00:00:01 John Daub: This is Ginza in the heart of Tokyo. Check it out. Beautiful summer, sunny day. The streets, they say here, are lined with gold. A lot of the highest class luxury shops are here. They want to have a location here in Ginza. And almost 50 years ago to the day, July 20th, 1971, at this shop that I'm panning to right here, Mitsukoshi Department Store, the first McDonald's in Japan opened, starting an era that is still going on today. This is getting close to the 50th anniversary. The spot of the McDonald's is right over there.

00:00:34 John Daub: We're going to cross the street on a green light, and I'm going to take you to exactly where that is. But this is what it looked like in 1971. Check that out. It was crowded. This is the first McDonald's in Japan. Look at all the people, the golden arches. And I'll show you this picture again, but a lot of people didn't think that that McDonald's in Japan would last more than a month. There was a lot of skepticism.

00:01:05 John Daub: In this episode, I'm going to be taking you on a trip down memory lane for a lot of you that might have been here in 1971, and also take you to the closest McDonald's now and explain why McDonald's is no longer here, right at this intersection. And the menu changes and all that and talk about how important McDonald's is to me as an American, because there's always emotional stories of expats coming here, missing home and then heading to a McDonald's. Now, you'll see pictures on the Internet where you can see the entrance to the metro station. It's still there. The same exact location in some of the pictures. This pole is still here.

00:01:55 John Daub: Of course, it's new, but they put it in the exact same spot. And it was these two right here. That was where the McDonald's was. That's pretty cool. It doesn't look anything like it does right now. Of course, there's been renovations. This is the most luxurious intersection. In fact, I think there's some pictures with this is a different sign up here. Now it says Rico, but the shape of that hasn't changed.

00:02:16 John Daub: Again, a lot of renovations happened to the city of Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics. How you doing, everybody? It's really cool. I wanted to bring you to this spot. Hold on a second. I wanted to bring you to this spot because it is pretty hot today. It is like a sauna here in Japan. The summers are pretty awful. And I can imagine the weather was pretty much the same in 1971 when they opened up the first McDonald's at this spot.

00:02:43 John Daub: I think it was Den Fujita who was the entrepreneur who brought McDonald's here. He's also responsible for bringing Toys "R" Us to Japan, which still operates in this country, although I believe it's bankrupt in the United States. So he's a very smart businessman, very savvy. He opened the shop here and check it out here. I got some pictures as well from the 1971 opening here. But he opened the shop in Ginza for a reason. When things happen in Ginza, the whole country hears about it. It's really important. And it's true.

00:03:15 John Daub: If we look back at this photograph, you can see it is so crowded. But how they open this store is extraordinary. It's extremely interesting. They only had 39 hours to open this up in 1971 because they didn't want to interfere with the operation of the department store. This was a takeout only McDonald's. You would get your food and eat it on the street. That is very odd in Japan. A lot of videos have been made about things not to do in this country. And eating and walking is one of them.

00:04:02 John Daub: However, that concept of eating and walking is a very foreign thing. And that played into McDonald's as being an exotic kind of food. If you look around Ginza here, you have restaurants that have extremely high price tags. You can't eat a meal at a nice restaurant here for under $100. Well, maybe you could. But I think it's really hard because the rent is so high here. You have to have very expensive food in order to pay off your rent or have volume. And that's what McDonald's could do.

00:04:28 John Daub: Nowadays, Mitsukoshi does not have any fast food restaurants. In fact, you won't find fast food restaurants in Ginza either. Alright, let me take you here. Over the course of this livestream, I'm going to take you to... Let's go into the shade. I'm going to take you to the closest McDonald's. And we're going to take a look at a burger that they brought back for the anniversary that's still here.

00:04:50 John Daub: Alright, this is a picture of the opening of the McDonald's in 1971. They closed the street down in Ginza. And another strategic reason why I think Den Fujita picked this location is they closed the street. You see the cars driving on it now. On Saturday and Sunday, it closes down. Now, we're in a state of emergency and I wanted to come here at that time. But these streets are not closed down on the weekends because of the state of emergencies. So it didn't matter if I did it on the 20th or on the weekend.

00:05:15 John Daub: But on the weekends, it's always looked like this. It's very easy to see people ordering the food for takeout and then eating it on the street. Very un-Japanese, but they did it. So when people get angry or people chime in on the chats and say, you shouldn't walk and eat in Japan. That's very true. It's considered to be somewhat rude. But people did it. Alright, here's the proof. That's the McDonald's in 1971. The street right here where we are. Very cool.

00:05:54 John Daub: Literally, because we're in the shadows here. You can see just how crowded it got. It was very popular. Because everybody had heard about McDonald's Japan. They had a really good marketing campaign. Of course, it was here in Ginza. So Tokyo was a buzz. And when Tokyo is buzzing, the whole country is buzzing. In this picture, you can see the menu was bilingual. They had a Filet-O-Fish there. But they also had like English on the left and then Japanese on the right.

00:06:20 John Daub: So I'm sure every single expat that was in Japan tried to find a way to get to Tokyo to eat at this McDonald's. Just like I did when Starbucks opened here in 1998. Maybe a little bit earlier than that. There weren't that many. But I traveled pretty far to just get a coffee. And just because when you went there, you kind of felt like you were at home. And that's this place right here. It's really amazing when you look back at history in the photos and see how so much of it has changed.

00:07:00 John Daub: But they had to open up the store in 39 hours. There's some pictures I believe were taken from the third floor of Kimuraya Pan. You see right there? Kimura. So there's some good pictures. That shop's been here since the Meiji era, I believe, for a very long time. So you can get some shots of the McDonald's in 1971. You'll see some pictures on the internet if you search it. This is the spot right here. They had 39 hours. They started on a Sunday. They finished on a Monday, which was a holiday. And then they were opened up for business.

00:07:31 John Daub: They didn't disturb the operation of Mitsukoshi, which is a very posh department store inside there. It was genius. Nowadays, you won't find any fast food on Chuo Dori (central street), which is the street right here in Ginza. Mainly because the Ginza Association, they're very strict with the smells on the street. I'm going to give you an example. Straight ahead, one of the skyscrapers is a store. I don't know if it's still that same shop. It was Abercrombie & Fitch. And they opened up their shop, I don't know, was it like 2008 or something?

00:08:04 John Daub: Really, really popular. Popular brand in the United States. I don't shop in U.S. shopping malls. I'm here in Japan. But they had this thing where they were pumping out their perfume scent onto the streets of Ginza to get people in there. And the Ginza neighborhood association made a stink, so to speak. They complained and they had to stop pumping out their smell into the street. Now, of course, Tsukiji was nearby at that time. So you would get the smells of the fish market coming into Ginza, which isn't good. Another reason they might have moved it over to Toyosu a couple of kilometers away.

00:08:44 John Daub: But that's how sensitive the neighborhood here in Ginza is with the shops that they have. So you won't find any fast food on Chuo Dori anymore because it ruins the image of the shops. Now, there are some inexpensive shops like Uniqlo and they're more budget friendly. That's opening up. But I think it's still very hard for a fast food restaurant to open up. And with that said, there is near Ichome one Yoshinoya, which many people consider gyudon (beef bowl) to be Japanese fast food. Super interesting.

00:09:19 John Daub: I want to take you around Ginza now and to the closest McDonald's that they have here. It's actually not that close. Captain Anarok writes in here, John, haven't slept at all last night and I have to work in two hours. Wish me luck. Good luck. I think I'll have McDonald's for lunch. Good call. Hi, Craig Kawaguchi. Nice to have you here. So this location, whenever I walk by it and I hope now that you know that this is where I just started the Naked Director.

00:09:51 John Daub: It's a show that's going to get you hooked. Really good history in there. Never mind the content, which is pretty good, too. This is the location. And every time I walk past it, I'm always reminded of the pictures of the first McDonald's. And when I came here, almost I've been in Japan for now. This is my twenty fourth year. I've always been here for half of the time that McDonald's has been here. And when I came here, the legend of the McDonald's here was still quite strong.

00:10:18 John Daub: But they had to move this location. The rent is astronomical. And after they made a big buzz, they could start to expand the stores. They started to drive-thru. They started to change the menus. McDonald's has had up and down times here in Japan. But it still reigns supreme. And many people consider McDonald's Japan to be the best of the best when it comes to McDonald's international menus, including that in the United States, which is crazy because I have a lot of friends who eat a lot of McDonald's and they come to Japan and they say this is really good and better than the US.

00:10:53 John Daub: So they eat McDonald's a lot when they come here, which I think personally is kind of a shame. But I can kind of understand it because if you're comparing McDonald's in Japan to the McDonald's in America, the quality here, they say, is really, really good. Oh, there's a Kimura Pan truck. That's kind of cool. I don't see that too often. I guess they're literally taking it from the bakery in the shop over to the truck for delivery. That's pretty cool.

00:11:24 John Daub: This street has, I don't know, I guess has changed a lot. Over the 23, 24 years I've been in Japan, I know that all of these department stores have had renovations, have scaffolding on them and come out looking a lot cleaner. This is the Matsuya Ginza. And it has more glass outside to it. And the Mitsukoshi has, I guess you can see like aluminum on the side of it. It has changed a lot. And if you compare it to the pictures on the Internet of McDonald's 50 years ago, you can see the exterior of the building is quite different.

00:12:01 John Daub: But there's some things that are the same, like where the windows are located, where the light posts are, where the entrance to the subway is. So you can still see that this is where the spot where the first McDonald's was. It's very cool. How you doing, everybody? Don't forget to click that like button. This is a live stream. And I'm going to put a chapter playlist so you can go right to the food if you want. You can skip around the video.

00:12:32 John Daub: I will be back in this direction. But let's go check out now down Chuo Dori to the closest McDonald's from here. Now there's another one. There's two McDonald's in the area. They're not as close as they used to be. One is down there at the intersection going towards Yurakucho. That one has seats in it. The one we're going to is mostly standing and sort of resembles the one that they had here. At least I think it does. I haven't been there in a very long time. Used to be takeout only.

00:13:20 John Daub: Wow. It's a really big shame that a lot of people can't come here this summer for the Olympics because the city is so big. The city of Tokyo has finished a lot of its renovations. A lot of the things that were under construction for the last five, six years are now complete or just about complete. The scaffolding is going away. Shibuya Station is so pretty now. I know it's going to blow away some people when they make their way to Japan for the first time in a few years. You'll see a lot of changes on the ground here.

00:13:57 John Daub: Boy, I'm starting to sweat through. This is just the start. This is like all sweat now. This is just the start of Japanese summer. It's going to get even worse. I think NBC is going to figure out really quickly why the 1964 Olympics were held in October. October 10th to October 24th. Not in July and August, which is kind of crazy. This intersection might be the priciest now. You've got Louis Vuitton on one side. There's Bvlgari. Cartier. And Chanel. Right here on the intersection. Pretty crazy. A lot of money. And it smells like luxury.

00:14:55 John Daub: This is also a street where you will see people wearing traditional kimonos too. So you're going to take a right here. And we're getting close to the first McDonald's. We can take a look at the menu. Now McDonald's brought back a burger that I don't eat a lot of McDonald's here. But I'm kind of glad that they are here. And they've survived. Because it's kind of, especially the first few years that I lived here, comforting to see the golden arches as an American. Thinking I'm not that far away from America. Although I'm really far away from America. I could always just get a burger. And it tasted pretty much the same. And that for a lot of expats can make you feel a little closer to home.

00:15:47 John Daub: I'm going to take a left here. This is the Kit Kat Chocolatory. Where you can get bizarre Kit Kat flavors. Including an 18 year old whiskey Kit Kat. I think you can only get that online though. The rent in this area is sky high. So if you want to do business, you have to be very, very successful. Like Starbucks here, which has a roastery. It's not any Starbucks. That is a high class Starbucks. Where the coffee is just a little bit more expensive. Because it's in Ginza.

00:16:37 John Daub: I know there was a Starbucks at Hachiko. In Shibuya at the Scramble. And they had small size coffee. And you won't find that anywhere else. Just S size. Really small cups of coffee. And they charge the same price of that as a normal cup of coffee. I guess because the rent there is ridiculous. But they've been at that location for quite a while. When I came to Japan, they weren't there though. Can't recall what it was in the late 1990s. But Starbucks, when they got that spot, they never let it go. I don't think they ever will let it go. Alright, here is the Golden Arches. The closest one from the original location.

00:17:19 John Daub: And it is pretty much just a walk in and get your food. McDonald's no longer is... This is a strange thing. I don't know if it's just McDonald's Japan. But they now make the food to order. That means you order it and then they make it for you. Used to be where they just had a bunch of cheeseburgers and you get it. They put it in a bag and you're out of there in 30 seconds. Doesn't work like that anymore. Sometimes you can wait up to 5 minutes outside as they make your burger. But the menu that they have here is really good in Japan.

00:17:55 John Daub: Now, you stay away from me, pigeon. These birds are crazy. Now, I'm gonna get this burger here. They had this... I guess it was 2005 or 2006. It was called the Texas Burger. Do you see this? This is my favorite burger. This is the only burger I ever got again. Besides, you know, Big Mac. But I haven't ordered that in maybe 20 years. The Texas Burger... I guess it's because it has bacon sticking out of it and it's bigger. I don't know, a quarter pounder maybe. I don't know. The sauce on it was really good.

00:18:34 John Daub: So I'm gonna get this. They also have a Teritama, which is a triple decker. And a spicy chicken, which is new. And this is sort of like the 50th anniversary menu for McDonald's. It's pretty bizarre. Yeah, I hope the signal is doing okay. So I'm gonna go in and order it. And then I might get these red Chicken McNuggets, which are kind of unique. Chicken McNuggets came to Japan in 1984. I remember because I saw a commercial about it. But 1984, and they've been a favorite here since. So I'm gonna go order it. And then it's gonna take some time. We'll be able to talk about it out here. Alright, let's go.

00:19:29 John Daub: [Ordering at counter, partially in Japanese] Texas Burger. Texas? Yes, half bottle? Half a bottle? Um... 520 yen. Do you have red McNuggets? No. Oh, you don't? Then is it the Texas Burger? Yes. You can bring it home. Oh, you can bring it home. Yes. 450 yen. Yes. 370 yen. Then this one? Yes, this one. Alright.

00:20:08 John Daub: So we wait here for a little bit as we wait for the order to come. I'm order 177. They're out of red McNuggets. I probably should have gotten a drink.

00:21:06 John Daub: [Receiving order] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:23:03 John Daub: There's kind of a bench here. We're going to have a seat and try it. No free smile. I'm sure if you ask, they will give you a free smile. And if you're not satisfied, I'll smile for you and don't worry about it. I got you covered here. All right, this is the Texas burger. I'm going to put a tripod down on it. And by the way, shout out to Crystal in Winnipeg, Canada. This postcard's going out to you from Ginza. I'll put it in the mailbox if I can. We have here the Pikachu with the Cherry Blossom stamp on there. So, I hope you like that one.

00:23:47 John Daub: Yeah, Texas burger was the one burger that I actually liked from McDonald's. And I think there's a good chance that this might be one of their most popular ever. They had this, I think it was about 15 years ago. Hold on, I look like Abraham Lincoln. They had this American campaign of burgers. And when the Texas one came out, it just had a lot of buzz, even back in the, like, 10, 15 years ago. And I don't know, I remember eating more than one of them. Going back and saying, I kind of like that one. And I don't really eat a lot of McDonald's.

00:24:29 John Daub: All right, this is interesting here. So, for the 50th anniversary, McDonald's has sort of changed the packaging here. I guess it does look like it did in 1971. Check that out. But it's 1971 that we are very interested in. So, before I eat, again, this is a picture of McDonald's in 1971. Pretty crazy, right? That's the first McDonald's. I'll take you back to this exact location and go through this with you again. But this is a commercial from 1971. And it kind of lays out the opening of the first McDonald's in Japan.

00:25:21 John Daub: Check this out. So, you can see, it said Mitsukoshi back then. So, that's where we just were at, the opening of the first McDonald's. Is that Den Fujita, I think? Is that Ray Kroc? That might be, Michael Keaton played the character. 200 yen for a Big Mac back then. I think by inflation, the Big Mac might have been five times the cost of what it was in the United States. This video is actually on YouTube. You can find it, I'll put a link in the description.

00:26:14 John Daub: A lot of people didn't think that McDonald's Japan would stay open for more than a month. They thought it was gonna fail here. Guess what? It's a huge success. And we're going, I'm gonna show you why. All right? It starts with the Texas Burger. At least our story right now. 1970s were cool, that was when I was born. '74. Don't worry it's even hotter now because it's been baking in the sun. Whoa check it out it's... is that a tortilla chip what this isn't this is a revamped texas burger there's a big slice of bacon in there.

00:27:00 John Daub: I don't think that they had this... uh in the... they had this this isn't the first texas burger this is a new version the 2021 version it does it does look good it smells good too. Wow now the buns are the same the same color the same toastedness in there that congealed orange cheese there all right let's let's kind of dissect this thing whoa two pieces of bacon and two corn chips and there's that sauce that was so good before i'm really curious i don't this isn't the same texas burger that i had before.

00:27:44 John Daub: What do you think any good all right itadakimasu oh wow that is good there's some sort of like mustard sauce there on the bottom and on the top there's some sort of barbecue sauce but it tastes just slightly different it's a unique mix like kind of tangy a little bit the saltiness of the cheese and the burger and then some kind of a crunch i like that but again there's bacon on it so it's got to be good yeah this is this is this is awesome look at the sauce on there now this burger was um i guess it'd be about five dollars so just for the burger this set was um uh maybe eight eight dollars i wasn't sure i was gonna eat the whole thing i think i am i think i am.

00:29:37 John Daub: Nagoya John writes in here you have to have another one with Eric serve six i think he got the uh red mcnuggets the other day all right says here uh we have a problem with graffiti stop it just so anyone who is doing the graffiti please uh uh keep in mind that please don't do it okay.

00:30:16 John Daub: I thought that was funny welcome back sorry about that uh that phone overheated it was literally uh like must have been like a thousand degrees in the sun and just suddenly overheated i apologize for that um i finished the texas burger while i was waiting because it it was just too good and had to jump into the convenience store and get a water so i'm going to take you now to the original location for uh mcdonald's japan one more time we're gonna walk the streets of ginza uh now that the phones cool down try to stay in the shadows.

00:30:50 John Daub: I saw a pigeon and there's mitsukoshi the the parking lot is full so cars are sometimes waiting up to a kilometer to try to get into this parking spot there you have better luck on the street i think depends on the weekend it's quite crowded here yeah for those joining us rejoining us after the uh phone overheated uh this is almost to the day i guess we're about five four days out to the 50th anniversary of mcdonald's japan opening up and i thought it would be pretty cool to take you to the original location where they first opened up 50 years ago on chuo dori in the mitsukoshi department store.

00:31:26 John Daub: And i think when you walk by that spot from now on you're going to have to think about what it used to be and the background story once again is super interesting so i'll tell you that uh one more time and then show you socials good water a scorcher out here i'm already drenched in sweat now i'm oozing out barbecue sauce nice on ginza's chuo dori this part of it would be considered like rodeo drive i guess of beverly hills it has that same sort of uh high class appeal.

00:32:28 John Daub: And uh in a couple of blocks we're going to be at that location where the first the the first mcdonald's opened in 1971 and they opened in ginza because den fujita who was the entrepreneur who brought mcdonald's to japan very smart guy who also brought toys r us to japan he knew that ginza was the location to be if you wanted to grow a business because anything that opens here the entire country talks about it and in japan you want that buzz.

00:33:02 John Daub: But what has made mcdonald's japan so successful besides the fact that the quality of the burgers here many of my expat friends from america that visit they say that the burgers here are so much better than the united states i don't know about that, but i can tell you that they say that it's really, really good. And the menu is creative. And it's that creativity that gets people to keep coming back to McDonald's Japan. Japanese would get sick of McDonald's if it had the same kind of menu that it had in the United States. They don't. The menu rotates every month.

00:33:41 John Daub: What the heck? Okay. You saw it here first. First, all kinds of people here during the Olympics. Is that a walking teddy bear? Where's his mask? What? Bizarre. It's all about the mascots. The creativity of McDonald's Japan is what keeps people going back to it. When you have something like a Texas burger, and then you have something like a New Orleans burger, and then you feel like you're traveling around America when you eat at McDonald's Japan. That's pretty cool. Wow, is that a Rolls Royce? Yeah, it is. It's a convertible Rolls. Whoa. Nice. Top down, dude.

00:34:56 John Daub: Apple also knows about the appeal of Ginza. And Apple's first store, I believe, was right here in Ginza as well. And it's still here. Same location. I don't think they're ever going to give it up because it just has that same amount of appeal. What a car. Wow. Ginza Yonchome. That is the intersection right here. And McDonald's Japan has its history at that location right in front of you. So we're back again.

00:35:28 John Daub: Why is Ginza and not in Tokyo? Ginza is Tokyo. It's like an area of the city of Tokyo. There's also McDonald's inside of Tokyo Station too. But you won't find a lot of Japanese eating McDonald's on the Shinkansen. Because, again, one of the reasons why I don't know if the McDonald's here was located at this spot for very long. Maybe for a few years. I wasn't able to see the history on that. But this is the spot. You can see in the pictures, if you search the internet on this, that's the entrance to the subway line, the metro.

00:36:13 John Daub: This light pole has not moved. It's just changed to a new light pole from 1971. But it's still the same. And you can sort of see the windows where the restaurants are. These spaces between the windows are also representative of the McDonald's 1971 shape. Which would be the... These two windows right here. Yeah. So this is where it all started. And now it's back to being a window. But the 1971 McDonald's was just take out. Yeah. You would order and you would eat it on the streets.

00:36:45 John Daub: And for those joining us, I kind of opened up it with this here. But McDonald's in... Let's go into the shadow here. Actually, I'm going to stand exactly where it used to be. This is where 50 years ago people were waiting for burgers. That's sort of cool. You can see people would eat on the street. And this is sort of weird. Right? They're drinking and eating right out on the street. But this became very fashionable. And since then, on the weekends, like everybody says, don't walk and eat in Japan. That's true. Unless it's McDonald's.

00:37:27 John Daub: People are walking and eating and ordering from the menu there. They had apple pie. They had McShake. They had, you know, cheeseburger, hamburger. Big Mac. Filet-O-Fish. Very basic menu, but it worked. And over time, they opened up breakfast. 1984 was the McNuggets. And they innovated. But it wasn't until about the time when I came to Japan. McDonald's didn't have breakfast outside of Tokyo, the urban areas. Because American breakfast wasn't so popular.

00:38:11 John Daub: There's something going on there. Just wait for the... It's a live stream. Hey, Raymond Centeno, cold drink for yourself and your phone. It totally needs it. I'm on fire. As I was saying, the menu is here. Now, what gets people to come to McDonald's Japan is its creativity. It's innovation. It takes what is just a burger and it does something to it that makes it super interesting. Like you've seen with the Texas burger. But they just didn't take the old Texas burger that I ate in 2005. They took the American Wide menu. They took that burger and they put tortilla chips in it. They found a way to make it curious.

00:38:57 John Daub: And if you can do that in Japan and innovate, you're going to get people here to try it at least once. If you can get them in the door once, you can get them in the door again. Because they're going to fall in love with your product. Which is why I think the quality of the burgers here at McDonald's Japan... I guess it is better. Because I'm here all the time. It's hard for me to get here. I don't know how to compare. Maybe smaller. But it's more towards... It's American burgers like McDonald's but more geared towards the Japanese taste.

00:39:21 John Daub: You'll find eggs on the burger. You'll find croquette burgers. You'll find different types of things that are fascinating for Westerners who come here. And they're pretty fascinating, the Japanese too. But if that's what it takes... Oh my gosh. That's weird pants. It looks like that could come from 1971. That's why I showed it. I think she's in a time machine. Never saw that before. A lot of first times here. Yeah, and there you go. That's Mitsukoshi. And this is where it all started.

00:40:13 John Daub: That was rude, John. Well, that's who I am. A little bit of PVG can rub off on all of us. Not going to complain. No one notices what I wear. This is the lion and you should take note of the mask wearing. We are in a pandemic. And it is important to... No, George, I'm not going to follow her. Oh, come on. Now that would be rude. Right? I don't know where she went anyway. So I guess the option is gone. Behave yourselves.

00:41:07 John Daub: Any questions about the history? I'm not going to... TDSDR for prize funds. Thank you. I might take another burger back home for lunch. And if Kanae wants a burger, maybe I'll get her something too. We won't tell Mrs. Daub... It's okay. Don't worry about it. It's not what you see in Ginza quite often. Just like the cars, fashion is a big part of this town. What can I say? The McDonald's is not here anymore, but this is the location of where it was at 50 years ago. And I do have a picture here. For those that are joining us, it looked like this. Just totally crazy.

00:42:03 John Daub: The Ginza still shuts down the streets like this. It's just not the same without a McDonald's. And you have to bring your own foods. However, I have been a big fan of this shop, Kimuraya Pan, for a long time. And they have the best shrimp... How do we say? Ebikatsu sando (shrimp cutlet sandwich). Like shrimp deep-fried shrimp cutlet sandwich. Whoa. Gotta be quicker. They've got great ebikatsu sando. It's a sando inside there. And totally... You could eat... I often would eat... Get one of those and eat it on the street because they would have picnic tables out here on the weekends.

00:42:43 John Daub: I believe it starts on the weekends from 12 to 5 p.m. Get here at 12 if you want to snag a table and make sure you get one. And you can sit there and relax and watch people pass you by for a couple of hours. It's really nice. You can get a coffee and just enjoy it right on the street. Chuo Ward, which is the ward that I live in... This is my backyard. Sets this all up for people. And it's pretty cool. Yeah.

00:43:10 John Daub: So, thanks so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty fun to take a trip on memory lane. And for those of you that can't make it to Japan and celebrate McDonald's 50th anniversary, you know, by being here, this stream might help fill in that... Fill in the gap. So get your bell bottoms on. Grow out your hair. Don't shave for a week. Get those sideburns longer. Learn disco. And have a burger. And you too can be back in 1971. Pretty cool.

00:43:41 John Daub: Hit that like button if you like this kind of live stream. And I will bring you back on another one probably tomorrow. It's a weekend. There's a lot of stuff to show you. In fact, I found a couple of really interesting stories too as I edit the next main channel episode and get that ready for release pretty soon. Take care, everybody. Have a good day. All right. I left my bike at the other place. Got a kind of a far walk. Got to go all the way back there. If you want to talk about this further, share some pictures and stories, you can go to the Discord server. It's 24-7 only in Japan talking about stuff. A lot of people sharing their old stories. This is an idea that came from viewers who shared it with me. See you, everybody.