00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Tokyo's Hibiya Park. This is the annual Christmas market, sometimes taking place near Shiba Park, which is Shibakoen, not too far from Tokyo Tower. But this year, it's back in Hibiya, and you can see it is very much in the style of a German market, except for the fact that they're playing some sort of idol music in the distance. So I guess that makes it very much like a Tokyo experience. Now they do have different kinds of stands here, some of them serving Glühwein (hot mulled wine), some of them serving meat dishes, all sorts of weird things that you wouldn't find at a German market. The beer you might. And same as this Glühwein. Here's a mug of it right here. You can see they just put a lot of berries in there. That is berry berry, it's called berry berry Glühwein, but it's berry berry good.

00:00:54 John Daub: And I see Ramsay Silence here. Ramsay, I'm going to be sharing it with you, buddy. So I'm going to come over here in the corner. Kampai (cheers), everybody. Oh, hey. Oh, that's a lot of booze in there. Ah, all right. Back on with the mask here. So we've had a very tough week. Our trip to the United States was canceled. We canceled it because there was a high risk I wouldn't be able to come back. And after talking with government officials as well as the airlines, they said that there's a risk. So we said, all right, sorry, we're going to have to cancel, which is a huge, devastating moment yesterday when we pushed the button to get our money back on the flight. It was fully refundable. Thank you, ANA. We'll be flying with you guys again.

00:01:50 John Daub: I can't remember if last year's was canceled. I don't remember. But this year it looks like there's a lot of people, but it's still early. This opens up from 4 p.m. So it's just a little bit after 5, 5:30 maybe and goes on until I guess around 10 p.m. All right, here's some of the offerings at this booth. Each one is kind of different. This Mulledwein, which is called Glühwein. OK, so it's a thousand yen for the first cup with the mug and then it's 500 yen after that for the second glass. This is 700 yen. But the mug was free when I entered. So it was like a gift. There you go. Can't beat that. Well, look at the meat items there. You can smell all these kinds of different meats in the air here. People enjoying their food on the stands.

00:02:59 John Daub: Off to the right now, the Hibiya Park has a fountain in the middle of it and it wraps around and there's lots of tables there. Standing room only. It's not too chilly today. It is fairly warm. I'm going to take another pull of this Glühwein. We go pan up. The tops of the booths are really pretty. They have Santa and some Christmas lights and it's pretty basic. It goes right around the fountain here. But besides food, they also have some shops here. And if you've ever been to a drive-thru, you're going to love this. It's a German Christmas market. And I know the majority of them have been canceled in Germany. You'll find all sorts of neat stuff like Christmas smokers and Christmas ornaments and things like this.

00:04:03 John Daub: I love the Christmas markets because this is a chance for you to get outside and outdoors with a hot cup of whatever and with other people and kind of see it. Yeah, Erwin, we're still in Japan. It was a totally last minute call. I forget what time it is. I don't know what they call this in Germany, but this is also one of the things that you'll see at German markets. It's really pretty. I'll show it to you from different angles. And on the top, it looks like a little windmill. It's just a unique thing to see here in Tokyo. When you're around people, you have to wear a mask just to be polite. And it's also, I think it might be in the rules here. But one of the reasons Japan's doing a really good job with keeping this all at bay is because everybody's wearing a mask when they're all together. Like this, it just sort of works.

00:05:12 John Daub: Oh, oh, oh, Rams. This is hit you in the face. It's not even the alcohol. It's like sour. I think these strawberries have been fermenting. If the Christmas spirit is hitting me right now, it looks like this. Good God. Seriously. It's like cranberry, not strawberry. I totally have to pick something else next time. Kanae and I are planning to come here tomorrow afternoon or on Monday afternoon. So that means we'll be back here and I wanted to come with them. But Leo's bath time is now and he's going to be put to sleep. I'll be back in time just for bath time. But I wanted to go over, show you the market at night and also go over what happened with the trip.

00:06:09 John Daub: So I asked a lot of you what the best course would be. If I should cancel, if I should go. I was planning on going until yesterday. Just a couple of things put me over the top. One of them was that Leo wasn't feeling good. He's teething and he's crying like every two hours, but he had a fever from it and he just wasn't in a good situation. So it made a lot of sense to cancel. That was the one thing that just put it over the top. But I called a lot of people and there was a high risk that if the United States, the Omicron got out of control in the US, I probably wouldn't be able to make it back. So there's just a high risk. They don't think they wouldn't say for sure. But they said that that was possible because I already have people. They're telling me that wives and kids can get on, but husbands, if they're not Japanese, can't get on and vice versa. So on planes or they have to miss the plane and let their wives go ahead. And it's just a chaotic thing right now. So it wasn't worth it.

00:07:09 John Daub: It was worth it, which is why I gave it full on examination. But in the end, it was that my feeling with the way Japan is handling it is as sour as this Glühwein. It is not a great situation. So the cancelation wins. But I was hesitant all the way to the end. We'll try to find a way to rearrange the schedule. The quarantine is just harsh right now. It's three days house arrest, which is like in a government hotel, which is probably going to go up to six days. UK travelers from the UK are now six days in a government hotel. US is three days, but that could change as the US situation gets worse. It could even be full 14 days.

00:08:10 John Daub: Oh, is that Santa Claus? I apologize if there's any lag. I'll try to get to another place where we can get better signal. But on Monday, we're going to come in the morning. So you're going to see a clear view of the market. Hopefully my voice is coming in. Oh, they got a snowmaker. Check this out. So it looks like it's snowing. Do you see this? Thank you, Glenn. Please reload the screen or click refresh and it should come back a little bit better. I'm trying my best to get into clear areas that might have a better signal. Here's the fountain you can see in the middle. It's really pretty. But they do have these heat lamps everywhere to keep you warm. And they do a pretty good job of radiating around. That is nice. It doesn't snow often in Tokyo. So when you see something like this, it's pretty cool.

00:09:16 John Daub: Leo has yet to see his first snowfall. And I guess you can come with somebody that you love and kiss underneath the snow. Aww. Makes me want to take another sip of this really sour drink. I guess this would be Tokyo's first snowfall of the season. Although it's totally fake from lint. But I appreciate the effort. I hope it's not chemical. It's all falling in my drink. All right. The line's too long for that. Let's see what other foods we got at this Christmas market. I've been here many times before. I think I've come with Peter von Gomm and I've also come with Jennifer. The first time I came to this probably was with Jennifer about four years ago when the Only in Japan Go channel started.

00:10:21 John Daub: And Chan is in the house. Thanks, Chan. It's nice to see you here. And Michael Sassano. Always great to have you here. Glad you decided to stay in Japan. Yeah, we weren't really worried about the virus because we had booked the trip. ANA has really new filters, really great filters on there. They do an excellent job of making sure the air is circulated. At Christmas markets, you see all sorts of cool things like ornaments and now we see stuffed animals. Plushies. So we weren't too worried about it. The plane was almost empty when we checked the seating chart. We weren't going to go out. We weren't going into Manhattan. We were just staying with family. We were going right to the countryside. It wasn't anything high risk.

00:11:32 John Daub: But god jul (Merry Christmas in Swedish). I remember I did Christmas in Sweden in 1998 and we would say, god jul. Oh, you know what? I think Kanae is going to definitely want to get one of these ornaments. So Kanae, if you're watching, here's an advanced preview for Monday or tomorrow. Thank you, Edo. Nice to see you. We'll see if I can get some oliebollen (Dutch fried dough balls). And Bela's here. Sorry your trip didn't work out. Merry Christmas to Leo, Kanae, and you. Now buy something that gives you less bitter drink fates. That's a good call. Every time I take a sip, it reminds me of The Game. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth after your rival destroys you. Bela and I are friends from Ohio State way back. There's some nice ornaments here. We have a tree from ornaments that we bought in New York. We bought some in Munich when we were there at the Christmas market, as well as Nuremberg and some of the others.

00:12:44 John Daub: You know what? These idols are driving me crazy. They just don't fit with Christmas. Do they fit with a Japanese Christmas? Bye bye, idols. Sujan, let me get out of this tent area. I'll take you to another place. Sorry about that. Let's look at the menus at these places here. This market is going to be open for about 10 days, I believe. Or up to Christmas. That's 15. Hey. That means I'm going to be back here. I come usually early or right when they open on the weekdays. So Friday opens at 4, so I was here at 5. And it was still quite crowded. Wow, look at that quiche. That looks pretty good. What's the damage on that one? 800 yen for a mozzarella quiche.

00:14:03 John Daub: They have something where I'm supposed to get a tag. To be an influencer. I don't know. They had like this booth. But I couldn't understand it. And it was in the dark. And I didn't have time. Oh my gosh, that's so sour. Italian cheese balls. Do they serve them in the markets in Northern Italy, maybe? 700 yen. The food lines are a lot less than the other booths. So maybe. Let's see what I can grab here. Hey, Chris from Malaysia. Send us some of that freaking hot temperature. Like some of these places. Like this food, I don't even know where it's from. This is Russian rolled cabbage. What? Russian rolled cabbage for 8 bucks. That's just kind of weird. Look at this kabocha soup. This is pumpkin soup from Hokkaido. Inside of a pumpkin. That's pretty neat.

00:15:15 John Daub: So I'm kind of looking for something I can just like eat now and enjoy. Planning to do a stream with PVG later too. This is a pizza booth. Natale. Nothing's really catching my fancy here. Alright, let me move on over to this side and make a decision. This Glühwein is mostly sour fruits. Honestly, they should put sour on the menu so you know what you're getting. But it is failed offerings. It does. It is so pretty here. And after yesterday and the week that I've had, this is such a nice consolation prize, I guess. I wouldn't have been able to see any of the market because right now, we'd be like on a flight. We'd be somewhere over the US right now. Getting ready to land. But c'est la vie, as we say in another country.

00:16:28 John Daub: Bonjour. Oh, this apple pie looks good. Well, let's see if we can get some. Here's some onion gratin soup. Maybe we can grab one thing. Just the lines are really long. Pretzels. Saku saku (crispy). Cro waffle. Alright, let's try that one. Why not? Nice and warm there. Now I know why not because the line is really long. You see how it wraps around and then turns here and then goes into the booth. The thing with Japan. Hey, Peso, I saw the meat pie. I'm going to go and try that maybe tomorrow. So heads up on that one. I wanted to do that today, but I was just so exhausted from all the other stuff that's been revolving around.

00:17:29 John Daub: Yeah, McDonald's Japan is also. This is the time of year where there's so many weird items that come out right before the holidays. I think some companies are just cleaning out their chemical additives. They make cocktails of food that are weird. Pepsi had the weird Pepsi soda, Christmas soda a few years ago. I did a live stream on that. Alright, so look at this menu here. This looks more German. Tunnel. Here. Tornado sausage in the middle there. Never seen that before. Now under that name, I think it's called something else. Gulasch (goulash). It's stew in a bread bowl. This stuff looks so good. But the line is ridiculous. We're going to put this all towards when I come here with Kanae because she's probably watching right now and pretty upset. This is like, you better wait for me.

00:18:40 John Daub: Wow. Now that looks good. Kringlewurst. Thank you. Just a shout out to everybody in Germany. I know in Deutschland, you can't go to any. All the Christmas markets have been canceled. I think the majority of them, especially in the big cities. You might not be able to go to the big city Christmas markets, but you can come here with us. And I'm going to be doing a couple of live streams from here. Even though I've done it before, I will do it again. Do you know why? Because these need to be drunk. And someone has to do it. Someone has to do it.

00:19:33 John Daub: Oh, nice jacket. Oh, that's someone from Uniqlo. I think Uniqlo had that color. All right, I'm going to jump in here. Look at this desolate area. I'm safe in this spot here. How you doing, everybody? So, yeah, the trip to the United States was canceled and my schedule is kind of open. So I'm scheduling. I got a couple of ideas for holiday really quick. Holiday based episodes for the main channel that I can possibly pull off before Christmas to get in the spirit. So I made some calls and we'll see if this works out. It's going to be interesting. God. Oh, dang. I just got to get rid of it. If I'm going to leave, I can't leave with a half tank of this stuff. Oh, my God. It's rancid. I can't believe I paid for this. Oh, George, it's better than good. It's bad. Oh, my gosh. Oh, it's giving me chills. You ever have something that was so bad and you get spine chills? The facial reaction should be the thumbnail for the video. No, really.

00:21:37 John Daub: So I got this mug as a present so I can come back here anytime. Hibiya is just a couple of stations away. It's not that far. It's like a 15 minute bike ride. So one of the advantages to living where I live. But our apartment's too small for a baby. So we're going to have to move soon. This looks like a place someone would hurl. I'm going to come back here next time and see if anyone did. This is like a vaccine. I don't think I'm going to get sick after I just drank this. If the drink didn't make you sick, I think nothing else will. Oh, God. For more goodies when you go with Kanae, Brandania, thank you so much. I'm definitely coming back with Kanae because she wants to check out the ornaments. I'm going to bring Leo. Probably this place opens up at 11 a.m. So I think I'm going to come with them when they first open. Come really early. And then I think it's a little bit safer. And maybe I'll bring you with me a little bit. We'll have to livestream that. It's different in the day.

00:22:51 John Daub: So soak it up now. And I'm going to end this livestream in a couple of minutes. So soak up the atmosphere now. I'll take you once more around here. And then, oh, that's kind of neat. Look at that. They put the lights on there. It's like blood red. This is like a Hannibal Lecter Christmas. If Peter von Gomm's watching, this could be a promotion for his podcast, Murder Inc. All right, enough of that. We'll do one more loop around here. And then, oh, gosh, these ornaments are so pretty. What's the damage on these? These are like $20 each. That's not too bad. All right. We're going to get a couple of these when I come with Kanae for sure. Yeah, we're going to get a couple of those ornaments. There's only one ornament store. Unbelievable. In Germany, there's like 20 of them. I'm really glad that the idol music is over. It was just kind of disturbing. I don't know what was worse, the Glühwein, the chills I got from that drink or the idol music. Although they weren't that bad.

00:24:40 John Daub: Oh, check it out. They used in Japanese, Doitsu (Germany), Doitsu Center. But they wrote it in Katakana (Japanese script). It's kind of weird. Oh, they got like these cookie things. I don't know if you can eat these. Doitsu. That's how you would say it in Japanese. Ginger cookies. The glass forest. They call this booth here. And they got a bunch of stuff in glass. We are definitely going to be buying some stuff here because if we can't go home and we can't go to Germany for the Christmas markets like we've done in the past, we're going to buy stuff here. So you could see everything is just a little bit different. Here, right? Everything. This is a hot chocolate up there and they have a camembert cheese fondue. Whoa. Do you see that? Fifteen bucks for that. All right. I made a mental list of all the foods I want to eat. Basically everything.

00:26:20 John Daub: So I'm going to invite someone to come back here with Kanae and eat the food because I know she's preparing the dinner for me. Oh, beer. Oh, Mr. Das. Follow that woman. Follow that woman. If they can get that beer like Jerry Seinfeld did with the marble rye. Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree makes me wonder if this is copyrighted music. I don't think so. If you don't say the words, it's okay.

00:28:12 John Daub: That was fun. That was really fun. This is fun. Sweet, can I go out this way? Oh no, this is staff only. Look at her, she's delegating authority back. In the samurai era they'd have swords and if they didn't back off right away, off with their heads. Anyone ever read Shogun? The first 50 pages are brutal, boil them in oil. All right, out we go. Are they giving out some kind of present? I don't need it. What do I need that for? So there you go. It's really, look at the entrance, it's beautiful. So masks are sort of mandatory coming into a crowded place like this, it's completely understandable. And now it's time to go home and give Leo his bath.

00:29:29 John Daub: I'll be back here guys. I'm gonna put the super chats in good use and I'm bringing an army with me, Leo and Kanae. Now what Leo doesn't eat, I'm gonna eat so I'll get a chance to eat twice basically. So there you are. That's the Christmas market 2021. Every year it's usually held here in Hibiya. It's been held in the past at Shiba Park near Tokyo Tower. But you know we can't really leave Japan, a lot of us. We can't really and no one can come into Japan really. So this is sort of a way to travel, go to a German market here in Tokyo. And if you are in Tokyo, your next path or you're trapped here, you can come here and get a little bit of Glühwein that makes you make a really weird face. Go back about 20 minutes to see that. And I'll be back at night. It's just more special so I definitely wanted to come. This is the first night that they're doing this too so it is even more special I guess. The line though is pretty long so like there's this quote unquote influencers booth here. I don't know what that means. I'm not an influencer, I'm a YouTuber. I don't know. But you have to go around here and they check your temperature and then they let you in. So that's kind of nice, so there's some added layer of protection.

00:30:48 John Daub: So Brandania, WRX, our turbo and Erwin and everybody, thank you. Michael Sassano, always really appreciate it guys. This is the Imperial Hotel right across the street from Hibiya Park. And Johnny's got to go home. Oh look, he's got the Christmas spirit. Hey hey now, seems kind of a high-class dog. See the little steps he's taken. It's too good for me, huh? Sorry, cutie. All right everybody, have a good day, good night. I will see you really soon. We'll be back here at the Christmas market with a family experience and we'll share it with you for a little bit, especially the Christmas ornaments as I make my way back home for Leo's bath time. It's kind of my responsibility.