00:00:00 John Daub: This is the famous 8 o'clock clock here at Ningyocho (doll town), and it does pop open and play a couple of songs. We're a little bit too late—or too early. But we'll come back if we're still live streaming in 45 minutes to see this at 3 p.m. This is Ningyocho. How you doing? Good afternoon. This is one of my favorite neighborhoods and one of the places that we considered moving to before we moved into where we live on the other side of Chuo Ward, one of Tokyo's 23 wards—like New York has five boroughs, Tokyo has 23 wards. This would be Chuo Ward. Anyway, this place is famous for dolls. Ningyo means doll in Japanese, so Ningyocho is doll town. However, I think ningyoyaki (grilled cakes with anko red bean paste) is more famous than just dolls. They get the faces of dolls on them, and it's kind of neat to see. But I've come here on a mission, and it's actually raining right now again, which is awful. So we're gonna have to deal with that too. How you doing, everybody? Let's get moving and let me find the ningyoyaki and my mission.

00:01:21 John Daub: The mechanical clock in Ningyocho, the town of dolls. As the doncho (alcove) opens on the lower level, the rakugo-ka (storyteller) starts to tell the story of the origins of Ningyocho that was created by the rakugo-ka. On the upper level, the murals rotate to reveal daily scenes from the Edo period. That's pretty cool. All right, let's get moving here. You can see the umbrellas are out. I gotta get me one of these umbrellas. They've got all these extra poles in them to make it really stylish but also really strong.

00:02:10 John Daub: So they got these items right here—supposedly ice cream. As a kid, I would always get a soft serve ice cream cone there. So they got these McFloats, and I guess they have some more animated burgers. That one with the orange cheese looks really interesting. I wonder why the cheese is orange. Red garlic teriyaki is what it's called. Interesting. All right, my mission is to get some tonyu (soy milk) donuts. That's my mission. No, they tore down this whole building here. What? Across the street from this intersection, which is Amazake Yokocho (sweet sake alley). Amazake (fermented rice drink) is sort of like Japanese sake before the alcohol process. It's so good and super healthy. That shop right there, the white one that looks like a castle wall or something—that's the first shop where oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowl) was invented. It's such a delicious donburi, and costs about 20 bucks. I guess if you're the first one to do something, you're going to have to pay for that privilege.

00:03:53 John Daub: All right, there's my favorite ningyoyaki shop right there with the red sign. Let's just take a quick look-see because my mission is to the right. Ningyocho is such a really small, traditional town in Tokyo. It's like one of these shotengai (covered shopping arcades) where you have to stop and take a look on a visit into Japan. Whoa! Looks like they're done for the day. But you can see inside of this shop, they have the iron molds for the ningyoyaki. So they're done. They do it pretty early in the morning, unfortunately. That's not my strong suit. But these dolls, that's what they look like. So they take the traditional look of these faces here—that's what will be pressed onto your grilled cake. There's a couple of other shops that are doing it. Gosh, I can't believe they're sold out. It's crazy that they're sold out there, but it's actually not that crazy because they do such good business, being a famous shop. How did the weather change? It was just sunny not that too long ago. All right, let's just go with the flow here—Amazake Yokocho. It's been a long time since I was here.

00:05:21 John Daub: The shop that I've been going to for years. I'm disoriented because they tore down this building here—I haven't been here for a few months. So this shop usually is pouring out that very sweet acidic smell of roasting green tea. And I smell a little bit of it today. You can see there's the roaster right there—that's like one of the Showa era roasters that's been roasting tea for a long time. Question: Does anybody know what the roasted green tea is called? Which is on the extreme level of the green teas with color—that one is always on the extreme left because it's the brown one. Not sencha and not matcha. Really? I thought somebody would jump on this right away. Henry is the winner—hojicha (roasted green tea). And hojicha is one of my favorites. The roasting process also removes a lot of the caffeine—now there is still a little bit of caffeine in there, a lot less than green tea. But hojicha is one of my favorites because it's got that slightly burnt taste to it. For me, I kind of like it more in the evening because of the lack of the caffeine in there. And that burnt taste gives it that complexity, something like coffee, I guess, in a way.

00:07:04 John Daub: Alright, this is where I get these tonyu donuts right there. This is my mission, and I told Kanae Daub that I got to go and I will get this. So let me get some cash out here. I want to make this as painless for the store owner as possible. Check out the new 500 yen—they're dual color. I'm digging it. It's silver in the middle and kind of a gold on the outside. And they feel a little bit lighter—so that was equivalent to about $5, but now the exchange rate makes it like $4 or something. And they seem a little bit thinner, but the machines take them just fine. So I'm going to need one of these, and probably 100 yen for tax. We're going to get a pack of tonyu donuts. And you know what? Hold on. Let me see what else I got here. If they can give me—do you have 1000 yen or did Leo take them all out? Dang nabbit, Leo. I took it out here. If I have a couple of hundred yen, I would get some amazake to drink too. All right, let's see what we can do. Leo took my 1000 yen out. Once he gets a hold of my wallet, he starts removing stuff. At least he left me some coins this time.

00:08:45 John Daub: Oh, you know what? I'm going to get some of these because this is such good amazake. These are so good. Let's always check the expiration date. All right, we're good. Hey, WRX Turbo is in the house. And then we have these tonyu donuts—here's a pack of five. Hello. Thank you. I'll give you a pack of 80 yen. Here's 5,000 yen. Here's 4,000 yen. Here's 1,680 yen. Is that okay? Oh, yes. Thank you. I had to stop the hand-holding. I don't need the hand-holding. Sorry. I don't have a bag. Thank you. I really want one. Thank you. Next, where should I put it? I'll show you. How much is it for one? Did I make a mistake? It's okay. Thank you. Thank you. There's no more sweet sake now, right? Yes. Do you have any? Then I'll have one. Yes. I'll have two. Yes. Hello. How many can you make? There are four. You can make one. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's one and a half. One is one and a half.

00:11:04 John Daub: So I got a cup of chilled amazake. That's wonderful because it's so hot out here, and you can see it's got chunks of rice in there. So let's go out to the corner and have a sip—this is so much better than vending machine stuff. That shop right here has been a family-run business and I've been coming here for years. The owner forgets me every time because I'm sure she has so many customers—I don't come here that frequently, but I've been coming here for about 15 years. I first came here with the NHK show for Tokyo Eye and I've been coming back here maybe once every couple of months. They got really good stuff here. All right, let's get to the corner. Man, I wish I could find a nice apartment and move to this section—this is maybe my favorite area of Tokyo. It's got an old world feel to it. Just pan around—it's got this old world Showa era feel to it, but it's so close to the center of Tokyo. The perfect place. Nice to see stores that are standing the test of time. Yeah, and I know this business has been around for a while.

00:12:23 John Daub: I'm looking at the building in front and it looks like it's a new building, so I don't know—I'm just confused because the shop looked pretty old. Maybe they just built the building on top of the shop. I'll get a lot of questions next time I come back here, but I might do a main channel episode on Amazake Yokocho, this street here. And we're gonna walk down it because this is sort of the identity of the Ningyocho area—the Amazake Yokocho. I'm pushing the button with my nose. All right, I don't know if it's food or a drink because it's got chunks of rice in it. Oh man, I like the way that they do it because it's not too sweet—they don't put a lot of sugar in it, but it's just enough to give it flavor but not a lot, because you want to taste the natural ingredients, you don't want to taste the sugar. It's like a rice soup—you give me some power which I don't need because I've been packing in the pal last couple of months. All right, we'll try one of these tonyu donuts as well—soy milk donuts. And then we'll go down the street and see what we can find. I think there's a place with some really good senbei (rice crackers) as well.

00:13:58 John Daub: By the way, I just put in the mailbox a couple of—oh, it's hard to do when you're drinking a drink here. This is the only one that's wet—I might as well show you. Uh, for Patreon supporters, there's the only Japan logo. He's kind of gonna sit on it but he's pulling a truck of Yubari melon. And a couple of months ago I went to the Yubari melon harvest—actually less than a couple of months ago, about six weeks ago—and this is going to be the next episode on the main channel. I'm just finishing it up now, and this farmer is still a family-run business. Him and his family harvest all the melons themselves. There's a picture on the back of me and him and the prize-winning melons. So I'm sending that out to all of our Patreon supporters, and if you join you will get one sent right away from Tokyo Station if I can manage to get there. Has a nice Tokyo stamp on it, and this month's stamps are Toy Story. I don't know how Toy Story got involved in Japan but Toy Story stamps with Mr. Potato Head, Buzz Lightyear—maybe it's because the new Disney hotel that opened up.

00:15:14 John Daub: Really local family-run businesses—there's a butcher shop there. I love it when they have butcher shops and you get to know the people, and they can tell you of the deals and the special meats that they might have in from different regions of Japan. Really nice about the older ways of doing stuff that we lose sight of with all of the new businesses and the new people—like to go to the supermarkets and things like this. But it wasn't always like that, and this area kind of retains that traditional charm and makes it an area I'd like to live in. Although the butcher shops are no specialty items and they're a little bit more expensive than going to those supermarkets. Oh man, that's all chunks of rice now—wow, the good stuff. Well, that'll make Kanae Daub happy to get some amazake for tonight.

00:16:24 John Daub: Does anyone know what these balls represent? There's one over there. Sir Lance Geo got it—is there any alcohol in the amazake? No, but those balls represent a place where sake is brewed. Usually these balls are green, and when they turn brown that means that sake is done. They put it out, I guess, when they start to ferment it or something, and then over the time of the process—I think it's like six weeks or something, I could be wrong, it's been a while—those balls will brown like that. No alcohol in it—you can buy some amazake that has alcohol, but it's not necessary. If you want alcohol, just buy sake. This is one of the last remaining beautiful sake vending machines, and this one requires a sake pass, I guess, so you have to register in advance to get a card to buy the sake from here. I guess there's been some complaints about underage drinking—it would make it pretty easy to just get it from a vending machine. But usually you can use your driver's license as proof now—you put your driver's license in there. I'd be afraid to kind of put my important documents in any kind of a box, I don't know. But we can try it one of these days. This food shop's been around for a very long time and also a family-run business.

00:18:17 John Daub: Yeah, not everyone in Japan has a driver's license, but I believe you can get just state identification as well. So I think that they have that if you don't want to get a driver's license, but a lot of people get the driver's license so they have an ID, and they take those expensive courses that I just had to take for the motorcycle. But to get a driver's license for the driving school, I would be honest with you—it's like 250,000 yen or about two thousand dollars, anywhere between two weeks and two months of your life. It's hard to know if that's worth it or not. So this behind me is a really famous senbei shop—you guys like senbei? It's like a rice cracker, but one of the things that makes this one special is they—the zairyu card (residency card) also is another option if you're a foreign resident of Japan. You get a special card, so when the police ask me for identification or somebody asks you for identification, I give them a driver's license. Now I don't give them my zairyu card, but you could use either your driver's license or your zairyu card as proof of ID here. So this senbei shop has been making senbei for like 100 years or something. We featured them on NHK like a decade ago—they're still here, and that's the same guy.

00:19:57 John Daub: That's the same guy who made the senbei in that Tokyo Eye—I think it's 2009 actually, so that puts it 13 years ago. Makes it pretty amazing. All right, let's go inside and see if I can get some senbei for us to nibble on—I think 130 yen should cover one. Okay. So we didn't make it this morning—yeah, it's the same guy. All right, so you got a pack—I guess you can't just get one. He—I asked if he made it this morning because he's usually sitting there hand-making the senbei. So then if you—I always think that they have today's senbei, and whatever they don't sell they give it away, I don't know, like donuts or something. Maybe I have a wrong idea. But for 600 yen you get a pack of senbei, and these are all homemade—they're made in the shop there, I believe they better be. So it's good till August 30th. What I like them hot off the grill. Sorry, I'm bringing home a bunch of really nice traditional stuff. Let's give it a try.

00:22:21 John Daub: Let's see if we can find a place to sit down. We're gonna walk through the alleys here—again, I'm panning around, check out the neighborhood here. It feels like a really comfortable old neighborhood. Right, let's go down the street and then make a left—we'll go through the alleys and I'll show you Imahan, I believe that's the name of it. They have really good shabu-shabu (hot pot), and that shop's been in business since I believe the Edo period, which is 18th century, 19th century until 1868, which is the Meiji Restoration. Not supposed to walk and eat in Japan, but like if no one's around you can walk and eat. Hey, I'm doing pretty good. By the way, our Kickstarter exceeded the goal in 10 hours—we have 24 days left, we have 2.4 million yen, which is really good. And we hope that more of you can join us on this Kickstarter. Actually, I'm really ecstatic at the support. My goal is to get 500 people backing the project to bring as many people with me on this adventure.

00:24:12 John Daub: That's where this is. This is a famous hamburger place—I don't know if it's famous or not, but it looks like it should be. Does anybody know this? Brozers? This is a takeaway hamburger place. I don't want a hamburger, but I'm so full up. It's an avocado burger, 1400 yen. Sweet Chili Burger, 1250 yen. Oh, look at that double decker, the Lot Burger. That's a lot. Speaking of a lot—how much a lot is it? That's 1800 yen. That's a lot. And the double Lot Burger, that's a double of that—2200 yen. And you know what? I will probably be back. It's takeout only. Interesting. I was not aware that that was there. I knew Brozers was—they put stuff in my mailbox that they have a store somewhere, but I didn't know that that was right here. This isn't too, too far away from where we live—bicycle, like 10 minutes. Mmm. Yeah. It's a good senbei. Crunchy. Salty. Breaks apart in the mouth well. It tastes fresh, so they might not have done it this morning, but probably recent.

00:25:54 John Daub: What more would you want? I don't need a senbei. I think I love the soft senbei that they have, these half-baked senbei. They have a very mochi-mochi (chewy), like a very springy consistency to it. Those are quite popular as well, like the wet mochi—wet senbei. But these are good too if you're drinking a beer, having something to sit down with friends or just want a snack. One of these, they'll last you a while, just chomping on it. I've got the cat looking at me because you can hear the crunching—basically informing the world that you're eating a senbei when you eat a senbei. Oh, I love the streets here—so much detail with those telephone wires going up there. Lance writes in here, could you carry a samurai sword with you around the street? Yeah, I don't think so, Lance. Sir Lance a lot. There's Imahan—this is the shop that I was telling you about. It's an old butcher shop. It looks it.

00:27:23 John Daub: Hey, thank you, Nightbot. Was also talking about the Blu-rays, my hitchhiking adventure from 2017. Still on sale, the Blu-ray with a documentary director's track on there where I explain—two audio tracks on it. So I explain the adventure as well as the original audio. It's a pretty neat collector's box. So this butcher shop has really great stuff. Look at this—this is Kuroge Wagyu (black-haired Japanese beef), 20,000 yen. Where is it from here? It doesn't write the location, but I'm guessing it's got to be close. But they sell their—they have a sukiyaki restaurant right here. And I've eaten in here once with Kanae Daub. We were on a date and we just—I believe we jumped in here for lunch like a long time ago. We can take a look at the menu here. They do have a lunch menu—sukiyaki bento. But if you want the lunch set, that'll cost you about 3,100 yen. And you can get a 100 gram tenderloin or 120 gram sirloin. Go for the tenderloin—100 grams is more than enough. But if you want to go big, go big because it's a really special thing. Wow. So you get the Kuroge Wagyu steak set with all the goodies. I would go for that. If you're going to go big, go big. Just go big when you come to a special place like that. You're probably never going to be back here again. I haven't been back here in 10 years. I remember it wasn't 10 years ago—it was more like five years ago when I came with Kanae Daub's dad and her. I treated them to a really nice lunch. There is Imahan. It's nice inside there too—very traditional. Woman in a kimono will serve you. If that makes a difference. And it just might.

00:30:00 John Daub: I put the senbei in my pocket—I know I'm going to forget about it if I leave it there. I like the fact that almost every business has an alcohol pump. And now they have this thing that checks your temperature before you enter—almost every business has it here. I didn't see that when I was in the US—a lot of the businesses didn't have alcohol pumps. I just think a customer with clean hands is not going to be a clean customer. It makes sense to me. I can tell you this—I've had already about a dozen friends that have gotten sick in the last week. That's how bad this sixth wave is. Including mostly Kanae Daub's friends, and a lot of them have gotten sick and a lot of them recovered pretty fast within five days. So you know, it is what it is. But the Japanese news is making it seem like it's the end of the world, and it's kind of worrying. Most people are smart enough not to buy into it now—they just want to get people to watch. Senbei scented clothes when John forgets his senbei. Personality of a brick wall. Let me tell you this here—there's a very good chance that I forget about this senbei and it goes through the washing machine, and we have an entire load of scented clothes. So I better finish this off.

00:31:56 John Daub: What has happened? Whoa! I took out this butcher shop here. Dusty Gold Grandfather of Speedy Recovery in San Jose, California. That's a nice car—what is that? A Bentley? Hello. It's an open car Bentley. Whoa! Yeah, please. One day. These traditional towns—there are more than most of them are up in the north. So what makes Ningyocho special is where it's located—it's right near Nihonbashi. It's not that far from Tokyo Station. Okay? So that's what makes this really special, this town. And the rent is not cheap. But the problem with Ningyo—that's a massive Daiso (100 yen shop). What? That's the biggest one I've seen in a while. But what makes it hard is that a lot of the buildings are really old. So it's hard to find—the price of the accommodations doesn't match what you get. You know, you're getting a really old place with slow internet. Things look old—everything is made for shorter people. The problem with the older apartments in Japan is that it was made for people that were 5'6" or 160 centimeters or something. I'm 180 and my back hurts even now with the apartment because the sink is too low. It's true. These little things—the toilet seat is a little bit too low. I wish it was maybe 5 centimeters higher. For Westerners, it can eat—it's not bad for the first couple of months, but after years it starts to eat away at you. Your back starts to hurt—you got to lean over a little bit more. So the newer apartments in Japan—Japanese have grown a lot over the last generation and a half. And you'll find that the countertops from the 1950s and the 1970s and the 1990s, they keep getting higher and higher.

00:34:40 John Daub: Yeah, Ranjit, ideal height for me—you'll be fine. You'll be able to find clothes in your size as well, because I have trouble finding clothes in my size. Peter von Gomm and I just got rain jackets—rain gear. I'm looking at their—they have a new peach drink. They had a melon drink and now a peach drink over there. I'm looking at that Starbucks—maybe I'll pass. But the rain jacket that I bought is 2XL size, and it was made for people 175 to 185 centimeters. And I'm 180, so it's like—I'm 2XL? In the US, I'm medium. I don't know—where do they get these sizes from? Alright, let's cross the street and wrap around. Actually, let's not—I think if we're getting close to 3PM, maybe the clock is going to be striking in 10 minutes. So why don't I just take you back this way towards the clock, and then we can see if we can end this with a nice chime or two. Peter von Gomm was in the next week. Because, you know, I guess if we can get to a certain total, our stretch goal is going to be way awesomer. But we're not going to announce that until we start to ride in 9 days from now, which is crazy.

00:36:26 John Daub: Let's see what we can find on the way back here. So, okay. Yeah, you know what? Anybody who is living in Tokyo—I need my—so I had a second cameraman for tomorrow's shoot. I'm going to Tokyo Skytree, and I need—check this out, look at the side of the taxi. That's the most delicious looking taxi. Hey guys, I think we're in a bad area here—let me just move up to the corner. I'm sorry. Sorry. The mask doesn't have any real purpose—just makes people feel comfortable. Alright, cameraman, he got sick—he lives in Yokohama. I can't get the equipment that he was going to use. So I'm looking for somebody who will be able to film me outside the Tokyo Skytree tomorrow between 8:30 in the morning and 9:30 in the morning. If anybody—I call this the Hail Mary approach. So tomorrow morning we're doing something special and I'll be outside on the very top of the Skytree, 458 meters up. I'll post a picture on Instagram tonight. But I'll be up on the very top of the Tokyo Skytree and you'll be able to see me. And I'm hoping that somebody would be able to film me with a really long lens so I could use this footage for the main channel episode. But the person that was going to do this won't be able to make it tomorrow. And just suddenly—I can understand that it's probably COVID and we don't want him to come. So if somebody could come, that would be really cool. Best way—go on Instagram, Only in Japan TV. Send me a message on Instagram messages. I'll check, as well as OnlyinJapan.TV—there's a web form on there, and you can send me an email.

00:39:02 John Daub: I'm on mute? Mute? Really? Can you hear me? Lee can hear me. So here's the deal—I tried to rent the lens this morning, but they want the reservation 24 hours in advance. And since I'm not a member of the rental—they're like so old school. They won't rent me the lens. There's a place in Shimbashi that's not too far away from where I live—they won't rent me any of the lenses. It's about $50 for a long lens rental. I have a 175mm lens that potentially could be used for micro four-thirds. But we're going to have—I'm going to have to get the camera gear with us on the Skytree. I already have a primary cameraman who I've worked with NHK—he's filming me up on the top. And then I need a second person down on the ground. Dusty, turn up your volume. I don't know—somebody knock on Dusty Gold's door and tell him that your audio is low. So if you can do it, I really would appreciate it if you're living in Tokyo. I've gotten a bunch of emails over the years before COVID where people had said that I would love to help you out if you ever needed a cameraman. Hey, now's the time. If anyone's around—you probably will need a long lens, full frame equivalent like 300mm or more. And I'll give you a general idea of where you'll be able to shoot and see me up there. It's going to be pretty cool. There's an event that's taking place that happens only once a year, and I'm literally outside the highest observation deck at 458 meters. I was there last week, but they canceled it because of the rain. But the next day I had to move this to the 20th. It was kind of a big hassle. But anybody who can help, I would love it.

00:41:24 John Daub: All right, now that that's done, guess what? We have a surprise—this clock is lit up, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, this is going to be awesome. We're two minutes away. Oh, it's already starting. Oh! I can't hear any music. See, it's lit up there all around—that's awesome. But I can't hear anything. So there's scenes from the Edo period that pop out on the hour. There's a samurai. This is one of the famous things with this area of Tokyo, Ningyocho, this clock here. So if you Google Ningyocho, you'll find the clock. I guess—and there it is, it's over. Oh, he's gone. Lights are out. All right, mental note—it starts before the hour, not on the hour. Good things to know. You were here to learn it, so you won't make that same mistake. The story of the mechanical clock is here. Yeah. Oh, it does say here—it begins, it lasts approximately two minutes. It says every hour on the hour, but it seems to have started early. What's up with that?

00:43:39 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks so much for joining me on this 45-minute adventure around Ningyocho. I completed the mission—I got the tonyu donuts and the amazake for Kanae Daub, and I get to bring the goodies home. So let me know what you think of this town. Let me know what you think of this town. If you have any questions about the Kickstarter project, we have a Discord community where I'm sharing with you the updates. Dakota just showed us an update of the postcard, which is incredible. We're on motorcycles going around a curve, and there's an oni (demon) chasing us. And the sky is sunset, and there's some cows because that's Hokkaido. It's a pretty amazing design. I published this in the Discord community for the Hokkaido motorcycle project. It's free to join the Discord—I think we have about 15,000 members there exchanging information about Japan. So it's a useful place, and again, it's absolutely free—it's just coolness. The sushi shop looks good. All right, I'm back on my bike—where's my bike? We have free parking here—this is great. At least I can take it to my bike. Get a slice of life walking in this direction—it's pretty nice. Oh, there's my bicycle.

00:45:42 John Daub: I'm so happy they still have these pay phones—I don't know why, I'm just happy that they have the pay phones. There you go. Oh, look at this yakitori (grilled chicken skewer) place—they just put the yakitori on the streets. There's a baby octopus underneath there. What? Are these cooked? They look real enough to eat—you can smell it. This is Suwa Tengumai—it's the shrine that we came to pray when Leo was born or being born. And they blessed her—this is before he was born, I think. And they gave us a—oh, no, I haven't drunk yet. There it is right there—that's Suwa Tengumai. It's a beautiful shrine—something else if you want to stop in and take a look around there. It's a really nice place. How do you get here? It's on the Hibiya Line, Ningyocho. And if you're coming from Narita Airport or Haneda Airport, you can take the bus—it drops you off right there. There's several hotels—Hakozaki. And I guess they call it the T-Cat or Tokyo. Boom. Done. Over. Thank you. Bye, everybody.