00:00:03 John Daub: Welcome to Hibiya Park. This is the Christmas market during the day. I was here a couple of days ago and showed you a little bit of the vibe on the first day of opening. Hibiya Park is a beautiful place, especially on a sunny day. This is the fountain in the middle, and all around the fountain are Christmas stands. The German Chamber of Commerce plays a part in this, so they try to make it as authentic as possible. How you doing, everybody?

00:00:35 John Daub: Greetings. Today I'm joined by Kanae Daub and Leo, my wife and son, and we're going to walk around this. It's sort of a consolation prize because we were going to the United States and that trip got cancelled. Welcome. Here we go. Santa is here.

00:00:58 John Daub: Hello. Merry Christmas. Leo, are you ready for some Christmas cheer? He looks so sleepy. You're going to have to wake up, sir. Because you have a lot of presents to give out to the people. All right, let's get moving. So this time I will get some food. Kanae, what would you like to eat? The options are limitless at this market. We have beer. You want beer, Kanae?

00:01:40 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I need a Kinder Punch. Kinder Punch. Ah, that's the drink of children.

00:01:49 John Daub: So when you enter here, do you have to pay a thousand yen. Actually, I don't think I paid that the day before yesterday. I might have just walked right in. Oh my gosh, they got eggnog. Kanae, they have eggnog with caramel. Whoa. That's better than... They have pistachio hot cocoa. This is so not really Christmas, but we could go. Look at the lines; they're already pretty long for this booth. All right, let's go.

00:02:20 John Daub: Let's do it. All right, Santa, you get milk, okay? We already brought a bottle for you. What do you want, Leo? Hey, Cosmin's here. Okay, here's my cup. So I gave Kanae a stash of cash. Just use that and pay. Instead of waiting in line, I'm going to use this one and get a bunch of food. Oh, wow. Look at this stew. Oh, there's some good stuff. Hey, Suzette's in the house. We can get some sausage. Yeah, there's sausages, soup. All sorts of nice things on the menu. That stew looks good. I guess this is Christmas food. Go ahead and get something. I'm just going to take people on a walk.

00:03:20 Kanae Daub: Okay. What do you want? Um, just eggnog.

00:03:25 John Daub: You want eggnog? And then I'll share whatever you get. And go to your sausage. All right, grilled sausage. Appreciate it. And then you can get some chips. Yeah. They have honey butter cheese ball. That's odd. Oh, they have plates too. Okay, well, we can get bara bara. Just get whatever you want here, chotto matte (wait a bit). Then we can do a part two.

00:03:55 Kanae Daub: Okay.

00:03:55 John Daub: All right. I'll be back in like two minutes, okay?

00:03:57 Kanae Daub: Okay.

00:04:00 John Daub: All right, thank you, Ann Dugan. Aloha. Let me take you quickly around the market for those joining us. Just look at this. While Kanae waits in line with Leo. Each stand is sort of different. This one has borscht. Boretsuji (borscht). So it's some sort of stew. You can see the steam rising; that must be them making the glühwein (mulled wine). I always say it with the B, but the B is silent. This one's got a lot of deep-fried food. It's so much different in the daytime. The colors are vibrant. Because at nighttime, it's all washed out. They have snowman cocoa. Whoa! That's pretty cute. Maybe Kanae wants snowman cocoa. Oh! Sorry about that. What's this up here? Oh, this is the forest terrace. You go up and come down. Like a lot of Christmas markets here, they are in these wooden booths. Guten Tag. These wooden booths look very much like any Christmas markets we've been to in Germany. But the prices are a little bit different. It's not too bad though. This is called a Christmas pyramid. I like these. The only thing we're missing is snow and colder weather. Now that's the Lindt booth over there, and they have a snowmaker. So every now and then, it just starts snowing. Thank you to Lindt chocolate for providing some snow. Let's go see how Kanae is doing. Oh, she's next.

00:06:49 John Daub: Did you get something? No, I was just looking. Oh, they didn't have Kinder Punch here. Ah, you said you want a... They have pistachio cocoa, snowman cocoa. Oh, wow. What's the flavor of snowman? Marshmallow. Yeah, I tried pistachio cocoa. All right. Thanks, Bob Joe. Look at that one. Cheese potato. And the stew looks good too, doesn't it? German butter potato looks good. Just get a bunch of stuff here. This is the honey nuts cheese pancake. Oh, wow. You want to try? I got this one here. Eggnog caramel or eggnog pistachio. Yo, pistachio and caramel. Ah... caramel? Eggnog pistachio, caramel. Eggnog caramel, and don't you have a mug? Yes, and pistachio hot cocoa. You can have this without cream. So if you have a mug or coffee cup, it's 600 yen cheaper, but everybody gets a mug when they come in here. All right, if it's pixelated, let me see if I can find a better place. Wow, they got Seto lemon hot lemonade. That's kind of neat. Seto is down near Okayama, between Okayama and Shikoku. Do you want your mug? Yeah, can you? He's getting hungry. Oh, he is? Yes. Can I get another one with pistachio? Pistachio eggnog caramel.

00:10:16 John Daub: Are you hungry? So we're getting a look inside the kitchen. Leo! Can I get number 4? Yes, number 4. What are you looking for? Oh, Leo is hungry. Santa, you don't look so happy. What's wrong, Santa? I want milk. He wants some milk. All right, let's get to the table. There's a standing table over there. You can just go take a table, Kanae, and I'll find you, or sit by the water.

00:11:04 Kanae Daub: Okay, I'll find a table.

00:11:06 John Daub: Yeah, I'll try to bring all this food. It's gonna be impossible. How does John do it? Kanae ordered a lot. I'm gonna need a box. Santa Claus. Can I get number 4? Yes, number 4. I'm sorry, but I didn't have the money for the lunch, so I'm gonna have to pay you back. Oh, okay. Apparently they didn't have the sausage, so they gotta give me back my money. Oh my gosh. Yes. Wait a minute. Yes. I'm sorry. Oh, that's a shame. They're sold out. Sold out of stew, pan roast beef too. Like all this good stuff, they don't have it. Sold out. What? So I guess we're gonna have to go to another booth. But the eggnog is very very good. Hey, Gojira 13. Thank you. Nice, and Danny's here. Hey, Danny. Hai. Arigato gozaimasu. Oh, receipt. Arigato gozaimasu. All right, I got a big tray here. Hold on, guys. Let me get two forks. And off we go. Hey, did anybody see where Kanae went? Kanae. Leo. Oh, I couldn't find a table there. Oh, really? Okay, let's get a table. All right. I guess just keep walking. Oh, this is pixelated around certain areas of the market. And then after we eat, we're gonna go get a Christmas ornament for Kanae. Wow. It's a lint there. Yeah. How about between here? Can we sit here? Yeah. Hi. Hi, San. Leo, are you okay for now, bro? I think I ordered a sausage too. No, they didn't have it on the menu. It was sold out. Oh my gosh. They gave me back my money. Oh, okay. Trust me. Oh no. They sold out? Yes. They just start at 11? I think it's not sold out. They just don't have it on the menu. I know. It's still before 12? Franco 358. Oh, Leo. So I can take off my mask here. All right, cool. So I guess because the market opens at 11 o'clock every morning, our options are limited to what they have cooked. Don't worry about it. We're gonna get another chance later. I have a feeling this isn't gonna be enough.

00:14:51 John Daub: Now the entry procedures were a little bit odd. They made us wait in line. So if you don't get the tickets online...

00:15:00 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:15:01 John Daub: You have to wait for a while. That's not as much fun. All right. Welcome. So let's try this out. Now we got a pancake and some German potato with bacon. And then you got an eggnog, right? Oh no, no. Yours is pistachio. Yeah, pistachio cocoa. Which one is it? It's yours. Oh, mine's got whipped cream. Yeah, I didn't put the whipped cream. Oh, this is better than my glühwein the other day. It's kind of small for seven bucks. Is it me? I'm not trying to be cheap. Cost performance is probably not the greatest. But it's like 150 milliliters. All right. Kanpai.

00:15:51 Kanae Daub: Kanpai.

00:15:53 John Daub: Did you say that with eggnog? No. Merry Christmas. Eggnog caramel. That doesn't taste like eggnog. It's just melted caramel. It's not eggnog. I think maybe Japanese don't have eggnog tolerance. Just butter and caramel with whipped cream. There's no eggnog in it. We don't drink a lot. Yeah, where do you get eggnog in Japan? You don't, I guess. Oh yeah, I didn't buy it before. You need to make it. It's not that hard to make yourself. It's pretty easy. Can you make it? I can make it, if given a recipe. I can make anything. Pretty sure. Danny writes in: Hi John and Kanae. I wish you both a wonderful day. Happy to see you again. Hope you're well. First time to see a Christmas market during the day. Would be fun if I could be there too. Danny, we're waiting for you, buddy. All right. Kanae is eating pistachio. What is that he's got? It's spinach. That looks better than mine. I thought that was edamame. It's spinach and potato. Or okra. Oh wow. All right, Leo. Will you eat? I eat. We're a team. Team food. Leo wants to eat with daddy. Yay. All right, we'll do our best. So while Kanae's feeding Leo, we're going to chow down on some of this food. This is the German potato offering. How much was it? Like 700 or 600 yen. Yeah, about $7 for this. It's a lot of potatoes. A lot of bacon. This guy just came walking around. Like, what's up with that dude? Itadakimasu. Wow. They really like garlic.

00:18:25 John Daub: Question: Is this authentic German food? Cuisine? Not really. I'm pretty sure they alter it to the taste of the people here. But never mind that. It's about the spirit of Christmas. And it's so warm today. What is the temperature? Like 17 degrees? Yeah, but it's windy. There is some wind. We've got these external microphones attached. But I guess it's too warm to feel like Christmas. You need to be bundled up with blankets. They always play the wrong music at Japanese events too. They had Michael Jackson and idol music here. Just stick with traditional. I guess they're trying to get younger people excited about Christmas. And Christmas means idol music. They're playing Tom Jones music. I guess he has a Christmas album. Taste test Leo's food. It's good. It tastes like spinach. It's not bad. It's savory. It's creamy. Alright, next up is this German caramel nut pancake. What is it? Cheese pancake. Cheese caramel pancake. It weighs almost nothing and set us back about $8. You can't complain. It looks like a holiday cheesecake more than pancake. Just let's go for it. We're going to try some more food. Don't worry about it. Take good care of my future French student. Leo's gonna be learning some Canadian French. That's pretty good. It's not bad. I could see myself eating more of that. Here's a scene from Hibiya Park. There's a lot of people entering. Hey, Aaron's here. Happy holidays, Aaron. Check it out. We got the Aaron buggy rolling. We bought a new attachment, this blanket. So Leo and the Aaron buggy are very comfortable in the winter. Thank you so much. Aaron buggy has a friend. We call him Aaron. It's a sweet ride.

00:21:00 John Daub: So this Christmas market has a brochure. Last year, it wasn't this. It was a thousand yen to enter, but they didn't have an entry fee last time or ever. Christmas markets, you just walk in. But this year, they gifted everybody a Christmas mug. Kids half price. I guess it's all right. I have two mugs now. The problem is every time I come back, I have to pay a thousand yen and get a new mug. But I kind of want to save the planet. I don't need six mugs. Unless Danny, Aaron, Jennifer, when you guys come to Japan, I've got a mug for you. Remind me. I have a fleet of them. We have three right now. So it's kind of nice. You see the Christmas pyramid. It tells you the system, especially for the beer. They have good German beer; this place is sponsored by the German Chamber of Commerce. You have to pay a thousand yen deposit on the beer mugs. But you can keep the mug or glass for the price. That's neat. Five hundred would be more reasonable. There's a lineup for the music. They have a list of the food: salad too. The one thing we had at the Munich Christmas Market—every time we've been, two times—apple strudel. Apple milk strudel. There's a stand on Marienplatz in Munich every year. Oh my gosh, it is so good. They don't have that here. This must be based on the Nuremberg one. The Nuremberg Christmas market is really cool. We have live streams from both on this channel: Munich Marienplatz, Nuremberg from a couple years ago, and one from Prague. We met up with viewers there. Those are available on Only in Japan Go. I'll make a Christmas playlist. Let me get back to this eggnog that is not eggnog. But 'tis the season not to complain. Enjoy it. They might have put some eggs in there; it's rich. Leo's got four teeth: two on top, two on bottom. Show your teeth. Deep in thought. He doesn't want to show, but he bites. Recently bit me. Pretty powerful. It's family fair today, folks. Welcome to the German Christmas market in Tokyo.

00:26:12 John Daub: So I'm gonna get some different food because I don't think this is good enough. You want this noel? Yeah, I think Leo wants milk. So you know what? I'm gonna go get some more food while Kanae and Leo bond. Let's head back into the market. I'll find this noel. Okay, you can get some sausage. Noelle and sausage, you got it. What happened with my mask? Oh, here it is. There's a Lindt chocolate place. I can take this off. I got double mics on now. See you soon. Good mommy. The kid's got cotton candy. Let her do what she does without the camera. Best way. We'll be back. Oh wow, that looks like meat. Sausage plate sold out too. Crazy how you sell out at a market. Guess they're preparing now. Look for this noel. I promised: curry burrito, yakisoba. I don't know a lot of the stuff. All right, I found this one. Check it out. This has tornado sauce. Tornado sausage. Okay. It's hard to know which way to order. They seem to have... just the bowl and ice wine. Ice wine, I guess this is like a big leg. I better get the ice wine. Did you guys think ice wine? Oh, the wind is violent. I kind of want sausage, and I'm going to get some ice wine. They just have sauerkraut: a bowl for five bucks. Hey, Angel Forever 59x, welcome. We're putting it to good use. This booth looked really good, nobody there. But Kanae wanted sausage; they didn't have it on the plate. This is a Christmas plate. Not too crowded. I think in a couple hours it's gonna get packed. Oh, there's beef menchi katsu. They have fried baumkuchen. Gotta try that. So unhealthy. Why deep fry baumkuchen? Oh, X means sold out. Awful. They don't have a lot of stuff. I'm gonna get a big plate of sauerkraut. Thank you for the food. Here's one ice wine and five different kinds of sausages. Here's the 2200 yen bill. Thank you for the food. Alright, number 29. Boy, you know it's going to be crazy at nighttime when it's crowded. If it takes this long now, talk about chaos. When I was here, there weren't that many people; it was early. Hey, Diana's here. 'Tis the season to be jolly. Celebrate with glorious food and enjoy JKL family. Yeah, John, Kanae, Leo—JKL. You got it? Pretty cool. Thank you, Diana. Hopefully the package I sent arrives before Christmas. I'm giving Kanae time to feed Leo. Then we're going to the ornament booth and buy some for the Christmas tree. Last year I got Kanae a ballerina. This year, another good one. You can see, except when eating, people wear masks. Same protocols everywhere. Which is super crowded, more so than this one. Everything went pretty good: procedures, temperature check, clean hands with alcohol. Visual inspection. Nice. Everybody wearing masks. Almost. There's a lady not doing it. But when eating, you can't. So we're looking for another ballerina ornament. Christmas market shopping coming up. Every time in Germany and Prague, we buy at least one ornament. Want our tree covered with them from markets. Got to get one today. Shout-out to my friend Bela from the day before yesterday. Pretty cool. Bela and his mom watching from Illinois. Got to visit when back in U.S., which is sad—we'd be there now if not cancelled. Crazy time to travel. He's got a beer. Not even noon. I like that guy. Folks, we're number 29. That looked pretty good, the sausage plate.

00:35:32 John Daub: That was a good year. I remember '99. I was traveling, backpacking. After college, between 1997 and 2003, traveled to 70 countries. Almost every country in Europe. Didn't hit Baltic states, Moldova, Albania. Went to Yugoslavia right after the war. Pretty tough time. Now four or five countries. Did hitchhiking in Croatia. Fun. Hitchhiked from Croatia to Slovenia. Met two girls in Budapest youth hostel. They said visit in Zagreb. Took ferry from Brindisi, Italy to Split, Croatia, bused to Zagreb. Stayed two days. Then they said join to Slovenia. Hitchhiked on highway. Pretty cool. Christmas time, 1997 or 1998. Maya and Victoria. Crazy girls. Look at that. Hot chocolate with big chunk on top. Please be careful. Oh, hers is easy. Wow, that looks good too. Did I miss order? This is exactly what I wanted. Thank you very much.

00:38:58 John Daub: Hey, yeah, that's Ronald's got it. Snow machine. Shout-out to Katayama. He sent a nutty present. Five different kinds of sausages. I'll take this one with ketchup. Supposed to have mustard, right? Mm, good boiled sausage. Wonder what Germans think? Critical or happy to have option? Curious what my German friends think. Yokohama has a big Christmas market too. Okay, I try sausage. Mm, it's good. Yeah, if you're hungry, everything's good. This is a huge piece of meat. Don't even know how you eat this. It's big. Leo, you want some? He's only got four teeth. What flavor? Meat flavor? Kind of oily. Say hi to everyone. Hello. Very rare inside. Medieval. Need my battle axe. Go hunt in Black Forest. Kanae gathers berries; I'll hunt meat. That's what this big chunk's like. Get mega meats on the bone, pick up and go like this. That scared Leo. Sorry. I've been to John the Barbarian. You don't want to see it. Beast mode. When I went to Oktoberfest, 1996 first time, then few years later. Fun. They had Schweinshaxe, big pork knuckle. People chugging one-liter beers, eating giant pretzels. Amazing. Really barbarian. Felt like one. Don't know if best for Christmas, but you want different feeling. Want meat.

00:47:32 Kanae Daub: A little bit. A little bit worrying.

00:47:42 John Daub: All right, let me try this. You try the sausage tornado. White sausage is breakfast in Germany. Weird they have it with ketchup. Nutty pancake. Nice market though. Can't complain. Oh my gosh, Leo's watching me eat. This is how we eat, Leo. Eat like a barbarian. Good, right? Learning quick. Study. I will teach you the mysteries of the world. All answers lie within. Yeah, I don't eat. That was pretty good sausage. As you can imagine, we don't get much sleep. He woke once last night, crying. But going smoothly. His first Christmas on Earth. Hoping in U.S., but cancelled—not virus, just hard to return. If U.S. gets worse, restrictions harsh. Decision we had to make. Oh my gosh, cross-section of the beast. Analytical cross-section. Pretty amazing. Christmas pirate food. Here's a little pink. They wouldn't sell uncooked. Pretty good. Have chapters/table of contents, skip parts. Putting more chapters: Beast mode, Leo eats, shopping. Night motion in BG. From Peter. Peter's doing Christmas party; might be invited. Leo full-on Santa. You want tornado sausage? Try it. Pieces of oil dripping. Looks like snake. Not bad. You want it? Okay, try. Lot of food. Eggnog which is not eggnog, just cream. I think we're done. How do you take this mug? Clean whipped cream. Hope you're ready for shopping. Time for shopping. What do you do with used plates? You get the ornament. Throw away? Yeah, pretty good feast. Sent family card last week on Patreon. End of year, family card. This from Leo's 100th day birthday. Had to take to shrine. Good way to celebrate holidays. In mailbox for Patreon supporters. Santa, 'tis the season. La la da. Don't cry, find happiness. Shopping ornaments. Can I dump remainder in pot? Feel like dumping in fountain, but bad. Should I keep mug? Mess. Oh, we can put in pot. Nice. We have three: one for Danny. Don't worry, he'll wash. Try to clean. Santa Claus coming to town. Making list, checking twice. Gonna find if naughty or nice. Off we go. Didn't work; sleepy. How get rid of meat? Bone. Mostly good meat; eat fat too. Finding trash challenge. Trash in Japan weird. Seems trash can here. Burnable garbage, unburnable. Unburnable trays. Burnable, unburnable plastics. Meat here. Okay. Un-eaten food here. Hi, Neo. Unburnable. And bone. Akana, open that. Bone. Okay. Tray here. All right, we did it. Next chapter: Shopping. Final chapter. Wow! Last thing he needs: more plushies. Oh, lovely. Kind of girly. No barbarian animals? Don't want Leo with critters. Some scary. Eyes. All right, Kanae hears ornaments. Leo nine months. Wants milk. Asked, doesn't say. Says dada, mama, nene, other words? For good ornaments, look top. Don't see same choices as last time. Ballerinas? Oh, there. Push through. Ornaments booth popular. Papel, very busy. Bob Jo, get something. Leo! Hold meal? Yeah. You find. Nice, hunting. While she's hunting, doing this with Leo. Ballerina, Kanae. Yeah. Look, Danny, ballerinas. Eh, your fault. Got me this last time. Yeah, last year. Which better? Get both. She looks creepy. Yeah. Who? He? She? Too... Leo? Oh, cute. Looks like your niece, Danny. This better? Yeah. This one better. Okay. Leo needs Shiba Inu plushie. See what find. Okay, this one. Natsukawa card? Oh yeah. Still...? Oh, sorry. Fell. Dropped 100 yen. Oh okay. I'm sorry. This one. Like oh. Don't know. Looks expensive. Get Miihi. Yeah. Looks jede... darkness. All right. Something put here? Thank you. Oh, cute. Maybe hanging Microsoft? Confirm. No way she'd allow on tree. Get out. Got Leo on platform. Guy's plate flying. Recovery mode. Beautiful day in Tokyo. Christmas market. Blasting Let It Snow. Got shirt from Uniqlo. Nice seeing same shirt; wink. Acknowledge. Not walk up to strangers. What think market? Pretty genuine. Nice afternoon; night crowded. Weather in Sweden? Pretty cold. Alan, Graham, thank you. Have good day. Thanks for stopping. Nice. No "you found me" cards. Nice when someone stops, says hi. Christmas spirit. Feel it now. Kanae getting ornament. Battle royale ladies, one guy. Bailed. Think mic on; hear her. Cluster. Got Leo out. Leo, feel Christmas spirit? No. No. Thank you. No, don't eat finger! Bit me! Still awake. Jaws of steel. Did you get? Show. Yeah, got it. Nice, wrapped good. What name her? German name? Greta? Yeah. Greta Swedish? Helga. Sounds Swedish. Heidi! Oh, gonna eat. Helga in Leo's jaws. Gave finger, bit like hot dog. Here, Leo. Not bite. Oh. Ah, let go! Like Superman, Super Baby. Christmas spirit strong, literally. Just strength. Go sleep, little Leo. For joining, hit thumbs up. Oh, fudge no-wetter? Got it. Still hungry? Sold out. Shocking. Half sold out. At DREAL Selects, fed. Leo fed spinach. Popeye. Can't believe; blacked out. Unless green. Cheese gara gara. Apple pie. Garetto. Apple pie vanilla ice cream. Best: across street Hibiya Midtown mall. Apple pie shop. Better. Bingo. Hands full twins. Open-close. Dressed like bear. Aww. Awesome. Everybody, thanks watching. Champagne Sumo. Next ornament whiskey or sake barrel. Cool. Gotta get beer for us. Christmas camping beer tree. Beer and churros weird mix. Thanks watching. Go shopping mall maybe. Hope Christmas spirit strong. Can't make Tokyo, but nice share afternoon. Walk market day, fun, sunshine. Need that. Until next time, tomorrow. Main channel episode tonight: 30-min fireworks industry. Fun. See you. Can't see him. Santa! Open door!