00:03 John Daub: Wow, you don't often see Tokyo with so much snow like this. Right in front of us is Tokyo Station. We're going to get off right here. Welcome to Snow-Kyo! This is Tokyo with snow. Look at this! Not often does it snow like this in the city of Tokyo. The weather is comparable to Washington DC. It's usually pretty warm, right around 40-50 degrees in January, February. So getting a chance to take a look at Tokyo with snow that actually accumulates. Look at that snow!

01:00 John Daub: What? This looks so much like Tohoku. This looks like the north of Japan. Not like the city, not the capital. We don't get snow like this. So for the next 20 minutes or so, we're going to walk around Tokyo Station. I have in my backpack here, I've got postcards for our postcard club. If you're interested in getting one, I have one in my pocket right here. I've got to wait for this red light. This is the fireworks display. All the really cool fireworks, including the smiley faces on here. This is going out to our Patreon supporters. Thanks so much for supporting.

01:38 John Daub: For those that haven't been to Tokyo Station in a while, this is the Yaesu exit. You can see the entire area. This block is under construction. Knocked down all the old Showa era buildings from 50 years ago, and now they're starting afresh. So let's go see how Tokyo Station's doing. I heard a lot of Shinkansen have also stopped as a result, especially those in the direction of Tohoku. So we're going to go and find that out right now. Travis writes in here, 20 minutes in John time is 2 hours. That could be the case, although it's freezing out here. So I'm not sure I want to be out in the snow for this long.

02:21 John Daub: Look at these guys trying to ride a bicycle. Oh my lord. Hey, Brandania's here. I can't even see. This reminds me of the Sapporo Snow Festival where my eyelashes had snow buildup on it. Live stream about two years ago. Matsumi was with me on that one. It's an instant classic. We had a bunch of us, people that we know on the channel. I'm curious to find out. That's Tokyo Station in front of us again. I'm curious to see what the delays are, if any. I think the Shinkansen can operate in the worst of temperatures. And I kind of want to know because I have a trip coming up to Yonezawa soon.

03:25 John Daub: Spike 021, thanks for the coffee. Let's see what we can do with that. Let's cross the street. Oh, it's so cold. Yaesu Central exit this way. Oh, it's so magical, isn't it? The city's so much more beautiful when there's snow. Wow. It's supposed to stick and it's supposed to snow for 12 hours, apparently. That's crazy. Oh, look at that. You know what would be really good with this weather? Ramen. That's a sight. That's a sight we don't see that often in the city of Tokyo. Snow. I gotta go around this way.

04:44 John Daub: Cold. And where I'm going next week, it's even going to be colder. I'm heading to Hakone on these live streams. So you're going to see a bunch of really interesting videos from Hakone. Right on the base of Mt. Fuji. Well, sort of. Alright, let's get moving. I gotta head to the post office on the other side of Tokyo Station. Alright, let's go see the train delays here. If there are any at all. Glenn, I'm not wearing any shorts. Except underneath my pants. No, this is trouser weather.

05:46 John Daub: I will try to wear shorts until November and then after that. Only the Kiwis and the Scots. There's a few nationalities. The Canadians will be still wearing shorts. You have to be hardcore. I'm not that hardcore. Although I'm pretty hardcore. That's basically tempered steel. Hardcore. It's nice and warm in the station. Let's see if there's any delays here. Hey, Andrew Fort Wayne. Snowmageddon 2022 is here. What a way to start the year.

06:34 John Daub: Okay, they usually announce some of the delays here. Alright, so it doesn't look like the normal local trains are running okay. Nothing delayed there. And the Shinkansen seems to be running without delay as well. So there's no delays with the Shinkansen right now. That's good news for everybody who's thinking about traveling up north. The snow has not slowed down the Shinkansen. So that's pretty good. Although it says the Akita Shinkansen right now has big snowfall. So that might be a problem. And the Joetsu Line overhead wire freeze. That sounds pretty significant.

07:43 John Daub: So the Shinkansen is not impervious to delays. Alright, let's go back. We got to wrap around and go to the post office on the other side. That's our mission for today. Yeah, there are probably some Canadians going, really? This is just typical everyday winter for us. For Tokyo, this is not typical. Alright. Do what this lady is doing. She kept her makeup on for this. A lot of respect for that. Usually you're sweating in the hot water too. You know what? We don't have to walk straight away outside. We can kind of go around this way. It's warmer here.

08:37 John Daub: There's no reason for me to jump right out in the snowmageddon. Danny's here. Looking at you right now, it reminds me of Montreal. Yeah, that was about three years ago, right? Kanae and I went up to Montreal. It was like minus 50. Something ridiculous. Alright. Let's do this. Snowmageddon. And it's sticking too, Danny. It's really sticking. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if this keeps going. Tomorrow, let's see if the aftermath of the snow, if it builds up. I'll see if we can go over to Shibuya tomorrow. Take a look at the ground over there.

09:29 John Daub: Look at this security guard's hat. I thought his hat had snow on it. It does. Hey, MJ. Happy New Year to everyone. Wishing you a wonderful winter wonderland in Tokyo. Hope to see you sometime soon. I hope so too, MJ. I still got some of your postcards again. They're building up, buddy. I can't send yours with this lot here, but when you do come, I got a nice package for you of postcards. And MJ writes in here. It's all good.

10:15 John Daub: Oh, my hand. It's cold. I think with the combination of the snow and the wind and the wetness, it soaks into your bones. It oozes that cold into your body. All right. We're sort of still under the canopy of Tokyo Station, and we'll get underneath this and walk over around the station. Maybe we'll see the Shinkansen taking off here. Here's the JR Expressway buses. There doesn't seem to be too many delays on the highway. They have it pretty good, pretty well plowed. But the snow seems to be this storm isolated to just the Tokyo and Chiba and Kanagawa and Shizuoka areas. Just hitting the coast of Japan.

11:21 John Daub: People have the umbrellas out. Look, it's snow. I guess an umbrella is useful, but I like to go unprotected here. Let the elements hit me in the face. It's the way I like to roll. Just invited in. Is this the best you could do, Mother Nature? You can't dump any more snow on us? Really? Is this the best? Okay. Look at the restaurant signs getting snowed out. That's awesome. Hey, Amy Jambies here. Can we get a snow angel sending? Maybe not. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow.

12:25 John Daub: Send in some Sydney summer. Miss Japan so much. Loving the postcards to the postcard club. Awesome. Yeah, please send us some sunshine. I hope the sun comes back to Tokyo sooner than later. Because it's freaking cold. And Lisa O is here from one person with frozen hands to another. Here's something for that hot drink. There's some places on the other side of the station that I think I'm going to try to jump into. Because they're hot coffee and whatever. At least a vending machine. Holding those hot cans of coffee really warm your hands. It's kind of a secret to buy one and try to get that radiating heat from the can of coffee.

13:06 John Daub: Oh. Look, even the walking man. He's going to have snow all over him. This stuff is sticking. It's getting colder. Also, it's a little bit after 2 p.m. As the sun continues to go down, it gets colder. All this is going to freeze over tonight. And if the snow continues, it's going to stick. Tomorrow we're going to wake up to ice on the sidewalks. So I don't know how I'm going to get to Shibuya tomorrow. But we're going to play it by ear. I want to see the aftermath of this. You don't see Tokyo with snow on the ground very often. But when you do, it's kind of cool.

13:53 John Daub: There's also some temples and shrines around here that might be really pretty with the snow. So it's good to take advantage of the four seasons. All the different looks of Japan. All the different textures, including snow. But when it does snow in Tokyo, you want to make the most of it. Because usually it melts away the next day. Usually it doesn't stick at all. But it looks like we're going to get a cold one coming tomorrow too. You might be able to see the Shinkansen cruising by right above us here.

14:29 John Daub: So we walk around to the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station to get to the International Post Office. That's the International Forum where they held the weightlifting events for the Olympics and a couple of other big events that they have. Hey, Chan's here! Since you missed the last Super Chat, here's more money. Did I? I'm so sorry. It must have started when I was on the bus. I'm getting out here. Daniel, Happy New Year from the Gold Coast. It's a warm 30 degrees. Oh, do not rub it in. There goes the Yamanote Line. I think that's the Tokaido Line across there.

15:12 John Daub: The Shinkansen's not going by right now, but it might in the next couple of minutes. There's one that goes every five or ten minutes. How many cars long is a Shinkansen? The correct answer will win the respect and love of all the people here in the chat. Oh, there's a Shinkansen! Oh, we got an awful angle. I'm talking about the Tokaido Shinkansen, by the way. The correct answer is 16 cars long, the Tokaido Shinkansen. Now, the other Shinkansen have a different length, but the Tokaido is the one that's ridden the most. Sometimes they're 18. I guess it just depends if it's a Nozomi.

16:31 John Daub: Well, my gimbal likes to go at an angle every now and then. All right, we're on the other side, the Marunouchi side. All right, nobody walk in this area. So, as a treat, if we can get to 500 likes, I'm going to take you to the top of the post office building where you get an amazing panoramic view of Tokyo Station. But we need to get to that 500 to 550 likes. I know we can do it. It's a community thing. We got this. It's called the Kitte Building. Kitte in Japanese means stamp, and that's straight ahead. I'm going to drop off. I think we got several hundred postcards we got sent out today.

17:32 John Daub: The stamps, by the way, those that are in the postcard club, the stamps this year is the Demon Slayer anime stamps. They're pretty cool. Oh, man. We still got some of the decorations from the Japanese New Year. Does anybody remember what these are? These are called kadomatsu (New Year pine decorations). Five points to the winner. Would you drink a durian drink for 600 likes? Chan, I would if there was one around here, but sadly there isn't. Look at the Hato bus. Anybody want an open Tokyo open top tour bus ride? I wonder if the snow is accumulating inside on the top there. I'm going to have to pass on that open tour.

18:36 John Daub: But I'm thinking in the next month to take a Hato bus tour just because there are so few tourists. I feel that we need to support some of these businesses so they stick around. Spaceboat. Hey, everybody. I have a serious note. Spaceboat, the boat that cruises down the Sumida River in central Tokyo that is beloved by all, especially me and you, is considering going bankrupt. It's considering stopping. And wow. I don't want to see us lose Spaceboat. So I'm going to see if Leo and Kanae will join me and we're going to ride the Spaceboat.

19:23 John Daub: Holy smokes. My whole left side of my face is frozen. Look, it's starting to stick. Look at this. We can't lose Spaceboat. So we're going to ride Spaceboat in an effort to support it. We're going to try to work out financially, raise the prices, which is understandable. It's 2,000 yen a person now to go from Asakusa to Odaiba. That's about $20. And the price is, I think it's about like a 30% increase. But I've seen the Spaceboat with one or two people riding it and that's not acceptable. So it's time for Kanae and I to ride the Spaceboat to give it support. So we're going to throw in 50 bucks in ticket prices. I think Leo has to pay 10 bucks, which is fine by me.

20:24 John Daub: My fingers, hands. Craig Kawaguchi. I'm going to use that to buy some gloves. Yeah, Oriental Pearl. Got it right. Alyssa knows exactly what it is. It's kadomatsu. Smart. Look at Tokyo Station. Why couldn't Christmas be like this? You know, it feels a lot like Christmas, doesn't it? Now I can understand how Santa could make the stops here in Tokyo. We don't have any chimneys. I often wondered how Santa does get into those houses. I kind of think it could be because we do have ventilation systems in the kitchen where the gas stoves have a little vent. Santa must crawl in through that. Not sure.

21:30 John Daub: All right. We did get there, everybody. Hey, Jian. Welcome. We're flying high. Okay, let's go up to the top of the Kitte Building. Now, I'm going to take you up so we can get a panoramic view of this station area. So the signal might kick out for a little bit. Do not fret. We're going to get there. Okay, don't panic if it goes Minecraft. All right. If you're watching the playback, just skip the next two minutes. This is Tokyo's main post office, and I'm going to be dropping off the postcards into there. Welcome to the Kitte Building. The roof has a garden and an observation deck that's very impressive.

22:23 John Daub: All right. Let's take a look at Tokyo. Snow-Kyo. Oh, Becca, this is the Kitte Building. All right. Here we go. I'm going to lose you for a second. I'll be back in a minute, okay? I'll be back. No elevator music. All right. The signal should have returned by now. Check it out down there. What a view. That's the entrance where we just came in from. So let's go upstairs.

24:13 John Daub: Yeah, Jian. No elevator music. Just a bunch of ding-dongs. All right. So, all right, here we go. Wow. The observation deck is closed. The door won't open, but you can take a look from here. That stinks. I guess because the snow, it's kind of dangerous out there. There's the roof of Tokyo Station, but you can really see the snow falling. Gosh, it would have been a lot better if we could see down there. All right. So, yeah, for safety reasons. There's one more observation deck on the other side. Let's go. I'm not somebody who likes to give up easily.

25:40 John Daub: Hey, the Beatles here for the hot chocolate. All right. Let's see what we can find. Jian Simpson, thank you. Let's see what we can find to warm up here. Thank you, Scotty H., for being a member for so long. Can we just take the escalator down? I like how there's always a lane for people to walk on the right side of escalators in Tokyo. All right. Out we go back into Snokyo. Kind of disappointed we couldn't get out there on the observation deck, but perfectly understandable safety reasons. People slipping, falling over. All right. Some screaming. Not good.

26:58 John Daub: Post office. I will be back. This is where I'm sending all of those postcards I usually put on Instagram stories. Up there is an observation deck right there. You can see I don't see any people out there. I'm guessing that might close, too, but I don't know. Well, let's go find out. Happy New Year, everybody. Welcome to Tokyo Station. This is Snokyo. It doesn't really snow that often in Tokyo. Not like this. It's usually like a really light flurry and then it melts right away. This is going to stick.

27:50 John Daub: For those dreading us tomorrow, I will be going out and seeing the aftermath if it keeps snowing like this. The Shibuya, Shinjuku, this area of the city is probably going to be interesting to take a look at. No! I hate that store now. I was talking with the police department and the apartment that I live in and the post office and they all couldn't believe that Apple shipped my iPhone and put it in a locker. And Apple won't pay for it because their quote unquote policies state that it is okay to put it in a locker. I'm not through with them. That iPhone was paid for by our money. I don't give up. I'm going to be a thorn in their side.

28:52 John Daub: Like a trillion dollar company is really going to care. That doesn't mean we stop. There's Tokyo Station right in front of us. I don't even know if they got snow plows. Maybe like one for the emperor who lives over there. So if there is a snow plow, we're probably going to see it. That's the Imperial Palace straight ahead. I'm serious. There's the wall. So oh, I avoided that cough pretty good. Tig writes in, tis the season. It is tis the season indeed. Where's the warm spiced wine? I think Christmas technically should probably go on to like the first two weeks of January. I think the spirit should keep on going. And let's face it, it would be really great for the economy. We could use a little bit more shopping.

30:10 John Daub: All right. Inside here. I thought it was tis the season to bully on the bullies, but we're going to get ours. We're not done. All right. Inside we go. Ain't that dangerous to have to use an umbrella? I know that the umbrellas aren't the best to be walking around with like that, but well, she's got a pretty cool umbrella. Look at that. It's like got that glow on it. All right. You're seeing live images from Tokyo Station. There's the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station with in Snow-Kyo, a snow blizzard for us. Are you not entertained?

31:03 John Daub: All right, let's go inside here. I'm going to keep a low profile and just see if that observation deck is open. So if it's not, I'm going to bring you up pretty quickly. It's up on the fifth floor. Andrew Fort Wayne. Shake fist in air. Apple. Yes. Kadomatsu. All right. Low profile, everybody. Keep a low profile. Don't say anything and don't look like you're filming or doing something suspicious and be careful because it's slippery. Look at the white outside. This is the Maru Building. We're not done yet. Let's keep going up.

32:47 John Daub: Oh, no. This observation deck is closed, too. Oh, man. Still really pretty. Hey, Kuwaina Burger. Who's hungry? All right. Outside we go. All right. We got to get a hot drink. Oh, wow. So from up here, you can see they have this really awesome lounge. Look at that up there on the third floor. It goes around the window. That would be a pretty cool place to chillax. Look at those dudes there. That's what I'm talking about. OK, maybe we should go there. Let's go to the deck down there.

34:52 John Daub: Here we go. Let's see if we could snag a seat or something. Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow. And it is letting it snow. It's really, really nice. Wow. Look at the snow coming down at an angle here. Look at this. Not a lot of traffic on this side of Marunouchi. Here comes a taxi. It is very cold, but it's not Canadian cold. It's like Tohoku cold. It's zero Celsius, 32 Fahrenheit, thus snowing. This would be the place to get a hot drink and just sit here and relax.

36:41 John Daub: All right, let's go back outside and see if we can find a hot drink. Canadian cold is cold. It kills you. And the only people who survive are the ones that were born into it because they know how to survive. All right. I remember I asked Danny and I asked other Canadians, it's like, why would you even live here in Canada's north? And like, you have to be born into it. I spent a night in Rikubetsu, which is the coldest city in Japan. Temperatures were down to minus 43 degrees Celsius. On average, every year, it's the coldest town. I spent a night there on my birthday two years ago, and it was minus 28 that I know of because I didn't stay up all night. I wanted to get up at 2, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I think I got down to minus 32 that night. And the Canadians go, minus 32? Is that all?

38:14 John Daub: That's what I'm talking about. It's cold. All right. So I have to get back here. Kanae is reminding me that I have to be back in Tokyo. Kanae if you're watching, I'll be back before 3. I'm heading back. Oh, that's a nice Rolls Royce. So we're going to see the aftermath of this snowstorm. I have to get my hot drink back home now. We're going to see the aftermath of this snowstorm tomorrow and see what it's like in the morning. But it's supposed to snow in Tokyo for a while. It's supposed to snow for the next several hours into the evening. And in the evening, this ground will certainly freeze over. And then by then, we're going to have some accumulation.

39:28 John Daub: It's about 20 minutes to 3. All right. I'm going to put these in the post box and then get on with the rest of my day. But thanks for joining me. This is really a sight that you don't get to see very often. Snow-Kyo. It's Tokyo with a winter wonderland. Tokyoites don't know what to do. We panic and we stay inside and avoid the snow like plague because we could fall down and hurt ourselves. But that's not going to happen to us because we're not going to fall down. It's a perfect weather for onsen. I know. Where's the onsen? Why am I here? I'm next week. I'm going to Hakone and you're coming with me too.

40:17 John Daub: So on the 12th of January, you're going to be coming with me to Hakone for three live streams. Four. It's a beautiful hotel on the 11th and 12th and you're going to be with me in the live stream, which is going to be really awesome. We've checked the signal there. Looks like we have a strong enough signal to do the live stream. So there you go. All right. I got to drop these postcards off. Thanks for watching from Tokyo Station and the area. We'll see tomorrow what this looks like. Probably it's going to be really awesome and you'll get those snow angels. See everybody. Merry, Merry Snokyo. They need to sing songs about this weather.