00:00:07 John Daub: Greetings everybody. Welcome to Ginza. That's right. We are in the heart of the city of Tokyo right now. And I'm going to be taking you to the Apple Store here. This is the launch of the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Pro, and all of these products that they announced recently. I'm not an Apple fanboy. I just happen to have iPhones because they do a pretty good job with the video.

00:00:30 John Daub: And this is a big upgrade. At least they say, some people say it's a big upgrade. So I'm going to take you to the Apple Store and show you what's going on with the launch because I still remember like 15 years ago when they launched the first iPhone, the line was way, way, way out the door. I don't even know if they had an Apple shop here. I think there was just one in the city of Tokyo. But as you can see, Ginza is pretty hopping. So let's go take a look.

00:00:55 John Daub: There's Wako. There's the big intersection here. On the hour, we'll hear the bell. Nice to see you all here. There's the Apple Store right on the left side there. And once again, I'm not an Apple fanboy. If they had other phones that did a really good job, I'd probably get those too. But it just seems to work with all the other Apple products and then you end up being like an Apple guy.

00:01:24 John Daub: But it makes you wonder how many of these people actually have Apple iPhones in their pocket. She has a lot of pockets. Ginza mannequins. You're going to see a lot of really nice cars too on this street and motorcycles. She's probably got an iPhone. I'm using the Osmo Mobile 5 right now. So you can tell me whether or not you like the stabilization. If it's a smooth ride or not. And there it is. There's the mothership.

00:02:10 John Daub: One of the, I believe, five or six Apple stores now. There's the one in Shibuya has reopened up in the same location as it was before it was renovated. The Omotesando shop. So that's two. Marunouchi 3. This is Ginza 4. This Ginza one is a 5. I don't know where the other ones are, but I know that they've been opening up little motherships for the Apple brand all over the place. They used to have a Galaxy store. But Samsung is not big here. Maybe because it's Korean. I'm not sure. And they had a close-up shop in Harajuku, I believe.

00:02:47 John Daub: There's no line. This is interesting. On the side here, green light. I'm going to show you. They do have, they show you the bump. For the tech geeks who are going to know what I'm talking about. So you can see they do have an advertisement here. It is quite pronounced. The bump this time around. And yeah, there's no line. Usually the line with snake here or on Chuo-dori (Ginza's main avenue). I'm guessing it's going to be online today.

00:03:23 John Daub: So this is a very short live stream. But you can see inside here. There's my reflection. There are people buying stuff inside there. You can see my reflection in the window. There's some buzz going around. But there's a message here saying you have to buy this online. You can see here. The board saying the advertisement. But there's staff outside telling us to buy online. That's my bicycle. This isn't going to be a very long live stream.

00:04:12 John Daub: I'm just really kind of sad because I've waited here before. I think it was for the iPhone 11 and I ended up getting it here. I waited for the iPhone 7 in Omotesando. Before the hitchhiking trip back in 2017 or 2016. And this year there's no line at all. Everything has gone online. And there's this disadvantage for online. It's that it's a five week wait to get your iPhone. If you were to get it online in Japan right now. Five weeks. That's not ideal.

00:04:48 John Daub: But the good it is, probably after I order it. I decide if I'm going to order it online. I see the five week thing. I'm probably not going to want another iPhone. With the iPhone 12 Pro that I have here for a while there's no real reason to upgrade. I don't know there's some things but I should probably be using my main Sony cameras that I paid a lot of money for instead of an iPhone to film Only in Japan and the live streams might get a bump out of it so I might end up buying it. What do you think leave me a comment below or here on the live stream if you think I should upgrade these live streams the 13 Pro is gonna make a big difference in quality I don't really know I'm not convinced but you're looking at a live shot of the Apple Store right in front of Ginza Sanchome and it's kind of lame.

00:05:48 John Daub: I see Bradshaw Studios in the house hello to all thank you so they're trying to explain to people now there's not a lot of people coming to ask so maybe this news is known I don't know there are security guards around the area so that's the story I'm gonna take you by to hear one more time. In years past there was always a line here and now nothing the line would snake this way. Are any of you gonna be upgrading to the iPhone 13 13 Pro does anybody know what the advantages are you can leave it in the comments too on the live this is a live stream I'm gonna take you out to the Yonchome (Ginza 4-chome) main we're gonna wrap around just one more time let's take a look at the neighborhood the state of emergency should be ending next week October rolls around.

00:06:51 John Daub: I'm limited to the Yonchome main and I'm gonna take you out to the Yonchome area to get it to my neighborhood which is here they asked me if I had an appointment I said no they said please order online I love this shop has been in business for such a long time selling maps and stuff that's awesome so as the Mikimoto and the Kimura no Pan shop on the corner here they're just like staples of Ginza and this intersection I don't think anyone is ever gonna sell their real estate here Mikimoto's brand is so solidified here in Ginza one of the most expensive properties in all of Japan certainly in Asia.

00:07:27 John Daub: I see Dimitri's going in for the 13 Pro better camera and refresh rates oh look they got the bread truck is here oh you can smell the bread oh my gosh this is so heavenly I might have to go in there and get an ebi-katsu sando (shrimp cutlet sandwich) for Kanae Daub. This is they make the best shrimp cutlet sandwiches in all of the world probably. And on the third floor uh on the cafe here you can get even more different kinds of sandwiches. I mean if you're looking for something to eat this is the best the beef filet cutlet sandwich is so nice it's a little pricey but it's worth it. I wish they did a mix and match you could do like one a little one of each but they don't have that you have to bring a friend and then order one of each and then share it's the best way to do it but normally this area of Ginza would be completely packed with tourists and it's just not yet although that there is talk December flights will resume from Australia.

00:08:48 John Daub: TDS DR has made sure that we bring a sandwich home for Kanae Daub you got it all right I'm gonna go I'm gonna go buy that now there's the Nissan building and I'm just panning around it's not the first time that I've taken you here I haven't heard anything about direct there are direct flights between the US and Japan have never stopped it's just that you're not allowed to come into Japan there's an entry ban for not everybody except for residents so the only ones taking the flights are residents there's the Mitsukoshi lion and he's got the mask on it's a very high quality mask too Ellis is on board for more sweets it looks like we're going back to the bakery all right I'm supposed to be on a low blood sugar diet I did that voluntarily but you know what hey you know sometimes you just gotta live a little.

00:09:49 John Daub: Let's see how much the sandwiches are. I'm going into my change purse right now I think I can cover it let's go take a quick look see this is Kanae Daub's favorite so let's pick this up for her. All right let's see what else we can get around here there is a KitKat shop around there but they seem to not really have the stuff that I want so and I'm talking about the aged whiskey KitKats order them online. Oh shout out to MJ I know you I gotta send this postcard MJ this one is coming your way the first mailbox I find and then to Steven in Germany this one's coming your way too buddy Frankfurt. Thanks for that I gotta get some something sweet though for Kanae Daub too look at they got all the old maps of the city of Tokyo that looks really nice old Edo with the castle and they're reasonably priced you get eight there's an Edo map how much is it oh it's 35 dollars for that that's actually not too bad if it was a reprint from the original Edo map 35 bucks for that.

00:12:24 John Daub: Okay I'm gonna go get my bike now because I have a feeling it might not be there forever. Chicago Africa's in the house get some drinks for Kanae Daub Leo and yourself thank you I might get that pumpkin spice latte on the way home somebody talked uh somebody wanted that I think it was Kanae Daub so there you have it everybody uh it's kind of a letdown I wanted I did come here to try to get uh an iPhone 13 Pro to see if we could upgrade to that I didn't like the iPhone 13 Pro which I get an iPhone 13 Pro in the U.S. but we would be otherwise upgrade the channel but they said it's going to be five weeks before I can get one uh here on the corner it's kind of neat to come and see every year what Apple's up to I'm sure you got to buy them online just because of the pandemic and the state of emergency and they're trying to do the right thing because it's probably better for their reputation that they don't have a massive line that becomes you know Japan's still in a state of emergency or Tokyo is probably a good idea but five weeks waiting yeah I don't know by that time I'll even need a new phone sometimes sometimes it comes a little bit faster sometimes.

00:13:42 John Daub: So there you go right now for those joining us here let me get in the corner away from the people here ah so the Kickstarter project just so everybody knows we're 99% funded that means probably the next person who goes to the Kickstarter project and purchases something is gonna put a lot of money into it and they're gonna put us over the top to our goal so that's an exciting thing in the first 24 hours we had 70 percent we were about 70 funded so in the fourth day this is the Tuesday Wednesday Thursday so in the U.S like the three and a half days it took to get funded this is pretty incredible 25,000 just about for this fireworks project we're going to be doing in Nagano so a big shout out to the about 250 people that supported the project to get us to our goal and we're going to keep going this is faster than we thought we figured it'd be about.

00:14:29 John Daub: Is that my friend Ananda what that looks like my friend Ananda and she does professional modeling I'll have to ask her if she's in the window here it's like what used to work with her then NHK um the Kickstarter project is like oh it's at 253 now thank you Joy and we probably are cut very close to passing the goal but we're going to keep going last year we raised sixty thousand dollars and we were able to do a second fireworks we were able to launch a lot more the minimum was 2.5 million yen was the minimum so we've achieved the minimum so the product the fireworks festival will go on but we have to continue to make it longer every all the money's being put into fireworks and the planning of this and uh the most the most popular question I'm getting asked from people is can we have oh is it oh so Stephen says we've already hit the we've hit the goal all right this is the Asian backers we've just hit the goal I'm pretty excited to hear that just like just during this stream we hit the goal how cool is that awesome wow.

00:15:39 John Daub: So this event is going to be going on no matter what we kind of knew that it would when we saw the numbers coming in but we didn't think it would we'd get to the goal in four days that's pretty crazy so now we have about 35 days to keep adding to it and make this project even bigger last time we had a pretty big if you consider how much it costs to do a full scale fireworks event in Japan um and last year I think the starting price was about yeah it was about the same as this year um it's pretty incredible that we're able to do this at all uh I've just like last year I was pretty happy because I don't think there's too many normal people that could just say hey can we do a fireworks festival in your city and they say yes I don't think there's a lot of people who could do that but I'm really thankful have the back end of the fireworks Association here and I have a lot of friends in the industry here now um and that's just something for the community again like all this money is going to fireworks.

00:16:41 John Daub: And if you're against exploding things in the sky for environmental reasons just keep in mind that we haven't had anything explode in the sky this year this is sort of just to balance it out but they're gonna they're gonna explode this stuff anyways this is just stock that they've made um and the people in this town this section of Nagano City um they've had a really bad two years because the pandemic hit during typhoon Hagibis and they were recovering while they're in the recovery mode the pandemic hit and it's been really rough and now they're starting to see things turn around a little bit I've seen a lot of the construction is getting close to finishing up um so this fireworks festival has a lot of meaning for the people there they all know about it now and they know that Only in Japan is coming in there to do a fireworks festival on the riverbanks there so it's a pretty big deal especially here in Japan and in Nagano so I'm happy for the support and you being part of it is really great thanks for that.

00:17:39 John Daub: Um cool so that's it from Ginza from the Apple store I didn't see too many cool cars just the Porsche that's gone now usually we see some really amazing Ferraris and stuff but again it's like a weekday state of emergency things are kind of slow here and Sean found his doppelganger I found a lot of American friends they have a Japanese look-alike I found these people sort of like Joey's hand twin there's always somebody out there who kind of looks like you and it's kind of cool I haven't found my Japanese doppelganger but people do say I look like the Karate Kid so I found my pretty early in 1984.

00:18:33 John Daub: Now it's 2.5 uh 2 million 502,029 yen that's awesome Clayton it only activates like once a minute or something strike hard strike fast no mercy Ryan did that that's the dude so this nightbot doesn't become a spammer so people say I look like that guy who played Superman once and I look like that guy who played the Hulk once I don't see the resemblance but I'm happy if you know people are happy I'm happy so I don't get offended I even when I was a kid I got a little offended because people tease me wax on wax off they'd like in the hallways in high school they'd do a drive-by wax on wax off try to get me riled up but I would do the sign back at them and if you did with humor they forget about it if you got really offended they'd give you super wedgies it stinks especially on the you know outside and track and football and whatever sport you were doing I was doing cross country they'd get you in the woods I might not have been a part of a wedgie group but I've been on the receiving end so I know it stinks super with the ultra wedgies and the what's the wedgie called the one from the front that really hurts atomic wedgie I can't remember it's a different kind of wedgies I didn't crane kick them because they were more of them in bigger this wasn't just Cobra Kai man this was like you know the whole team so I can't really crane kick and run away it's a track team they're gonna hunt you down it's not gonna happen.

00:20:10 John Daub: All right everybody thanks for watching uh from Ginza here no iPhone event order online and team's just pretty lame why did I come here I guess it I had to figure this out for myself but leave me a comment if you think I should order this iPhone 13 Pro I'm on the fence um but congratulations to the Kickstarter backers and Nagano because we're going to be holding a fireworks festival and keep going. Thanks, Ryan K. I better go get some coffee for Kanae Daub. Thanks for chipping into African Queen and TDSTL. Thank you guys. Alice, see you later.

00:20:43 John Daub: Oh, one more thing. Hold on. One more thing. Tomorrow, I'm going to be doing a live stream with the ramen soda that just came in the mail that I ordered a while ago. So cup noodle ramen soda is our live stream for tomorrow. Kanae Daub might be able to join us for this. So don't forget to mark down your calendars. Twenty about 24 hours from now. Ramen soda. It's pretty weird. I think some of the American news picked up. Well, I actually got it in my house now. So ramen soda tomorrow. Bye from right from Ginza.