00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Tokyo's Shirokanedai. Right up there. Shirokanedai is maybe the most affluent neighborhood in Tokyo. It is not cheap to live in this area of Minato Ward, one of Tokyo's 23 wards. It's so rich here that the Don Quixote, which is the nation's discount store, has a platinum version of it. And inside, I don't think the prices are any different, but it sure looks a lot better because this is Shirokanedai, and this is the way they do things here.

00:38 John Daub: How you doing everybody? In this episode, I'm going to be taking you down Platinum Avenue, which is a very affluent street. Talk a little bit about the history here. And then President Biden is going to be having dinner at a restaurant where Kanae and I, my wife, got married, which is so exciting for us. When I told Kanae the news, she was like, really? The president's going to be eating where we got married? Well, they have very good food there.

01:05 John Daub: Now, there are other restaurants in Hapōen (Happo-en garden), which is the garden where we got married. Of course, the president will be dining at one of the most prestigious kaiseki ryori (artistic multi-course Japanese cuisine) restaurants, which is delicious, omotenashi (hospitality)-infused, service-infused cuisine where it's so beautiful, you wonder if you can even eat it at all. I'm going to be taking you past that garden. I don't know if we can actually go in there. That's this way, but let's walk this way. Hapōen is that one. And I'll show you some of the pictures from our wedding, and you can see what the food was like. It's just incredible.

01:50 John Daub: Now, Gayān Nishidori is actually called Platinum Avenue, Platinum Street. And that's this way. So we're going to walk down this street a little bit and give you an idea of what this neighborhood is like. It's got lots of trees, and it's very famous for being the old residence of the imperial family. Wow, the wind just picked up. Now, the people who live in this neighborhood, if you're a resident of this neighborhood, please give me a call. I would love to hang out with you and learn more about it.

02:40 John Daub: The vending machines are still the normal price, though. It is said—I'm not big into stereotypes—but it is said that the people who reside in this neighborhood are very rich, and they've got a lot of free time, and they just kind of lounge around in cafes and enjoy life. And they like to make a comparison between Milan in Italy and Milano and here in Shirokanedai. And they call the ladies who do not much here as Shiroganese, like Milanese, Shiroganese. If you see some of those ladies, maybe they will say hi. Maybe not, because they're Shiroganese.

03:37 John Daub: I don't know much about this side of the street. But I will tell you this. Because it is such a beautiful section of the city, and it has a very good reputation, they also have a lot of weddings taking place in this area. It's a beautiful place to have a wedding, and that's one reason why we picked Hapōen. And it was just stunning. And because there was a cancellation, they gave us 50% off. Said, if you can decide now, we'll just give you Hapōen because we have to book it right now. And we're like, okay. Done. So we're not going to get married at Meiji Shrine or something like that. We got married in this neighborhood. And that was nice.

04:20 John Daub: Oh, is this it? This is where Kanae's sister got married. No. Yeah, the next one over, there's a place where Kanae's sister got married in there. At least had the reception. No, no, they got married in there. And it was so beautiful. Even you can look in the side streets here. Lots of nature, trees. Really beautiful place to come and eat. There's a yakiniku restaurant where the prices might be... Oh, yeah, they're pretty reasonable, actually. This platinum street goes all the way down there. You'll find lots of trendy boutiques and shops and cafes where you can spend all of your money.

05:06 John Daub: Yeah, they had a really nice bar in here. And the food was excellent, I thought. Again, kaiseki cuisine we got. We were fed. And a kiyomizu. Came in a suit. Felt very uncomfortable. But that's the way things go. So, the street wraps all the way around for quite a ways here. Let's go back this way. I really wanted to take you to Hapōen, to the garden, and see... I don't even know if we can actually walk in there because the restaurant where President Biden will be eating tonight is closed for today. Because they're preparing the amazing meal that they're doing.

05:50 John Daub: Let's hide behind this tree for a second. And let that group of people go ahead. Social distancing. So, the security here in Tokyo has been crazy. Over the last 48 hours, we've been hearing helicopters going overhead all the time. Especially along the Sumida River where we live pretty close to. Because there's some kind of quad meeting going on between the leaders of Japan, Australia, India, and South Korea about the Indo-Pacific region. Security is going to be very, very tight.

06:33 John Daub: And, you know, anytime a president comes, I don't know if you're political or not. I'm not that political. I think in Japan, I kind of have the same kind of thought the way that the Japanese do. It's like we don't really think about, you know, Republican or Democrat here in Japan. We just think American president. And when the American president comes here to Japan, it's a really big honor. And it's very interesting to see what is the president going to be eating here. Especially someone who's a long-term resident of Japan, living in Tokyo for a very long time. What are they going to be eating here in Tokyo? And how are they going to be reacting to the food?

07:13 John Daub: And I say that because if some of you might remember President George... We call him Papa Bush. We call him Papa Bush here in Japan. But when Papa Bush, George H.W. Bush, was here, he got very sick. And some people say it was because of a crude joke that the foreign minister had said to him because he was shot down off of an island during World War II, Chichijima. That's one rumor. We're not quite sure. It could have been just bad sushi. But he got sick on the sushi. So that was not... That does not leave a good impression on Japanese cuisine. So we're hoping that President Biden does not get sick. So they might be serving him some really good wagyu.

08:02 John Daub: Now when Obama was here, President Obama, when President Bush, his son... I'm not sure where Clinton ate. But when President Bush's son, W, ate here, Prime Minister Koizumi took him to the Kill Bill restaurant called Gonpachi in Nishiazabu. And if you ever go in there and take a look and you've seen Kill Bill 2, that scene where a lot of swords go slashing through. You could see the inside was modeled very much after that restaurant. It was quite famous. I think it was like 2002 or 2003.

08:45 John Daub: There's the platinum Don Quixote. We'll cross the street and walk over there. When Obama came here, he went to Sukiyabashi Jiro, which is a very famous meeting with him and Prime Minister Abe. Yeah, that was a prestigious meal. Jiro is in his late 90s and he was still serving and working and doing well. I think his son is taking over the business now. We don't hear a lot about it, but I know they're not really tourist friendly. They're kind of like their regular customers. They charge about 30,000 yen for a course. And that's roughly $270 maybe.

09:48 John Daub: Hey, Katayama's in the house. Thank you. Let's see what we can find. I'm going to walk down the street a little bit. And Johnny Boyka is here. You know, this might be a platinum Don Quixote, but the prices are about the same as everywhere else. So, give them credit. They didn't try to take advantage of the fact that people have platinum credit cards. Yeah, this is a... It's a strange Don Quixote. And it's also funny because the end of the street is a 100 yen shop. So, you're going to get a pretty good discount, I think, in here. Oh, gosh, the wind is strong. I'm hiding back here.

10:40 John Daub: Yeah, Shirokanedai is one of the most affluent neighborhoods for sure. Let's take a look here. I actually put a link in the description of this video. You can take a look at the security of President Biden coming down Roppongi Avenue. I'm going to go to the Japanese news so that link will take you to a Japanese news site where they show you his motorcade. And it's pretty insane. It's almost like a parade of lights. You have LED lights, police lights. A lot of these vehicles were probably stationed at the U.S. Embassy because they look like U.S. automakers. Ford and Chevrolet. It's really interesting.

11:25 John Daub: Again, for us here in Japan, we don't... We're not Republican or Democrat per se. We're just... When we see America, we see the American president and we don't know what side he is. So, for anybody in the chat, it's not a political thing at all. It's just the U.S. president is here and that's kind of cool. As long as you're not driving around the city. Because I've heard that the Shutoko (Tokyo expressway), there's certain areas that are off limits, which is creating havoc for drivers.

12:04 John Daub: Here's Shirokanedai Station. It's on the Namboku Line and Toei Mita Line. It's the one I took anyways. Let's see what we can find. Maybe grab a snack somewhere. There's not a lot of options. Hey, Oliver White's here! Thank you! Beautiful sunny day here in Tokyo. Yesterday was the Sanja Matsuri's (Sanja Festival) final day. Sanja Festival, which is one of Tokyo's big three festivals. Attracting 3 million or more visitors, spectators a year. Not this year though. It was really toned down. And when the procession went by, I was a little bit surprised to see that they weren't even shouting. They were trying to keep their voices down in an effort to not spread the virus. So, you know, I guess it... I'm just glad that they made that step and didn't cancel it. Because I don't think anybody can take any more cancellations here.

13:16 John Daub: Alright, shall we? We'll get a high quality snack, so to speak. Alright, let's see what we can get here. Let me get my Suica card. And then I want to show you some of the wedding pictures and the food. The kaiseki food that we ate at our wedding. And maybe President Biden will be eating something similar to that. We don't know what the menu, what he's going to be eating.

15:22 John Daub: Please give me a bag. Thank you. Oh, that's good. Please keep the receipt until the temperature reaches 100 degrees. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Windy out here. Let's cross the street. Maybe we can sit down in the alley here. How's the signal, everybody? I'll show you what I got.

16:14 John Daub: Maybe we can use this Jonathan's. Hey, Jennifer. Ah, there's Prime Minister Kishida. He'll be at the dinner tonight. It's a political poster. Signal's fine. Okay, good. That's good to see here. So, before I show you what I got here, this is the... I'll be taking you as far as I can into there. This is our wedding photo at the place where President Biden is. He's going to be eating tonight at Hapōen. And what was that? April 21st, 2018. There's some of the photos. I sent this postcard to our Patreon supporters back then. It was a really nice day.

16:59 John Daub: Alright, so I got a couple of really interesting things here. The first one is hojicha (roasted green tea). This is a roasted green tea drink. I've been drinking this a lot more recently because I don't want the caffeine. But there's something about that roasted taste. It kind of hits your tongue in a different place than normal green tea. And it's got lower caffeine, so maybe it's a little bit bitter. But it's still green tea, although it's roasted.

17:39 John Daub: Again, the police are everywhere in the city right now. You can hear the sirens going by. This is a choux cream, but with pistachio whipped cream. Pistachio is the flavor of the month. So every time in Japan, it goes through trends, and pistachio is in every confection. I don't know why, but I guess there was this influx of pistachio, and Japan made use of that. Or this year's pistachio harvest seemed to be really good. I don't know. And then I found that 7-Eleven and all the other convenience stores are going past just the regular white bread, and they're making these kind of Subway sandwiches here. And this one, if you have the ajitama (marinated egg), eggs with a spicy roast chicken, chili sauce. I thought this was a pretty good sandwich here. They have all sorts of unique sandwiches. They're using different kinds of breads.

18:42 John Daub: SB writes that the Indian prime minister has reached Japan, so that's pretty cool. Prime minister Modi. You know, when I went to go and get my overseas citizens of India card, which is like a green card to India, so Kanae and Leo can also get one too, because my mother was born and is Indian. She's American now. So she used to be Indian. Because I have that background, I could get this card. And when I went into the embassy in Tokyo, they kind of had been watching Only in Japan and knew who I was, which made me feel really cool. And I got to sit in the back and talk with the officers. They'd watch the show. I guess, you know, I always wondered if Prime Minister Modi came, if I could go and hang out. I don't think you can hang out with leaders of the free world. Because India is the biggest democracy in the world. I don't think they just hang out, do they?

19:43 John Daub: Wow, look at this. They have a tab on this sandwich for an easy open. Of course they do. Like, onigiri has tabs to open it up, keep it fresh. So does this sandwich. Interesting. Whoa. So just the top part opens so you can eat the sandwich without actually touching the bread. That's pretty smart. Wow. Nice. I don't like the bread though. I think it needs to be toasted. Chili sauce, good. Chicken, good. A little bit tough. Egg, good. Mmm. Mmm. I approve.

20:56 John Daub: Let's try this hojicha. They're cleaning up around me. I thought that was nice. They picked up two cigarette butts. Oh man. That is so good. I love hojicha. Slight, I don't know, a slight burnt taste to it. It's very pleasing. What a perfect day. Alright, next up I want to try this choux cream here. This is my dessert. Hojicha is da bomb. Let's try this pistachio and then we're going to walk over to the area where Biden will be. Probably in, I'm sure he has a bunch of meetings, but probably in a few hours coming here to eat dinner. And we're eating 7-Eleven, so it's not quite the same.

22:10 John Daub: I'm really interested in the history of Shirokanedai. So I might be back here to do a more thorough... What? Look at this cream puff. It's green. This is the cream puff. It's kind of puffy. Got a little mochi mochi action going there. You'd think it was green tea or even, um, oh gosh, what is it? Something put in the mochi sometimes that's not green tea. I can't, my mind's not focusing, but today it's a pistachio. Wow. Wow. That is a very robust nutty. I love it. Nutty pistachio taste to it. That is an awesome choux cream. Oh, this just far outdistances. The sandwich is not matcha. It's pistachio. Oh man. It's so good. This is wow. If you like pistachio ice cream, this is better because it's like a pistachio punch in your face, but a punch that is soft like velvet. So it's nutty. You got that nutty bitterness to it. But it's sweet, creamy taste in the front. Oh man. That's awesome. This is 170 yen. Wow. So these confections are all time limited, so it's not going to be around much longer. Probably the time tourism really does open up here. You're not going to be able to get this. This is really good.

24:18 John Daub: That is a happy meal. Thank you. Cut the Emma. All right, let's get onto the garden. I don't think we're going to see president Biden here. I can tell you this here. Hold on. So I have, um, I've got friends that were, um, very loyal Trump supporters and they told me that he might be having a dinner here and they said that I might be invited. I said that'd be really cool, but it didn't happen because at the last minute they've changed the location to like some burger place or something. So that's supposed to be president. Trump was supposed to be going to a very prestigious yakiniku restaurant in Ginza. And at the last minute it changed. And I believe he ended up going to a burger place.

25:25 John Daub: When somebody, I think in some of the comments, does anyone support Biden? It's not a, I think you're seeing it the wrong way here in Japan. We don't support like a left or a right president. We're not into the politics side of it so much. We just see the American president. That's a really nice point. We just see him as a representative of America. So it's not a political thing here. I, we might talk about policies and the news in Japan, but it has nothing to do with the same way. We just see him as a representative of America and we don't see massive changes so much. One's the other. There's some good things and there's some bad things. But we'll kind of balance out. I guess I haven't seen massive changes as a result, but I'm on the surface deep down. It might be different.

26:30 John Daub: All right. Hapōen is right up there. Do you see that green sign? That's where we got married and it is not that building. It's an entire garden. And if you look at the Google Maps, it's pretty incredible. I actually put a link in the video here. You can go and click that. That's my wedding announcement at the Hapōen garden. I didn't tell anyone. Anybody on YouTube that I was getting married came to a shock as I announced it in my wedding kimono. Hey, guys, I'm getting married. People were like, well, I can read the live chat. It's pretty funny.

27:20 John Daub: All right. This is Hapōen. Wow. I don't think I've been here since the wedding. I do apologize for the wind noise. I know that that's going to be something. It wasn't windy when I got here. Let's cross the street here. Wow. I got pistachio taste. It's awesome. It's following me around, too. So this is my good old Platinum Avenue. Take you across the street here. I thought there'd be a lot more security. Maybe it's another thing where they just change the location of the restaurant at the last minute, like they did with Trump. Curious.

28:40 John Daub: I do know that they do have a signal because I did live stream from here. The wedding announcement. You can go and see the restaurant that he's slated to eat at as well. I put a link to the restaurant in the description of this video so you can go and see what's going on. I'm not sure what potentially the menu is going to be, but the restaurant where he's eating actually. So here you can take a look. Here's Hapōen. This is where we are right now. The entrance is right here. And we got married in this building, the main building. And it's a beautiful lake around there. This is where he's eating dinner, which is the complex right next to it. It's all part of Hapōen. The restaurant is called Kochōan. It is a very luxurious kaiseki ryori restaurant. And I believe one of the reasons why they're taking them here is because they want to highlight omotenashi (hospitality), which is a very important word to Japanese. And it's starting to take a little bit more traction. Omotenashi is Japanese hospitality. And it's not just in services. You see it in a lot of things. In the presentation of the food. In the way that they give you the money. If you've ever seen in Japan, there's a specific way where they put the coins on top of the money and they do it in a way with the least amount of contact, it's a very polite and very, like they've trained to return the money to you like this. They also put it in trays too sometimes. It just depends. But just in all the little details. That's part of the way that they present it.

30:30 John Daub: So this is Hapōen. I don't think we can go inside. But this is where they're going to be. The cars would be coming in here maybe in about, I don't know, four or five hours for dinner. I'm going to guess that maybe the president's gotten over his jet lag since he was in Korea before here. But yeah, the dinner should be quite nice inside of this area. And the garden is spectacular. In fact, that might be the restaurant right in front of us. I don't know. I don't think it's in the restaurant. It's about $400 a person per meal. I'm guessing. It just depends what they're eating, and I have a feeling that wagyu might be on the menu. Although maybe it's not.

31:10 John Daub: You know, when I think about it, one of the things that really upsets, because we do have a lot of viewers that are watching from India, one of the things that really upsets the viewers from India is when I do a wagyu episode. And I talk about beef, the beef industry. Mind you, wagyu is raised and they have a pretty good life. It's done in a very, you know, a better way than the beef, how beef is usually raised, because raising it better means better beef, better prices, better taste. So I'm not sure, maybe beef is not on the menu if Prime Minister Modi is gonna be eating here tonight. Maybe it'll be more of a pure veg, I don't know. Maybe they separate it, but then that wouldn't be a pure veg thing, I'm not sure. It's very complicated. Some of the ushi (cattle), the cattle, live better than some people do. They've got Mozart playing in the background. They've got a very good balance of food. It's not just grass. It's not just corn and grains. There's other things. Some people even say beer. Prime Minister is a vegetarian, so yes, exactly. So we'll see what they get, I don't know. Maybe there's a way for them to balance out everything else.

32:38 John Daub: But this is the entrance into Hapōen, where we came, and a lot of other big events are announced here. I came to a wine, they have a special wine from France that they drink every year. It's really awful wine, but Japan does it as a tradition. And I came here for the launch party one year, and that was pretty neat. It's a beautiful place, you can see. And I know they're gonna have a fantastic meal. I'm so jealous. Gosh, President Biden, let me join you for dinner. Gosh, I'm jealous. I'm sure that they're going to have sake as well. I don't know if the president drinks sake, but I'm sure he's going to be having sake. At least I hope he is. And I'm sure Prime Minister Kishida is going to pour the glass. And then President Biden, who is probably cultured enough to know that he has to pick up the glass and pour the sake for Prime Minister Kishida. Because I remember Prime Minister Abe and President Obama doing the same thing. I'm sure President Trump was doing that too. It's a very interesting way where you don't pour your own sake and you kind of rely on one another. I like that aspect of Japanese society. You can see it all represented in the cuisine and the way people drink and the way people... The daily life shows you the way that people are thinking and living here in Japan. Of course, because that's daily life. But you can observe it. You can get the gist of it without actually studying a book. Just by observing what people are doing and how they're living.

34:17 John Daub: So I hope this gives you a little bit of insight about what's going to be happening tonight. We're, I don't know, mildly excited that all of the leaders have come to Japan. Because we're still in a pandemic and we don't have events and things like this. I'm not sure. It would be nice if the leaders made an appearance or something. But, yeah. It always feels special where you're living. And it's put on the map because of something like this. And I'm sure after the meal we'll get details of what they ate. I'm not sure why they didn't release the menu. But I'm just curious. Wow, good memories.

35:02 John Daub: So before I go, for those that are still here, thank you. Let me show you some of the pictures of the food that Kanae and I ate. I'll just swipe through it. We had a special menu. And so we had to work with somebody at Hapōen. A chef sat down with us for 30 minutes. And gave us an introduction. And gave us an interview of what we wanted. This is maguro (tuna) with radish. So he had some suggestions. And some more sashimi. This was actually trying the menu before the dinner. To make sure that we liked it. Some more vegetables. We wanted some organically grown stuff. Fish. That was so good. This, I believe, was a kind of tofu. I did it so well with the presentation. Roast beef. I'm not sure if we did that. I did that because I was American. We got roast beef. It was really good. I do remember that. This is, I guess this is wagyu. With a special sauce. And then there's some lotus root chip in the back. I like that. And I guess we ended it with some soup and rice. You always end the meal with this. It's kind of the happy ending. And then, I guess we had two happy endings. Maybe, I can't remember. That was just four years ago.

36:28 John Daub: Oh! Then we had this dessert plate. And they showed us what they could do. Because I was a YouTuber, they put film on top of the cake. I guess they didn't understand the concept of digital photography. But I wasn't going to argue with the chef. I said, this looks great. I love chocolate cake. So, look at that choux cream. I had a pistachio one at 7-Eleven. This one, they cut it and made it look like a swan. So, you're eating art. Some macarons. And the French thingies. Everybody got a plate like this, I believe. It was really nice. And there's some matcha. Wasabi mochi. And of course, there's some booze in the background.

37:16 John Daub: I thought that was nice. I felt bad eating the head. Oh! And we did have this. That raindrop mochi. Oh! And this was really special. Let me see if I can pull this up here. This is... So, my mom loves karaage (Japanese fried chicken). So, they put this karaage in curry. Because she's also Indian. She was born in India. So, that was... Karaage with curry. And I... For her. And that was really nice. And this is Kanae's grandmother's recipe of a special potato. And the chef had recreated these things based on memory. We told them what we would like to customize this a little bit more. And we told them. They did a pretty good job of it. Yeah. And there's the actual dinner. That was nice. I had the beer. And there's... We got the sing inside there.

38:17 John Daub: So, this is where President Biden is going to be having his dinner. It's kind of... Oh! That looks good. Oh! Oh, man. She had two kimonos. The wedding kimono and then like the after-wedding kimono. And there's mine. Nobody's there to take my picture. As far as we can go. That was... That was just a little bit over four years ago. We ate here. So, I'm kind of... So, I'm really jealous. Because the U.S. President is going to be here. And the President is going to be eating in there too. Hey! Hey! You know what? If President Biden is watching this. If you get that curry with... That karaage chicken with curry. That's my recipe. That's what I suggested to the... To the... So, it might have came from us. It just makes me feel good that I kind of played a little small role in that.

39:18 John Daub: Great place for a wedding if you're thinking about getting married. And congratulations to Oriental Pearl, Alisa, who got married recently. The ceremony was... I guess it was last weekend. Last week. Or this past week. But it's nice to see friends getting married. I didn't go to the wedding reception or anything like that. But it's a real happy occasion. Japanese curry is not Indian taste. That's very true. But that was Indian curry inside of the karaage. Well, at least their version of it. So it's not quite the same. But they make a really good effort. And I think recently Japanese curry is sort of taking off in some areas of India. It's just a unique taste. And it is vegetarian. Mostly. The katsu curry might not be though.

40:16 John Daub: If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I'm really happy to hear from you. And tomorrow I'm going to Haneda Airport and flying to... Saying goodbye to Hapōen here. Tomorrow I'm going... I'm flying via Haneda Airport to Sapporo. And you're coming with me on this channel. So you're gonna want to make sure you subscribe to this channel. This is all live streams. I'll take you to there. And we'll see what Haneda Airport is doing for flights. If we get a chance, maybe see the international terminal. Can't make any promises. But I'm curious to see how things are going. And then I'm renting a car at Chitose. And then going to film a main channel episode.

40:53 John Daub: Oh, here come the police. Sting is out there. Look at that. Yes! They're just starting... There's the police van. These police vans have been everywhere. So they're just now starting to set up for the dinner. Oh! I was too early. You could actually get a matchbox car called a Tomica with that police vehicle. Tokyo Vice. So they are getting ready. It's maybe down there on the other side. I don't think we're gonna be able to see anything. But yeah, you'll be coming with me tomorrow to Hokkaido. And I'll be there for a week. I'll be in Sapporo, Yubari, and Nemuro and Kushiro, which is the very east of Hokkaido. And I'll be doing a series of livestreams there. But mostly filming for the edited channel. Yeah. Great!

41:52 John Daub: If you have any questions, let me know. You can write me anytime. If you are interested in the postcard club, this is this month's postcard from Shizuoka. I will send it to you today if you sign up. Help support the channel. This one was sent four years ago, so you can't get that one. It's limited. It's like gone. It's kind of cool. Thank you, UFO Bob. See you, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. Stay happy. Platinum Street. Man. I should look at apartments here. I'm just curious how much... How much is a place, Platinum Street?