00:00:00 John Daub: The doors on the right side will open. I'm arriving into Futako Tamagawa. I haven't been here in a very long time. I'm pretty excited about this. We are here. Oh my gosh. I haven't been here in ages. Check this out here. You can see the greenery. We're about to go down there too, into the beautiful riverside, the Tamagawa River.

00:01:36 John Daub: Let's get out of here. I remember this being a very long platform. I used to live here in 2004. This is my first home in Tokyo. And I haven't been back in a few years. I know that this place has changed quite a bit. Well, you can see through the windows of the train how much green this is. And this is what makes it such an attractive place to live in the city of Tokyo. It's right off the river, which is a very beautiful place. Fresh air out of the subway into the Tokyo countryside. Wow. In other words, it's the Hanzomon Line that goes straight through the heart of Tokyo. That's another reason that makes this place so special. Makes this such a beautiful place to live.

00:02:43 John Daub: Look at it. I used to run along the river here. There used to be a trailer that was a restaurant that had chandeliers. It was just a funky place to eat. That's what makes Futako Tamagawa also one of the most stylish and trendy neighborhoods of the city of Tokyo. And this live stream is going to take you around. We're going to get a chance to take a look at this wonderful neighborhood that's changed so much over the last 17, 18 years since I last lived here. You're going to hear some stories on what it was like when I lived here and what it's like now. That's the Rakuten, which is a really big company like the Amazon of Japan. Rakuten's offices are right there. Of course, they put it in a really nice place.

00:03:39 John Daub: This train, the Den-en-toshi Line, connects up to Nagatacho, where I got on in the city of Tokyo. And it'll take you to Churinkan and Mizunokuchi. These are places, if you've lived in the area, are very nostalgic, I'm sure. Mizunokuchi is the next stop on the limited express. I'm here actually because there's a driving school for motorcycles. And this is where I've probably come to take the motorcycle lessons. Hey, Brandani is in the house and I see Chan is here too. I assume you know this area, so I won't activate tracking. I believe I do, Chan, but here's the deal. It has changed so much. When I lived here, it was different for Futako Tamagawa, so keep your Google Map tracking or whatever system you're using inside the Tantan available because you never know.

00:04:51 John Daub: You don't have to super chat. Viewers, relay Chan's messages. Okay. Happy Mother's Day. It's still maybe Mother's Day in some parts of the world. Thanks, Yesterday. Leo picked out flowers that we bought for Kanae. And I put a picture on Instagram. So you could check out what it looks like. Such a beautiful arrangement they made for us. Thank you to Leo for making Mommy happy. And you guys too. Wow, I'm already seeing digital signage. That's new. The stairway is not. I remember having to take these steps down, but I'm guessing that the station that we enter into is going to be completely different than what it used to be.

00:05:49 John Daub: Wow. So I can already see. I don't remember this Tokyo food store. Now, the Den-en-toshi Line is owned by Tokyu, which is a company that I guess owns a lot of Shibuya. Out we go. Wow. 398 yen for me to travel here. Whoa. This is not the same place that I was at before. Look at the digital signage. Look at the monitors up there. This is the future. I do remember buying tickets here. The Takashimaya is across the street because I used to use that restroom instead of the one in my apartment because it was so small.

00:06:37 John Daub: Wow. I'm going to go to the RISE shopping center. That's right. Okay, on the other side of this. That's new. On the other side of this, there used to be a Tokyo supermarket. I'm guessing that might be gone. And to the left here is the shortcut to get to my old apartment, which I'm going to take you to momentarily. I think that's still there. I remember. This is so different. It's so clean. So new. Look at this. Wow. It's not the first time that I've seen this. But I've only seen it two times. Last time was maybe eight years ago, seven years ago.

00:07:19 John Daub: I don't see that supermarket. I think they must have changed it because this building wasn't here when I lived here. Because if it was, I never would have left. All right, I'm just going to wrap around that building there and then just see if that Tokyo supermarket is still there. There was a Yauya. I don't think that's here anymore. Yauya (vegetable stand) is usually family run. Really good prices. Seems like all those old buildings that used to be here are gone to make way for—I hope they got a lot of money for the property they were on to get all my vegetables from them. Yeah, they're not here. Hey, Michael Sassana is in the house. Welcome back.

00:08:16 John Daub: I've never heard of Futako Tamagawa station. Yeah, Nikotama for short. If you want to be taken seriously here, you call it Nikotama because Futako means two, so we say Nikotama. Just abbreviate it like Pokemon, Pocket Monsters, Pokemon. We say Nikotama. When I first moved here, I still called it Futako Tamagawa for a very long time. All right. The supermarket is gone. Now I have identified—used to be I guess it would be right here at the end. Now it's a bus terminal and a shopping center. Interesting. Let me take you since there's a map here. Let me just show you. Give you a little bit of orientation here.

00:09:03 John Daub: It's a bus terminal. I'll turn on tracking. You might feel a slight tingling feeling momentarily. Okay, I could feel it already. All right. So we came in here and we walked the entire length of the station and out this front gate and then I took a right. So I'm going to take this shortcut which cuts through here and go see my old apartment which is along the train line. If it's even still there. There used to be a Mr. Donut on the corner and this is the Takashimaya which is still here. I saw this line in the movie Last Samurai with Tom Cruise was shopping here. I was like, whoa, Koyuki and she just smiled. I smiled and I take a picture. Apparently on this line called the Oimachi Line is considered like the Hollywood of Tokyo. So it connects Futako Tamagawa with Jiyugaoka. You will find houses, lots of money there. And again, here's the Rakuten headquarters. And really, really cool. Really high quality residences.

00:10:13 John Daub: So let's get moving here. I'm going to go back to where we came in. If I get some time, I want to walk with you along the river just to show you the greenery. But it looks like it's going to rain here pretty soon. So I don't know if it's the right time. But if I go to this motorcycle school, I'm going to be here quite a bit. So then you'll be able to get a look at the riverside in a better day. This isn't that day. All right, here we go. Oh, there. I guess they put the snow on the side of the road. I'm going to go to the next store underground. It's open until 1 a.m. It just feels like the future with this music playing above me.

00:11:12 John Daub: All right, I'm going to take a right here. And here come the stories. There used to be—well, you know, dancing is really a big part of Japanese culture. The young people like to do these really funky dances, but they do it in unison, like synchronized swimming in a way. And there would always be on the corner here a gang. A group of people. A bunch of teenagers or people in their 20s. And they were training. I asked them, what are they doing to be on TV? They wanted to be on shows that would highlight their dancing. That's what they're training for. So the wind is pretty strong today. So it was in this corner here. It's changed a little bit. So let's see if I can knock it down a little bit by going here.

00:12:05 John Daub: I didn't. It wasn't this windy when I left. Yeah, this is totally different. Wow. This is bizarre. Above us are the rails for the Den-en-toshi Line. Look at the stylish restaurants. This is an outdoor cafe, but you can see they put plastic around it to keep them warm because it's a chilly day today. A little bit chilly. So my shortcut is gone. It's not a shortcut. They just demolished that and made it a bunch of businesses, which is probably a good idea. So good job, city planning. None of this was here.

00:13:12 John Daub: All right. I think my apartment is gone. My old apartment building is gone. Oh, shocking.

00:13:33 Worker: Hello. I'm your follower since 2018.

00:13:34 John Daub: Oh, hey, welcome. Hi. Here, say hi to everybody.

00:13:54 Worker: Hi.

00:13:55 John Daub: How long have you been here in this neighborhood?

00:14:00 Worker: I live in Atsugi. But I was here. Ah, I used to live in Hon-Atsugi. Yeah, that area.

00:14:08 John Daub: That's a long commute.

00:14:10 Worker: Yes, yes. That's true, but yeah. Yeah. I like the place there, so I just live there. So I have been in Tokyo since 2018.

00:14:18 John Daub: Okay. I was following you since 2018.

00:14:19 Worker: Wow. Well, thank you so much. I used to live in an apartment that was right there and it's gone. I'm shocked. I'm in shock right now.

00:14:28 John Daub: I was in Ojima.

00:14:31 Worker: Oh, right. That's the Shinjuku Line. Shinjuku Line. Yeah. So, it's like that.

00:14:36 John Daub: That's crazy. I used to live in Hon-Atsugi and I moved to Shinozaki on the Shinjuku Line. I did it the opposite way. Oh, it's really nice to meet you. I actually don't know if I have any... You found me cards yet.

00:14:49 Worker: Oh, okay. Oh, no.

00:14:52 John Daub: If I don't, I have to... I sent your videos too. If something is there, we will watch your videos. Oh, wow. I'm so... I can't believe I don't have any You Found Me cards. That's really awful on my part. I stopped doing that when the pandemic hit.

00:15:07 Worker: Oh, no.

00:15:08 John Daub: Well, guess what? I'll be back because I'm thinking of going to the motorcycle school here. So, I'll probably be hanging out here all the time. So, I guess I will owe you a coffee or something. And we can talk about this neighborhood.

00:15:20 Worker: Okay.

00:15:21 John Daub: When did you start working here?

00:15:23 Worker: Oh, yes. It's a center. I go to center. Okay. So, I go to that. Oh, right. Yeah. That is a big one. I see. Yeah.

00:15:40 John Daub: So, where is a good place to eat?

00:15:46 Worker: So, I know one inside this. So, fifth floor you get one. So, food, Indian food you can find.

00:15:54 John Daub: Do you have masala dosa?

00:15:56 Worker: Now, they have reports of Indian. They have only North Indian now. So, they have saffron, samosa.

00:16:01 John Daub: Okay. So, then you can find... That's good stuff. Thank you. There are a lot of restaurants up there. Oh, up here. That wasn't here when I used to live here. None of this was here. This is just like trees and houses.

00:16:19 John Daub: I'll see you again. Bye-bye. That was awesome. That's not awesome that they don't have You Found Me cards. Alright, I'm gonna walk down here because I think maybe that is my old apartment building. I'm not sure. It's confusing. Yeah, Ariel, I'm kind of sad that I thought that I had them in my bag here, but I didn't think anybody would find me yet. I thought I had them. Oh, no. Now I know for sure that I definitely need to carry stashes in several pockets and even in my wallet, I think. Gotta get the really strong You Found Me cards. The Rough Riders. So they don't get messed up in my wallet. That might be my apartment. I just remember that it was along the tracks.

00:17:17 John Daub: Yeah, I've been doing YouTube for a very long time, so I'm really—it's humbling. It's really nice to hear that what we do with the show has an impact on people who are coming here to live and be in Japan. This was the vibe of this area. Check it out down this alley. It was just a small station. Not a lot. Really quiet. You see this? And I used to jump rope and hang out outside the station here. It just seems like it's all completely changed. So I'm going to walk down here for just a second. This was the vibe of Futako Tamagawa before. Really small, narrow alleys. A lot quieter. And now we got so many shops. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. And I don't remember any of these buildings here either. But I lived one minute from Futako Tamagawa Station. Nikotama Station.

00:18:16 John Daub: Yeah, Jeffrey writes in here, we will find you, Liam Neeson voice. Yeah, that's pretty creepy. If you have a lightsaber or a dagger, we will find you. It's pretty creepy. Another thing that I remember seeing from my apartment on days where I was trapped at home. It was a small 1K apartment and the rent was $1,000 at the time of the exchange rate. Because the property here is ridiculously expensive. A one-room which meant that for the bed—I had a bed. It had a Murphy bed. I don't know if any of you know what that is. It's a bed that goes into the wall and I would pull the bed out when I went to bed or I just wanted a sofa because it was too small to have a sofa. Your bed was everything.

00:19:17 John Daub: Maybe that's it. I can't recall. It's all dis... I'm very disoriented. Frank, right. The Murphy beds were classics. I'm gonna take a left here. Again, I don't really... a lot of this look brand new. I don't really recall much of this stuff here. Could be lost. Chan, I think I might be lost. I'm gonna go back on the other side of the tracks. We're going under the Den-en-toshi Line.

00:20:02 John Daub: James Bond movie You Only Live Twice had one of those beds. I remember! But I think that was in Hong Kong, not in Tokyo. He was gunned down to show that he was dead and he had his funeral in Hong Kong Bay in one of the sunken old naval ships in the harbor that's no longer there, I think. I'm not sure. Somebody will let me know. All I know is that I'm gonna find that apartment. I don't think they could tear it down. I remember it was along the tracks or very close to the tracks. I could be mistaken. I tried to find my old house in Fujinomiya, which is a town right on the base of Mount Fuji. Last time I was there, I think there's a livestream looking for it and I couldn't find it. Because things have changed so much since I lived there, which was even before here. That was in the year 2000.

00:21:10 John Daub: Somebody 10,000 yen notes at me. Could get injured. There are lots of hills here. At least there's a hill here. So guess it's like Hollywood Hills. There's a lot of money in this neighborhood. I've seen it. I've never been a part of it. One day. See the head goes up and up and up. All right. Here's another track. So let's... I don't know. Let's go back and maybe I missed it. When I see it, I will know because there's a bicycle parking lot. I left my bicycle there! I wonder if it's still there. I left it there in 2004. It might still be there. The other teacher who was with me, his name was Travis, because there's an English school here that I was forced to work at. He left his bike here. Broke up with his girlfriend, got so distraught and left. His girlfriend's name was Judy. Remember that? She was really nice. I think she had an affair. Scandalous. Everybody was talking about it at school. All the mothers of the kids that we taught.

00:22:32 John Daub: Alright, this is where I came out. This is the station. So we go straight into here. So I'm gonna do is go this way and follow the tracks on the other side. I believe this will dump us back. Alright, this looks familiar. These buildings on the right, these were here twenty years ago. There's Takashimaya. Okay, it might have been my fault. It was good to see that side. There's the Den-en-toshi Line cruising through. It looks like, it really looks futuristic here. The top of the Takashimaya department store in 2004, it was all brand new. It was so amazing. Now it looks really different. This is where the Takashimaya stores are. It does look a little aged, but at the time it was revolutionary. Asterisk mark. I'm not sure what's revolutionary back then. I can't remember. But they had like a garden on the roof. And now a lot of buildings have gardens on the roofs here.

00:23:43 John Daub: All right, good. It was my fault. I messed up. It's to the right here. It's to the right here. I believe. Possibly. Because this is another track. It's confusing. Look at the train tracks coming through. Which train goes what to where? Right? Hawaiian Sea writes in. Are you sure, John? John, I don't know. I thought I knew. Because they changed the whole structure of the building. So what I'm going to do is. There's a Mr. Donuts. Or there used to be. This is the main road. And I believe my mansion. We call mansions like the apartment buildings. My apartment. Oh, there it is. The dump.

00:24:48 John Daub: Let's see if the bike is there. Oh, the crows. Toby (crow). I don't remember those crows. Maybe it's changed. All right, the Mr. Donuts is gone, I believe. It was right on the corner. And I used to consume too many donuts and coffee there. Yeah, that's it. The brown one. It's on the side of the tracks. It's the wrong side. My fault. I can't believe it's still here. What a dump. They didn't even have a washing machine. Had to go to the top. And there was a public washing machine for everybody. There's my balcony. It was in the back there. On the other side. Okay. Now I'm starting to remember my balcony was on the other side.

00:25:42 John Daub: Yeah, this is my. I would park my bike here. Bicycle parking was behind the sign, I believe. Yeah, I don't see. Now they get rid of the bike. I don't see the bike. I feel like I'm trespassing. And let me see the balcony on the other side here. Yeah, this parking lot. I remember seeing it from the. I think it was 304 was my apartment number. Look how small the balcony is. And it was. It's a shared balcony with a partition. So only half that balcony was mine. You see the balcony? Yeah. Yeah. The air conditioner was outside. I did have air conditioning, but it was the one right on the end there. And you could go onto the balcony on the top. And that was really nice to drink some beers with the other teacher who left. It's a nice guy. He's in Hawaii now. Travis. I wouldn't even call it a bachelor pad. It's too many letters. Bachelor path. So small. Take people in there. They're like, get me out of here. Why are you living in a closet?

00:27:24 John Daub: It had you won't believe it. The you won't believe. So the bathroom and the toilet, the sink and everything was in one little space. So in order for me to sit down and use the toilet, I have to put my feet in the bathtub because I would have to be in some sort of weird position to do it without putting my feet in the bathtub. It was just uncomfortable. I guess they didn't design it right. Maybe they did. It's $1,000 a month, too, because of how close I am. Now you see where I used to live. Now I'm going to take a right and you're going to see why it was $1,000 a month to live there. This is craziness.

00:28:16 John Daub: Jody writes in TMI. Maybe there's a Montpellier here. What? I don't even remember what was here except for probably some businesses that went out of business. We're going to walk around the alleys of this Takashimaya across the street. There's a pedestrian bridge, and that's what we're going to cross. We're going to go up to the second story here in a second. Wow. Raise your hand if you've ever been to Futako Tamagawa. This is Tokyo's most upscale or one of the most upscale neighborhoods. Jiyugaoka might be another one. This does not look like the same place. My bank is here. It was called UFJ back then. Now it's MUFG.

00:29:26 John Daub: Wow. This street has not changed. These buildings on the right side are the same old places. Yeah. Down these streets here, there's Chanel. There's all these really stylish shops. And it was in there. I saw Koyuki. And this is not that long after the Last Samurai. It's pretty cool. She's pretty tall, too. I was so surprised. Very beautiful. Konnichiwa. Is that Derek? Thank you, Derek. Konnichiwa. On the other side of this. This building where that green thing is, that's where I used to teach at an English school. So it was really cool to have an apartment that was within walking distance. I would go home and cook my own lunch to save money, which is great. Stayed in a lot better shape, too.

00:30:31 John Daub: I'd say Futako Tamagawa, this neighborhood, probably if you have the money, one of the most livable places. There's three or four supermarkets in this area. There's a department store with a park in it. There's loads of parks. There's a riverside where you can go running without traffic. There's traffic lights for so many kilometers. You know who I used to talk to? He wasn't a friend or anything, but I would say hi to him. I consider that to be talking. He was the guy, the Italian guy who was in the Guinness Book of World Records for being on the cover of the most magazines. And he was my neighbor. He lived in this. He wasn't living in the dump I was living in, but he was always a nice guy. He'd ride his bicycle really fast while I was running. And almost every day at the same time, he was, I guess, teaching English. I think we just crossed here. He was teaching, I guess, on NHK, the Italian lessons. And then his career just exploded. Italian bicycle, too.

00:31:47 John Daub: All right, let's go up here to the second floor, get a bird's eye view, and then I'll wrap around. Yeah, that's right. We're very close to Kanagawa. Now, from here, I was going to discuss that next. From here, you'll get a better view. But the next station is called Futako-Shinchi. And you can walk there across the bridge. You don't have to take the train. It's a weird thing. You can walk from one station to the next. This is the border of Tokyo. This is the border of Tokyo and Kanagawa. I think you can see it from this overpass here. And there's a bridge that will take you over to Kanagawa. So this is Tokyo's border. Down there is the station entrance to Futako Tamagawa Station. This is so much nicer than it used to be. Wow.

00:32:57 John Daub: So on the left side, you can walk to Kanagawa. And the funny thing is that Tokyo has this law where you can't have barbecuing or open fires, which includes a barbecue. Everybody would walk across the river to a place right next to Futako-Shinchi Station because you can have open fires in Kanagawa to barbecue. So this is a really nice place because you could barbecue here openly without having to get a permit or go to a designated area. You can't do that. You can't do that anymore. I believe they charge now because people left trash there. I think they charge you 500 yen per person to keep it clean. From this intersection, you can see it's not Hachiko, but it's a pretty busy intersection at Futako Tamagawa Station.

00:33:36 John Daub: It's kind of a hike to get to the motorcycle school. But I might just take the lessons here because it's kind of nostalgic for me to come back. I can do some live streams in neighborhoods that I haven't featured yet. I have to do 21 hours of motorcycle training. That's kind of worth it. Looking back at the station here. Hope the signal's okay. I'm taking you up to the park. That was a pretty short escalator. I've been on the world's smallest escalator called Puchi Collator. I think it was four or five steps. It takes like three seconds. You also have the option to take the steps, which takes roughly the same amount of time.

00:34:57 John Daub: Yes, I remember these white panels, too. It's like this area hasn't really changed. I can't remember where the Mr. Donuts was, but I'm getting a feeling that it was right here. Now it's gone. Up we go. Futako Tamagawa is on the Den-en-toshi Line, which is the Hanzomon Line. It's ten minutes to get to Shibuya from here on the express train. 14 if you take the local train. And today I took the express train.

00:36:16 John Daub: Wow. This building has not aged. It's aged okay. You can see the terrace up here. Up there, there's another garden. And then look across the street from there. Look at this. On top of the second Takashimaya building, a really beautiful garden. I think they used to have beer gardens up here. I can't remember. You can look back at Shibuya straight this way down the 246. Let's go up one more. I guess there's a garden on this older building, which is weird for me to say because it's so new. When I came here, I used to come here to use the toilet. You bring a newspaper under your arm. You walk to the toilet. You know everybody because everybody knew me because I was here all the time. There's a Starbucks here. I would study Japanese here, but I would have flashcards and stuff, but I wouldn't actually study that much. I just go and talk with people. People would come and you can't do that so much now.

00:37:36 John Daub: It's good to hear this time warp zone. Going back to 2004, I used to talk with people because the conversation was the best way and it was pretty easy to meet people to talk to. Wow. John really wants to tell us about his toilet usage. Yeah. It's not about the toilet usage. It's the fact that I had to do that because the toilet that I had was so bad because it was so small in a Japanese apartment. So I think it is relevant to share that information with you. And now that it's public record, I want Leo to know where I came from. An apartment with a toilet so small. I had to use the department store across the street. Don't you think it's relevant? I think. Well, look at the restaurants. I don't remember ever eating there because I didn't have the kind of money that would allow me to back then. That's a really nice view from there. There's loads of cafes here. It's not the right day to be sitting. There's not a lot of people out here because of the chilly weather.

00:38:50 John Daub: Oh, and now you can see on the other side. Check it out here. That's the riverside. You can see the green area there just wraps around the Tamagawa River. If you go the other direction, I believe you get to Haneda Airport, which is really close. You could take a taxi there from here. The backside of the Takashimaya department store here. Looking down at the intersection we were just at. Is anyone's quality low? It could be just where I am right now and the signal is bad. All right, let's get out of here. What's the best way to do that? Go out this building and wrap around the streets here. I can't remember which highway this is, but that is Kanagawa. That is the next prefecture on the other side of that bridge.

00:39:48 John Daub: This is super memory lane for me. A lot of you know I've lived in like 16 or 17 different places in Japan over my life. And one place that I want to go to this year, if I can. Is a town called Okazaki. That's my first town. You always remember the first city that you lived in when you moved to Japan. You've been here for more than 10 years. Not everybody stays in the same place. For my life, I ended up being in 16, 17, 18 different places. I lost track. I can't believe we're on the roof of a department store and there's no beer garden up here. So you can see I had a pretty nice place to hang out and it didn't matter so much that my apartment was the size of a closet because I had all this space just across the street. So it was an okay place to live, but still, I wouldn't recommend living in a 1K. You feel like a potted plant. It's just too small for your roots.

00:41:10 John Daub: The other side. There was another department store which was really revolutionary at the time because it allowed dogs. And nowadays, a lot of places, there's special places for dog owners. But back then, Futako Tamagawa was the dog-owning capital of Tokyo. Everybody here had a dog because it was dog-friendly. Now there's so many other neighborhoods that just copied or learned from Futako Tamagawa. Jason, the rent was about $1,000 with the exchange rate at the time. Which is crazy, right? How expensive it was. All right, you know what? I'm going to go down here. Let's go back to the street level. It might not be... We might lose the signal. So just bear with me. I got to go down six flights of steps.

00:42:06 John Daub: The economy has not been good. Wait, why am I not on the ground floor yet? What? Oh, this way. Chan, do you know where I am? I'm sure there's a Mr. Donuts around here somewhere. All right, give me a second. We're going down to the street level. I believe that the steps are here to go back down on one flight. Up to high. All right, let's go see if my school exists where I used to teach. I'm pretty sure they moved it.

00:44:45 John Daub: One of the things that I wanted to do, I wanted to find to make an episode. Now, my Japan anniversary, I guess this is my 23rd or 24th year. 24th year going into my Japan anniversary is July 11th, I believe. And I was hoping that I'd be able to find some of my old students with that. I taught. They were one or two years old. Some of them. They're like now college students and adults, and they have kids, which is crazy. Right. But I can't find them because this is the era before Facebook and YouTube, and nobody really kept in touch. We're going to go around the Takashimaya building here. I lost contact with a lot of them. The only way we kept in touch was through letter writing. And I kept in touch with some students at the end. But back in 1998. I don't know. We don't. So I'm trying to get in touch with the English school. A lot of people have changed, but there's a few old timers that remember me and maybe find a way to get in touch with the managers who have the phone numbers who might give them a call. And I think it's a good story. I got pictures of one year old kids that I was teaching English to in 1999. What do they look like now? Do they even speak English? Do they remember anything that I taught them? When? When they were one? I'm curious. I was a good teacher.

00:46:28 John Daub: My lessons are physical in the sense like every 30 seconds I had to change an activity because a one year old is an attention span of a six month old. All right. These are the back streets where I saw Koyuki, a story that I will keep telling you about till the end of time. Let's see here. All right, we'll walk down here. There's some really nice bars and restaurants as well in the back alleys of Tamagawa, which is where we are right now. I don't think one year old would remember anything. That's not true. Who wrote that? The kids that I taught could speak English at the one year mark more so than Leo, actually. So in many ways, I failed as a father to teach Leo to speak. I had a one year old student who could tell me the colors in English, could not have a conversation, but understood and could respond by touching things in the right English, which is pretty amazing. For one year old.

00:47:43 John Daub: Now, five year olds. There's one girl, Natsuki. She was in Okazaki. She was five or six. And in 1999, that's when the Star Wars came out. Phantom Menace, I believe it was called. And she used to give me all these figures from McDonald's, these happy meals and all these things from Star Wars. She'd never heard of Star Wars because she was like five or six. I told her I was so excited about it. And she got excited about it. And she, for the longest time, would give me all these action figures of cards and all this memorabilia. I wonder what she's doing. She was five. And she was, I think, more like six or seven in 1999. So that means she's like nearing 30. Holy smoke. Really? Am I that old? No. I'm still at the same maturity level as the students I used to teach.

00:48:57 John Daub: So I hope you're getting some of the vibe here. There's a lot of room. There's a lot of really nice restaurants. Izakaya. It's just a wonderful, fantastic place to live if you can afford the rent. But to visit? I'm not sure if this is the best place to visit as a tourist. You might go through here. Again, Rakuten has its offices here. There's an Armani shop. So there's a lot of money here. Oh, I've been to this izakaya before. I think it looks newer. I've been to the izakaya that used to be at this spot. It's really crazy. Jason writes in here. It's crazy to think about it. And I was just born in 1999. What? I have viewers that were born when I was in Japan. That's how long I've been here.

00:50:03 John Daub: All right. This is the building that I worked in right here on the left side. This one here, the tall one. I believe we're on the top floor. And I'm pretty sure that Amity English School is no longer here. It's there. What? I can't believe the school is still there. Sorry for the flashing light, everybody. I can't believe they still have the school here. They changed the colors and everything. But I'm going to have to. I'm not going to do it on a live stream, but I'm going to have to walk in there. Give them my business card. Ask them if they can help me find some of the students from when I used to teach here so I can make an episode for July about the day I come back to Japan. This is the last school that I worked at. In 2004, before I started a video production business. This is crazy. Why? I can't believe it's there. I can't believe the school is still there. I thought they would move locations. This place is a dump, too. This place is a dump.

00:51:25 John Daub: Would you put it in perspective here? I want you to think about this. It doesn't matter if you're in a dump. You are living in central Tokyo in the most stylish neighborhood, upscale neighborhood in the country. One of them. You don't care if you live in a dump. You just care. It's not an AV business. And you mean like AV as an adult video or audio video? Difference. All right. AV when I was growing up had a different meaning. All right. Now I got to go. Chan, I got to go to this Koyama driving school. So we got to sign off here. I had a lot of fun. This is a lot of fun. I used to walk this turn. I believe there's a convenience store on the left. Get a bento and either eat it. I used to go to school or I would walk home to my apartment and cook lunch, which was usually instant ramen because I was saving all my money to travel.

00:52:20 John Daub: There's a Tsukiya over there. I don't think I ever ate there, but there's the pachinko parlor. They got a Loft and a Uniqlo. Uniqlo wasn't even a business when I came to Japan. There was no Uniqlo. Crazy. The Loft was here. Wow. Talk about memory lane. This whole building. The building top wasn't here. It was an old white building. I think it was Futako Tamagawa. But there was a crosswalk across the highway to get to Takashimaya department store. I found my apartment. I got to walk up to the Sky Garden of Takashimaya and walk around the station a little bit in shock. This is really cool. All right. You know what? I'm going to see if I'm going to get my motorcycle license here. There's a couple of motorcycle schools. There's one in Meguro I might stop at, too. I got to get moving on. I'm going to go on that because PPG and I want to ride around Hokkaido for the summer as part of a Kickstarter. I think it'll be fun. I've been doing charitable Kickstarters. I didn't really make anything at all except for gas money, sort of. So this will be for the spider.

00:53:43 John Daub: There was a leaf. If you see a wolf spider crawling on me, let me know. Yeah, I'm going to go to the driving school now. So there's a lot of stuff to talk about. By the way, I've been activated. Super thanks on this. I don't know exactly what it is. I guess it used to be called. It used to be called applause. So after the live stream, for those of you who wanted to give a super chat, you could do that. And some of the other creators added this super thanks, it's called. So put that out there. It's on the main channel, too. And the monkey video is coming. It's done. But we found some pixelation issues because of the steam with the monkeys. So I had to reupload the video. So if you're Patreon supported with early access, got a chance to see it. But I had to take the video down, delete it, and we'll reupload when I get back home. It's a beautiful video. Slow motion with the Blue Danube music in the background. I think UFO Bob really liked it. I got the approval.

00:54:57 John Daub: The barbecue zone is this way across the river. You see that walkway? It's not very wide. But I bought a barbecue with Travis, the other teacher. His name is Travis, too, Travis. And we would walk down there and just we'd spend our weekend just barbecuing. If he wasn't with his girlfriend, Judy. TDSDR, four biker tattoo. Do you mean like one of those Cracker Jack ones? And I would kill me. Would she kill me if I got her face as a tattoo? That's the question. I have to ask that. I have a Dell payment on the can I face tattoo? Thank you. TDSDR, appreciate it very much. And Jennifer here, trip down nostalgia lane for something for you to taste and drink from that era. I bet maybe they still make the same. I'm sure Suki has the same menu as before, but I never really ate there. I will find something. Thank you for that. That's really nice.

00:56:04 John Daub: All right, guys, I'm on my way. I'll report back to you if I go to this motorcycle school. And then. And eventually, if I do pick here, I could take you around this area and show you some new neighborhoods that I haven't showed before. Because this is such a far away area from where I live now, which is like dead center. So, see you everybody. Have a good day. I'll see you in the next livestream Chan. Here's a little to go towards the biker chaps. This is what he means. For the Driving School 7 in Walkery, currently. Thank you. Biker chaps. To be the ones who are going to tie me down and try to rip off my leather biker pants. I was looking at biker fashions, Chan. So, maybe I'll put that towards some biker fashion. That's some pretty cool stuff. Peter said it's not as easy driving 200 kilometers on a bike than it is in a car. So, get some of those pants with the cushions in them, he said. TMI. Really? Alright, peace out everybody. Before I get into more trouble.