00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the Imperial Palace. This is the East Garden, and this is the time of year when the ume blossoms—which are plum blossoms in Japanese—start to bloom. They are really beautiful right now. This is an area of the garden where it gets a lot of sunlight, and on a warm Sunday afternoon you can see they're out. It's starting to feel a lot like spring. In fact, if you don't have spring fever by now, you're probably normal because this is still really early. They do look like cherry blossoms. They are not cherry blossoms. They're plum blossoms.

00:00:42 John Daub: In this episode I'm going to be taking you around this corner and showing you several of the trees. To me, trees are worthy of an episode. And yes, there's a lot of security around here. In the thumbnail I take a picture and behind me was an officer. I look like I was smelling the roses illegally. Let me show you a map here to get an idea of what the East Garden looks like. Takebashi is the closest subway station, but you can walk here from Tokyo Station in about 15 minutes. There's a map right there. And we'll get a little closer in a second. But you can see that red spot on the top of the screen. That's where we are because it says that you are here. You see that? And we've come in here through the Hirakawa Gate. And we're taking you just around this area because that's where the best concentration of the blossoms are.

00:01:39 Eric: Hello. You're the YouTuber, right?

00:01:40 John Daub: I am.

00:01:42 Eric: Only in Japan?

00:01:43 John Daub: That's right. Only in Japan.

00:01:45 Eric: Well, nice to meet you. We saw you walking.

00:01:47 John Daub: Oh, cool.

00:01:48 Eric: Thank you for your video.

00:01:49 John Daub: Yeah, you're welcome. You're actually on it now.

00:01:51 Eric: Oh, cool. Hey, I'm Eric. Nice to meet you.

00:01:54 John Daub: Nice to meet you, Eric.

00:01:56 Eric: That's nice. Wow. I saw your Kento video.

00:01:59 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Thank you.

00:02:00 Eric: Hi.

00:02:01 John Daub: Yeah, just put two videos in one week, which is actually a lot of work for me.

00:02:05 Eric: He realized you. I didn't realize you.

00:02:07 John Daub: Oh, okay.

00:02:09 John Daub: All right. Wow, you realize me with the mask on and everything. That's pretty crazy. See? The most popular guy in Tokyo. Well, thank you for that. Yeah, you just walk. It's a beautiful afternoon for it, too, right? I can't believe how the weather broke. You know, it's like 17 today. So I'll take it. I got spring fever. Well, thank you so much. Nice to see you. Thank you for stopping. That's nice. They recognize me with the mask. Do you think perhaps it's the hat? Maybe it's a hat. I don't know.

00:02:38 John Daub: All right. Let's check out the... There's a lot of photographers out here because this is a well-known spot for taking pictures of the ume blossoms, plum blossoms here in Tokyo. So we've got a lot of staff here. I'm not sure what they're doing, but they've got high-powered cameras. Let's just zoom right in and get real intimate with these plum blossoms, shall we? They do look very similar to the cherry blossoms, but the petals are smaller and the center... what do you call these inside here? They're a little bit longer, more coming out, I guess. And I guess if I have to look at a plum blossom and a cherry blossom, I can tell the difference. But I'm not a professional, so we're just going to stick with observing because that's what I like to do.

00:03:36 John Daub: Now, it's free to enter this garden. Anybody can come in here. The entrances require a bag check, so the police will go through everything. Of course, you are in Imperial Palace, so in the garden of the Imperial Palace, security is going to be very strict. I don't know what this variety is. Maybe the chat here, the livestream chat will let you know. But this is a pink variety. Now, cherry blossoms, they're not just the some Yoshino, which are the white ones. They also have different colored cherry blossoms and ume blossoms. Plum blossoms are no different. You're going to find different varieties of them blooming at different times.

00:04:15 John Daub: So when people ask me, when is the best time to see the cherry blossoms? That's not just a loaded question because of the geographical locations around Japan. They bloom at different times. It's also different varieties of cherry blossoms blooming. And then you have the elevation, of course, thrown in there. At different elevations, the blossoms are going to be blooming at different times. So there's lots of different criteria, different factors in determining when they're going to be blooming. So if you're trying to plan your trip around the cherry blossoms, I say don't do it. Just come and you're going to find the blossoms somewhere that looks really beautiful.

00:04:53 John Daub: God, I love... you know what's striking about these purple ones here? These pink purple ones is the stems of the tree here are darker and just makes it pop a little bit more. And then you get the blue skies today, which even make it look more beautiful. Now they're not fully bloomed yet. You can see there's still buds on that tree there. So you get a little bit of focus there. Let's go back. Let's go take a look at another tree. I don't want to hang around too long because I know that other people want to take pictures. So you don't want to hog a certain area. Let's go to these two trees here that seem to be very well bloomed because they're in the sunlight a lot of the day.

00:05:52 John Daub: WRX Turbo is in the house as I use my golf voice to talk to you all right now. I'm going to take a look at the tree. There's a new green branch coming out there that probably grew over the course of the last couple of months. Maybe they look like little cotton swabs on there. Don't they? Very different than cherry blossoms where the blossoms are much bigger. They take up most of the tree, meaning the entire tree is white. But here you can see through the tree because those buds are not too big. It's more woody, I guess you could say, right? Again, this isn't 100% bloom, but you can see into the twisting center of the tree right there. Probably in a couple of weeks, the leaves are going to grow through and then it'll be a green tree and you won't see how beautiful they were for these two weeks that they usually bud and bloom just like this.

00:07:12 John Daub: Let me take you up the hill here. You have to be careful. People are taking pictures. Hello. Hi. A to one. Here's a friend in the distance. All right. Check this out. This looks like popcorn kernels, doesn't it? Look at it. They're just about to bloom. Little baby buds coming out. This part of the tree is not in the sunshine as much as the other places, so it's not going to bloom as well. That's another factor. How much sunlight does that particular tree get will play into when it will blossom.

00:07:57 John Daub: I got those. I must say. I dropped one of the postcards, by the way. That was nice of him to return it. I better put this in the bag here. By the way, this is going out to Jeffrey in Philadelphia and Michael in Texas. I'll put that in the mailbox for you guys and pay. So your January card is on the way. Tomorrow is the last day to get that particular postcard to you. Ones are coming out. I want to get close to this branch here. You can see these buds are really pretty and sometimes a blossom will just bloom out of the branch, which is really unique and pretty. It's like a special kind of beauty. I think when you see something like that because the branch of it, it's so dark and hard and unattractive, the skin of the tree, the bark. But then you see a blossom blooming out of it, a delicate little flower that I love that contrast that you see only a few. And then of course, the rest of the year in the summer and until fall, it's green as the leaves sprout out.

00:09:16 John Daub: It is almost like popcorn. Daniel, let's come to the side here. You can see some of the branches are low, but people here in Japan have a lot of respect for the cherry blossoms and the sakura trees. So you have despite it being really close to where the people walk, nobody will touch them. They keep their distance and they have a great appreciation from a distance. Maybe you can put your nose up in there and almost smell it. I almost did that. But I don't think the blossoms have the same smell as some of the other blossoms. Oh, wow. That really does have a really nice smell. Wow. I didn't realize that they were as nice smelling as they are.

00:10:21 John Daub: Look at this shot. Look at it. You got the light just hitting at the right angle. Wow. That should be the thumbnail right there. Some of the but they're still getting ready to bloom. The sun hitting it. Maybe they will start to blossom in the next couple of days. So for those that are joining us, you're live here at the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. I believe it's called Higashi Gyoen [?]. I've been here a couple of times before.

00:11:00 John Daub: Here's some funds for whatever the heck you want to spend it on. Thank you, Bob Joe. How about lunch for Kanae? I'll pick up a snack for her. I'm at I got to go past Tokyo Station and there's a lot of nice restaurants. Bob Joe, I appreciate that. Let's get Kanae and Leo a surprise. A lot of us have been inside because it's so cold in the winter. The days are short. So when you start to see the signs that... you know, you're going to be in the middle of the summer. We've turned the corner of winter and spring is on the way. That's what I think spring fever is all about, right? You sense it. Summer is coming and you get pretty excited.

00:12:00 John Daub: All right, let's go down. And you can see here as this... this is a slope and it goes up towards the where the old Edo Castle was. And if we can get 250 likes, I'm going to take you up there again. We're live. This is a live stream. So your participation is greatly appreciated. And it's a lot of fun. That this is a small plum blossom tree. And you can see it looks like it's fully bloomed. It's beautiful. And the way that they propped it up and helped it with this stand just enhances its beauty a little bit more. I don't know if it's young or old.

00:12:55 John Daub: Yeah, no, me. You don't have to write so many comments like that. I can just sum it up in this one comment here. This kind of beauty and freedom... it's worth fighting for, isn't it? It's very hard for me to know what the quality of the video is that I'm streaming. I can see it in glorious 20/20, which is my vision. But typically the YouTube limits it to 720p and the 4G signal.

00:13:48 John Daub: Lisa O is here. Thanks for the early glimpse of spring. I'm so done with snow. I hear you. I've done this well once March comes. I'm all in on summer sun. And the sun is just cutting through here, just adding a little bit of light side light to it. This is a little bit later for a live stream. But there's the sun coming in on the side. Now, this tree is behind the wall. You can see the walls of what the old Edo Castle was. Edo being the old name of Tokyo right here. Slimmed down and this tree... it looks a little bit older, but it's not at the same level of blossoming as the other trees over there where they get more sunlight. So always keep that in consideration. Some trees are going to bloom at different times.

00:14:43 John Daub: Again, it says it's an ume tree. It tells the variety down there, but my eyes aren't good enough to see that. Some of the trees will have identification tags so laymen like me know exactly what you're looking at. But I don't see too many of them. Can anybody see that? Can anybody read that prunus mumei omoi no mama [?]? I don't know. I can't really read it here.

00:15:15 John Daub: All right, let's go back over here now. Just have one more look at some of these ume blossoms. And then we'll take you up to where the Edo Castle would be. Of course, it was destroyed and no longer exists. But you can see the base of Edo Castle. And I don't know if the signal is good up there. I know that it was pretty decent here when I checked for live streaming. Look at this. It's in the sunlight with the blue sky in the background. It's just beautiful. Oh, man.

00:15:46 John Daub: April, the end of March and April, you still get a lot of cold. We have something called sankanshio (three cold days, three warm days), which is it gets like a few days hot and a few days cold. And it does this like several times before it just breaks and gets warm. And that happens during the cherry blossom seasons where you need a jacket for half of the days. And then you need a sweatshirt or sweater for half of the days. There's sun for half of the days. And it's just bitter cold with this wind that cuts through for half of the days. And you just hope that you get a full week with the cherry blossoms at full bloom before they start falling like snow onto you.

00:16:25 John Daub: And this year, it looks like international tourism during the cherry blossom season is not going to happen. So I'll do my best to bring you to some really popular spots so you can feel like you have that sakura feeling. For you are just a part of what's going on around us. And that's this season that we get here in Japan. Ryan K writes in here wishing we could all come to Japan. Your streams and videos are helping know we are not that far away from the country opening up. I think we're much closer to that happening. And the actions and the things we hear from the government very much is like it is opening up sooner than later.

00:17:17 John Daub: I think it's hard to focus because the sunlight is there. Jennifer at saoSamo has a few questions, one of the comments. French, you're always welcome. And back to the tree. This one I was standing on the most for about 15 minutes before I started the live stream. Again, you can see here that the buds on this, it's hard to focus because it's dark. Let's get a little bit of the sun here. You can see that the petals are a lot shorter, very clumped up together like a family trapped in a small cardboard apartment. It's kind of all on top of each other, doing their best to find some space to bloom out and get some sun.

00:18:30 John Daub: It's a nice scene. You can see a family coming out here to just get a little peek at some of these ume blossoms. I do apologize. I wish this was in 4K because I'm sure it's much more beautiful in there. But you're live here, so you're watching this with me right now as it is in Japan right now. It's daytime here. Yeah, it's like a very crowded family all packed into a one-room cardboard box apartment just trying to bust out and get a little bit of sun. I don't know. I guess there's better metaphors. People who've thought this through before speaking live. But, you know, they're just different. And you can't compare the ume blossoms with the cherry blossoms, although they look similar, they just are different. They smell different. They look different.

00:19:44 John Daub: For me, you know, we have Groundhog's Day in the U.S. And the groundhog sees a shadow. He runs back in and we have more winter. For me, this is the sign that winter is over when you see the ume, the plum blossoms coming out. But for me, this is a sign that we are closer to the end. And summer's longer days and trips to the beach and all this other stuff, which you haven't been taking over the last couple of years. Maybe we're getting a little bit closer to that. I think I'm going to be in shock if that happens. I don't know how to react. I've been wearing sweatpants and t-shirts for the last two years. How am I going to change? That means I've got to get stylish again, although I never was in style.

00:20:54 John Daub: For Chan, that's not much of a problem. He's stuck in a trunk. Only fashion he needs. Probably sweatpants would be pretty comfortable. When you take in photos of the ume blossoms or sakura, the lighting is so critical. So you have to find the right time of day or bring your own light. And I love that too because the dark sky in the background, it's all black instead of blue. And you can have that light and shine it at different angles. From behind, it kind of illuminates it. From the front, it really brings it out.

00:21:32 John Daub: Oh no, hello high 821. There's one of your minions. Kind of creepy. It's a big one. So communicate. Do not mock them. They will get you. That's enough of that. Let's go up to where Edo Castle is and see if we can see. He's over there. He's eating the blossoms. Some breaking news. Plum trees under attack. That one on his beak. Let's get out of here.

00:23:04 John Daub: All right. I see we got 250 likes. Let's go up the slope and take a look at where the old Edo Castle, where Tokyo, if it hadn't been destroyed, Tokyo would have its own castle. I think it's one of the things that's missing from Tokyo, having a castle. Instead we have a Sky Tree. Stay away. Just ignore. Crows are huge here. I don't know what the difference between a raven and a crow is either. Hello high 821. Can you let us know? This place is called Bairinzaka (plum grove slope) and it's a plum tree slope. And you can see here it gets even more beautiful.

00:23:51 John Daub: Here's some of the background on it. The plum trees of the slope that lead from the Ninomaru second compound of the Edo Castle to the Honmaru main compound were planted before the East Garden opened to the public in 1968. It is thought that the plum trees had been planted here by Oota Dokan. Oh, he's a big... he's one of the people who designed Edo Castle. The 15th century warlord who built the first castle. Interesting. Let's go up and see the castle ruins. I haven't been here in a couple of years. Ravens are much larger than crows. We call them karasu in Japanese.

00:24:42 John Daub: There's some plum blossom trees here as well. You can see them in the light. And it's interesting. They planted here white and pink and white and pink. But they haven't quite bloomed yet. So you don't get the full impact of it. I think maybe in the next four or five days are really going to see some changes here. There's a shrine very close to Yanaka that is really impactful. The amount of plum blossoms there is incredible. On a day like today, I bet you it is so crowded. One reason why I'm here and not there. And the signal there annually has been really bad.

00:25:37 John Daub: Just over here to the left. I can't believe I'm huffing and puffing after that slope. It is time to get back in shape. P.S. I have a video that's dropping tomorrow on the main channel edited. So the blizzard has started. Thanks to everybody who watched the latest episode released yesterday, which was looking at the regional revitalization of Japan's countryside in Kochi Prefecture. That's something that's really dear to my heart to see. Tokyo is such a popular place. We all love it. But the soul of Japan is out in the countryside. And that countryside is not doing well.

00:26:23 John Daub: There's the base of Edo Castle. Look at it. Do you see it? That on top of there would be maybe Japan's biggest castle would have been there had it not burned down. There's a tree up there. You see that? This would have been maybe bigger than Himeji. This would have been massive. Imagine. What do you think right now in the comments? Do you think they could rebuild it? They should do it. I don't think the taxpayers think that they should redo it. But let's put it in perspective. We spent millions on Abenomics masks, which were masks that didn't fit. I'd rather have seen that money been put into Edo Castle. Right? Just saying.

00:27:21 John Daub: That tree up there is pretty nice. You can walk up to the top of it. Let's do that. And I guess this is a nice place to take a walk. Let's take a look at the overview of Honmaru and Ninomaru Park here on the east side, east garden of the Imperial Palace. Jeff Kennedy. Hey, my friend. Looks great over there. Have yourself something. Jeff, buddy. This is yours. And I'm putting it in the mailbox at Tokyo Station. So when you get it, it's coming from this exact day and it's joining us on this trip to the castle. Here, Jeff. Your postcard's going to touch... Jeff's postcard. Your postcard is now touching. This is so cheesy. Your postcard is now resting on the side of Edo Castle. It's picking up some spirit here. And you have a really traditional stamp there. There you go. Jeff's got a little bit. And Peso, your card got touched by the castle, too. Rub some more dirt on it. Right, Senviren? There's no dirt on the side of the castle. They do a good job of cleaning it.

00:28:44 John Daub: Okay, up we go. A few years ago when I did a livestream here, there was really no signal. So it's quite impressive that things have changed. All right, HelloHi821, this is for you. Do not try to climb the walls, okay? Don't be that guy. Don't be Spider-Man. No superheroes here. Imagine if this would be the perfect place for bad guys to battle, right? This is like a video game place. You're going to see this is a perfect platform for a fight. But they're not allowed to climb the walls. Check it out. This is where the castle used to be. Right here up on the top.

00:29:47 John Daub: This livestream brought to you by those cell phone towers in the distance. It's pretty cool, right? This would be perfect place to have a fight where the castle would have been. It's really flat. There's even like a wall here. It's quite windy as well. So you can see down here from the top. There's a beautiful place where you can just sit on the grass and get some sun. That's Marunouchi. Those buildings over there. That's where Tokyo Station is. Right over there within those buildings. There's the Marunouchi Building, I believe. And the Shin-Marunouchi Building. And just a stone's throw away. This is the view from Edo Castle. Had it been here, the daimyo or the emperor or the shogun would be looking down here at these people. And the city. Beautiful day for it.

00:31:10 John Daub: Ramsey silent. I'm not, I will not go home empty handed, brother. Guaranteed. And you were never here. I get out of the routine. Alright, down we go. Hey Jeremy, welcome. You are here live in Tokyo. If you'd like to see the plum blossoms, just wait until the video ends and take a look at the playback. Because this is, I got so much spring fever right now. I got so much energy. It could also be the pollen messing around with my system.

00:31:44 John Daub: That looks like a cherry blossom tree right here. So they had these blossoms right in the front of what is Edo Castle. Let's read this. They have an English explanation down here on the bottom. The large lawn and surrounding area seen from this Tenshudai, base of the main tower, were formerly lined with the buildings of the Honmaru Goten Palace. This is the Imperial Palace. Whoa! So that's the Imperial Palace right here. Looks like Manhattan. And then Edo Castle was right there on the end. That does look like Manhattan, doesn't it? Sort of. Battery Park would be up there.

00:32:33 John Daub: The Honmaru Goten Palace consisted of three sections, namely Omote, Nakaoku, and Ooku. Omote was the stage for general public ceremonies and the place of work for various government officials including the shogun of the shogunate. Nakaoku was where the shogun lived his everyday life and administered his affairs of state. Cool! Ooku was where the shogun's family, including the wife of the shogun, called Midaidokoro, lived and where other ladies or female staff also lived. Whoa! This is where the ladies lived.

00:33:18 John Daub: Welcome to TDSDR. It is a wonderful day. Look at it. Perfect sun. It's nice and warm. Don't need a jacket, although I have several layers on. There's another sign here. Let's take a look at the Spider-Man Do Not Climb sign. It even says danger. The Tenshudai base of the Edo Castle keep. A little bit of history. After the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki destroyed the third tower to the... Fire destroyed so much of Japan's history. But buildings were not... And there's Edo Castle. This is what it looked like in the past. And you can see we came down this way. So the plum blossoms would be down at the base. I think right around here.

00:34:30 John Daub: But fire has destroyed so much of Japan's history. But a lot of these buildings were not meant to stay up forever. They're supposed to be rebuilt and redone. And that's sort of the vibe of Japan. You don't have a lot of buildings that have really long histories except down in Nara and down in Kyoto. But for the most part, it's very... buildings were supposed to be rebuilt. But they were always... the history had great fires or hit by lightning or something had happened or battles burned them down. Everything was made of wood.

00:35:10 John Daub: This would be a great place to see Godzilla fighting a Power Ranger or something like that. I want to see some crossovers. I want to see Spider-Man take on Godzilla. All right. We see some crossovers, please. So you're looking at the base of the old Edo Castle. For those joining us right now. And of course, there's no Tokyo Castle. But if there were, this is where it would be. And there'd be more tourists here, too.

00:35:44 John Daub: All right. There you go, everybody. I hope that this was interesting. Let me move out here to the middle of nowhere. Out in this wonderful area. The Imperial Palace is in the center of Tokyo. I highly recommend coming to Ninomaru Garden, which is on the east side of the Imperial Palace. It's free to come in. I come here every couple of years just to check out the plum blossoms. Like I did today. And I got some spring fever. They're early this year as they have been in the last years. And I have a feeling cherry blossoms in Tokyo will start to bloom around March 15th. Which is just under three weeks away. Which is crazy to think about it. But we're now past winter and into spring. And that's freaky.

00:36:26 John Daub: All right, everybody. A main channel episode coming tomorrow night. Probably Tuesday morning. You'll see something in your inbox from Only in Japan main channel. I'm taking you to a snowy onsen, which is the last. I have two more episodes that show you a little bit of winter. And then we're moving into some spring content, which is super exciting. I know you can't be here, but I will be bringing you as much of Japan as I can on this channel. Thanks for subscribing and hitting that like button. And I appreciate you joining me for this afternoon here in Tokyo or your evening in California, wherever you are in the world. Have a really good night. And I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you, Rainier. Rainier, buy you and Kanae some sakura desserts. You got it.