peter is attracted to crime and criminals and stuff.

00:45:12 John Daub: Whoa this is like some kind of pet cafe there's no pets that ramen looks pretty good though. You know the ajitama mars in the house konnichiwa from Texas can you say hi to my husband Tai hey Tai he's in Tokyo hope to visit soon how you doing Tai welcome we have a lot of viewers from Texas too it's awesome direct flights on American Airlines from Dallas I think. You know what I need to get a drink oh this is the way to around the tracks all right we're going to try to cut around because I don't want to cut through that station again I need to get something to get rid of this chili sauce in my mask I'm knocking myself out because the chili sauce is pretty strong and it's all I smell. Oh look black tea black bean tea you think that's gross should we try this black bean tea it seems unusual I gave all my coins to that homeless guy hold on a second I had one my last hundred yen although the peach soda looks good right there oh it's good hot or cold all right let's cross it straight here.

00:47:18 John Daub: I don't know but what that is but I like beans [?]. Okay not all of the vending machines have IC card readers that one didn't but the one next to it did left one didn't. Nick Chong's in the house what's up brother you're finally in Ikebukuro after all these mentions of it here's some for the Ringo apple pie on me I miss that so much I think that's in the station I'm gonna have to bring back one for Kanae I just have to be back by like two o'clock ish. That's pretty good it doesn't taste like a burrito or if that's what you're asking it doesn't taste like a burrito it's not sweet which is good it's refreshing has kind of a nutty taste to it but there's a natural sweetness in there somewhere on the side.

00:48:30 John Daub: Glenn don't go where Jim went yesterday okay hello hi 821 got he got banned timed out we don't want to get timed out there. Whoa this looks like a really authentic area of the city across the street from near the B Hotel there's some pretty good looking ramen places this stuff looks authentic Hakata ramen is pork bone it's quite thick well all right let's explore these streets here just hope more of the guys friends coming after me for cash handouts I don't I'm a marked man. All right just got a message from Baila Illinois is reopening and that's good news it's a lot of the places in the US are starting to reopen and I'm really happy to hear that here in Japan we're a little bit farther behind. Maruhan is a pachinko place right you can hear the pachinko machines hard at work and Mikado Game Center. Oh Mikado is they had the retro games in here let me just take a I'm gonna see if I can get a quick look see yeah Mikado has retro games and I'm gonna pop in just for a second yeah check that out I don't want to go in because they're quite strict with filming but the main shop is a pachinko place and they have a lot of retro games and Mikado that I filmed that once before in the past was in Takadanobaba and he had some amazing ones including a Star Wars sit-down arcade game from 1982 or something it's pretty amazing.

00:50:54 John Daub: It looks like a love hotel Syria feels pretty dodgy I've been at this Yamaha before they got some booze in here it's like a cave. All right this is a park where you can cross over to the other side I believe. Think you bar decays it's pull-vide walkie do so I'm really gonna come over let's see if there's an underground passageway. We're pretty close to the trash burning plant I believe that's what it is there's a shrine right here which is it's pretty nice right off of the street not exactly where you'd expect it to be. Beckersmen 7-Eleven. Oh just a little bit of news I will be doing the fireworks festival again this year and I'm going to be doing it in Nagano that's what we're pretty sure on the location Nagano had some awful flooding about three years ago 2019 two years ago before the pandemic there were some bad floods and I don't know if some of you remember the images of the Shinkansen in Nagano being really flooded water had risen and I believe they had to throw out or recycle 180 Shinkansen like a massive amount of Shinkansen so that was that I know that area is a little bit forgotten because of Tohoku and all of the lives we lost up there but Nagano there's some places hurting pretty bad everywhere but it looks like we're gonna do it there because they got some big skies and some big fireworks and they're willing to accommodate us.

00:52:41 John Daub: So Ricky remembers that I got my raincoat here just in case it starts to pour down I am ready for anything including some people spitting on me I'll be able to dodge them somebody got angry at me in the comments because I didn't say vaccination I called them jabs I said we need to get some more jabs so somebody yelled at me on Instagram and said how dare you call it a jab call it a vaccine there's always little things it's kind of so I'm gonna call them jabs now just to make that person upset it's just like to be a rebel I believe in the UK they call them jabs so all right. No sleeping in the park please be quiet late evening and early morning why would a kid be oh because they're kids sleeping in the area hold your dog at all times bring your pets droppings back home so you can collect them I guess throw them out no bike riding in the park dangerous activities like skateboarding if you're really dangerous though the questions I got let's leave the pigeon alone today I don't know this name this isn't my neighborhood I don't know it as well you don't want to mess with the pigeons and neighborhoods you're not familiar with.

00:54:18 John Daub: Oh okay here's the underground passageway to the other side I think yes somebody got angry because I didn't I also called it an old lady shop it's just like you know off my off the cuff comment and was get really offended it's like well the only people going in there are you know people that are a little bit older what are you gonna do I think the era of being offended real easily has kind of takes the fun out of everything. All right we're going underneath underground here to the other side all right if we lose the signal just bear with me we're going down the Wee Road which it's like wee wee here all right we're exiting the Wee Road which smelled like wee. All right refresh your screens we're back uh we're out of the Wee Road and again it did smell like wee in there we we so appropriately named.

00:56:06 John Daub: All right we're on the other side again I'm gonna take you on this I thought it was gonna be more on the west side but it's so quiet over there I'm gonna take you around an area where they have some ramen and stuff because we got a super chat saying this is where the best ramen was on this side let's take a look at a map real quickly give you some bearings uh an hour in so there's the Wee Road now famous this took us through here and we're gonna go to this side of it which is the Ikebukuro entertainment area um and then we'll end it right there. Um this shop right here where the Yoshinoya is used to be my favorite katsudon restaurant 500 yen they wouldn't play any music in there now it's a Yoshinoya it was at this shop here where this is there's a Chinese shop here I can't remember it was either this one or this one but another homeless guy being helped out by the cops yeah I'm gonna duck into here then I'm getting creeped out.

00:57:30 John Daub: In the 1980s a lot of people from China came and moved to Ikebukuro and it was quite a vibrant area with Chinese restaurants. I'm seeing that this area is inspired by that because there's a lot of good ramen here and ethnic neighborhoods again um where is it near Shinjuku Okubo is very famous for having a lot of Korean restaurants a Korean settlement there and they have of course some of the best yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurants in Japan as well as some really interesting Asian supermarkets where you can get stuff that you can't get ordinarily other places so if you're looking for ingredients to cook sometimes you can find things you can't find anywhere else there in Okubo.

00:58:30 John Daub: James Ishiguro I'm sending this I'm just sending this to see if you can read it confirmation confirmation all right I remember where I am it's pretty vibrant here I mean in terms of colors and signs and shops and stuff not in terms of people because it's an entertainment district and it's more vibrant at night of course but this area this side of Ikebukuro which is the east side because Tobu is on the east side on the west side but Tobu the "to" means east it's so confusing to me where Seibu means west the "sei" in the Seibu means west but that's on the east side I don't it's confusing so this is the east west side I don't know anymore and it's this has been uh the businesses have changed a lot I see a lot of places that weren't here before this looks like a um I don't remember this shop this um being here this is a Taiwan fish so very much influenced by China and you can actually if I