00:00:00 John Daub: Hello and welcome to one of the most lively JR station fronts in the entire country. This is Akihabara, and we're six days away from Christmas. As the lights of Sega World here are flashing bright. Can we find anything more Christmassy than this? Maybe, maybe not. How you doing everybody? For the next 30 minutes or so we're going to be walking around this area, checking out some of the sights and see if there is any Christmas spirit here.

00:00:33 John Daub: But more than that, we're going to be walking around Akihabara station. See how Akihabara is doing. The businesses haven't been doing so well over the last couple of years, but maybe something new popped up. Who knows? This is the Akihabara station front. This is the JR Akihabara station. This is the Denki Gai exit. They call it Denki Gai because this side historically was where they had a lot of electronic products, vacuum cleaners, home air conditioners, home electronic stuff.

00:01:04 John Daub: That's all changed over the last 50 years, but it still looks pretty cool. Yeah, this is also now the capital of the anime and manga world, so many people say. Nakano Broadway might be a close second. And I'm going to be very careful. I'm not going to be wearing this Santa hat around town too much longer. It's kind of ridiculous, isn't it? I don't know. Nobody else is wearing one. I'm not one to be shy though. All right, I'll wear this all the way out to Chiyoda Dori.

00:01:48 John Daub: Chiyoda Dori or Chiyo Dori (Chiyoda Avenue) is the street we're walking towards right now. The thing with staying in Japan, we were supposed to go to the United States for Christmas, to leave on December 10th. But you know how plans change in the pandemic world. I don't like to stay here for Christmas. Although I felt a little bit of Christmas spirit right there. Somebody came and said hello. It's just that here you can see a lot of people. It's just shopping for people. There's nothing behind the spirit of Christmas except for the lights and the shopping. But who knows? Miracles happen.

00:02:25 John Daub: Like up there and maid dreaming. Many people consider me the McDonald's of maid cafes. You kind of see the action. That's interesting. Usually they had curtains drawn for maid cafes. They were very closed off. They didn't want to show you what was happening inside. And now over the last year, they've been a lot more transparent. I guess they really, really want to get people to go in there. You could even see some of the customers in there getting maid love, which is that—it's not what you think it is. Well, maybe it is what you think it is. I think they should paint this man green during Christmas time. We could call him Santa Claus. Although that sticker does not do him justice. Walking man with the hat. In Akihabara, he's a bug. There goes the silver line towards Nakano. Actually, I think that would take you to Nakano Broadway, wouldn't it?

00:03:50 John Daub: Hey, Irvin's here. Yes, Irvin knows I was up till like 4 a.m. yesterday editing. And Michael Sosato, happy week for Christmas John. Excited for the live stream around Akihabara. So am I. I'm going to really take my time and be careful here. So don't worry. It's going to be really hard. It is actually a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. But the thing with Japan is everybody is wearing masks. But with the way the world is these days, you kind of want to take a little bit more precaution. This is a Sunday afternoon and this might be the peak.

00:04:20 John Daub: Typically, though, there would be a lot more people here on the weekends. Usually, Chuo Dori here is shut down and the government is not asking people to stay at home or anything like that. That's kind of ancient history. Although maybe it's going to be making a comeback. All right. This is the iconic underneath the Sobu Line. Look at Matsumoto Kiyoshi and Sega. Number one building. The one we saw before. I think that was like the number three or four. I can't remember. There's about—there used to be four or five Sega World arcades in Akihabara. Two of them have gone out of business, I believe. This one was really close to it, but I'm not. Let's go take a look and see what the front looks like.

00:04:53 John Daub: The Matsumoto Kiyoshi wasn't always there either. I can't remember what was there 10 years ago. But Matsumoto Kiyoshi is a big—it's like CVS in the United States, like a drugstore where you get just about anything. I kind of have a circuit when I go around Akihabara. So I'm going to stay in front of all the people here. I kind of have a circuit when I go to the back streets. And this is what's going to take you to where a lot of the maid cafes, the non-chain maid cafes, the stuff that were there way back in the beginning. There's an original looking person. I don't feel so silly wearing a Christmas hat anymore.

00:06:18 John Daub: You know, this is how I learned Matsumoto Kiyoshi. They have these deals on KitKats. All right. You've been warned here. They have less KitKats in them instead of having 12 to 14. They only have nine, eight or nine. And I guess KitKat makes this for Matsumoto Kiyoshi. See, you see, it says nine right there. So they put less KitKats in there and they charge a cheaper price. But you don't know that unless you really look at the label. You think you're just getting a discount. You're actually getting what you paid for. So you've been warned. That's a nice VW Beetle. Did you see that?

00:06:53 John Daub: All right, let's go. Wow. They just have signs for 1500 yen. That means that the maid cafes are seriously discounted. Wow. I like to come out here every few months to try to get an idea of how the businesses are doing. And I've noticed—well, what do you hold on a second? This is interesting. Do you see this? Uber Eats has its own locker. So if you order from the Akihabara KFC, they put the orders in the locker and then you pick up the order. I guess the Uber Eats drivers tap in the order and they open up the window and they just go on their way.

00:07:40 John Daub: I've never seen this before. Have you? Is this also in your country? What do you think? That's a brilliant idea. And it gets the orders to people quicker. So the Uber Eats drivers can make more money. Win, win, win. You learn something new every day. Hey, there's my friend, Colonel. We got the same hat on. Merry Christmas. Ho ho ho. What do they say? What do they say in Kentucky? I guess they say ho ho ho too, right? I don't know. When they say it like an anime character.

00:08:12 John Daub: You know, it's always—I always thought it was kind of cold in the winter for these maid cafe people and I always felt bad for them. I guess the maids out here hustling. The weather is not too warm today. It's a little chillier. There's a chill in the air. Oh, this is the Abura Soba. I came here with Randy Santel back in the day. If you know Randy Santel is this really amazing, super kind competitive eater. He's as authentic in person as he is on camera. One of those people that he just wins you over with big smile and a kind heart.

00:09:00 John Daub: He's a competitive eater that came to Japan to take down a couple of challenges here and that Abura Soba was one of them. He ate—I don't know how he did it. He ate so many bowls and I did a live stream of him eating it too. It's on Only in Japan Go about three years ago. Randy was here. I was really happy to get in touch with him. I pointed him in the direction of a couple other really good eating challenges. So here we are at Super Potato and they're doing just fine and I think they have online business where they can sell their stuff.

00:09:31 John Daub: But if you're looking for a retro game arcade up on the top floor, they do have a lot of retro. A little retro game center. So you can play some of the old games from the 1980s up there. It's pretty cool. Down these streets in the back, again, there's some non-chain maid cafes, some very weird ones. There's one with like sexy ninjas and there's, I don't know, Dracula. There's a golf maid cafe. There's some really weird ones and you'll see them usually hustling outside here to try to get you to go in there. Right here, they got flyers you see on the left side. I feel they must be so chilly.

00:10:46 John Daub: Alright, let's cross the street here and we're gonna loop around to Chuo Dori once again. Wow, it's just a lot of people. Do you see that? Sundays are crazy here. Okay, there's no people over here. So I've noticed like actually this does—you can see some sweat. I came here by bicycle. This kinda does look like a beard. So I notice that there's a massive increase of other YouTubers that just walk around the city and show you what everything looks like and I tried watching some of them but they're kind of—I don't know they're nice I guess to leave on in the background but they don't say anything. They all kind of seem the same.

00:11:40 John Daub: So I'm kinda glad that I'm gonna keep this format where I talk maybe a little bit too much to try to explain to you what you're seeing rather than doing something I guess that could be considered B-roll. I don't know. I gotta get a white mask and that looks more like a Santa beard I guess. I like the live streams and I'm gonna keep trying to find ways to make them better. Just I'm not gonna buy a backpack or you know special booster units yet. I think the tech is on the precipice of evolving and I've been complaining so much to YouTube. They're starting to listen. Update should be coming.

00:12:10 John Daub: Oh no, this is the sofa shop that we—I came here with Randy. So I came here with Randy and we made a big mistake. It wasn't at this shop. It was the one in Kanda which was the main shop for this area. So we had to hightail it to Kanda. We were gonna take a taxi but we ended up walking which is great cuz it was a nice night and we had a lot to talk about. Now, this is what historically was the can ramen vending machine. It's now just oden. Alright and it's not that good. So you get it just so you can get a picture and say, hey, I just got oden. The durian drinks are still here. You do it just so you can get a picture with it and go, hey, I tried it.

00:13:24 John Daub: What are these guys doing? They're like squatting in poo position. You're not allowed to do that, I guess. No squatting and talking. I used to see that a lot. I don't know, 15 years ago during the Yamamba era where the girls got like fake spray on tans. They'd all be together doing para para, this mysterious dance with hand movements. Nice. Oh, you get a Sapporo lager. I love the red star. Sapporos are really good. You see that usually it's a good sign. They care about the beer that they serve. So you notice like the vending machines here are also in English. You see that? Uh no, actually, it's not. This is not in English but you can match the English on this sign to the vending machine there and the shops are fairly busy.

00:14:46 John Daub: Hey, now. You gotta put a Santa hat on them. Alright, we're gonna cross over to Chuo Dori now. I see Brandania's here. Welcome. Aloha. So today, I came down Showa Dori, Showa Dori (Showa Avenue). Chuo Dori and Showa Dori are the two big streets that go through Akihabara. What's that there? So again, like every time I come here, I find something new. So far, we've seen the Uber Eats window at the KFC. I've only used Uber Eats, I think, three or four times.

00:15:45 John Daub: This is, okay, I don't, I don't know what this is but this looks like it's sort of new. I'm not sure what this is. Life Park. But a lot of these virtual offices are starting to take over where people buy rental office spaces. So I thought that might be what that was. A lot of the old buildings here are starting to come down as well and we're starting to lose more and more of these. Do you see the little teeny electronic shops? Kind of hole in the wall. You see this old building? Look at this. This is definitely like late 50s. Looks like it's late 50s. Just made out of cement. Between 1940 and '60 for sure. And probably a family owned business. Grandpa's just holding on.

00:16:27 John Daub: His son doesn't wanna take over because it's not the most exciting life to be selling electronic products, competing with the likes of Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera, Sofmap across the street. But they do have some pretty good sales. I don't know. You know, some of them might become chains and I think some of them are doing online businesses too. So they've evolved. Sometimes, the younger grandson will take over. It skips a generation and they get wise and say, let's do this all online grandpa.

00:17:01 John Daub: For those that are looking for a cheap hotel, looking for a good hotel. There's the Apa Hotel but the owner is somewhat controversial. Another ramen place. That's a spaghetti place. Neapolitan. Hey, timer T. How you doing? Welcome to the show. Alright, I'm gonna go this way and across the street, Showa Dori is the great Akihabara Don Quixote and that's always gonna be in business. Now, they changed the front of this last year which made really big news. Genshin is on the front but for the longest time it was I believe it was AKB48 had the banners they purchased it for like years in advance and then last year it was removed and Genshin came in so that was sort of a big deal.

00:18:26 John Daub: Now the super wide Chuo Dori. Check it out this road shuts down on most weekends this weekend it's not. It's pretty incredible no one's really crossing the street and that scares me except for that guy. I respect that man he's got guts. There's a crosswalk over here I'll just go from over there. We could go check in on our friends at the Gachapon Kaikan. What do you guys think? If you like Akihabara click that like button. I'm starting to feel the Christmas spirit.

00:19:32 John Daub: There you go this I can't wear this anywhere it is it is so hot it's like bottling the heat all right I'm going back to good old John hat all right across the street over this pink truck is a Carl's Jr burger place and I don't know how much longer they're going to be in business I think they have two or three shops in Japan I'm not sure they came here right when the Olympics were announced and I guess a lot of businesses come here when the Olympics are announced for some reason they start focusing on that country and then when the Olympics are over they kind of fizzle out but these Olympics were so non-productive like for marketing purposes and whatnot I'm not sure how much longer a lot of these shops are going to last especially if the tourists don't come back.

00:20:53 John Daub: I'm not sure if because of the tourists that are coming back here all right let me get up of the entry ban it seems like it's been forever since tourists were here in Japan wow i'm looking across the street and i'm noticing that building is virtually empty look at all the signs up there second floor third floor fourth floor fifth floor there used to be a big banner for a maid cafe there nagomi i think it was it was called it might still be there there's a two sisters maid cafe where one girl was really nice and the other girl was really mean you didn't understand like a big sister little sister type of thing so they pulled on your emotional chains messed with your mind and this is a rabbit maids cafe i don't know what it was you'd go down like a rabbit hole now it's a curry place.

00:21:58 John Daub: So i think that the age of maid cafes the boom is way over so i mean you could if you do come to a maid cafe i think it's a pretty cool experience but you're hitting the end of the road of it it's kind of closer to the end in the beginning of the boom about 2008-9 that's when it was peaking i'm not sure if the tsundere cafe is gone they have a sign right there do you see but i don't know it just seems like because of the pandemic not a lot of things are gonna stick around now gachapon kaikan is one of the places that will be sticking around and the owner is a friend i love this place.

00:22:36 John Daub: Over the last five years more gachapon machines have sprung up mostly for tourists to get rid of their change at the airports there are banks of i don't know like five six hundred gachapon machines and then here gachapon kaikan has been around for like 40 years i think this building looks like it's 1980s and there's all sorts of weird gachapon in there now he has the gachapon machines stacked four high you can see on the wall there and in the back of the gachapon machine is a gachapon machine and if you're looking to complete a collection you can go to these cabinets where serious gachapon collectors rent them out to get rid of their extras especially rare ones and you can complete a collection because sometimes it can be quite hard to complete a gachapon collection usually when a new series comes out they have six or seven collectible items in the machine and five or six of them are really easy and then there's one or two that are super hard.

00:24:02 John Daub: All right i'm not going to go through all of them because there's a copper down there you can sense them you know what i'm just going to go across the street at the normal places so i'm not going to make it in time though oh check it out they have a noodle refill that's pretty cool so up to two noodle refills so you know like you don't ever drink the broth or you don't really drink the broth you kind of sip it a couple of times it's too salty and unhealthy but if you can get free noodles and a lot of places offer 10 yen or something really low priced you can get extra noodles just ask the owner and he'll give you new noodles to put in your soup so it kind of brings the soup to life again so you can get okawari noodles it's pretty cool i never do that because usually one bowl is enough but if you've been out drinking at night you might want that extra bowl.

00:25:17 John Daub: What do they got there all right this is weird so they have tomato risotto in a can this is a mushroom risotto and then amazake that i guess this is no this is dashi and oden so you're starting to see some pretty interesting things in the vending machines again there's a ramen soup vending machine you know ipudo is a big chain here they have them at the jr stations so you can get a can of ramen broth which is actually not that healthy but you can get it what is that over there a second oh those are the pcr tests this is a pcr test vending machine that's pretty interesting.

00:26:03 John Daub: Let's go take a quick look check it out so it's a i guess it's one of these antigen tests and one kit is 3000 yen interesting so you can get a pcr antigen test for 3000 yen from that vending machine here in akihabara that's kind of new they've had them in five or six other locations around the city but japan was criticized for not having enough testing that's not completely true it was hard to get a test in the beginning but it's not that hard now you can just pick up a test and do it yourself but it's not covered by insurance usually they're pretty cheap you can get antigen tests pretty cheap the police are out in force wow this is mostly one of those days six days before christmas so they're not really testing what could it be.

00:27:30 John Daub: Hey tony p's here hope all is well i have been super busy lately and not sure when i'll be around next so i wish you and your family a merry christmas and a happy new year early thank you tony i hope it's warmer here than it is up there in the north i haven't been on for about a week i took a week off i was going to be in the united states until the 29th but i wanted to take some time off i didn't know when and then just my body said do it now i've been editing the fireworks kickstarter video for the last week as well this is a bunch of stuff tomorrow i'm oh by the way tomorrow i'm actually heading to let me get in front of the group here follow these guys.

00:28:13 John Daub: So tomorrow i'm going to be in sendai i'm taking the shinkansen at 6 30 in the morning and i'll be in sendai renting a car at 8 30 from a station near sendai and i drive into the mountains and i'm covering sendai and miyagi this is a pretty exciting project i'm gonna do four live streams in one day however i'm pretty sure that the signal in some of those places is gonna be bad i'm gonna have to pre-record it and upload it tomorrow or the next day that's pretty exciting so you're coming with me john breaking the law by slightly off the crossing all right maybe just like one meter but i don't know they can huh more work here with us but they want to see if we're gonna charm the lure isn't that deck you for that deck of can talk to me if they want.

00:29:12 John Daub: I apologize for slightly breaking the law. Is it bending the law? Is that the right word? Breaking is such a tough word, you know. Yes, you should stay between the crosswalk, but when it's so crowded, you know, when you're trying to social distance. Now, these are the best ornaments. Get out your old video cards and your old motherboards. Make sure the ram is still on there too. Celebrate the Christmas spirit with electronics because that's the way you do it.

00:29:48 John Daub: All right, there's the Don Quixote and you can see they do have an AKB48, but it's not the advertisement on the other side. If you're looking for the entrance to the secret shrine, it is open. God, I remember breaking this place that I've known from my friend Patrick. That bicycle is not supposed to be there. This is considered a public road, okay? So this bicycle being there is sort of breaking the law. That's more than bending the rules. That's worse than crossing the street slightly.

00:30:26 John Daub: All right, are you ready? Should we go in here? All right, it's only going to take a minute. The signal might get a little bit weak, but we're going to go in here and check out the secret shrine. I like coming from this entrance. Look how clean it is though. Now, if you were in any other major city, this would be—whoa, this would be a dangerous place of muggers and vagabonds, pirates, but look how clean it is. You could almost eat off the ground here. I'm not sure I'd want to be here during an earthquake though. This would be not a good place.

00:31:20 John Daub: And here's the secret shrine. It's not that secret anymore. It's gotten renovated. It's been cleaned up. It was under renovation for a couple of years as I believe they were building some other buildings around here. You can see it is very narrow in here. It's easy to hit your head. So they put padding here. They used to have like duct tape, the padding on there, but now it's really onto this. So you don't hit your head. At least I hope you don't hit your head. I'm sure a lot of people have. So many people hit their head here. They did put some more duct tape here to reinforce it, but I like coming in from that entrance.

00:32:02 John Daub: Once again, you can't block this street. This is considered a public street. It's grandfathered in. Now, traditionally, there, I guess there's a certain measurement that proclaimed it to be a public street, but because this alley is so old, it's been grandfathered in as a public road. This is not—this is different. That's a real narrow alley. All right, out we go back to Chuo Dori. Now at the end of the secret shrine is a bunch of other vending machines, including, I believe that retro, what was it? Double Dragon or something? Street Fighter, right? Merry Christmas. Happy new year. Thank you, Betty C. We're going to have some fun over there in Sendai tomorrow.

00:33:13 John Daub: And there's Agen is here. Thank you, Agen. Oh, this is one of the collectible shops here. So let's get moving here. So there's the Carl's Jr. The only thing, I've never had it before. The only thing I remember from Carl's Jr. is that very provocative Paris Hilton spot they did about 20 years ago. Never had a burger from there. It's, I'm from the East coast, so we didn't, never had Carl's Jr. Justin writes in here, Merry Christmas and happy new year. Our family is hoping to travel to Japan next year or two.

00:34:10 John Daub: Andrew Fort Wayne, iconic arcade game. Absolutely. I like playing those old arcade games. That one's been sitting outside forever. The controls aren't as good as it used to be. So you put in a hundred yen and you don't have the same kind of control. Those retro arcades are going out of business too. There used to be, I don't know, you see about 12 of them in Tokyo. Now there's down to like four or five. There was one behind on the other side of Akihabara on the other side of the Yodobashi Camera, a retro game quote unquote museum, which is more or less, you could just go there and play the games. But last time I was by there, it was closed probably because of the pandemic. Just nobody wants to play the retro games anyway.

00:35:02 John Daub: You can get these old retro arcade home systems. So you don't really need to go to retro game arcades. But for me, the arcade I think had its own feeling. You know, you wanted to be surrounded by a lot of these other electronic blips. This is interesting here. Check it out. So it's, you don't see Japanese dishwashers very often because there's just not enough space to put in a dishwasher. People just wash it in the sink, but you do see these miniature dishwashers here. You can see my reflection in the window there. And yeah, it's good for like dinner, lunch, breakfast, dinner. You push the button and then they're clean for the next day.

00:35:52 John Daub: So I would never get one, but it's just another thing to put on your counter. But there are other people, I guess, who can't wash dishes and depends on the situation that you're living in. You need to have one of these. So there you go. But I don't think I would ever buy. These are more for bachelors. Look at that face. This is the face of defeat. Wash dishes? What's that? Really? Me? My mom used to do that, but I live all by myself now. Wait. Wait, there's a machine for me? Just put it in here and that's all I have to do? Jeez. Lazy. I've been washing my own dishes since I moved out in a college era. But there's a lot of dudes out there who don't want to wash anything, including themselves.

00:36:56 John Daub: Sometimes in the summer, it kind of stinks around here. I'm talking about Akihabara too, you know. All right. We're going to be making a left here at this light. And then I'm going to take you past the UDX where they have a lot of, uh, she's hustling. She's hustling. Oh, they got information and she said she's going to wait for them. These maids are pretty good hustlers. They get you to go in and like you might be in a hurry to go to an appointment or something. Don't ever stop because they'll find a way to get you to go in. Some kind of secret power, like a mermaid or something. They whisper in your ear. I don't know what it is.

00:37:47 John Daub: There's something like my friend Patrick. He had a stack like a thousand point cards from maid cafes and he didn't never use them. Then they went out of business, but they sweet talked him. There's a word for it too. All right. Here's the intersection where the Bic Camera is. This used to be Sofmap, but I believe Bic Camera bought Sofmap and now it's become Bic Camera. Oh, wow. Look at this. That says maid casino. What? Really? I didn't know gambling was allowed here.

00:38:34 John Daub: All right. We're going to make a hanging left here. Yeah. I think it was called something like big bitmap, big map, but they finally changed it to just Bic Camera. It was Sofmap and then became big map or something. And then it's just a plain old Bic Camera. Train free cow 12. Good to see a live chat. Good lessons on shopping in Japan. Let's see if I can give you some more lessons. So the thing is, I don't know what it's going to look like when tourism does return. So it's hard to give you these lessons, but you can negotiate here, especially for used products, the older shops that don't sell brand new stuff.

00:39:10 John Daub: And even the brand new stuff at Bic Camera here, they want you to get a point card. They want to get you a point card. The point card gives you 10% cash back. But they actually put in 10% more on top of the retail price. So you're not really getting any points back, but if you are a tourist, you can ask them to say, look, I don't really want the points. Can you just give me the price without the points, 10% off. They'll do that sometimes. Cause they want to sell.

00:39:55 John Daub: And I can't get any gachapon cause Kanae gets upset. She goes, what am I going to do with this? I bought her some really weird stuff. Oh, Hey, check it out. There's a DeLorean. Oh, look. There's animals made of bread. That's the metal pond. France pond. Look at that. Shokupan (bread). Just like give them legs. Here's some of these mini LED signs. These are tech old retro taxi lights. Vacant SOS. I don't think that was one of them available. That's really cool. Oh, Hey, metal desk.

00:40:55 John Daub: He says, get some gachapon. All right. Let's see if I got the coins for it though. If I do it, I apologize. I might not even have the coins for anything. All right. 100, 200, 300. I got 350 yen. Let's see what that can get here. There's old barber chairs. Old telephone. Check it out. Do you remember these telephones? They have the 03 numbers on them too. That's 400 yen. Excuse me, sir. I hear Ultraman. Oh yeah. Yeah. How you doing? Oh, you found me. Yeah. That's a live chat. Oh yeah, sure. Sure. Go ahead. I don't actually have any, you found me cards right now.

00:42:19 John Daub: Oh, check it out. They have the old retro Kissaten coffee shop. Remember these red chairs, these velvet red chairs. Look at this, these old video games in the tables. Key Coffee signs. That's awesome. Oh, miniature furniture. All right. I don't know what to get. I'm so confused. Did you see anything? Peso? Oh, there's one of these lottery things for you roll the ball and you get a number and they do that during the new year's. All right. I'm in deep concentration here.

00:43:10 John Daub: These are animals that are sick, but drunk animals. It's weird. Why are they, you know, I just sometimes I don't understand. Oh, these are animals that drop their ice cream cones. I don't get what the references to sometimes they don't make a lot of sense. That's pretty cute. Look at these cats stuck in a bottle. All right. I think Leo might like that one. All right, let's get this for Leo. How much is this? 300. Hey, that's exactly what I have. Gachapon. 3, 2, 1. That's really cool. I think Leo's going to get a kick out of that one. I like the cat though. See, that's why they get you. So you keep on trying to buy more and more.

00:44:38 John Daub: All right. I go for a full pump. So these people, they used to do a little bit. Nah, I'm going full on pump. Man, I drenched myself. The amount of work that they put in is some of these figures are incredible. All right. I'm not a big collector. I collect memories and I spend my money on travel and food, but if I didn't, you know, I think I might get into something like that. You know, it's just kind of so much work that they put into it. Mac has the croquette burger out there. We did try that in a live stream a couple of, about a week ago.

00:45:41 John Daub: All right. So we did find some Christmas lights. Awesome. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. And far. That's beautiful. UDX. I used to go to Ohio State and we had something called UDF, which is United Dairy Farmers. It's like a convenience or it's good ice cream wow look at this it's not actually blinking in my screen it just has to do with the hurts sometimes if you zoom in it makes it worse it is a pretty tree look at that at night i'm sure it's a lot more beautiful but it's like the fantasy christmas tree that sprang out of the ground and game of thrones or something it's kind of hurting my eyes actually i feel that christmas spirit.

00:46:53 John Daub: This is the Akihabara post office and i bring postcards here once to get an akihabara postmark all right this is the last part of the live stream here i'm going to be crossing this street right now i missed it you know the these lights are forever that's why i don't want to miss these lights you don't want to break the law not on a live stream here's that pink truck again all right justin heads up the akb 48 cafe is gone and it's not just a double gondam cafe or gundam depending on how bad your pronunciation is oh he blocked the view hey a homeowner just left a udf oh man i haven't been to a udf there's one what was it on 12th and high used to go there all the time.

00:48:03 John Daub: All right that's the behind this traffic light is akihabara station and you can see the keihin tohoku line pulling out on its way to omiya saitama you know i've been working with japan rail for a while and i'm still trying to wrap my head around all the different divisions of japan rail it's crazy there's jr kyushu jr shikoku jr east where the lines are between where jr central starts and jr west it's so confusing so if i want to do an episode with this i have to con it's so confusing but it's fascinating too because of those divisions because it's so broken up because it's so complicated studying it is fascinating and looking into the history of japan rail it's also quite a lot of fun all the different kinds of trains the culture behind the trains in tohoku versus the trains down in kyushu there's a difference there.

00:49:54 John Daub: When i first came to japan 20 some years ago this v-day france was one of my favorite bakeries now bakeries are the best bakeries in the world but i didn't find too many of bakeries back in the 1990s not like you do today there's a bakery almost in every single supermarket now all right in we go here's the entrance to jr station and there's a shortcut to get you through i guess people taking pictures of these anime characters you want to hear a secret peter was the voice of the prime minister in a just so you know i thought that was pretty cool i don't know if i'm allowed to tell you that either i think it was okay.

00:51:09 John Daub: Let's we'll catch up with him here's a shortcut that's outside of the denkigai exit it'll take you to the other side but we might lose the signal for a couple of seconds in the center that's what i heard about that i thought that was pretty cool i missed it but i'm gonna see if i can get it peter voicing over in english the prime minister's speech that's pretty cool sadly they took away peter's narration for the ana safety video they do that every couple of years so the kabuki video that he was in is gone so we'll catch up with him and see what else he's up to because he's bloody seasoned that's another reason why we haven't had him on just he's super busy pbg i mean their voices oh is he here what are you doing watching this so if you have some time get on over to the hamasa podcast and we'll catch up with pbg as soon as you can.

00:52:25 John Daub: All right we're coming out to the other side i did promise you really bad quality audio of video going through that tunnel now we're on the other side and i'm taking you to one of pbg's favorite spots in akihabara for junk food and that would be the cream brulee donuts because i would want one right now let's go see how they're doing whoa that's new some sort of 3d mascot since that cat came over in on the shinjuku oh somebody's actually using these station booths these are like privacy booths where you can make phone calls and just relax in there i never see anybody actually using them that guy's stretching wow i wonder it's a japan rail mall what oh it's a politician let's get out of here these guys scare me foreign i know it's on irvin's mind it's not political talk like that guy is doing back there.

00:54:24 John Daub: It's a cream brulee donut all right let's see what they got i think a lot of you know where i am exactly don't forget to click that like button and prepare for tomorrow's four live stream day in sendai and no there's a line what is this this line this line does not go fast either irvin no i have 10 battery are you not undid it i don't know these lines don't go fast either oh she's putting cream in it look oh i can't wait for this this is a five minute line it's like one minute for one customer it is really long the sushi cake shop is gone sweets paradise has gone out of business that's a heartbreaker so we lost another good business to the pandemic at least this location.

00:56:04 John Daub: All right you know what just wait in the line i could just wait in the line anyway it's although the papa beard is not as crowded should i get a papa beard look at the vanilla beans irvin look at the vanilla beans on that look is that pollution on the sign or is it real vanilla beans it's hard to tell if it's dirt or vanilla beans i don't know irvin i can't you know why i can't because i have a usbc charger and this only charges with the usb a the old ones so i can't do it all right irvin irvin will accept the substitution but look i told you this line moves one minute per customer it's hardly moving you think you'd be able to get rid of donuts a lot faster.

00:57:21 John Daub: These cream brulee donuts are so good and look she's they weigh it too to make sure that they're not ripping off anybody and she's adding more cream because it didn't pass the weight specifications oh my gosh you know what i told you it takes forever oh no there's like a line of papa beards papa beard's got a super long line now too all right see you michael travis rates in here just wait yeah well you're not the one standing out here in the cold okay i always bring a scale to donut shops just in case yeah no you don't peter you just put it in your hand you can weigh it in your hand because you've eaten so many donuts you're playing santa claus this year right who's got the bigger gut irvin's irvin does that calls it right stay on target speaking of target make sure she puts the cream in the hole here direct hit look at the cream oozing out oh that one looks like it's sticking its tongue out at me.

00:59:06 John Daub: You know i wish you could name the donuts and you could say i want trevor right here in the background you have i guess jazz music and then you have a politician screaming why does he need to scream? He has a megaphone, right? It's just confusing to me. Everybody likes to get a... You know what's the disturbing thing? There's nobody behind me. There's nobody behind me. I'm waiting in a long line and there's nobody behind me because nobody has the guts to be behind me. Peter, would you voice over a conservative hate monster politician that called for foreigners to be banned? Could you voice that over? Like an ultra-conservative right-wing military party guy?

01:00:30 John Daub: He's spoken choppy soundbites. If he bangs the lectern, do you have to bang it too when you do voiceovers? Is that how it works? If you're doing a dictator and he banged the table during the voiceover, does the voiceover artist or the narrator do it too? The bad thing is my phone's at 5% battery. Which comes first, the end of this live stream or a donut? But nobody is brave enough to wait in line behind me. So I guess it's just all about timing. We failed. We timed this very badly. Oh, check it out. Peter just indicates it with the tone. What are these here? These are caramel donuts. These are croissant glazes. These are donuts. Whoa. That can't be healthy. I don't think there's anything healthy here. Do they have any diet donuts? And there's the cream brulee. They blowtorch it.

01:02:48 John Daub: One cream brulee donut. Thank you. Run away! Run away! Hide in here. I think I got some snot in there. Look at that. A little bit of cream oozing out there. If you just lightly push on the top and the bottom, it won't come out because it's... Oh, just slightly. Just slightly. Oh, Trevor. I think this is Trevor. Itadakimasu. Wow. You can see the vanilla beans in there. Thanks, Irvin. Oh, man. And it's so crunchy on the top. And that crunch bottles in the moisture. So it's all like a mochi mochi. Just every time you take a bite into it, your teeth sinks in just a little bit. Slight tension on the top. Very delicate, crispy. And that sugar goodness. That layer just melts in the mouth and expands, releasing all sorts of emotion.

01:05:36 John Daub: It's more than a donut. It's a creme brulee donut. Vanilla caviar. I feel bad. I think they want to take a look at the gachapon machine. Oh, there's a slightly burnt area of it. It's kind of got a bitter taste to it. The blowtorch went a little bit too hot in some of the areas of that donut, but I guess that's all part of the experience. A little bitter, a little sweet. Oh, I can smell that creme brulee inside my mask. It's the smell of Christmas. It's a good thing that Kanae is not watching this. I'm going to get in trouble if she does. It's a dirty, dirty habit to smell yourself.

01:07:26 John Daub: All right, let's cross the street here. All right, this Washington Hotel, a little bit of information. They have a special room inside there for train lovers. You can get one of those toy trains in the room and it goes around the entire room. You can rent a special train room for a train otaku inside the Washington Hotel. I did an NHK episode inside there. It was pretty cool. Oh my gosh, I'm so amped up on sugar right now. Oh my gosh, check it out. This is for Leo. I think he's going to like this. He's probably going to say, How do I get the dog out? How do I get the cat out? He's got four teeth. I don't know how he can get it out with four teeth. No molars. He's going to chipmunk his way out.

01:08:18 John Daub: I love these information booths that give off a Wi-Fi signal. These are popping up all over the city in anticipation of all the tourists that might come here one day again. There's Go Go Curry. I've eaten curry there at least ten times in my life. In and out, ten minutes. So good. You don't go to places like this and sit there. After you eat in places like this you eat, get out, go to Starbucks or a cafe and sit there. But you don't sit inside of one of these ramen or gyudon restaurants. It's considered extremely rude because that chair is pretty valuable that you're sitting in. Ten minutes, get out. Don't make conversation. Eat and go. That's why the price is cheap. Prices are cheap because they have high turnover.

01:09:40 John Daub: Alright, there's the entrance. The side entrance to the big Akihabara Yodobashi Akiba. There's the camera. Tomorrow's going to be pretty exciting. They just put in bicycle parking here. Check it out. Peter, if you're still watching, look at this. They have motorcycle parking right here. Peter writes in here, $50,000 for more food and therapy. Peter, I know what the colors mean. Big plug for the Homicide Inc. podcast. Stories that are not about food that will make your stomach churn. Heinous crime. Sometimes not heinous. Sometimes very heinous.

01:10:46 John Daub: I'd like to hear some more murder mysteries on Christmas. Some fictitious murder mysteries might be good. Scrooged by the bell. Where Scrooge gets killed by a bell. I'd like to hear that one. New story idea. Scrooged by the bell. Even the police are not sympathetic to old Scrooge getting Scrooged. Alright, there you have it. My bicycle's right there. Biking back to home where Leo is waiting. This is a nice 70 minute live stream. 70 freaking minutes.

01:11:17 John Daub: If you're lucky, you might be able to catch the Shinkansen going by here. But that bridge is a shortcut that'll take you to Kanda Station. If you walk across that bridge, follow the train tracks. You do not have to get onto the Yamanote Line. You can walk it. In fact, you can walk all the way back to Tokyo Station in about 25 minutes from here. You don't have to take the train unless you have a lot of luggage. Then you should be taking a taxi. But the stations are pretty close between. In Tokyo, you can walk more often than not. Some local information. Alright, Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays everybody.

01:12:02 John Daub: I'm gonna be doing a lot more live streaming. I took a week off. Tried to recover. Knock on wood. And, yeah. Have a nice day. Good night on the East Coast of the US. And we'll see you again real soon. Tomorrow morning from Sendai in Miyagi where there is snow, I hear. Ugh. Gotta rent a car. Gonna be a fun four live streams or an effort to do four live streams. And the ones I don't film will be uploaded later from Akihabara. Thanks everybody.