00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody! Welcome to Tokyo Station! Boom! This is the heart of the city of Tokyo and in this exciting episode, I'm going to be taking you on this train, the Yamanote Line (山手線). We're going to wait for the next one. The trip takes approximately 25 minutes. That's a lot of fun.

00:24 John Daub: Let me get to the front of the train. How you doing everybody? Oh, this is exciting. Watch it take off. Alright, there's nobody in this side of the station here. I love Japanese train stations, especially Tokyo Station because it doesn't look that far away from where I live and this is sort of my backyard.

00:48 John Daub: We're going to be riding the next train, jumping on it, as long as there's nobody in the front car there. Be able to talk a little bit and show you outside of the window as we go to Shibuya. Now it's a 25 minute ride to get from here to Shibuya and then once I get to Shibuya, I'm going to be live streaming again because a lot of people that are fans of a group called Babymetal have asked me to do a live stream. They asked me to walk by one of the exhibitions that's going on there so I'm going to do that for our viewers as a request. So there'll be another live stream right after that in Shibuya. So I'm pretty excited about this. Let's get going.

01:21 John Daub: Luckily the Yamanote Line is only every couple of minutes. Well, it's already coming. Alright, mask on. I saw a guy with a microphone. There he is right there. He was at the speaker recording the sounds from the Yamanote Line. That is super cool. There he is right there. There are a lot of people who love Japanese trains. I'm one of them. Here comes our ride right now.

01:56 John Daub: Now the trip will cost you 200 yen. You can use a Suica or I've got a Sugoca card right here. But if you get a ticket, that's fine too. Oh, there's nobody here. This is perfect. This is the ticket that'll take you to Shibuya. It's 200 yen. I got that because I wanted to show you a ticket. Now there's a guide right here on the top of the train that'll let you know. It's in both English and Japanese. So you know where the interchanges are, what trains there are, and how long it'll take you to get to the next station.

02:38 John Daub: Wow, the train's almost empty. This is awesome. Hey Spike021, I miss all the soothing train tones. The jingles are what make it so cool. Oh, this is like doing Densha de Go (電車でGO). I'm right now on the DJI Osmo 5. It's a new gimbal that just came out. Oh, there comes a Shinkansen!

03:02 John Daub: This train is going Yamanote Line. Shinagawa, Shibuya. Next station is Yurakucho (有楽町). Yurakucho. The next train is on the left. The subway Yurakucho Line is on the right. This is the Yamanote Line train. Hey Jeffrey, I have the Densha de Go and we're playing it on Twitch on Monday night. I'll be in Osaka on Monday night. I've been playing Densha de Go on Twitch stream. I guess you could call this research. Oh, this is so cool.

03:46 John Daub: This is Yurakucho station. It's only two minutes from Tokyo station. I noticed that this gimbal is a little bit shakier than the other one based maybe on its size and power. If I zoom in, you can see micro jitters more. Do you see that? Didn't get that with the other gimbal. We can call her Shaky. Good suggestion, Joy.

04:40 John Daub: There's the Keihin-Tohoku Line (京浜東北線) up to Akihabara. It starts around Shinagawa, I believe. But it won't go all the way around. The Yamanote Line, which is this train and the one that's coming in the opposite direction. This goes around the city of Tokyo and it's very famous. Like the Circle Line. I guess it is the Circle Line.

05:16 John Daub: The train is pretty much empty. Check it out. There's like one guy. That's it. I figured this is a good chance to take a look at Tokyo by train. Once again, if you're joining me now, I'll be doing another live stream right after this walking around Shibuya. Just to show off an exhibition going on for the Babymetal fans.

05:46 John Daub: I love the ads. The ads on the subway are also sometimes over the top. Gotta love that. So this is about half of the Yamanote Line from Tokyo Station to Shibuya. Just a little bit less than half. It'll take you about an hour to go all the way around. This is 25 minutes from Tokyo Station to Shibuya. 11 stops. And there's a game, the Yamanote Line game that you can play naming all the stops around it. I believe there's 29 or 30 now. I know Takanawa Gateway is the newest one. And we're gonna be going past that. That's the newest Yamanote Line station.

06:34 John Daub: Oh, we're gonna get a chance to see the peeing monk at Hamamatsucho Station (浜松町). All right, I'll be able to jump off the train for a second and show you that. Let's see what uniform he's wearing. Every month they change the outfit of the peeing monk on the platform of Hamamatsucho Station. Tokyo Monorail Haneda Airport Line and the Oedo Line (大江戸線). It's comfortable, 26 degrees, 26 Celsius right now, no wind. Not that much humidity too. Summer's gone, autumn's here.

07:27 John Daub: Okay, here we go. The monk should be on the platform right there. Oh, there he is, okay. We're gonna jump off and say hi real quick. Oh, he's got a traditional garb on. He's got like festival garb on. That's pretty cool. Yes, he's peeing. You can see the monorail from here.

08:17 John Daub: It's behind me now, but this would be the stop where you would get off to see the monorail. Interesting, so I'm starting to see micro jitters in this new DJI Osmo 5 gimbal just from holding it. So the motors aren't quite as strong as the Osmo 4, so it looks like you'd wanna stick with the older version that has a more powerful motor. But this one is certainly more portable and a good backup. I like that.

09:03 John Daub: Mike, I'm using the Osmo 5 right now. There's a Shinkansen in right now. It's pretty cool to have an almost empty train. So it's nice to be able to stand up here and share the ride with you to Shibuya. I was gonna take the subway, but I said I'm gonna be at Tokyo Station anyways, sending daifuku packages, so I just did that. And now I'm on my way.

09:59 John Daub: This is the postcard, by the way. I'm gonna be, you have one more day to order this where I'll send it from Osaka. This is the postcard I'll be sending. So if you sign up within the next 24 hours, I'm gonna be able to take it with me to Osaka, and then Kevin and I will send this at the Osaka main post office, so just a heads up on that. It's kinda cool when you get an Osaka stamp on it from the post office there. Miracle, you can sign up on Patreon, and the moderators will be sharing that link, but it's patreon.com/onlyinjapantv, one word. I'm putting on the addresses tonight, and I'll be taking them with me either Sunday night or Monday morning to Osaka's post office.

11:17 John Daub: You're very welcome, and this is a real-life Densha de Go episode. Oh, this is the new station, Takanawa Gateway. This is not on Densha de Go video game, because this is a brand new station that opened up about two years ago. About a year and a half, two years ago. We're entering it right now, right before Shinagawa. This is pretty cool.

11:48 John Daub: All right, let's check it out. Hey everybody, there's a dead spot in this area inside of the center of the station there, but we're back. Look at how clean the floors are here. They kind of made it look like wood. This is more of a 2020 vibe, a new generation to the station. Certainly doesn't look like the older ones. They also have an unmanned convenience store here, which is pretty cool. And there's a robot, a couple of robots up on the second floor. One of them will guide you anywhere you want to go. And there's another robot that cleans the station. It's just roving around cleaning the floor, which is pretty state of the art.

12:38 John Daub: Didn't get a lot of coverage during the Olympics though, but I'd covered this about a year and a half ago on a live stream before the pandemic, I believe. Sachi, I repeat, this is the Osmo 5, okay? This is it. It's a little jittery. The stabilization isn't very good on this one compared to the four. So I'm gonna say that this is a good backup to have, but I might go back to, this one's called Shaky. This is the Shaky.

13:43 John Daub: One person got off and one person got on. Hey, Suede, nice to see the group here. How's everybody doing? I think I saw Tony in there. Simon Tokumine, how you doing? All right, I think that's, is that the Tokaido Line? That one's going straight on all the way down to Nagoya or Hamamatsu-cho or Atami.

14:53 John Daub: Oh my gosh, check it out. That looks like the Densha de Go handle. Do you see that handle in the center of your screen? That's the same one on my controller. That's awesome. The name of the video game is called Densha de Go and I have it on Switch and we'll be playing it for Twitch later on. But this is like research for me, really.

16:01 John Daub: When you go around Shinagawa, you get along towards some of the, I don't know, should I say like older? It feels like older tracks or more used area, more populated, I guess, away from the Tokyo Bayside. We're starting to go inland. There's a pretty sharp turn around Shinagawa. So we did that, had a little trouble standing up here. It's a lot of tracks.

16:58 John Daub: We're going to go outside. It's a really nice warm autumn day here in Tokyo. Overcast, not too bad. I'm on a mission to get to Shibuya just to walk past the Babymetal place for so many people had requested that I do this, a little neighborhood walk in Shibuya. So you're coming along for that. Just sent the daifuku packages. So off we go on a little field trip since I was at Tokyo Station anyway.

17:27 John Daub: Oh, here comes the Yamanote Line the other way. Yeah, Babymetal has this exhibition in Shibuya. Now I can't go inside of it, but walking around it is a big deal to a lot of people. Hey, Brett Taylor, welcome. Thanks for joining me. I am noticing that the gimbal is not quite as steady as the last gimbal. It's a little bit of shake in it. I'm pretty steady handed.

18:17 John Daub: You're very welcome. And I'm glad that you can join me. Give me a thumbs up. Keep me company. Next up is Gotanda. They do announce which doors will open. So it's good to know the Japanese for left and right. Left is hidari (左). Right is migi (右). Hidari, migi.

18:50 John Daub: Whoa, Gotanda's got a lot of people here. Some very few people actually walk the distance and that's why it's usually the least populated. So if you have a lot of luggage, then probably take a taxi. Don't ride the trains, especially during peak hours. Number two, if you do have to ride the trains, go off peak hours, meaning go after 10 a.m. and before 5 p.m., 5 or 6 p.m. and ride in the front, because you can see this. Most people will be getting on the train in the center of it. So if you ride on the front or the back, you can ride on it. Usually it's a lot more space for you to leave your bags. But I would 100% tell you not to ride the Tokyo trains with lots of luggage and a family to try to get around the city with luggage. It's just ridiculous. Just grab a taxi because the taxis will be so much more comfortable and probably not cost you that much more than a family of four to buy tickets for them.

20:27 John Daub: Oh, it's got a green car! Check it out. Is that the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, I think? Gosh, I can't remember. So this is Meguro. We're only a few stops away from Shibuya, our goal for this livestream. Pretty cool.

21:11 John Daub: There's a Blue Bottle all over the city of Tokyo. The first one was in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa about seven years ago, I think. So if anyone goes to the live cameras, you'll be able to see me on the crossing in about, I don't know, about six or seven minutes from now. That'll be pretty cool. Make sure you hit the like button if you like these train window shots because it's kind of fun to do it.

22:28 John Daub: It's 200 yen from Tokyo Station to ride on the Yamanote Line. You can use your Suica card. I bought the ticket just for the visuals because it looks cooler. The signal from Shibuya to Ikebukuro is not too bad. But I actually did a live stream about two years ago circling the entire Yamanote Line. It's been a while, so I thought it's just a different feeling when you're live. Because right now, we are all together riding the train in 720p pixelation.

23:12 John Daub: All right, welcome to Ebisu, one stop before Shibuya. You can see the center is there's a lot of people on the platform. And then when we get to the end, right here, there might not be anybody who gets on the train. Yeah, one person. Yeah, next stop, Shibuya, everybody. When I get off, the signal should get better as we clear the rail line.

23:55 John Daub: I don't think you can compare the New York trains or any North American or even European train with the trains in Japan. Kanae and I were riding with Eurail passes about, I don't know, three, four years ago. And we were shocked at how filthy some of the trains had become because most people are now flying to get around Europe. Trains have been somewhat neglected. And the Paris to Venice train was a private company. Oh, we did Paris to Venice. And it was so filthy. We were just shocked. Now, the trains in Germany and Austria and that is UK. Japan's trains are immaculate.

24:44 John Daub: All right, here we are, folks. We're now pulling into Shibuya station. Hopefully, the signal starts to pull it together as we pull into an area that should have a ton of cell phone signals, cell phone transmitters. Pulling into Shibuya right now. Tons of people. Wow. Thankfully, from this corner here, it's not so crowded. So this is also a great way to avoid people. All right. Off we go.

25:52 John Daub: Oh, you can see Shinjuku in the distance. This is where some dude tried to go this way, and he jumped off the bridge and broke his leg about two months ago. It's pretty weird. Let's say goodbye to our ride here. Hope the signal's a little bit better now that we're outside of a tin can. There's the Hachiko building and there's a Shibuya Stream. Yeah, Joey, I think they captured it on film, too. Some other people had cameras out there, and we saw that there was some drunk guy who ran down here, and then he jumped. The police are coming after him. I guess he was just drunk. But you can see there's no gate to keep anybody out from here, but except for this sign, they probably should maybe do a little bit more to that for that. But say goodbye to the ride here. See you later, alligator.

27:11 John Daub: Here we go. Let's go to Shibuya Crossing to end this live stream. I'll be doing another one, a neighborhood walk around Shibuya. It has been ages. I have not been here. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I've been at JR Shibuya Station for at least a year, probably longer. I just don't have any reasons to come here. Boy, Laura is on every single ad, isn't she? There it is. I'm excited for you. Not for me. I don't care that much. I'm excited for you. You're about to see Hachiko scramble. I'm going to take this lane. Nobody here.

28:00 John Daub: You can look for me on the live cams. There's some Shibuya live cams. And you can see I'm holding the camera. DJ Osmo 5 right now. Oh, my gosh. I didn't think there'd be this many people out and about. Alright, just so you know, there's no You Found Me cards. You're supposed to stay away. I know some of you still want to say hi. That's cool. I'm going to stand back and social distance.

28:48 John Daub: The signal is 45 seconds green and 90 seconds red. I know that because I've had to report here one too many times. Can there be too many times though? Alright, it might be blurry, that's why you might want to go to the live cams at another window. I'm shocked at how many people there are out here. As long as you're outside, everyone has a mask on, it's not a problem, but it is pretty shocking. Alright, I'm now in the center of it. I guess there's a live cam, I'm waving my hand right now in the center. Can anybody see me? A couple of live streams. There's one girl doing the same thing. Alright, I'm going to cross now.

30:03 John Daub: Let me see if I can activate 5G. Hold on everybody. So that's all that I got, I'm going to try to do another live stream in about 10-15 minutes from now. Look for it to pop up in the feed. Hopefully, I'm going to turn on the 5G and we can get some good signal out of that. You can see me, Michael can see me on the live cam. Alright, let me see if I can get the 5G activated. If not, I'll see you in the next live stream. Alright, 5G should be on. But there are a lot of fans. Bye bye, Yamanote Line. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more from Shibuya. See you then. That's a lot of people. Stay safe.