00:00:08 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Kairakuen in Mito. This is one of Japan's three great gardens, and right now we're in the prime time. This is the season when the 400 ume (plum) blossoms bloom, and I think there's like over a hundred varieties or something ridiculous like this. But you can see we're about 60% bloomed here. Mito is north of Tokyo, so it's a little bit cooler, so you don't get the same warmth as you do in the city.

00:00:42 John Daub: How you doing everybody? We're here on a trip here. Leo, do you like the plum blossoms? Go, go, go, go! He's not really talking so much, but I am, so we'll balance it out here. But he weighs like a sack of rice. So let's take a look here. They have some pinks, some pink ones, some purple ones, all sorts of ones.

00:01:07 John Daub: Kanae has a map here. So this garden was founded by Tokugawa Nariaki in 1842. And it's most famous here in late February and early March. There's loads of plum blossom trees called ume, and we parked the car over on this side and walked over across the Joban line. So let's take you around here. We'll take a look at a couple different colors and hopefully the signal holds out because I know this isn't the best place for the signal.

00:01:48 John Daub: Yes, Leo is translating. Thank you for that, Leo. Every third person goes, kawaii! They're not talking about me and Kanae. Wow, this is a strolling garden. And what makes it so beautiful, and I used to live here in Mito, is that all the plum blossoms are concentrated in this one area that you can stroll around. And every 50 meters or so, you'll find a bench like right here, where you can sit at the bench and just absorb the view.

00:02:30 John Daub: Wow, look at this one here. It's not quite ready. I think it's going to be peaking in about a week, maybe this weekend. Look at it. Again, the three big gardens: Korakuen in Okayama, Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, and this is Kairakuen in Mito. Those are the three big gardens. The one in Okayama is right next to the castle, which is really beautiful. They're just different kinds of gardens. Kenrokuen might be my favorite, though, in Kanazawa. It's also right next to Kanazawa Castle. So beautiful over there. But this one in Mito should not be overlooked.

00:03:20 John Daub: And just down the street is the Tokugawa Museum, where you can see the sword of Ieyasu Tokugawa. Sekigahara, I believe he used it in that battle. Very cool. Oh, there's a pink one over there. Yeah, boring nerd. They're about 65% bloomed. And there's actually different varieties of the ume blossoms, so they're going to bloom at different times. But you can see here's a sign pointing us. We're going to go to the Kobuntei. But I know this signal isn't very strong in there. So I apologize if we go Minecraft quality for a little bit.

00:04:10 John Daub: Yeah, these are really thick. You can see ume blossoms are a lot more dense, a lot more bunched up than some Yoshino cherry blossoms. Yeah, wow, it's really pretty. That's a nice bunch right there. What makes it beautiful is that blue sky. And the sun is really peeking through. You don't often get that. This is Mangetsu—full moon. I like the fact they give you the name. It's in hiragana as well, so you can read that.

00:05:00 John Daub: Oh, here's a map right here. Again, the best time to visit this garden is right now, between the end of February, where some of them start to bloom, and the end of March. Probably next week we're going to have full bloom. Hey, Darkstreet's here. Good afternoon, John, Kanae, and Leo. Hello from snowy, cold Manitoba. Miss you guys. From Shane and Ida. Hey, Shane! Oh, that's right, Shane's gone dark. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us in spring-filled Japan today.

00:05:43 John Daub: Gosh, look at this. Oh, Leo, look at that blast. Oh, Leo's got a hold of the gimbal. He's got freak strength. Look at that one right there. It's just starting to open. All right. Leo's got hold of the camera now. Right, we are down there? Oh, wow, we can go any way. We can go right down the center to the right. So we parked the car over here. There's loads of parking. It's 500 yen, just for the record. And it's about a six or seven minute walk to get in here. Entrance was 300 yen, and kids are free to a certain age, I reckon. Leo's at that age.

00:06:42 John Daub: Oh, check this out, Kanae. Let's go to this one here. Sure. We can go this way. Yeah, let's go this way. Hey, Bob Joe's here. Howdy, John. This is always one of my favorite times of the year to watch your livestreams because of the blossoms. Bob Joe knows that I have blossom fever. Cherry blossom fever. There's the tea house. I think this is the old Mito clan school on that manhole cover. I think it's called the Kodokan. Yeah, this is where the Mito clan warriors and their children from age 15 would study. Again, I used to live in Mito.

00:07:34 John Daub: Now, ume blossom trees, plum blossom trees, they're so gnarled, dark colored bark. In the winter when there's no flowers at all, they're so eerie. They're kind of scary looking trees. But in spring, and I guess this side is a little bit cooler, you start to see them change colors and if I zoom through here, you can see the budding. There's a little bit of pink and a little bit of white. TDSDR is in the house. We're gonna get there, buddy.

00:08:16 John Daub: Oh, here it is. Check it out. This is a very famous plum blossom tree. Quite old looking. Look at the way it's gnarled and they treat it so well. The tree is on stilts here. So they take really good care of it and I love that because I love trees. The way they prop it up and give it a helping hand so it can live a little bit longer. And every year that you see the blossoms from this tree, you can see them. And here they are right here. It's just a blessing, isn't it? It's an old blossom.

00:09:08 John Daub: Oh, hey, check it out. There's a QR code. I guess you guys can take a screenshot and then yeah, you can get a translation there. How cool is that? Shiro-naniwa plums bloom from late January to late February. Yeah, Leo's very excited about this one here. You can see. It is blooming here. Chan writes in, Leo wants to be the cameraman. He totally does. He wants to grab the stick. If I give him the camera, Chan, you're never going to feel the motion sickness, buddy, because he likes to really jerk the camera around. When he takes my smartphone, sometimes he takes pictures and they all come out with action blur.

00:10:12 John Daub: Wow. What do you guys think? Do you prefer the plum blossoms or the cherry blossoms? Sakura or ume? That's the debate I'm asking everyone in the chat right now. Ume's just got this, it's just a different feeling than sakura. Different look. Different trees. And I don't know, none of the material that I searched tells me why Tokugawa Nariaki, who opened this park in 1842, why did he pick ume and not sakura? Maybe ume blossoms were under-appreciated? I don't know. Jotty writes in, they both look good. Jacqueline writes in cherry blossoms. Oh, here's a pink one right here. I think I saw Jennifer French is here. Hey, Jennifer. Very genki. Genki sugiru.

00:11:23 John Daub: Michael Sasanis here, loving the plum blossoms livestream. So beautiful. Make sure you get Leo a sweet snack. We saw some amazake. So I'm thinking maybe we'll get that. By the way, I'm going up because Leo did it, so I cannot—I want to describe to you the smell. It smells sweet. It's got a sweet floral smell. And I don't know if it's because of the one we're here right now or I just took my mask off to give it a whiff. But let's just say the kid's always right, okay? Until he's not. And then what? Yeah, I think Leo's going to be an opinionated one. Got something to say on everything, even though I can't understand it.

00:12:40 John Daub: Hope the signal is okay. Again, this is a livestream. So if you're watching in the playback, you might want to check out the live chat and see what everyone is talking about. Has anybody been to Kairakuen before? If you've been here before, let me know. When did you come and visit and what was your experience like? What was it like when it was in the summer and then the fall? Wow. Gosh, I really do wish that livestreams were in 4K. There's no 5G LTE or the YouTube app won't let me cache this and then upload it as an HD version later. I wish we could do that.

00:13:21 John Daub: Kairakuen is the only of the three gardens I haven't visited yet. It's in AB and B77. I need to get back and finish the top three. You do. It feels good when you finished all three of them. I don't know why. This is the second one that I've visited. And Kairakuen and Kanazawa was the last one. So enjoy the plum blossoms with the peaceful sound of Leo singing to you. It's a serenade. Probably about milk. Wow, look at that bright red one. Wow, it's so striking. Hey, Uncle Jason's here. Jeanette is here too. How are you guys doing?

00:14:59 John Daub: It's just really magical with that blue sky. It's so much better when you got color here. And see Aunt Carrie is here too. Dude, that's gross. Alright, you know what? Oh my god, your sty is all wet. Kanae, he's drooling on me. That does look like popcorn kernels. Looks like pomegranate, doesn't it? Alright, let's keep on walking. You can walk here from Mito Station. It takes about 30 minutes.

00:16:03 John Daub: Now, this is an imperial garden in a way. I know that when I lived in Mito, the emperor actually made a trip here. And they had a red carpet at Mito Station. I was going, what is this for? And then the emperor got off the train. I'm like, what? That was really cool. That was 20, 22, 23 years ago when I lived here. And he came to see the plum blossoms. Look at that one. That's like a pink flower, isn't it? Can you see? What is the name of that one? Michishirube. Michishirube. That's the name of the variety of plum blossom. Or in Leo talk, blarublarublarublaru. Which might be easier for you to say, depending on where you're from.

00:16:56 John Daub: Look at this. This is so unique, Kanae. Look at this tree. This is where it comes out of the ground. And it's held in position with two stilts like this. You really have to see. I mean, I could see why people would walk past this gem of a tree. Look at it. It's so gnarly. It's gnarled. Look at this. Do you see this? How? I don't know. How growing like this? How does it grow? And it's curved here taking a 180. He might be getting sleepy. You want to take him? Yeah. We got to turn him around. He's sleeping.

00:17:42 John Daub: All right. We'll take you around for a couple more minutes and share this experience with you. Again, this is the best time to visit is between the end of February, which might be a little bit too early, but some varieties are blooming. And then around March 20th, that is the peak here. Right before the cherry blossoms really start blooming in Tokyo, this will be first. Wow. You can see in the distance over there. Yeah. Boy, he really is ruining everybody's experience. Leo, people come here to relax, buddy. I guess he wants to sleep. Normally, he's sleeping. He's sleeping at this time. Come to mommy. That feels good. He's over 10 kilograms now. What is he, like 12 or 13? It's like carrying a sack of rice.

00:18:55 John Daub: Leo, bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. He's really... We got to take a family picture before we leave here. I've been working pretty hard editing behind the scenes. I got a new video. Maybe I'm checking the name of the meats, but if we can get it to go tomorrow, upload it onto the main channel. Yonezawa beef, how they grade Wagyu A4 and A5. It's a pretty interesting episode. A different take on it. I don't want to leave this place. And it's such a warm day too in Tokyo. It's about 20 degrees Celsius, which is like 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:19:53 John Daub: Just going to take you around the corner here. These three people are really looking. It's got like a willow, weeping willow look to it. So delicate. These flowers are so delicate. You got to use your golf voice. I'm just afraid that my voice is not beautiful enough for the flowers. So, Chan, the meat is quite interesting how they, with a flashlight, cut a cross section of the beef carcass and examine the marbling using the BMS beef marbling standard. And watching flowers and talking about steak might not be the best way for our vegetarian friends out there. But we will, that'll be the next episode. And I'm sure I'll talk about it then.

00:21:12 John Daub: Sorry if we've gotten a little bit blurry. I do apologize. The signal is not so strong deep into the garden here. I'm going to cut off in a second. Let me just take you around the corner here and see if we can get a little bit stronger signal or maybe it'll deteriorate more. But there's a beautiful tree here to the right. And if you do play Minecraft, this should look just perfectly normal to you. I like the gravel that they use because you can hear the crunching underneath your shoe and it's kind of a peaceful sound in a way. Oh, wow. Look at that. That's spring right there, folks. Blue skies, wispy white clouds in the distance and a pink tree.

00:22:20 John Daub: And if the quality of the video is not good, a pink blur with white blurs all around. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take some video of this and then upload it onto Instagram. So you can get a better view of it. I'll try to upload one minute cuts so it feels more like you're here. And the blur is good. Stop it. Am I blurred? I probably look better. I'll upload it on Instagram. It's onlyinjapan... sorry, instagram.com slash onlyinjapantv. And then you'll get a better look at it. Sorry about that, folks. I do wish that it was more in quality. Now you can watch Leo totally destroy Kanae's hat right there.

00:23:01 John Daub: All right, everybody. Have a great day. Have a great night. Thanks so much for joining us just for a little bit. I wanted to share the beautiful spring that we have at Kairakuen, one of the great gardens here in Mito, not too far away from Tokyo. And this is the best season to come up to Ibaraki Prefecture. We drove up. Enjoy the ume blossoms and they should be at full bloom in about a week or so. A little early. It still smells really good even inside my mask. No it doesn't. Bye bye everybody.