00:00:35 John Daub: and the Giga Mac which is just double the patties. They do that sometimes. I don't know why. Who wants to eat a Giga Mac in the summer? I mean I just kind of want to slim down for the beach and stuff. I'm always amazed at this buzz from around. There's more monitors, signs, music, jingles, all sorts of stuff but it seems a lot tamer than in the past. Many of you who've been to Japan before probably know exactly where I am and are tracing the steps in your mind, which is very cool. This is Shibuya. Shibuya-ku (Shibuya ward) is one of the 23 wards so it's more than just a city, it's a ward.

00:01:45 John Daub: Tomorrow I'll be doing a Japan travel update before these tours start and just talk about some of the news. Japan has been evolving the procedures to get ready for tourism opening and that next step starts on June 10th. So I'm really curious to see how they confront this, what steps they take. They've already done a few things that's very curious but I think are very good to ease the tensions of the locals, ease it into normal life.

00:02:25 John Daub: Well, Family Mart like you always notice. It's not just the businesses, it's about what else is going on. They have unagi (freshwater eel) donburi now and it's kind of weird to see unagi at a convenience store. To be honest with you I probably wouldn't buy it. Unagi is something that should be a little bit pricier. If it's that cheap it's probably not coming from domestic sources but it is tasty.

00:02:55 John Daub: Oh look at these. Just keep popping them out and they put whipped cream in them. And if you've ever done croquette you probably eaten or shared one of these. That's a lot of gluten. I don't know why the gimbal is shaky. Should be razor smooth. That's a word. If you pan out you can't see the shakes too bad so it's all right.

00:03:20 John Daub: Now we got Tower Records here. This is many ways to get to Harajuku. One of them would be through Yoyogi Park meaning you would take a left from the station go past each of these two stations and you're in one on one. You'd be about 15 minutes away from the other and then you're gonna walk across this street. When you go to the other side and you're gonna feel like we're in New York City.

00:03:55 John Daub: You can go past Shimokitazawa to the right of it and go straight past the NHK building or near the NHK building towards Yoyogi Park and then wrap around towards Harajuku. There's the other road which is behind Tower Records and we're in front of it and this is the route that will be taken today.

00:04:25 John Daub: It seems like this business here they're just starting to build whatever they're building here. I'm not quite sure but it's a weird gap in between the buildings. It's too blurry. Right in Train Freak. Alright, let's move really quickly through here.

00:04:45 John Daub: There's the other Hachiko statue for Tower Records. He's leaning to the left. It's not a real one but it is a real statue. Wow, that was really mind-blowing, full of music. Check this out over here. Hopefully the signal is getting a little bit better.

00:05:10 John Daub: You have Ataboy cruising on the train under the Yamanote Line tracks. It's pretty good. For the J-WAVE TV place where we would make Tokyo Eye, that office is actually just about 50 meters up ahead on the right side and we ended that series in March after 16 years of making shows introducing Tokyo to everybody and I used to come to Shibuya a lot more because of NHK jobs and you know, I'm sure something else will come down the road but I'm actually okay with it.

00:05:55 John Daub: Because I'm so busy with the Only in Japan and traveling and making shows. Here's the shop with the blue ramen and they didn't have a sign out before but now you can see they do. I did interview the chef and he doesn't tell me exactly what he puts in it to make it blue but I'm guessing it's a form of algae. They actually have this color in other cuisines. In Malaysian cuisine they use that blue coloring and the owner is really nice.

00:06:35 John Daub: I always thought that ramen chefs should innovate and he certainly did and these gimmicks they kind of, I don't know, it's not something that you would eat every day but it's kind of fun to try something new and that's what makes ramen so much fun because there's thousands of shops. All of them have something unique and different.

00:07:00 John Daub: This is interesting. It's kind of neat to walk around. They're made for Japanese homes so things are a little bit smaller in there and it's that shop is that small though. Wow that's another business that's available. Hey everybody there seems to be some lagging. We're gonna get past that.

00:07:30 John Daub: It went around the corner here. This is underneath the Yamanote Line and this is a big bridge here. These trucks have increased. These tractor trailers with billboards on them promoting musical groups. To be honest with you I'm not the target but it's kind of neat to see them cruising by the streets of Shibuya blasting music. The sounds of J-pop and train lines going by. It is a nostalgia.

00:08:05 John Daub: Another tractor trailer with the advertisement on it. This Miyashita Park shopping center is new too so for those that have done this walk before again this used to be just like open grounds and now it's got this building here. Miyashita Park is very interesting. There's a food court inside. There's a lot of stuff to do up on the top. It's a great place to bring a bento if you don't want to eat in a restaurant. You can eat outside up there.

00:08:45 John Daub: Peter and I did that with an Ultraman burger from McDonald's a few weeks ago in that live stream which was pretty interesting. Let's walk. Hopefully the signal is getting a little bit stronger as we get into some clearing here. That area of Shibuya is always pretty rough.

00:09:15 John Daub: Uh, Chan, I actually calibrated the gimbal in the Mimo app before I started so it should be the best that it gets. If not it's just the problem with this gimbal because some people who have had the OM5 have had no problems or issues with it. I think it just might be the gimbal. Everything else is pretty solid so it is weird that it would be shaky at all so I go back to the much more comfortable OM4.

00:09:55 John Daub: This is new. They used to do a lot of skateboarding in this park illegally but now they have this mushroom looking restroom which is really curious. This is where I had a friend who had his sunglasses swiped from. He was selling stuff on the street and there is theft by stealth in Japan.

00:10:25 John Daub: I guess there really is no skateboarding here. The OM4 does have a leveling problem which you can correct in the Mimo app by tweaking it but I've calibrated this and measured it out so it should be absolutely fine. Sometimes it's not and that's the end of this gimbal. That means the gimbal gets a name.

00:10:55 John Daub: Chan, you have a suggestion? Do you have a suggestion for the name? Lit hey. So is that a name or number? WR Servo is in the house so it's now up to you guys. Bumpy. That's a nice name. It's a Jurassic Park character from some anime series that kind of made me watch Jurassic Park where kids get trapped on the island. Netflix. It's a pet dinosaur named Bumpy so that might work for Lit-chan.

00:11:35 John Daub: That sounds too nice. Trash-chan like I want to really give this gimbal a bad name because from the start it's been garbage. So here's a park where you could eat a bento. That's just a clearing. That's such a waste of I guess it's a parking lot or something but that would be a really waste of a shaky-chan bumpy barney bumpy.

00:12:10 John Daub: I don't know what the deal is with this gimbal. Why is it? It's fully charged as well. Gomi-chan. Gummi is a nice name for a trashy gimbal. Stroke. It's like I don't know are these names or verbs? Wow do you see that? Was that a Porsche? Oh my gosh garble the gimbal.

00:12:40 John Daub: That's a mouthful. We could call it Shay-shay because it's missing a t. There you go something easy hard to forget. Wow look at that car. It's like they messed with the axles and put it up 50 centimeters from the ground. That's weird. Glenn's getting seasick so am I.

00:13:10 John Daub: The good news is that we're almost there. The bad news is that we're almost there. I'm looking left and right. There's some really interesting buildings here. There's the Bamiyan which is a 24-hour Chinese restaurant and about nine years ago when I made the first 24 hours in Shibuya episode I stayed in here.

00:13:45 John Daub: This is the closest restaurant that was open 24 hours that wasn't McDonald's. Yeah and they had a really nice drink bar. Came back out at 4:30 and the sun was rising in the summer. It's crazy. Up in Hokkaido the sun is rising quarter to four because you're further north. It's insane. You have to have blackout blinds in order to get a decent night's rest or go to bed at eight which is probably a good idea. Maximize your daylight.

00:14:30 John Daub: Corgi sounds nice. Corgi gimzilla. That's actually pretty. Gimzilla track. Alright there's another dark spot where the signal dies. The chat is acting funky. It goes slow and then just speeds up with a thousand messages going by. Earth to John.

00:15:00 John Daub: Yeah I'm back. Sorry about that I missed a bunch of messages it just flew by. 24 hours staying outside of Tokyo challenge. What does that mean? I did an entire week in Hokkaido does that qualify?

00:15:20 John Daub: So this is a really unique building and I remember when they were building this. Used to be all construction when they were making the Tokyu Shinjuku Line? I could never say because I never rode it but it's a line that kind of connects Shibuya with Ikebukuro.

00:15:50 John Daub: And while they were doing this construction I believe they were also making this building and I just love the shape of it and the colors. It's a lot better and full 720p HDR iPhone style but look at Toshin. You go thanks peso. It slips in my mind because I never ride the darn thing. You just take the Yamanote Line unless you're going to Minami-Aoyama or something. Not a lot of benefits unless you're already on the metro. People can stick to metro.

00:16:35 John Daub: There's a 3 Coins. This is a 300 yen shop which usually got some decent stuff in there. Alright now when we get to this intersection here it has changed remarkably and I think you're going to see that. I'm wondering if I should cross the street now. You know what I'm going to stick and go straight because we crossed the street before in the past.

00:17:05 John Daub: That's Cat Street or Cat's Dori (Cat Street) is just on the other side of these buildings here and that's certainly a lot calmer than this street here. Usually that's the fourth route to get to Harajuku. You can go through Cat Street. I think there's another Hawaiian burger place.

00:17:35 John Daub: Have you ever seen touch-free coin laundry yet? I have not. I have a really nice washer and dryer made by Panasonic so I'm not into the laundromat scene. Look at how thin this building is. What look at that Adam.

00:18:00 John Daub: There's never been a mask mandate so I don't know what you're talking about. It's a kebab. There's never been a mask mandate in Japan so lifting the mask mandate doesn't make any sense. I'll talk about this more tomorrow in the live stream about some of the things that the rule makers have made to help ease tourism to Japan and these are all really important steps.

00:18:40 John Daub: Because that's how you're going to be in Japan in steps gradual. If one step doesn't work they go back to the step before and start all over. Oh look at this on the right side they're building something again. There's so much construction.

00:19:00 John Daub: That's the Harajuku intersection right here the one with the Tokyo Plaza up there where those trees are. There's a really pretty Starbucks cafe to buy one of those melon frappuccinos and chillax up there with all your shopping. It used to be for the longest time a secret cafe but it's not really that secret.

00:19:35 John Daub: I should get an Only in Japan tractor trailer truck because I wonder how much. I bet you they're about a couple thousand bucks a day right? Here's the Meiji Jingumae Harajuku station and this station was always Meiji Jingumae to me. They didn't put that Harajuku in for a very long time.

00:20:15 John Daub: I think tourists didn't realize that Meiji Jingumae station threw you into pretty much the heart of Harajuku. It wasn't just JR station. But one of the things that I think you all realize when walking these routes is that it's way better to walk in the city of Tokyo when you can instead of riding the subway and getting there.

00:20:55 John Daub: Especially if you're like okay wait if I go this line I can take this line and get exactly to where I want to go. Yeah get close and then just walk from there. You don't have to go exactly to that station unless it's time sensitive. It's really interesting to walk, just get close by.

00:21:25 John Daub: Like there's some stations around Akihabara you don't have to take JR. You can take the Toei Shinjuku Line and get off at Iwamotocho which doesn't say Akihabara but it's two minutes from Akihabara. So you didn't need to change to get onto another train to get to Akihabara because it's right there.

00:22:00 John Daub: Okay. Alright, Kanda Mania is gone. Check it out here. So they are under construction this whole block on the opposite side. Doing pretty good progress. I think by the time you guys come in the late summer, it's gonna be here.

00:22:30 John Daub: Hey, Angel Forever 59's here. Is that Michael Sassano? It sure is. Block it tour. You're bound to come across something you want to eat, grab a delicious thing. Thank you.

00:22:55 John Daub: Actually, I'm probably gonna bring Kanae back here. She's like a burrito. Because just across the street here is another burrito place. That's another Gomez Burritos. Yeah, that's right.

00:23:20 John Daub: One of the reasons that there has never been a mask mandate, meaning you're penalized for it, is because people just wear the mask and if you don't, you feel sort of guilty about it. But to be honest with you, Japan wears masks in the winter during the flu season all the time. It's not something that you have to tell people to do. If you're sick, you wear a mask to keep people from getting sick. You think about the people around you.

00:24:00 John Daub: And when people say to me that masks work, they have no idea how masks... If you are sick and you're wearing one, you don't infect other people. The risk goes way, way down. And if everybody's wearing one, there's very little risk. It has nothing to do with protecting you, but if the people around you are wearing a mask and one of them happens to be sick, there's a greater chance that you're going to be okay. Scientifically proven. That's enough about that. More on that tomorrow. I'm going to save it for the travel update.

00:24:50 John Daub: Whoa! These little scooter things, you see that? You need a license to drive those. You need a motorcycle license, I believe. A small vehicle license. 125cc. I'm getting a 400cc motorcycle license. You need a 125cc. I believe you need some sort of special license in order to ride those on the streets now.

00:25:25 John Daub: Because there's a long time where they had these scooters with battery-powered scooters and they didn't know how to mandate this. They eventually said, I believe you need to have a motorcycle license. You know what else is scientifically proven? That Nestle formula was better than breast milk. And we all know how that turned out. What does that mean? As someone who doesn't remember what breast milk tastes like, I don't know.

00:26:05 John Daub: Or Nestle's breast milk. There used to be a UFJ Bank and that's gone. And there used to be a Jonathan's and that's gone. I wonder what they're going to do with that now. What? You're seeing right now, Harajuku is changing incredibly.

00:26:35 John Daub: Right? So, if we can get to 400 likes, I'll take you down Takeshita-dori (Takeshita Street). How about that? It's up to you now. Community. Chime in. And if you've never written a comment before and you want to write something, just write in where you're watching from. We always like to see that. There's usually some smart aleck who writes some planet. I know who you are.

00:27:20 John Daub: It's a little breezy. The humidity is not very high. I feel fairly comfortable having a riding jacket on and jeans. The humidity doesn't start to come until maybe I'd say in a couple of weeks, maybe. It feels pretty good. The end of spring and it's so warm.

00:27:55 John Daub: The thing is, if you do come during the rainy season and I failed to make an episode on this early in June, but I might do it next week. The rainy season in Japan is typically cooler than you would think it would be, meaning there are days when it's raining. You need to have a jacket on. And you need to have long pants. It's not shorts, sandals and a T-shirt. You're going to catch a cold. It can be pretty chilly.

00:28:40 John Daub: It feels almost cooler sometimes in June than it does in April, just because of the rainy season and these cold airs that come in. Then the rain goes away, the sun comes out and the humidity is unbearable. So swings left and right. So June is a tough month to come in the beginning of July because that humidity and the cool and the hot is just going all over the place.

00:29:25 John Daub: If you do come to Harajuku, I highly recommend that you go down some of these alleys and explore because the businesses are changing all the time. And my friend Adam, who used to own a wine bar down here, that wine bar went. I think that's where those lights are. That wine bar went out of business after a year.

00:30:00 John Daub: But when he was working at the wine bar, he said that apparently he's somebody who watched a lot of adult videos, apparently. And he said that he saw a lot of the adult artists walking around and he found out there's some kind of studio there. So you're into that