00:00:01 John Daub: Welcome everybody! That's Tokyo Station right in front of you. The portal to Japan. I thought I would start the live stream right here because everybody knows Tokyo Station, including these guys trying to cross the street. It's been so wet over the last few days. Perfect time to float these little guys and see where they go. Happy 4th of July. We've got four duckies here just for you. They're ready to go and so are we. How you doing everybody?

00:00:37 John Daub: Yes, this is the rainy season and I thought I would do a live stream. Anything can happen. I thought I would bring you here with me, just kind of share a little bit of the beginning of July and the end of June. It's super rainy. This is a time of tsuyu (plum rain). I'm actually wearing a rain jacket and a long-sleeve shirt. It's cooler because there's very little humidity, despite it being rainy season. It is raining, there's going to be some humidity, but it's nothing like a typical summer. The weather that changes over the next week is going to be extraordinary. So I wanted you to remember this day. A lot of people are going to remember yesterday too, and I'll tell you why in a couple of minutes.

00:01:18 John Daub: I'm going to take you around this area, Yaesu side of Tokyo Station, and talk about the rainy season and also show you a little bit of the city right now on July 4th. Although it might not be where you are in the world. California, I'm speaking to you. All right, I'm going to take these ducks with me. I'm going to leave one behind, so we'll see if he's still here when we come back in 30 minutes. Hey, Brad Joe Studio, welcome. Happy 4th of July. We're going to walk around here. We'll see if this guy—we're going to end right here. Okay, if you are in Japan, feel free to pick him up. He's my calling card.

00:02:12 John Daub: Everybody's got an umbrella open except for me. This isn't rain—you call this rain? It's more like mist. Got to do a lot more than this for me to open up my umbrella. The weather forecast says rain. It was raining pretty hard yesterday. The day before, a little bit of sun came out the day before yesterday, and that was raining like crazy. A lot of you will know that.

00:03:03 John Daub: I got to go to the Marunouchi side. There's a really wonderful French cafe on the other side that has amazing pastries, including some stuff that we can't get anywhere else except for Viron outside of France. Yesterday we saw some extremely tragic news, and I wanted to share this with you before we go on. The rainy season—look, Japan is not really a dangerous place except for the natural disasters that come here. We have typhoon season, which is coming now. There's a lot brewing in the Pacific. We have earthquakes, which can just happen suddenly. All of a sudden you're in a very massive earthquake like I experienced on 3/11/2011. There's tons of volcanoes. It could explode at any time, although seismic data might help predict it or give warnings. Volcano eruptions are ongoing throughout the entire country. That's pretty dangerous, including not just the lava, but the gas that comes from it is especially dangerous.

00:04:14 John Daub: This is a landslide video from yesterday in Atami, and you can see the landslide coming in. I think it moved all the way from the top where Atami Station was. I'm not quite sure on all the details. I saw this yesterday and my mouth was open—shocked. You can see people running for their lives. This is not just water; this is mostly land with a little bit of electrical shock like fireworks. They're absolutely awful. I don't know if any of you have seen this. I know the US news is focused on the building that collapsed in Florida, and I saw those images and it was unbelievable. This is another thing that rips your heart out. It's a product of the rainy season. Landslides at this time of year are awful.

00:05:09 John Daub: I was talking with my brother from another mother, Peter von Gomm, about hiking. We said no, we will never go hiking in hilly areas during the rainy season ever again. We might have done it in the past, including I climbed Mount Fuji during the rainy season once. The start of Mount Fuji's climbing season has already started, by the way. Last year it was canceled because of the pandemic, and this year it has opened one of the courses. The other one is going to open next week maybe. The rainy season is not that bad, but there are some dangerous things that happen here, and some things you should definitely be aware of, including the weather. This is not shorts weather. Even in the height of summer, you'll see most people wearing long pants in Tokyo, which is crazy to a Westerner like me because I like to wear shorts from April till November if I can.

00:06:32 John Daub: I did get my shot the other day, so I am looking forward to it. The new postcard is pretty awesome—Japanese castle this month. Oh, that's where Peter and I live-streamed. I'm going to do another live stream there really soon. This Japan Real Cafe has got a little tatami room in the back that's super cool to hang out in. You can jump in there, have a coffee before you get on the Shinkansen for a couple hours trip wherever you're going.

00:07:29 John Daub: The rainy season takes place from around the middle of June, around June 10th—these are estimates. It also depends on the region of Japan. Tokyo would start around June 10th, more or less, to about the third week of July, believe it or not. This is the height of it, I would say. But I like the rainy season—not because of the landslides, that's awful—but because it brings cooler weather. You see people wearing jackets comfortably and not sweating. Oh, they took down the Naomi Osaka poster that used to be there. I wonder if it has anything to do with anything. She was the Louis Vuitton poster girl for a while.

00:08:17 John Daub: I'm also really impressed with this. This building here did not exist a year ago. It was an open space for barbecues, some kind of barbecue center. Now look at it—one year. It's crazy progress. Honestly, Japan knows how to build buildings.

00:09:14 John Daub: Don't you need an umbrella? Nah, I don't—this is mist. I have a rain jacket, but I consider this to be mist. Oh, look at that guy—he's got a cover over his baby. Gotta take note of that. This is the Yaesu North entrance here of Tokyo Station. People come out, they get their umbrellas up from this area. But this rainy season has been weird. I didn't think it was raining that much until it started raining a lot, and it's unpredictable. I guess it's just the monsoon—the winds, the rains come across at this time of year. Asia is pretty much like this. The monsoon seasons in India too—June is an awfully wet month in Mumbai. It's also perfect for mango season. Rainy season equals mango season in India. But this weather is not humid right now. It's about to come. I want everybody watching right now to put a little marker in their mind on July 4th, 2021 in Tokyo. It's not humid yet. It's about 23 degrees, pretty comfortable.

00:10:35 John Daub: A lot of people have these clear umbrellas. Do you know why? Because you can see through them and battle the wind in this direction and not get wet. I found also if you ride your bicycle, you can use it as a shield—although you shouldn't be doing that. You should have both hands on the wheel. But the clear umbrellas are for safety reasons too. You can hold it lower down and still see through it like a windshield. And they're cheap to make. There's so many advantages to having the clear ones. I don't see a lot of clear umbrellas in the US though.

00:11:09 John Daub: All right, we're going to cross the street here. Wait, that Lexus RX 300—do you see that right there? Everyone's driving that, or Toyota has a car that looks like this. This is the 2021 vehicle of choice for the world of Japan's car industry people. Here's a discount ticket place. But look around it—this place is changing, the Yaesu side. This building is gone right next to it. Just standing here is the Daikokuya, which is the discount ticket place—a standout, right? They're battling just like a lot of shops in Akihabara and around Tokyo as the city changes. This one's hanging on. If you want to save about $10, you can come across the street from Tokyo Station. There's Tokyo Station right there. You can come across the street to this shop or there are other shops like it, and you can get your ticket even from the vending machine. You can get a Shinkansen ticket at a discounted price. And if you're going to Osaka, I believe it might even be up to $7 off. It's the same ticket for non-reserved, or I think it's up to $10 to some places or $15. It's not a huge savings, but if you buy tickets in bulk, you can get savings. Toyohashi, for example—regular price for juseki (non-reserved seat) is 8,570 yen; here it's 7,900 yen. You save about $5 or $6, which you can put towards a bento. So sometimes if you don't have a Japan Rail Pass and you're doing it a la carte, you can save a little bit of money which goes a long way.

00:13:18 John Daub: You only save 300 yen here to Mishima, which is where Mt. Fuji starts to come into view really clearly. But let's see how much you save all the way to Hiroshima—that's like a five-hour Shinkansen trip. Regular price to Hiroshima if you get shuseki (reserved seat) is 19,440 yen; you can save about $14. Juseki is about the same, so it's not huge savings. It just depends on the place. Sometimes it's for reserved seats, so you can get about $18 off. Pretty cool. If you have a ticket with extra days, you can sell your remaining days to them, and they will sell it to other people. I used to sell my Seishun 18 Kippu (youth 18 ticket, five-day unlimited local train pass). I would sell the remaining days while there was still a couple weeks left, and they would give me a couple thousand yen depending on how many days—not insignificant.

00:15:00 John Daub: This street used to have a lot of trees. They used to call it Sakura-dori (Cherry Blossom Street). But do you see what they've done? They've removed a lot of the sakura trees. There used to be a Starbucks right here that was so popular—they didn't have any inside Tokyo Station for a long time, about 10 or 15 years ago. But there was a Starbucks here that's no longer around. This whole block has been totally destroyed. And to celebrate the sakura, they have a little mural here. I guess the sakura is gone. I'm not against cutting down any trees, but I guess they had to do it to make it wider for the new buildings coming in, which is sad. The Yaesu side of Tokyo Station is changing quite a bit.

00:16:08 John Daub: The good thing about urban progress is that it does make better buildings which stand up better to earthquakes. A lot of these being torn down were built in the Showa era, which were not at the same standards as we expect today. After going through a massive earthquake, I can tell you it really gives you peace of mind to know your building was built in a new era. Japan buildings don't typically last that long—they were made of wood. Every time there's a fire—and Japan's had so many—they just rebuild. So you won't find too many ancient buildings; the ones you do notice were rebuilt or renovated every 20 or 50 years. Even Kiyomizudera, with history going back to the year 700 or 800, they redo it every 50 years—they did that a couple years ago.

00:17:18 John Daub: Here's where the sakura trees start again. It's kind of sad to see that. So was that block demolished due to COVID downturn or was it scheduled? It was scheduled—they removed these sakura trees, cherry blossom trees, before the pandemic started. So I believe it was all planned. This section is sort of what the street looked like. And in the spring, this stretch is still super beautiful. But this is what it looks like with urbanization—no more cherry blossoms. Maybe they'll replant them; I would hope so. Construction going on for a while longer.

00:18:18 John Daub: This is the Yaesu entertainment area. You'll find a lot of izakaya (pubs) in better times—lots of salarymen out there drinking after work, spending their hard-earned cash on booze because the boss demands it. Or the liver does, I don't know. I've noticed a lot of vending machines are no longer putting the actual cans but putting cutouts. I'm against this—I guess it's a measure to save money. But this Coca-Cola machine does it old style.

00:19:14 John Daub: Non-sugar tea—I thought all teas were non-sugar. Gonna have to skip it. And this freaks people out too—you get these small bottles of Coca-Cola. This is half the size of that, but only 30 yen more. So I will buy this because you get twice as much. But Japanese will say, I don't want a lot of Coca-Cola—it's too sweet. I want this because I don't want to waste it and throw it away. So when they think like that, they're actually saving 30 yen. That's pretty interesting, right? Or you'll see a can of Coca-Cola at 120 yen, which is more for less, and people still buy the small one because they don't want to drink the full can. The concept of mottai nai (what a waste). In Japan, when you go to an all-you-can-eat place, you can tell who's Japanese by how much they have on their plate. The Japanese take what they need and won't take one bit more. If you're from other countries, I make a mountain—and I could go back, but there's something about a buffet that makes you want to create Mount Fuji.

00:21:16 John Daub: All right, I'm leaving number two right here. Oh look, he's actually floating. Keep going little buddy. I know that this is going to have a lot more water in about 30 minutes. So if you're in Tokyo, come and find this little guy. He looks a little lonely. You're going to be fine, and if it does rain a little bit more, dude, you're going to go on a trip of your life. You will be going on quite an adventure should it rain more. Fingers crossed.

00:22:41 John Daub: Wow, this line goes around the block. This is a restaurant, Tsunahachi Gyu (?). They must have something really good in there. I'm going to have to try this with Kanae Daub later on. I can't even recognize this street. Holy macaroni—I can't believe it. I haven't been down this street for quite a while. This whole street, which was an entertainment district, completely destroyed and taken down. What are they building here? Like an Aeon Mall or some sort of mega complex—I don't know, this is sort of a big deal.

00:24:31 John Daub: I'm in freaking shock—this street entertainment district of Yaesu destroyed. I should change the live stream title. I had no idea—the Showa era is done; Reiwa has started on this side. I'm absolutely in shock. You know what? I need a drink. Let's go get a drink. I saw a little vending machine corner over here. Follow the duck—check this out, vending corner down an alley. It's a good place for a mugging, but we're in Japan so you're not gonna get mugged here. Oh my gosh, look at the prices—everything's slashed to 100 yen at this vending machine. So I guess these drinks are suspect or they don't have marketing, so the prices are lower. Polka is a very popular one. I've already tried this green tea—it was okay. There's a white cafe latte, probably mostly milk. This is the Miracle Body, like a weird health drink with lots of vitamins—I guess it'd be like CC Lemon although it doesn't taste the same. Ramune Pet—sparkling or ramune, ramu pet. Kelpi's sounds like cow piss, which you know, don't know. Lifeguard is also interesting—it's like the Mountain Dew of Japan, but usually had with fatigue colors on it like it was part of the military. Peach and zakuro (pomegranate)—oh they got another Lifeguard here, smaller one. That's what I'm talking about—check this out, this is a 350 milliliter Lifeguard for the same price you can get a PET bottle of 500 milliliters, but people buy that because they don't want to waste it. Ton is so good—this juice is really good.

00:30:16 John Daub: It's only 100 yen—it can't be that good. If it worked, you'd think they'd jack it up a little bit. It's a little teeny can of Monster—don't they come in bigger cans? I thought they came in Monster-sized cans. Honestly, I didn't see anything I gotta try. What do you think? Tell me what I should get. Conan Cider—mystery can, it won't tell you what it's like but gives a QR code. This is the imitation version of Bikkle, which is called Yobik (?). Every time I try something new, it makes me sick. Mystery can—Conan. Okay, I don't want to drink the Miracle Body because I know what it tastes like—it tastes like sugar. Oh! This tastes like Pez. You know Pez dispensers, the candy? It tastes like they melted Pez with added sugar. It's that sweet—kids love it.

00:32:28 John Daub: All right, let's go for it—mystery can, everybody. With a name like Miracle Body it has to be good for you. Conan Cider from Daido drinks. Oh and they do have ichigo ole (strawberry ole)—it's pretty good, I was surprised. Fizz first—we have to give it the smell test. It tastes like melted Pez in carbonated water with some vanilla extract, which makes it mysterious—which is perfect for Conan. No it's not good—I can't drink this. Yeah I know it's mottai nai but people told me to do it and I did. Toss it. Let's get out of here—the line tripled.

00:35:36 John Daub: Standing in line does not make much of an interesting live stream. I remember once I saw delicious street food and waited in line during a live stream for 15 minutes and it ended up not that good. Sometimes it doesn't pay to stand in line. What you do is make another live stream titled "Standing in Line for 15 Minutes"—let's see if anybody watches. That place looks like it was lost in time. I hope they don't rip down all these buildings, but I have a feeling they might not be here in a couple months. I'm in shock that this whole street is gone—used to be such a vibrant little Showa-feeling alley, now it's history.

00:39:20 John Daub: To get back here—a quick comment, I was trying to get you into the chat for the unnerving question of this video shirt. These are some of the unnerving questions we asked last night. Late for an appointment at the doctor's office, I had to get creative and walk around the block to find a better place to catch one of these taxis. By the way, these taxis are amazing—they take all credit cards now. You just put the credit card in a machine in the back where you sit. You push a panel that says cash or credit card or IC card. If it's credit card, you shove it into the monitor and it approves—no signing. The receipt prints out in the front and the driver gives it to you. Couldn't believe how quick it is. In the past, Japanese taxi drivers had this little thing connected to a cell phone that sometimes didn't work with credit cards, and if you didn't have cash you were in bad shape. Now these taxis are equipped with everything—really amazing what they have in the back seats. I prefer to ride in these cabs because it's so much more spacious in the back and fits the stroller good.

00:41:00 John Daub: We're walking back towards Tokyo Station and I'll take you back—we'll see if that duck is still there after 40 minutes. I like cruising around the streets and finding interesting things. Each one of these probably has a very interesting story. Gosh, I can't read too much of that—looks like some sort of dentist maybe looking at children. This building here was very significant historically in front of Tokyo Station. Sometimes stopping for a second and checking it out, you'll learn something fascinating about the city. Yaesu-chika is also a place down in the basement here—this is an Indian restaurant which is super good down there. Peter von Gomm showed me it—I can smell it. Amazing, I didn't know they tore down that whole side, and it seems like this building behind the net somehow survived. There's always a couple of holdouts. This used to be the whole Yaesu entertainment district—gone. Unbelievable—I used to hang out here, get lots of drinks here.

00:43:01 John Daub: There's a restaurant—a friend named Megumi showed me a place she used to frequent. It was one of the few places in Tokyo that still had sake casks made in hinoki (Japanese cedar), so the sake would take the flavor of the wood. When you drink it, you feel like you're back in the countryside of Japan. Daikokuya is over there—I really hope it's still there. I'm gonna get on my bicycle and go by to make sure. It's so secret, although it's been on Tokyo TV maybe half a dozen times because it's really good. I took my friends Simon and Martina there once and they tried kusaya (dried fermented fish) for the first time. Kusaya is really stinky fish—very famous in the Tokyo Islands. Ordered it, brought it out, and you should have seen Martina and Simon's faces—they were in pain. Martina said, "Who farted?" It smelled that bad. You can't get it off your fingers either—you pick it up by your fingers. I tried Lava soap, couldn't get the smell off. You could probably put acid on your fingers—it seeps into your blood or something. It's not something you want to bring on the Shinkansen and eat. Although if you did, that might be a pretty funny practical joke. Shimoda-shi a couple stations from here is also very famous for it—older dudes like to eat it. I guess you lose your sense of smell when you get older so you need something with a kick. Nobody ate it, but you could sure smell it. If you come to Japan, you have to try kusaya just for the experience. It'll wake you up—or put you to sleep. Depends on how you react.

00:45:51 John Daub: Before I end it, I wanted to take some of your questions concerning the rainy season. Unfortunately, the duck did not survive—oh wait! I thought somebody had taken him, but he has fallen over. How did he move? He's a victim. I gotta set him right. I think he's safer here. Why did the duck cross the road? Do you have any questions about the rainy season? I'm happy to answer them because this is a time a lot of people try not to travel, but it could be a pretty good time to travel. Japan is awesome as always.

00:47:51 John Daub: Best weather app for Japan, especially during rainy season? The one people use the most might be Yahoo! Tenki—tenki means weather. T-E-N-K-I. You don't have to install the app; any weather app will work. iOS 15 has a pretty amazing one. Is it okay if I fly to Japan early July or August? Not this year, but if you come next year, I'll be there. You're probably better off early because it gets very crowded in August. I do not recommend August—it's miserable, like going outside in an oven. You just start basting in your own sweat. Nothing good about it.

00:49:13 John Daub: When is the best time to climb Mount Fuji? The best time is July 1st, the first day it starts. Why? Because climbing Mount Fuji can be like a long line at Disney World—it snakes all the way to the top. About 20 years ago when I first climbed it, not that crowded. Now it's ridiculous because of foreign tourism. Pick a trail that's more challenging—there'll be less people. Pick the Fujinomiya one and you'll have a line all the way. Bring your own food. Even in July, it's freezing cold up top—bring down jackets, you'll thank me. Even in August height, there's snow on top.

00:50:32 John Daub: Official typhoon season? Heaviest from middle of July till October—I'd say September and October are the worst. But they can hit anytime from end of June to beginning of November. How's the situation in Atami? They're in recovery mode with really good people searching for anybody buried. That's the worst because it's not just water—it's mud. For anybody who didn't see the tragedy in Atami yesterday, it was caused by the rainy season—devastating.

00:52:06 John Daub: Rainy season in Tokyo unofficially starts around June 10th and goes till about the third week of July. But it still rains a week before and after—it can rain anytime. The monsoons bring rain. At this time, I'm wearing a jacket—it's wet and cool. Although you've heard how humid Tokyo summer is, it's very true—it starts around Olympics time, idiotic to start July 23rd. But look, it can be chilly—right now there's wind, I got goosebumps. I'm not dressed enough. Most people wear long pants and long sleeves. Everybody has a raincoat or jacket except Westerners who underdress. If you forget your raincoat and need long-sleeve stuff, Uniqlo in Ginza has a department for people that are cold all the time—they stock fleeces, sweaters. They know Japanese might travel to Argentina or Australia and need it, and online shop too.

00:53:17 John Daub: There you have it, everybody. Thanks so much for the questions. Save the duck and I'll click the like button. Hashtag trending on Twitter—I'm on Twitter, by the way. Thanks everybody, have a good day, good night wherever you are. I really appreciate spending your afternoon with me walking around Tokyo. I'm going to be doing a lot more of this, especially during the Olympics. You're going to want to hit subscribe—I'll bring you to all the venues and events you can't go to because nobody's coming to Tokyo. But I'm here. Stay dry.