00:00:04 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Jimbocho, this neighborhood. It's got a lot of history. It's also got a lot of cafes. In this episode, I'm going to take you around this very interesting area in the center of Tokyo, just a few days before the Olympics. In that direction is Tokyo Dome, where the Tokyo Giants play baseball. You can see the roller coaster part of an amusement park in that direction.

00:00:29 John Daub: This is also a famous place for anybody who loves manga, Japanese manga. This is where Shueisha is, where they've been publishing Shonen Jump since its start. Greetings and welcome to the streets of Tokyo. I love this neighborhood. I'm really excited to bring you into this area. I haven't gotten a chance to come in this direction much the last year because of the pandemic. I had to come here to get some forms for my company registration to change my data plan to 5G—it's kind of a hassle. Since I'm here, it's time to take you to Jimbocho. I've done this before; we're going to do it again. It's a nice day.

00:01:00 John Daub: In this direction is Yasukuni Shrine, about 400 meters straight ahead. The station is called Kudanshita. This area, Jimbocho, between Suidobashi Station—which is JR—and Jimbocho here, that's also where Meiji University and a lot of universities are. It's a nice place to come. It's very close to Ochanomizu, also a very famous university town. We're going to go in this direction. Beautiful, hot summer July day here in Tokyo. Starting to feel it. I'm sweating through my mask.

00:01:54 John Daub: Here's the exit that you probably want to come out of—it's got the Mita Line (the I with the blue circle), the Shinjuku Line (lime green), and the Hanzomon Line (purple Z). They all come to this station. This is exit A7. So this is the way to get here. Boy, I'm really thirsty. Let's see if we can get a vending machine drink before we start. Oh, check it out—Coca-Cola has the Olympic Tokyo 2020 Coca-Cola design. That's pretty cool. I see everybody starting to check in, writing where they're from. How cool is that?

00:02:40 John Daub: Look at that—they got coffee, non-sugar tea. I like that. I don't like this drink because they put salt in it; there's too much salt, and I don't know why they put it in carbonated water. Kind of weird. All right, this is just cold water. That looks like my cup of tea, so to speak. Hey there, Jennifer French from Round Rock, Texas, checking in. This doesn't take coins—only takes Suica. I like that, non-touch. They put a cap where the coins would go. Because there's no coins, there's a five-yen discount. All right, I'm cool with that. No touch. Fine with me. Boom. Nice cold water.

00:03:39 John Daub: I thought the place was on a major lockdown. That's not true. A state of emergency is not a lockdown—a lockdown is Australia. In Japan, we have something completely different. There's people walking around. That means it's okay. A lot of people walking around. Now, this alley here, which is very narrow, it goes on for a couple hundred meters. I'm going to take you the whole way.

00:04:07 John Daub: This is Sabouru 2. It's kind of a mouthful. They call it a parlor; it's really a cafe. Back in the Showa period, coffee houses weren't so popular. Coffee was sort of a Western thing. These were some of the first coffee houses in the city of Tokyo. You can see it's got a very retro design. But the one next door is even cooler—Sabouru 1. These cafes are actually closed. Hopefully the signal can stay strong. This one is super cool. Check it out—the way they just use the wood to make some sort of... it looks like you're going inside of a hut. Right now, they're renovating it, so it's not open, which is a shame. But maybe we can get a quick look inside. You can see all the chairs. All of the interior is made of... it's kind of uneven. It has such amazing character. The outside has a lot of artifacts, like a totem pole.

00:05:36 John Daub: What is that music? Let's go investigate. I hear music. You have to move quickly in the city of Tokyo. Sometimes you'll hear loudspeakers and you don't know what it is. All right, back to the cafe. There's a link in the description for a Google map if you want to see where we are right now. But there's a main street, and then right here, and then there are alleys. Lots and lots of alleys here. And the alleys are an attraction. We'll let the umbrella guy go—you don't see that often.

00:06:37 John Daub: Anybody know what these are called right here in the window? Two points if you know. By the way, if Cobra Bebop is here, I sent you a message on Patreon—please check that. All right, I'm going to go to this corner and look back on the Sabouru cafes. It's really cool. This is the thumbnail for this episode. I've been eating here for decades—20 years I've been coming to this cafe. Inside there is some of the cheapest and most amazing lunches. They're super good, just like home cooking. Probably cost you about $10 for coffee and lunch. It's pretty cheap. I don't know how they stay in business—history? But it's quite busy, and there can be a line. So come a little bit before noon if you're thinking about eating lunch there.

00:07:47 John Daub: I know these alleys, these places, because I've filmed this for NHK two times for Tokyo Eye since 2008 when I started reporting on that show. So I've been in all these cafes. Once you report at one of them and get to know the owners, it's neat to walk in and they remember your name. Sometimes they remember your favorite food and ask if you want the curry rice or the ginger pork or something. The service. Wow, a lot of these businesses are new. Again, Jimbocho is famous for a lot of things: manga with Shueisha, the biggest publisher here in Japan; university life; the cafes; and the curry. I don't know why, but curry is super famous here in Jimbocho. There's a couple of curry shops like Bondi Curry. Bondi is one that's so good—it's got this melted cheese inside the curry. Oh man, getting hungry thinking about it since it's almost lunchtime. But you'll find a lot of these really old cafes. And that's where the charm of this area comes from. That's why I'm glad it's still sort of secret. You don't see a lot of people here.

00:09:31 John Daub: I'm going to take you down this alley next. Ah, wow, I haven't been down here in a long time. Alright, first let's go check out this main street, get our bearings in this part of Jimbocho. This street, if you take a left, will take you past Yasukuni Shrine and eventually to Shinjuku. Famous for curry—they put in a Taco Bell. Interesting. This place is always changing. I think the pandemic has hit a lot of local businesses, mom-and-pop shops. So many of them have been closing. And when they close, usually such amazing locations—chains will come in. I'm not against chains; I'm just for local businesses. And it's sad to see. A lot of these bookshops have been here for generations—three, four, five generation owners. This one here I know is a family business that's been here a long time. We're going to loop around and get a look in there too. Let's go down this alley and check out two more really interesting cafes.

00:11:53 John Daub: This is my favorite place: Radorio. Do you see this sign right up here? Radorio has been here for... I want to say 100 years. The building is old; it is truly an ancient-looking place. You can see this brick exterior—this doesn't match with the neighborhood at all. It's all cement, so it's very unique to have bricks here. Like a lot of businesses in Tokyo, you have all of these plants outside—it gives it this homey feel. The city is not an urban jungle in Tokyo in the alleys; it can feel really home-like because of it. I usually try to sit right here inside the window, right next to the window, because all of these places are still smoking. This is sort of the downside of old cafes—they're still smoking. And when you go in there, there might be some old customers in the back who've been there for decades, coming here almost every day for lunch or coffee. So I like to sit next to the door. If you can, call ahead and reserve a seat sometimes. But this place is very famous because it has the first Wiener coffee—Wiener meaning Viennese coffee with whipped cream on top. They're very proud of that fact. You'll get an amazing cup with freshly whipped cream. It's a little bit more expensive, but yeah—there's something magical about it because it's the first one.

00:13:44 John Daub: I used to come here maybe two, three times a year at least, but I haven't been here in a very long time because of the pandemic. Another reason I didn't ask for permission to film is I know a lot of these places are shut down or taking time off. This is more of a bar but it's been here for a very long time: Mironga. They do have a menu for lunch. It seems like they're closed because of the pandemic. But you can get lunch inside. Look at that sign—it looks so retro. You can come in here for a drink if you want. I just know it's been here a very long time and I don't want it to change. Here's the side of the last cafe—you can see it kind of goes back in there. It looks almost like a shack and it doesn't fit into the modern structures around it. You can see just in the distance a brand new apartment complex. I don't know how long these cafes are going to be here, but I hope it never changes. Radorio, which is my favorite right here—I got to go back in here, and if they're going out of business, please tell me because I want to try to save them. We need them. Again, like when family businesses sell, others will come in here. This is a brand new exterior—used to be an older cafe. Nothing wrong with that; I just don't want to see any of the history leave if we can protect it, preserve it, because Tokyo needs to keep some of its history.

00:15:19 John Daub: You can see the Showa celebrated in this alley—a lot of movie posters and plays and famous actors from back in the day. Feels good, right? I think we need to protect this alley. So if you come to Tokyo, to Japan, make a trip to Jimbocho, especially if your hotel is somewhere between Shinjuku and Asakusa—this is pretty much in between there. Make a stop in Jimbocho and have a coffee and walk these alleys. You're really going to thank me for it later because the images for your Instagram account will be pretty much getting a lot of likes.

00:16:00 John Daub: Alright, this is the main street in this direction. I've taken you out here a couple of times. We're going to go this way now. Very nostalgic location it is. I know a lot of tourists can't come here to Japan. I'm kind of trying to be as much as I can the legs for you, show you around some of the neighborhoods. I'm kind of stuck in Tokyo right now because of the state of emergency, but that doesn't mean I can't take you around and show you some places. Now the streets aren't... there's not a lot of people on the streets. It's not that they can't go out; it's just people are kind of afraid because of the Olympics taking place. There's a lot of uncertainty, and watching the news will make you scared. So I'm switching modes now from "Olympics, please, you shouldn't be taking place" to "okay, you're taking place—can't be helped. Let's try to enjoy this" because I think everybody is kind of a little bit too negative these days. And it's time to pivot and turn into some positivity.

00:18:30 John Daub: This intersection is quite big. That's Meiji University right up here. I believe you don't need any special ID to go and eat at the cafeteria inside there. It's very cheap Japanese cuisine, like curry rice for a dollar fifty and stuff like that. So you might want to check out the Meiji University cafeteria. I'm not sure if they have any security protocols. I've been up there about ten years ago quite often to eat lunch because it was so cheap. But I don't know if that's still available. It's a really pretty intersection right here: Kanda Suzuran Dori—just like the way it kind of winds. On this side, you're going to find a couple more cafes. But if you want to go hunting, I'm not going to ruin the experience for you too much. Go straight to that traffic light, take a left, and you're going to find some more hidden cafes. This side of the street over there seems to be more curry—and it's really good curry, like they've had this recipe for a hundred years. You can smell the curry if you take off your mask. It smells so good.

00:20:41 John Daub: I'd love to eat something on camera, but can I be honest? I'm not that hungry. Peter and I ate so much at Costco yesterday. I haven't been hungry since yesterday's lunch. I came home with a lot of stuff and didn't really want to eat anything for dinner. I'm going to walk to the end of the street. I'll just be quiet for a minute and let you absorb some of the atmosphere of Jimbocho. There's no wind on this side here, so enjoy for the next minute or so cruising down the streets.

00:21:55 John Daub: There is always room for dessert. I love the dynamic of the new and the old coexisting in Tokyo—you can find that here. The thing with the city of Tokyo though, you're starting to lose a lot of that dynamic now. Sensoji Temple, some places that are very historic—you're not gonna lose them, but Tokyo doesn't have much. They don't care too much about preserving stuff in the city; they're cool with tearing it down. Just look at the old Harajuku station—they tore it down and they're gonna build a replica because enough people protested. There's a lot of business people, most of them working in publishing around this area—again because of Shueisha and a lot of other publication houses. Although books and newspapers and periodicals might be decreasing in volume around the world—and they are here in Japan—there's still a lot of people who get a newspaper in the morning. There's still a nice feeling to it. I don't subscribe to a newspaper, but I kind of wish I did just for that feeling of opening something up in the morning with all the online stuff—it's just faster.

00:23:14 John Daub: This is an interesting-looking restaurant—let's take a look at the menu. Ramsey, where's the beer brother? It's not even noon. Oh, this is Thai food. Wow—konnichiwa. This looks really good and it's a set too. You can get an omori size for another 100 yen—you can upgrade to a bigger size. So this is a good place to keep on your map. I love good Thai food. The alleys here are so picturesque. Hope the signal's still strong, everybody.

00:24:26 John Daub: What did Peter call this yesterday? That caught me off guard. Peter called this "manly fart"—FamilyMart, manly fart. I never heard that before. Is that just him or is that a thing? He tried to trick me. He said there's a pandemic 15—there's no such thing because it's the freshman 15, something 15 pounds you gain as a freshman. He's just trying to trick me the whole time, but I'm not buying into that. I can figure out when he's lying—he twitches or something.

00:25:07 John Daub: I would love to live in this apartment here. Wow—this is a new apartment complex. I didn't see this before from this angle, but look at the balconies. It looks really nice. They're on the edge. I wonder what the rent's like. I think Kanae and I could move here—this is so close to the center. I could walk to Tokyo Station here too. I'm sure it's astronomical, just like the building is in size. I'm just kind of still exploring some of the alleys here.

00:27:33 John Daub: I'm going back out to the main street. This is where my bicycle's parked. There are a couple of things I want to show you on this street. The wind's picking up here. There's a very famous curry shop down one of these alleys—I think it's down that way. I'll do a curry livestream next time. This time it's all about cafes and restaurants. The last time I was here was with Jennifer. We did this crazy livestream and ended up inside a restaurant right there. We ordered some tapas and talked for like an hour. That was pretty cool.

00:29:01 John Daub: This is one of Shueisha's buildings. This isn't the one I went to for Shonen Jump—this is. I used to work for Shueisha as an English editorial manager. I got a chance to learn a lot about old Japanese companies. That knowledge I shall pass on to you over the course of these livestreams. Next to Shueisha is Shogakukan—I believe that's also a publishing house. It's a new head office for them, very modern-looking. Again, there's been a lot of money in manga. Very artistic-looking building. If you go straight ahead, you hit the Imperial Palace, the very center of the city of Tokyo. Right now they're cleaning out the moat—which is so cool. If they're still doing it, I'll put a story on Instagram showing you the vehicle. They have this amazing floating vehicle that rotates around the moat.

00:30:21 John Daub: That was a pretty good tour. I think there are more cafes on the other side where there's a lot of curry, but there are a lot of websites. I'm thinking about making a guide as well for the Only in Japan Insiders about some of the cafes around here. I think there's seven or eight of them that are really historic and old, serving coffee for many generations going back to the Showa period. This place, if you want to get away from Starbucks coffee, is so worth it because you can feel the history—you could smell it in the smoke of the old people smoking, the older people who are smoking the cigarettes who don't know that it's 2021. One won't hurt you, maybe.

00:31:20 John Daub: Have you ever been back to the USA to visit? I have—I used to go at least once a year, especially at Christmas time, and sometimes in the summer. But it's been a while. I rarely go for Thanksgiving because Christmas is so close. It's a 14-hour flight one way, and with the pandemic I don't know when I'm going to be back to the United States. But if I do, it'd be pretty cool to have a meetup. These are unprecedented times. Hopefully we can go back at Christmas time with Leo because he needs to see his grandparents and family—he'll be like seven or eight months old, so he should be able to make the trip. Leo rarely cries and that's pretty amazing. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below—very happy to hear from you.

00:32:09 John Daub: This is a map of the area—I'll show you where we went. Kanda Jimbocho Dori is the main street that we were walking on. This is the Imperial Palace—you can see it right here in the corner. Alleys that we walked around right here in the center. Gives you a really good idea—there's the intersection with the ABC Mart that doesn't carry my sandals anymore. Thanks everybody—have a good day, have a good night. I gotta go—I gotta get back. I believe I'm gonna be on BBC World at 1 p.m. Japan time, which is like midnight on the east coast of New York. So if you want to see me on a live interview about the Olympics, check out BBC World at 1 p.m. Japan time, which is in about an hour and a half. I got to take a shower probably for this one. See everybody.