00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the city of Tokyo. We are on Shiodome Island, not that far away from Tokyo Station. You can see the cherry blossoms here, not quite there. You can see a lot of them just budding. That's those red protrusions from the ends of the trees. This side though is probably getting a little bit of shadow from these buildings. This tree though is not. And that is the beauty of the cherry blossoms. Sometimes in just slightly warmer areas, they will be blooming. Look at this. So we have about, this tree, maybe about 20% bloomed. I know, Leo, it's awesome. And this is Leo's first cherry blossom. How you doing everybody?

01:03 John Daub: Leo is actually more preoccupied with the pigeons than with the sakura. Because this is a cherry blossom thing. Oh, he sees them. He sees the pigeons. Oh, there's a whole flock of them. Let's go down here off road. See, he's pointing at them. Leo, somebody fed the pigeons. What are they eating? Leo likes to attack the pigeons. But he's fascinated by the fact that they can fly. All right, let's make them fly, Leo. Fly pigeons! They're not afraid of us. I think they're more focused on the food. All right, let's get back to the cherry blossoms.

02:11 John Daub: So this tree looks like it's about 20% bloomed, blossomed. And it's absolutely beautiful. And probably in about 72 hours, it'll be 100%, this tree. The other ones look like they're just going to start blossoming today. Because we have really warm weather in Tokyo. The sun is warm. It is maybe like 19 degrees now, probably getting up to 23. Really beautiful, maybe upper 60s, low 70s. This is my favorite time before they get to 100%, when they're like at 20, 30%. Because it's so sad when they get to 100% because it's only going to go down from there. Look at this bunch just coming right out of the tree.

03:20 John Daub: I like this bridge here. This will take you to Monzen-Nakacho, which is an old neighborhood that I go to quite often. There are people playing soccer underneath the bridge, which is really neat. Tokyo makes use of all of the space. I rarely see them waste anything, especially under the bridges. They even made a little bird sanctuary on this side here. We're going to walk down this way and take a look at some of the other sakura trees. Maybe on the other side, you'll see them as we see a load full of kids coming in this direction. Leo, those are your friends. Leo, that's your friends there. There's a duck area, Leo. Are we going to go down there? Let's go see if we can find some more cherry blossoms for the next 10 minutes or so.

04:25 John Daub: Yeah, I got to put my mask on. Sorry, the kids are here. So we can see here the cherry blossoms. This tree only about 20% as well. So let's see if we can get past the kids here. Leo, those are your friends. They could be. Leo starts preschool in April. Not preschool. I would say like sort of early spring. Sort of a day care. Yeah, these aren't quite ready yet, but it's getting pretty good sunlight. These are all cherry blossoms. It's almost like a tunnel.

05:52 John Daub: Follow the dog. Leo, remember? Dog. Dog. Oh, check it out. This one is just starting to blossom. Look at it. If we look from the top, they're all just buds. A few popping coming out. And then down here on the base near the trunk, we have some bunches making the first debut. Hello there. I hope the signal's okay. It seems the signal might not be good.

06:46 John Daub: All right, we'll go down here. Leo likes to go down here. Maybe you can do some walking, Leo. Pigeon! Leo, look at him. He's one of the spies. Works with the crows. Some pigeon. Not all pigeons are good pigeons. Rats with wings, right? Duck, Leo! This is a little duck sanctuary area. They usually come here when there's a storm or a typhoon or when they just want to rest. And they sleep on the islands there. These are like these fake man-made islands. You can run around this island too, Scoot.

07:46 John Daub: That's really pretty. The history of this island goes back to the Edo period when the fishermen from Osaka would come here and they wouldn't be able to live in Edo because they were from Osaka. So they put them all on this little rock in the middle of Tokyo Bay, which is now the Sumida River. Yeah, there's another dog. And because it's on solid ground, this is one of the first places to have these high-rise mansions because the ground is so, so strong here. Leo recognizes. All right, get him! Get him, Leo! Oh, doggy. Oh! We're getting attacked by pigeons. There's another one right there. That is a really beautiful cherry blossom tree. That is a different variety. Do you see that up there? All right, we got to go investigate, Leo. Up we go. There's Eitaibashi in the distance. Wow, this one is really pink. Look at it! Leo, boat! Rats with wings! I hope that the signal is doing okay.

10:25 John Daub: Apologies if we're pixelated. We have Tokyo Skytree in the distance there. I'm going over there to film next week. It's going to be very interesting for the main channel. Hey, Anne's here for sky rat repellent. We'll make use of it. We'll make use of it. Right now, we're just sort of running them down. All right, on the other side of this park, as we get closer to Eitaibashi on the right side of your screen, it gets a little bit more sunlight. And I'm curious to see if the cherry blossoms over there are doing better.

11:03 John Daub: Now, in Shiodome here, there's actually some company that makes these robots where people can sit in them. And these vehicles, they're done by sensor. It's pretty like self-driving vehicles. So they're driving it along the riverside there. It's very interesting. I've seen robot specialists come to try it out on the road. Around this neighborhood, it's pretty neat. Hey, Adam's here. Peso's here. Thanks for moderating there. Garrett, Lee, Ryan. That's not an owl. That's Leo. Sounds like an owl.

12:07 John Daub: Okay, we're getting there. Hey, Wendy. Yeah, this is coming out tomorrow. It's going to gather up some sunshine and it'll be out tomorrow. This weekend is going to be huge, Saturday Sunday. So if we're lucky, we'll get two weeks of cherry blossoms. Two weeks weekends that's the ideal you get them at the start when they're 20-30 percent and then the next weekend they hang on and they get to a hundred percent. Leo sees another boat. Leo, boat!

12:49 John Daub: Are we getting to the corner of the island here? This is where Kandi danced for us three, four years ago. Really nice dance you did for us. I don't think that they're allowing cherry blossom parties at some of the locations that are very popular. I think Ueno has been off limits although on the 23rd the state of emergency ended. A lot of the locations are just being extra conservative with holding events which is probably a smart thing to do. But these are not quite there. Hey Florence is here. Hey Flo, welcome to Tokyo hopefully this is the year you can come back for a visit. Maybe in the autumn maybe in the summer. Wow so through the buds there you can see a boat coming probably making its way to Lalaport in Toyosu.

14:11 John Daub: It's a slow ride but if tourism returns in the summer I'm going to rent one of these yakatabune (traditional Japanese pleasure boats) and if any of you viewers are here in the city of Tokyo you can come aboard. That's the plan anyways it can still change it's based on a lot of things like the pandemic and travel opening up but we'll get there. Tokyo Paul and Live you're always welcome. That is not space boat but that's a nice boat. I'll try to rent space boat but you can't they don't really open up the windows. The older yakatabune are even better for that and I know that these yakatabune captains who own the boats they're not doing too well so it's nice to give some support to the boat. Support to them it's a win-win-win and usually you can barbecue in there too.

15:55 John Daub: You can see on the end of this island here which is absolutely beautiful there's more sunshine here so you got more cherry blossoms opening up where the backside is sort of covered from the buildings less sunshine means they don't blossom. Our cruise to rights and I want to be carried like that yeah I don't want to be carrying you like that. Leo's already getting pretty heavy. Passes when you got the blue skies like this you might see spaceboat making an appearance. Leo's got his lunch on his face too I thought I cleaned that. It's gonna be beautiful tomorrow soaking up the sunlight. That's it this weekend is the big one because you never know there's no guarantee next weekend they're gonna be here because one rainy day one windy day it's all gone. Oh here's the boat Leo because he's asleep.

18:02 John Daub: At this point in Tokyo if you ever come to Japan bring a bento spend 30 minutes here just eating it and watching all the boats going by it is beautiful. That's a Tokyo Skytree on the right side there and you can see spaceboat coming. Wow one of the most beautiful points in the city of Tokyo that tourists don't really know about. This is an island that I'm on here bring a bento you know if it's after two maybe a beer I don't know for juice carbonated water really pretty and you got the Skytree in the distance and sometimes you can see Tokyo Tower coming in the other direction. Look at this barge coming that's an interesting looking barge. Look at it I'm so glad I live really close to the river I've always lived not too far away where I can come out and relax and recharge while I'm out here watching the boats and the space boats go by. I think you have a party on that barbecue dance party seems like a waste to have nobody on there I was one guy.

19:44 John Daub: All right these are the last trees I'm gonna be checking out and it looks like because I guess these are on the darker side these aren't as bloomed as I thought they were gonna be but they're on par with all the other ones here. Hey Jennifer French is in the house hey Jennifer it's a little bit darker here. Let's go closer to the other side of the island and then we'll be back here in a minute closer to the bridge we'll have a look back. Leo is out like a light have to only have one hand now I have to use this hand to make sure his neck is okay. All right here we go so most of the trees seem to be at this level here which they're budding and I think today it's gonna do it the Sun will hit this tree around 3 p.m. and tomorrow it'll be open.

20:47 John Daub: Of course this year I'm gonna be doing my nighttime cherry blossom because I'm gonna be doing cherry blossom so I'm gonna bring my light out and find a place and live stream it maybe a midnight snack run with one of those McDonald's sakura mochi pies that just came out that all the YouTubers going crazy about. Don't let the pigeon drive by the bus that's one of his favorite books thanks Jennifer there you go. This neighborhood does a wonderful job there's some beautiful flowers planted along the route. I'm gonna carry Leo back home now and there is a public restroom here it's pretty clean. Stezer just right side of the bridge you go it's there. Much you've ever come so there you go there's more cherry blossoms if you come to the island to visit on the other side of the bridge here you can keep walking you get beautiful views of the Tokyo Skytree under this bridge I've taken you underneath here. I think the last time was when it was raining. You'll have families coming out here to play. There's a mother there's another brother.

22:16 John Daub: But looks like we're about 20% bloomed for most of the trees some of them are a different stages different stages of the blooming process but it looks like tomorrow and Sunday is in particular going to be really beautiful. I'll try my best to bring you some of the sakura mania once again this year. I know that a lot of you can't make it to Tokyo but hopefully 2023 is the big cherry blossom year where we just open things back up and we can have events once again. That's my hope anyways but until you can make it back here I'm going to take you around showing you some of the things that you are missing because you can come. I'm sure there's other YouTubers that are doing it too but we do it with a sleeping baby it's the best way can't wake him up so that's where we are it's on an island it separates the Sumida River right here and you can see all the boats coming from that point and it's one of the most beautiful places in the city of Tokyo to chill. I wish they had a restaurant here or a food truck that came down. There you go have a nice day everybody thank you so much for watching and joining.

23:26 John Daub: If you haven't already check out the latest video on the main channel when I go in and show how wagyu beef is graded it's not being suggested a lot by YouTube but it's there and it's a really fascinating look and I get to eat shabu-shabu and sukiyaki the highest rank and compare that oil that fat in there what is so special about it I explained that in that episode. I hope you do like it and a new episode is coming next week the snow monkeys of Nagano with snow meditating in a hot spring. There's a story behind that it's coming next week. All right take care everybody so much cherry blossom action coming soon.