00:00:04 John Daub: How you doing everybody? Welcome to Azabu Juban right there. This neighborhood, I guess you would call it the most upscale neighborhood in the city of Tokyo. It's a place where high-profile people might be living and who knows who you're going to find walking around the streets here. But today you're going to find us doing it. From here we're going to go to Roppongi Station. This is Patio Street and this is Azabu Juban Street. They're both really nice streets. This neighborhood has a special charm to it.

00:00:34 John Daub: It's a kind of a feeling that's very much Azabu Juban. And I hope that you get that feeling too because we're going to do a street view walk from here to Roppongi over the next 30 minutes or so. Join me as we walk on a beautiful sunny June afternoon which is rare because this is the rainy season. I'm going to take you up the other street but I want to show you this road a little bit. We're going to be zigzagging around Azabu Juban to give you a feel of this neighborhood. And then eventually we're going to take a left at the big Tsutaya, go through the TV Asahi Garden behind Roppongi Hills and wrap around to Roppongi Station.

00:01:14 John Daub: It's going to be a lot of fun. Exit 4 is the one that I usually come out at here at Azabu Juban. This one sort of leads you in the right direction so you want to look for Exit 4. That'll help you on this walk. It's connected by the Namboku Line on the Tokyo Metro and the Toei Oedo Line which is Toei. So you need different tickets for each one of those lines. The Toei Oedo Line being like the circle line. This is also a meeting point. You could say I'll meet you by the weird statue. I'd rather not know. Or you just meet at the Oslo Coffee at Exit 4.

00:01:56 John Daub: Alright let's go down Azabu Juban Street. Right away you can see this is such a quiet neighborhood for central Tokyo. Again like high-profile people living here because it is just really expensive to live here. What is this thing? Some sort of clock. I've never noticed that before. There's got to be history to this. I'm gonna have to look that up.

00:02:25 John Daub: You also find some very famous restaurants, cafes, very pricey places. This is a place where a lot of guys will take their dates here to try to impress based on the address of Azabu Juban. A lot of embassies are here so you have a lot of international people as well. But as you can see the cafes here are very trendy, very stylish. Places are changing quite a bit on the street. A lot of them have been renovated. So walking through here it's a slice of Tokyo that you might not get a feel of anywhere else. If you go to a place like Yanaka it kind of feels the same way but that's not central Tokyo. This is Tokyo. That's what makes Azabu Juban so special.

00:03:13 John Daub: I'm also coming through here during the pandemic and we're gonna see if any of the shops are still open and some of them might be closed. But you'll see a lot of traditional confection makers as well. Some really interesting stuff and the prices are probably gonna be higher here just because the rent is higher here. I guess it's more, I don't know, I guess it would be like the Beverly Hills of Tokyo maybe in a way. Oh this lunch looks good. The nori-bento. That looks really good. Is that on rice? Yeah, that's a very modern take on the nori-bento. It's getting close to lunch time.

00:04:21 John Daub: Alright, better get going. We got a lot of stuff to see and do on this livestream. This is also an area of the city where you might wanna walk around the alleys just to explore. You'll find lots of interesting shops and cafes in the alleys. Some of them might not have existed six months ago. That's why I like to walk through this neighborhood at least twice a year. I don't have too much business here. I used to have friends that lived here. All of them were in the TV business as producers or really well-known actors or actresses. I did have a friend who owned a restaurant here but it burned down. I'm laughing because that was actually a good thing for his business. Now he smokes sausages and bacon and chicken wings and sells them at Costco. So it kinda worked out for him.

00:05:09 John Daub: Alright, we're gonna connect back up to this street. I'm gonna take you off-road. Again, you'll see there's some very stylish statues. Stylish, I mean, by stylish I mean kinda weird. Seijo Market there. Oh my gosh, this bakery smells so good. Buttery, buttery goodness inside there. Some shokupan (milk bread). I had garlic bacon. I think there used to be a restaurant called Frijoles which had some pretty good burritos. Oh, it's still here.

00:05:49 John Daub: Yeah, again, like I was telling you, there's a huge expat community here because diplomats, a lot of embassies are in the area. And you'll find places like this. Oh, that's what Kanai likes, the carnitas. I'm gonna get Kanai one. But they have this restaurant in Ginza, in Roppongi where I'm going next. So I can grab Kanai some lunch on the way home. But this Frijoles has been here for a while now. Before Taco Bell came to Japan, we had Frijoles. A little pricey. But you kinda get what you pay for.

00:06:24 John Daub: I have a friend who works at this post office here. We used to work out together at the old... Is that him there? In the town there. There he is, the tall guy. Actually, we used to work out in Shinozaki. But he works here in Azabu Juban. And he can't live here because it's just too expensive. I'll go in and say hi later. I haven't seen him in a few years since I moved though.

00:07:00 John Daub: I came this way for a reason. I wanna show you like the essence of Azabu Juban. Is this weird? It feels very much like a small neighborhood because of the nature. Check out this one place where you can buy bentos and kind of eat it here. If you just wanna walk around here. But it's very quiet. Right? The cars have to go around this park. A lot of cafes. I don't think I ever took Kanai on a date here though. Gonna have to remedy that.

00:07:53 John Daub: Some other really trendy or upscale neighborhoods include Jiyugaoka, which is closer to Shibuya. Kind of between Shibuya and Kawasaki. That's an intersection with a couple of really good train lines. Good train connections. A lot of famous people I know live there or in that neighborhood. Alright, we're gonna cut back around here. But you can see there's some shops over here. It's a good mix of residential and restaurants. And that's what makes it a really popular place to live for people who have the cash to do it.

00:08:39 John Daub: There's also a lot of zaka (steep hills). Z-A-K-A. Which are like steep hills. This is not a place where it's in the grid pattern. So it's easy to get lost in this area. Yeah, Jiyugaoka is less fancy. But it's still got that small neighborhood feel to it. Jiyugaoka. It's not as woody. There's not as many trees, I don't think. I haven't been there in a long time. Jiyugaoka is famous for its sweets. A lot of cafes there. But it is pricey. And between there on the Oimachi Line, between there and Futako-Tamagawa. I used to live in Futako-Tamagawa in a 1K. It cost me $1,000. It was the size of my bathroom now. It was very small. It had a Murphy bed that you'd push it into the wall and pull it out. $1,000 for that place. But it was right next to the station. And I got to see celebrities all the time. Koyuki was a regular. She lived a couple of stations away and was shopping at the Takashimaya there.

00:09:46 John Daub: Roppongi. In fact, my bathroom... Can I tell you these stories? I feel like I'm going to embarrass myself.

00:09:57 John Daub: Hey, John Kimura. Food and drink fund for Kanai. John, you've just bought Kanai. You've upgraded our burritos from regular to grande size. Alright, my friend. So Kanai is getting a grande. And she's been eating quite a bit. She's going to eat my grande. I might have to get her two. I shouldn't say that out loud. Be kind. Thank you, John. I appreciate it. And Wasim Halal is here. What's up? Wasim is in the house. We can feel your presence, my friend.

00:10:27 John Daub: Alright, the story. Okay. So I lived in a 1K in Futako-Tamagawa in 2004. This was a long time ago. This was the first place that I lived when I moved to the city of Tokyo. The first six years in Japan, I lived in the countryside of Japan. I lived in Nagoya, in Hiroshima. Smaller cities than Tokyo. I didn't move to the capital until six years after I came to Japan. And my apartment was so small that the bathroom... I had to put my feet into the bathtub to use the toilet. I had a keg of beer. I had to put my feet in the bathtub when I sat on the toilet. That's how small it was. So I used to take a newspaper across the street to Mitsukoshi. And they had amazing toilets there. And it was cleaner than the one I had in my apartment. So it was really worth it to live one minute from one of the most luxurious department stores in Tokyo. Why wouldn't you use the restroom there, right?

00:11:38 John Daub: Why wouldn't you? Should I share that story? Maybe it's kind of dumb. Oh, by the way, I do have a postcard club. This is the postcard of me and my wife, Kanai, at a hot spring on Niijima. There's a sunset of the Pacific Ocean. This is hot water. That's the cold Pacific. This is a postcard I'm sending to everybody. So if you do join the postcard club, I will try to send it on a livestream. So you can see the postbox that I'm sending it to. So when it arrives at your mailbox, you'll know exactly from where it was sent.

00:12:06 John Daub: Look at that pink truck. I'm guessing because this is an upscale neighborhood that NTT Docomo, which is the pricier of all the plans, is going to have really good coverage. Less than they want is some celebrity complaining about their 4G LTE or 5G for that matter. A cup of coffee costs probably more than that. I've been to some of these like Starbucks is Starbucks, right? And the Starbucks, look at the cars are gorgeous here. That's a Lexus. I thought that was some sort of Porsche or something. You'll see some amazing cars going by here like this pink truck again. Look at that. I'd like to have that like a matchbox car thing and send it off to people. It's a pretty truck.

00:13:05 John Daub: Well, as you think that everything is really expensive here and I am kind of building it up that way. There are 100 yen shops on this street like Can Do. So not everything costs a fortune. You can still find things that are reasonably priced. But then I'm learning that at the 100 yen shop, not everything is 100 yen. So sometimes it's 200 yen. 50 minute massage for 8800 yen. It's about 80 bucks. Thailand's cheaper. But a ticket there costs $1000. Do the math. A GT. Sweet ride. You can hear the engine.

00:13:58 John Daub: Daiei is a supermarket chain. They probably have a branch here just so that they say they have a branch here. But it's good for their brand to have branches. So I don't know if they make their money. Back the rent here is probably pretty high. Vegetables are reasonably priced. You have there's some goya (bitter gourd). Some carrots for under 100 yen. Or is that zucchini for 88 yen? It's pretty reasonable. Green red pepper cost 200 yen. One on 198. I don't know if that's cheap or expensive. But look at that bike. It's colorful. Oh, they got Sprite. I remember looking forever for Sprite. You could never find it. And I found one here. Interesting. It's hard to find Sprites in the vending machines.

00:15:06 John Daub: There's my friends. Craig White is his name. He's from Texas. And he has a business called White Smoke. And he had a restaurant, a yakiniku restaurant. And about 10 years ago, I used to do these things called yakiniku parties. And I stopped doing it because I was losing money on it. If people didn't show up, I would have to pay for them. It was not a good idea. But it was the only time I could meet with my friends. I believe this is the location right here. It became another cafe. But he had had a fire. And I think it had to go out of business. But I remember having, I think, 100 people showed up to my event. And we all and Craig, the owner, made this amazing yakiniku. These amazing ribs and all sorts of meat. And it was amazing. Like we paid one price. And it was all you can eat and drink. He got this deal with Heineken. And wow, that was the best night ever. And on the other side of it, I believe this connected to some opening in the back where people could drink on the other side. Gosh, I wish I had the time to do those events again. It was the only time where I could meet all my friends together in one spot. I love planning parties or events. Going all the way back to my days as a resident advisor at Ohio State.

00:16:26 John Daub: Whoa, what is that? Carl's Jr. burger's got a corner? What? I thought they only had one in Akihabara. This is not a cheap location, too. So what do they got on the menu? 12 bucks for that burger. It's a set, though. That's a special. The original Angus burger. The Famous Star. Which is the one that Paris Hilton was washing the car with. I can't remember. That's the only thing I know about Carl's Jr. Paris Hilton washing a car. I don't think it had anything to do with burgers. It had a lot to do with Paris Hilton.

00:17:20 John Daub: That's a stylish 7-Eleven. Alright, again, I'm going to show you some of the zakas. Zaka, it's just like a steep road. You see that right there? Try riding your bike up that. Which, I say that as though it's a really hard thing, but everybody's got these batteries on their bike now. So it gives them a little assisted boost. So it's not as bad as it used to be. But I don't have one of those boost-assisted bicycles yet. Look at this 7-Eleven. What's going on here? 7-Eleven's got a balcony for the rich and famous. Hello, I'm Robin Leach. Today we're at the 7-Eleven looking at the rich and famous taking a dive. There's probably a pool up there. Oh, no. Okay. I thought that that was 7-Eleven. That was another restaurant. That would have been crazy if that was 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven has a balcony. What? I would totally not skip all these other restaurants. Just get some tamago sando (egg sandwich) and eat it up there.

00:18:36 John Daub: All right, we've started the cool biz. No neckties now. I'm going to cross the street. Hey, look. We found the pink truck again. This pink truck is now the theme of this episode. He seems to really do a lot of work in this neighborhood. The pink truck is there. Very cool. Alright, let's keep moving. Whoa. It's the gachapon scooter. Is that Mr. Sato from SoraNews? Oh, look at these little Doraemon cards. The summer cards are out. Japan has some of the best cards because they do some amazing things with paper. They fold out and they make a scene like it's summer. They're about $5 each.

00:19:44 John Daub: Or was this the location? I don't remember where my friends, where the White Smoke was. Maybe this is it. Yeah, I think that this is it because there's a little garden in the front. Oh, my memories. It's 10 years ago, though. I'm going to cross the street here. I think this is where the location was. They all look the same. These cement, like stylish cement buildings. I thought according to Japan YouTuber, you can't jaywalk. It's a small neighborhood. People are doing it. So this is a pizza place and they have pizza for 500 yen. And here's a booth with bentos. So that's kind of neat. They're selling all sorts of bentos for 800 yen or about $8. That's nice. So you can get the bento and eat it in the park. Or you can find some friends and share it with them. These are upscale pigeons. You guys think you're better than me?

00:21:09 John Daub: Oh, this place is really good. Who told me about this? Taro Shinichi from Tabiitsu was telling me about this place. But not this one, another branch. It's interesting they have one here. They have all vegetarian food in it. It's really, really good. That's some good looking bentos too. They're using like a different kind of rice, like more grainy rice. Is that genmai (brown rice) maybe? But they use all vegetables here. And the salad bar is supposed to be really good too. Oh, I'll be back. I like vegetarian restaurants. I'm not a vegetarian, but I will eat their food. Just like I think vegetarians should eat my food, which is the omnivore food. I have a steak every now and then. Because I'm cool with vegetarian food. That looks amazing. Look at the colors on that. Nice. Very nice. I'll be back. Oh, they got Uber Eats comes here. Except they make me tip, which is not Japanese. It's very confusing. Once again, Uber Eats asks you to tip. And after you rate your driver, which I always give five stars unless they shook my food up or something. They asked me to up my tip. I was like, what?

00:22:40 John Daub: And we've been debating this on Only in Japan Go. Should you leave a tip in Japan on Uber Eats for Japan? And I do. But I probably will stop after the pandemic. I just don't use Uber Eats a lot because I like to go out and I don't want my stuff delivered. I can go out and get it. But Japan doesn't tip. And asking for tips is... You never give somebody a tip because it's almost insulting. Like they're not making enough for their money. But already we're paying a service charge on top of the fees that they're charging us. But I think here's the deal. Uber Eats is so competitive right now. Uber Eats is offering ridiculous deals to try to get people to use their service. This is where the problem is. I'm going to pan back around so you get an idea of what it looks like here. Now, they're offering insanely cheap prices. And lots of deals or cash back if you do this. Or 2000 yen if you join or something. What this does is it eats into the amount. And you know who gets screwed? The delivery people. So they go to us to... So basically by tipping you're paying back the money. That's why I don't mind tipping. But you're paying back the money that you're getting on savings from them to start their service. So that's where it has to be coming from. But there's already a service charge in it. As well as probably the restaurants will tick up the price a little bit more too.

00:24:24 John Daub: So don't start tipping in Japan. It's just not a good thing. That's not the culture. To change the culture, meaning people will do things for money, that's not a good thing for Japan. People do it here because they love what they do. They love serving people. And you say thank you. And that means a lot more here. You're not judged by the amount of tip you give. Therefore, the service is consistently extraordinary everywhere except for places with baido (part-time). Like college kids who are getting paid a really low amount of money.

00:24:56 John Daub: This is an upscale supermarket. Let's take a look at this map that was ripped apart by pigeons probably. So we have walked from Exit 4, which is here. We walked here through Patio Juban in this area. Remember this with all the trees? And we cut across. There's the burrito place was in here and we walked up Azabu Juban Street and now we're here. This is a pivotal place. This tower is where the Tsutaya is, the TV Asahi and everything changes. This is the end of Azabu Juban but I wanted to introduce this to you because I want you to come here and walk around the streets and maybe spend a couple of hours or if you're staying in Roppongi forget Roppongi and just maybe walk around this area. It's so cool and so interesting and there are some temples and shrines that you'll find. Here's the embassy of Austria. This is the Azabu Roppongi High School here. These kids probably got it made. So we're gonna walk now so this livestream is gonna change a little bit. Yeah this is a real upscale supermarket so you can get some drinks and stuff we'll see what we can find on the way.

00:26:20 John Daub: Carlos Infinite writes in you should give service whether or not you tip you get a tip or not I think that's exactly right. Everything is a habit if you're giving good service you will always get good tips. You shouldn't do it just for the tips and this is coming from someone who's a waiter. I waited tables through college and I did it because I just liked people and I found that if I just had fun with my job serving the customers the tips were pretty good. So never really cared whether the tips were good or not but when I did receive a 20 tip or something I kind of was very appreciative of that right but not everybody thinks like that.

00:26:58 John Daub: As we see some more amazing cars go by there's a Ferrari making a left turn whoa uh teamLab's mini onsen exhibit I'm not sure let's see we're gonna find out. Alright let me tell you a couple of stories about this place here. Tsutaya is the Blockbuster of Japan, the video rental shop but Tsutaya was a lot more than that. It was a culture convenience center. It was like a place where you would have culture with a lot of it through books so it's a bookstore it's a video rental shop it's a place where you would hang out. This Tsutaya is the most prestigious one in the entire country. You know I know that because every time I have a lot of friends that are in the TV industry whenever I met them in this area or inside I don't know why this is a meeting spot for the celebrities. So if you come in here with your camera and you want to get photos of stuff do you want to come here top secret okay don't tell anybody. Oh by the way the teamLab is I think it's still there it's like right there. Does that help I guess it's still here it doesn't look like there's anybody in there though.

00:28:32 John Daub: Oh there used to be a building here this is where I and Jennifer had lunch at a French restaurant called Cross and Jennifer is a food critic and she was quite not happy with the food. Now I understand why they tore down that building and put in this teamLab. I don't think there's anything going on there though. Yeah I'm out of Azabu Juban now and I'm more in at the I would call this the border. Alright this is the border this is the great intersection that is Tsutaya. Books Azabu Juban is in this direction and this direction Nogizaka it's I think that's quite a hike. In this direction we're gonna go towards Hollywood Plaza because I'm Robin Leach and this is part of the rich and famous. Alright this is see this road here this is where the Oedo Line follows this street in this direction. Okay so the Oedo Line will curve around from Azabu Juban and go over to Roppongi Station up this street. There's some really good cafes if you want to take it slow go this direction it'll wrap all the way around to Tokyo Tower. We're gonna get some we'll get a view of Tokyo Tower but it's in this direction as well but we're gonna go this way you know why because this is what it is where the rich and famous are and this is all about the rich and famous. These are mansions here by mansion I mean like apartments are super expensive. I know because I was looking at them just pricing it out just out of curiosity.

00:30:26 John Daub: Chicago Africans here I'm supposed to be studying for work but my neighbors next door are having a loud party John so you are drowning out with some music sorry about that I'll speak louder. Also get kind of extra food you got it I am not coming home empty-handed I'll get three burritos now. So if you do want to take a break between the walk but and I love this walk between Azabu Juban and Roppongi take a break here halfway and get a coffee or something it's the way to go. Alright up we go this street is really pretty during the Christmas season all these trees have beautiful champagne colored lights or the blues I guess it changes every year and this walkway is so lit up it's so pretty. I'm gonna be walking through the hospital area on my way to the hospital during the Christmas season definitely worth the walk from Midtown through Roppongi Hills towards Azabu Juban just take it slow it takes about an hour for that walk it's really pretty. And in about a week or so this will be so loud with semi chirping but we don't have that guys the cars here awesome.

00:31:39 John Daub: On the right I believe this is TV Asahi and I'm gonna cross the street legally over there. On the left are a lot of big brand name shops. This is the, I guess, the Armani flagship shop. And some more luxury shops on the left side attached to the mansion, the apartment building, the condo. Hey, Archang 89, there's a really good pizza place called Savoy Tomato and Cheese in Azabudai. But did I walk past it? Their maguro pizza is so good. We were there twice in a week for it. Thanks for the recommendation. I will go check that out. Kanai and I have not been there together ever, which is a shame. We got to fix that.

00:32:28 John Daub: So, these apartment complex, they have something called Belgian Beer Weekend in the summer, every September. But they didn't do it last year because of the pandemic. I don't think they're going to be doing it this year because of the pandemic, which is a shame. I just love festivals. It's a little bit expensive. $30 buy-in. You get tickets for about four or five beers. And you get a glass that you can keep. But they haven't been doing it lately. But there's the J-Wave Studio. And this is where everybody, I guess a lot of you know, a lot of you know that I do Tokyo Eye on NHK World since 2008. They call me a long-time reporter. I guess there's not many of us left from the beginning, the first hundred episodes or so. But Chris Peppler has been there since the beginning. Chris lived in this neighborhood. I think he lived in this building here. Across the street was the J-Wave Studio where he would do the countdown right here. I don't know if it's still done in this studio. But I remember coming here for the Belgian Beer Weekend. I went across the street here, everyone. Just it was filled with people. And I walked into this shop here. There's like a little VIP area because I knew the organizer of the Belgian Beer Weekend. So I went inside of here and here there was Chris in there buying beer. I said, dude, what are you doing here? He goes, I live across the street. I'm like, oh, I guess he does this show just across the street. I could do it in his pajamas if he wanted to.

00:34:10 John Daub: But we met. I didn't do the show for a couple of years back then. And when I caught up with him again, he said he had moved back when the 2011 tsunami and earthquake happened. There was a mass migration of expats that were moving around. There were people that were living here in Japan, especially Europeans that got free flights to go back to France or Belgium or wherever they were going. A lot of them were diplomats. A lot of them were affluent and were in residence around some of these buildings. And this became kind of a ghost town. 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. The price of rent in some places was cut in half, which made it kind of affordable. And that's when he came in. He moved into here. I think even for him, it's pretty pricey. And I was actually considering to move here just because it was like the places here were cut in half. The thing was, after two years, which is a typical contract for an apartment in Tokyo, they raised the prices again because those expats came back and were looking for their old apartments back. But they were all given away. So Chris had to move out. He told me he moved out from there. That sucks. But it's kind of funny. After the, they called them fly-jin. These gaijin, these foreigners that left because of fears of radiation and the constant earthquakes. And I can understand why. Because living in an earthquake, it was an earthquake every five minutes, it felt like, is not fun at all. Fly-jin. That's an actual word that was used in 2011. YouTube was, I wasn't doing YouTube then, but I don't know if there were any YouTubers talking about it. But fly-jin. The ones that stayed, the people that stayed are some of my best friends here. Because we were the ones that went up and volunteered and did stuff, tried to help Tohoku. I was here working with NHK as well. I was picking up a lot of shows because a lot of the foreign reporters had left. So it was a good time for work too. But those who, those that left, we called them fly-jin. And those that stayed became, were really stayed at an important time when I think Japan needed them the most.

00:36:29 John Daub: But I don't. Is it me or does it matter? 720p looked like 360. I might be in a dead zone. I do apologize. This is a livestream. Let's see if we can get the signal better. I'm now in the shadow of Roppongi Hills. It's a shame there's no 5G here yet. Here's the TV Asahi and I don't know how the signal is right now. Just let me know when it gets bad and gets worse. You guys can police it. It looks good to me. I'm looking at it in real vision. But on the side of the TV Asahi building is a really nice garden with free tables that you can just hang out and sun yourself in. Some two dudes doing it. Looks like 240p. We have just entered the Minecraft zone. My apologies. It's a bit better. I'm getting away from the building a little bit. I'm going to run through there again. I apologize. It's just sort of a dead zone. A lot of people come here with dates. And you can take a picture. Suzette's here! For your fourth burrito. I think I can afford it now. She's going to get the carnitas for sure. You can get a really nice romantic picture here of this lagoon. Which looks better at night. A little bit of wind has picked up here. But it's pretty nice to see. Nice to see from the inside of the TV studio. Jennifer's done some work here. I've never worked with TV Asahi at the studio. I've done a couple of shows. I'm like the location master. I'll do studio work. But I'm the guy they put on location. Because I like to have fun when I'm out there.

00:38:24 John Daub: Alright, let's get through here really quickly. Because I know the signal stinks. I'll try to put a chapter playlist in here. So you can cut through the lousy parts. Hey, Dreymon! But this is where the Belgian Beer Weekend is. Every September. Now the Belgians that are in the area organize it. Do it all over the country. It was a 12 month. It was done every month I think. Even in the winter. They had an event somewhere. Like Fukuoka or even in Sapporo. People liked to drink. It was good to promote Belgian beer. Alright, let's go up the stairs. Hey, Archong is here. For Kanai's your pizza at Savory Tomato and Cheese. You got it. Alright, it's a date. As soon as Kanai and I can get out and go. We will do that. And I'll report back on how it was. But you might want to remind me. We will put that two words of pizza there. If you say it's that good, I believe you. We're going to have to check that out. I'm a pizza fanatic. Hey, Dreymon's on the TV there. Now, during the Belgian Beer Weekend this is all filled with people. You can't even see the floor. Alright, and they have live events. And after the event everyone leaves their glasses behind. These really nice beer glasses. So I would pocket like six or seven of them. So I have like two dozen of them.

00:40:27 John Daub: Oh, good God. Oh my God. Alright, we're getting reports that it's blurry. Let's get to the other side. Sorry, let me get. That crow is the reason why the signal is bad. Thank goodness there's an escalator. I think I'm just out of shape from, you know, stay at home. The state of emergency is ending for Tokyo on Sunday. In two days. Is that a good thing? Alright, the signal should get a little bit better from here. Hey, Tigra, how's it going? We've got to start feeding John better food. No, no. Yeah, maybe the burrito. I'm still getting the burrito, Tig. Alright, now we're in the center of Roppongi Hills. I'm not sure if the signal is any better. Hope so. Because Minecraft is not fun. I'm working on this too. I'm looking at backpacks and other things to try to beef up the signal. So we've come through here. We took a left at Tsutaya for the flashing here. I'm only going to be here for a couple more seconds. We crossed from this road here around the Tsutaya, walked up luxury Hollywood Avenue, cut across to this Mori Garden, which is really pretty on the side of TV Asahi. And now we're walking through Roppongi Hills, which is iconic. An iconic building. Mori Tower. Let's look up here. This is what it looks like in Minecraft. Still potato vision. Alright, let's hustle through here. I'll tell you one thing. PVG, if he were here, his neck would be turning left and right. Quality is good again. Alright, I can take it easy. Thanks. Refresh your screen if you're having potato vision or Minecraft.

00:42:34 John Daub: This is now where we're coming in Roppongi and this is where the spider is. Y'all know the Roppongi spider. If you don't, it's a famous place where people will get that angled spider. This is a photo from the spider's abdomen, which is creepy enough. Looking up to the top of Mori Tower. It gives the building character, personality. Oh, check it out! Is it clear enough to see that? Maybe the signal's coming from Tokyo Tower. Once destroyed by Godzilla, it was rebuilt by Toho Cinemas after. Tokyo Tower with that... They told me in an NHK report it was international orange, but now I guess the color changed. Because when I called it that, I didn't know what it was. Again, they got angry. The administrators were very... They want to make sure they get their information right.

00:43:39 John Daub: Oh my good gosh! What? Stop! Shoe creams! Look at that cream! Can I get one? No, I can't get it. Diet! Look at that! Oh my gosh! I can't get it. Cholesterol. That's like $10. That's a choux soft cream. I gotta get it, but I can't get it. Really? Should I get it? This is not good for my cholesterol. I'm supposed to be watching my cholesterol. Okay, stay strong for the temptation. I gave all my small coins to that homeless guy the other day. Raymond Centeno, you can get one. Thanks, Raymond. And I'll bring my hospital bill to you, too.

00:44:39 John Daub: Excuse me. Hello. This is a custard cream. Jersey cream. The most popular one is custard. Oh, okay. I'll have one custard, please. Thank you. This is a meal. Oh, okay. Do you want to get your own? No, I don't. I'll eat it right away. Okay, thank you.

00:45:22 John Daub: Alcohol. Here you are. Thank you. Oh my word. What have I done? What have you made me do? Oh my gosh. Look, there's vanilla beans in this. Oh, I shouldn't be eating this before I eat the lunch. This is illegal. And this is heavy. This has some weight to it. There's some... It's voluptuous. I'm going to come to the side here. Tell me if the signal is bad because you have to see this. This is not good in Minecraft. I need you to see this in full glorious. At least 320p. Okay. Just tell me if the signal is bad. Is it good? Alright, cool. I'm going to put it down here. I want you to enjoy this view of Tokyo. This is one of the most beautiful panoramic views at night of the city. I think Odaiba might be a little bit better. But I can't complain about this one. Alright, I've got the tripod. You're roughly at 720p. Alright, that's good news. It looks good in 8-bit. Right, Senbela? Really? I definitely need coffee. I don't know. Things take too much time. I do have to get Kanai her lunch and get back. Alright, I wanted to share this with you. Is it in 8-bit? 420p now? Oh, come on. No, come on. We have to get decent quality here. This thing is crunchy. This is some sort of amazing pastry here. Scotty H, you only live once. That's funny because I just watched You Only Live Twice the other day. Chris Rancy, Australia. Thank you, Tom Higgins, for your upcoming gastric bypass. Oh, no. And I'm sure I missed a couple of people. I can't pan back for some reason. There's a bug that doesn't allow me to see everybody who helped me raise my cholesterol today.

00:48:48 John Daub: Alright, let's give this a try because I've got to move on and get that burrito. This way. Stop looking at the stairs. Oh, my. Almond. Toasted almond. I've had the custard pies in the United States. What do you call them? You know those frosted cakes and stuff? I forget what they're called. They came in the packages. They had apple pie, French apple. They had a custard one and that was really good, but this custard tastes real. I can taste the eggs in it a little bit. I can taste the vanilla beans. It tastes non-chemical. Although, chemical custard is good too. This tastes almost healthy. Just be careful. Every bite, it oozes just a little bit more. Eggy custardy. Watching a middle-aged man eat desserts. Not great. You know what's better? Hearing me eat it and grossing you out on the other side while looking at a beautiful view. Hear that better? Sounds like heaven. Really? Dude, your heaven is sick. Yeah, there you go. I think I burned this off. Didn't I burn it off? A hot mess. That was pretty bad. I had an audience behind me. People were watching me over here. I had an audience. What is that guy doing? Alright, never mind. I gotta get back here. Let's finish off our walk. Also, don't climb this. There are signs. There's a place where you can eat in the back if you want a table or a place to sit. You got a baby carriage or something. It's good to know. I'm gonna put my mask on here. What am I gonna do with my mask? I hear this. This is my walking around mask. I've got a different mask for public transportation. Here we go. Bye bye, Tokyo Tower. Hello, Roppongi. Let me know if this signal is bad. I'm gonna take you to the spider now. I feel so energized now. That was really good eggy custard. Thank you, Tom Higgins and Cheryl MP. We're gonna go get Kanai some of those burritos. I will take you past there on the way to Roppongi Station. Here's the spider which is creepy enough. At night, this thing looks like it could come alive and eat you. Put you in that little sack.

00:52:56 John Daub: If anyone knows the history of it, you can write it in the chat here. This is a pretty iconic angle. You're looking at the sack up at Roppongi Hills. That's a nope spider. It just run away. You see the spider coming at you, you run away. I used to go to YouTube events in here. YouTube, I believe, has moved their offices to Shibuya Stream. Shibuya Stream. It's a new building that's more high-tech. I'm sure they've got terabytes of fast signals inside there. I've been to the new place once. It's so nice. For those who like flowers, you have Flower Man over there, which is gigantic. That's worth a shout out. If you do like these neighborhood walks, we're a little bit short on the likes. Give me a thumbs up. Let me know that this is all good to you. You're in on it. See if we can get to 600-700 likes. We're kind of short on that. I found if you don't ask, people forget to encourage me. This is the Hollywood Beauty Plaza is where I take the escalator down. It's kind of a quicker way than the other steps in the front. Welcome to Roppongi, everybody. That was sort of the buffer area. This is more the street that a lot of you know quite well. Maybe if you've been here. There's a highway that runs through it. I've driven on that a couple of times. It's kind of scary up there. I'm going to get out to the main street. The signal should get stronger in about a second or two. Alright, we're outside.

00:55:09 John Daub: This back alley is famous because that right there is a Cinnabon. Or it used to be. I'm going to take a really quick look before I wrap around. Kanai's burrito is also right over here. That Frijoles shop we saw in Azabu Juban also has a shop there where I'm going to be getting two or three to go. Kanai has ordered a carnitas. The wind has also picked up here. I apologize. I'm going to see if I can sneak up against the side of this building to decrease the wind here. Cinnabon. Cinnabon is amazingly bad for you. There's a shop right here. It's still there. Dudes! No, I'm not getting one. Because I had that choux cream up there. I'm losing my voice. I can smell the cinnamon. That's why. They have cinnamon smell pumping out of there. How do you say no to this? They put bacon in the cinnamon roll. Why would they do that? That's genius and dangerous at the same time. The burrito place is right here. I have to come back and get that. It's in that building right there. I'm going to wrap around. It's the same menu as the other place that I showed you to. Right now I'm going to sneak across. This used to be a Shake Shack. There used to be an ice cream place here. What was it called? They used a frozen grill. I forget what that ice cream place was. But that's out of business. The Shake Shack has taken over. The AstroTrip is still here. This used to be a Tully's Coffee. But now it's something else. Jack's Wife Freda is a New York City bistro. This is now Jack's Wife Freda has a shop here. And a Lululemon which is some sort of yoga place. The mate across the street has been here for a very long time. This is where we get foreign stuff. I could make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving or something. You can get that here. But Roppongi hasn't changed too much. How's the signal now? Is it a little bit better? This has changed. This was not here. And a lot of you who haven't been to Japan in a long time are going to be surprised. Shake Shack has taken over the city. It used to be a New York thing. Now it's like a global thing. Welcome everybody to Roppongi. This place here's the start of Roppongi Station. So we've completed the walk from Azabu Juban to Roppongi. Hopefully the signal is a little bit better than it was when we were trapped between the buildings back there.

00:58:35 John Daub: I've heard that they are putting in 5G inside the not just the phone booths which offer free Wi-Fi but they're putting 5G inside of the traffic lights. So all the traffic lights have it have the millimeter waves. The reason why is because during the Olympics we're supposed to be in the middle of the city. We're supposed to be able to see some driverless cars driving. Because they're being controlled by the millimeter wave. That's a cool looking Volkswagen. That's a damn cool Volkswagen. What? Look at the racing stripes on that thing. That is the FedEx colors. Beautiful. B-E-A-utiful. Is it me or is it just car companies have been making bicycles here. I saw that Chevy had bicycles. What? Really? Is that an only in Japan thing? Shake Shack way better than In-N-Out Burger. Oh no. The debate has started. Really? Do you think so? East Coast vs West Coast. Shake Shack is I don't know if In-N-Out Burger is quick but Shake Shack can take some time sometimes. But their half and half tea and lemonade is really good.

01:00:26 John Daub: So for a lot of you that haven't been to Japan in a long time. Seeing this might be a little nostalgic especially if you like to go out clubbing. I don't go to Roppongi anymore since I grew out of it. Going out to these bars. Gas Panic and what were some of the other things? Wall Street. Back in 1998 there was a place called Lexington Queen that we would go to on the corner here. There used to be a Johnny Rockets up here. This cheesy 1950s diner thing where people would sing. They used to have it up there in 1998 but it's been gone for a long time. For decades. This direction will take you to Roppongi Midtown which has beautiful lights at Christmas time and has a different vibe. Almond is here now. It moved to this area and looks a little different than before. Take note of that. It's a big meeting place but used to be here back in the day. This is the big intersection. The Outback Steakhouse is still here. Right in front of you. Right in the middle there. You should be able to get a view an eyeful of Tokyo Tower. Welcome to a completely different neighborhood. It is a completely different neighborhood and feels bigger in Roppongi. It could have to do with the fact that there is a highway above that's generating a lot of noise. In general this is a much bigger, louder, taller neighborhood than Azabu Juban. You can go from a quiet, tranquil upscale neighborhood to a place like this. That's pretty cool.

01:02:06 John Daub: How popular are electric bikes in Japan? In China they have these bikes that you don't have to pedal at all. Not too popular. The bikes with that bike does not have any battery on it. Battery assisted bikes are everywhere. Electric only bikes I've not seen them at all. I've seen them everywhere in China though. I've got to go back and get back to Kanai and take her her burrito. Thanks so much for watching. This was a lot of fun. I hope that you enjoyed. Aren't they illegal in Japan? They could be. That could be the reason why I don't see them. I don't need to ride electric bicycles. I've got a lot of stuff planned for the weekend. I just hope that the weather is okay for me to do that. Peter and I are still planning to go to Heiwa-jima and pay our respects to a POW camp that used to be there. Show you some old pictures and talk a little bit about the history. There's a lot of history everywhere you walk around the city of Tokyo. In fact, this street that we see here used to be where a lot of GIs would come. A lot of hamburger places. A lot of American restaurants are along here. That's why these clubs are still here. Going all the way back to the days where the GI would come here and party. But it's changed quite a bit since then. And I also have a night stream of Shinjuku I'm planning to do with Tokyo Sam. TKYO Sam who knows the neighborhood pretty well. We've been talking about it for a little while and hoping to connect up with him. I gave him a day's notice. We'll see what happens. Depends on the weather. But we're having a pretty good month on Only in Japan Go. So, hit that thumbs up button. Do subscribe. I appreciate the support everybody. Thanks for buying me Kanai and I lunch. I'm going to go get those burritos before I get into the Oedo Line. Back this way. There's Midtown. Have a good day wherever you are in the world. Good night. See ya in the next livestream tomorrow.