00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the Tokyo Skytree, or at least a very close avenue that leads straight to the Tokyo Skytree called Tower View Avenue. It's a beautiful day and you can see in front of us the Tokyo Skytree looking pretty good with that blue sky. I've been taking a time lapse up there and if you look closely, right now at 450 meters up, they're doing the window cleaning. And I came back here this morning and filmed from the very top on the outside of the window cleaning. And then I went up to the 497 meters to the top platform here to look at the lightning Rogowski coils, which I thought were a super cool experience.

00:49 John Daub: I'm going to zoom back out here. If you take a look at the camera, I'm filming it in 8K right now, you can see the gondola. Do you see that? The gondola outside there. I'm filming the last shot where they're cleaning the windows. Maybe the most frightening job in the city of Tokyo. And I'm really excited to edit this video up and put it online. I'm such an otaku for this technology stuff.

01:18 John Daub: I can't believe it, about three hours ago I was up outside with a helmet and a vest. I'm looking over the edge of it with just a cable holding onto me. I'm looking over the edge of the Skytree down to the ground. It took a long time to get access and permission to film this. And I've had my eyes on when they're going to be doing the window cleaning so I was able to get that location shoot done for the main channel. Very scary. So I've got two episodes about the Tokyo Skytree coming up.

01:48 John Daub: Earthquake safety and how it moves in case of an earthquake. How exactly would the world's tallest freestanding tower do in an earthquake that happened right underneath it? And then second, how do they clean the windows? I was like, oh, I don't know. I'm going to totally do this episode. And you can see right now, that's as far as the iPhone will film. That gondola is a pretty cool system, actually.

02:13 John Daub: The gondola is inside of the tower. And when they clean the windows out, it retracts. And what's the opposite of retract? It protrudes and then drops down the gondola. So it's kind of a very high tech thing. In this live stream, I wanted to take you up and down because if you do come to the Skytree, you can see the whole thing. And if you have a wide angle lens, all the buildings around here are two or three stories high, except for that one, which is five. But everything else is just dwarfed to the massive Skytree here.

02:48 John Daub: Yeah, I've been filming this episode since April when we got the chance to go into the basement of the Skytree to look at the coils that the entire structure is on. A bunch of coils. I think it was like five coils. So it moves with an earthquake, which is incredible. And that would be like underneath there. Peter von Gomm was my cameraman this time. And for this shoot, I had a friend that I know from NHK. He's a cameraman there, and he came to help out. But definitely, you need a pro to do this. A pro cameraman.

03:24 John Daub: Look at the gondola protruding out. And there he's going up right now. So yeah, I was up there. Which is crazy. And then I walked the steps, and I was up here. And there's a lot of things I can't show you because of, I don't know, they don't want to show the technology and stuff, maybe. So I have to mosaic some areas of it. But I wanted to show the lightning strikes, what happens. I don't know if it's counterbalanced from the top, like the Yokohama Tower, but they have a structure in the core that moves counter. So it counterbalances from the core. Instead of from the top. It's a fascinating process.

04:12 John Daub: So I'm just going to get a couple more shots here. The wind is strong here. That was another reason. Because this shoot had cancelled five days ago. I had to come back here to shoot this. Again at 8 o'clock. But I was happy because you can see we have blue skies. And when I first came, it was raining. It was kind of scary to be up there because you could slip. But you have safety vests and cables. And I was strapped. And I'll post a picture on Instagram a little bit later of me. Not freaked out. But I probably should have put the vest on and the helmet. Not that that would help if you were to go over. But there are places where you could hit your head. Having to duck underneath some of the rafters and the metal poles there. It's very easy to hit your head. So in that case, it's important to have a helmet on.

05:01 John Daub: Let me zoom in. I just want to get a couple of final shots of the gondola going up. And down here. It's a hot one today. I think it's well over 30 degrees. It feels like nothing like what you guys are experiencing in Europe and the UK. But I'm going to actually just leave my camera there. And we can walk a little bit around. Nobody's going to touch it. I'm glad I could make it today to the stream. I bet it's scary to be cleaning the windows on such a windy day. It was even scarier when it was raining five days ago. But they deemed it too dangerous. Which is probably a smart idea. And then they cancelled the window cleaning. It's okay. I don't mind coming back. But I have a lot of stuff to do. And a lot of videos that I have editing has been delayed as a result.

05:52 John Daub: So this is Tower View Avenue. And you can see it's just a straight shot. And actually beyond that intersection it keeps going straight. Peter von Gomm was here. He was filming. When I'm filming. But I'm filming at an 8K. And I can't review his footage. And since it's a beautiful day I'm taking it. They only do the window cleaning maybe twice a year. So they did it I think once in March. And then again in July. So I don't think they're going to do it again this year. So it's a really special treat to get a chance to film. A lot of the media. I was the only media there. Which is awesome. Nobody else had put in a request to film this. But getting access to film things like this. It really takes months of talking and waiting. And tons of paperwork. So I'm glad with the support of Patreon. I have an assistant that can take care of some of that stuff for me. Because this is ridiculously complicated.

07:10 John Daub: I gotta hold the camera. It's shaking. I can fix that in post production. In the editing. So they do like a wet, wet, wipe, wipe. They move the gondola down. Wet, wet, wipe, wipe. And then one more below. And then they bring it back up. And then move the whole thing over. So this is going to take several hours for them to do this. But it's just fascinating. Because in Tokyo there isn't any spot higher than this. It's 634 meters high. This observation deck is over 450 meters. So that's quite high.

07:57 John Daub: So I'm just going to wait until it comes back up. I have 21 minutes left on this SD card. Oh my gosh. I was filming at 8K 422 10-bit. That's why the battery is draining. And the camera is getting so hot. I should have done 420 8-bit. It is what it is. Oh look. Now you can see the gondola has gone underneath there. So it's cleaning the bottom of the windows. That's crazy.

08:35 John Daub: Isaac, DSLRs are done. They're all mirrorless now. So I haven't used a DSLR ever in my life. I was using camcorders and then I moved to mirrorless. The GH4 was my first mirrorless. And this is the A1. If you guys want to see it. This is the Alpha 1 that shoots in 8K. They did a firmware update that allows for 422 10-bit 8K. Which is crazy. Good luck editing it.

09:03 John Daub: Here comes the gondola now. It's going up. I don't think Spider-Man could. I think even Spider-Man. I'm really afraid up here. Nice and smooth. No wind. Alright, I like this shot here. Oh this is perfect. There's two guys on there. One controlling the gondola. And then when they stop they both clean the window. And another guy who's there to clean. So there's a gondola operator and then a cleaner. And that's a shot here. And it's a pretty cool operation that they got. It moves pretty evenly. But if you're in the Skytree when they do it. It freaks out the people. On the inside. Because we took some video of the gondola coming with the people around there. And it kind of freaks them out because the gondola comes and you're like, what? There's people outside the window. Because this is 450 meters up. And when you do get a chance to see this happening it's pretty cool.

10:12 John Daub: I think we're okay. I'm going to stop here. Review the footage. Okay. That looks pretty cool. I'm going to zoom out a little bit. And for the next couple of minutes I'm going to do a time lapse. Might as well do a 10 minute time lapse. Just let the camera run. And then I can warp stabilize it if it's too shaky.

10:51 John Daub: Here. This is my job. I came here with this kit. This is what I do. This is a tripod today. It's a small bag for live streaming. And then it's kind of a mess. There's my laptop to back stuff up. Some extra batteries. I got a bunch of lenses in here. There's the A7S III. The 10-24 wide angle. GoPro. There's another tripod here. Another mic. I'm using a wireless mic too. This is a 35mm 1.4 prime. I lost the cap to it. So I got to be really careful. And then a 135mm 1.8 prime. G Master. It's a pretty cool lens. And I have a light inside of here. And I usually put the gimbal in there as well. The Ronin. And then the drone. I got a separate bag.

11:57 John Daub: Start over. Look at how fast the clouds are going. So I want to go this a little wider. There we go. Nice. Alright, so just I'm going to let it roll for a little bit. The clouds are moving pretty fast. And I bet you it shuts down because it gets hot anyways.

12:22 John Daub: Spiderman. Versus the Japanese Spiderman. I think there are already a bunch of Japanese Spidermen. One of the coolest things that I've seen with this job. Which is cleaning in the really hard to reach places. You see them with ropes. You'll see a half a dozen Japanese dudes with ropes attached underneath the bridge. And they're cleaning the bottom of the bridge swinging with ropes. This is something that I don't think. I'm not sure if other YouTubers have covered. But I've seen it on Instagram. And it's a pretty cool thing. They're using ropes to clean the bottom of the bridge. And it's really cool to see. They do things the old traditional way. In a lot of these professions. And this is kind of one of them. If they didn't have the gondola. I wonder how they would have cleaned this. It would have been pretty cool I bet. But they have the gondola so they don't have to do Spiderman stuff.

13:09 John Daub: I don't know if any international people have climbed the Skytree without the cables and stuff. But I wouldn't do it. They're pretty strict. Probably somebody did it. There's always somebody who did it. That's a nice shot. So we're going to have a pretty good time lapse. The clouds are moving fairly quickly. Five minutes will give me about ten seconds I think. So let her run. And I think I can bring out the shadows in post production. But still keep the clouds moving fast. Oh wow it's moving fast. Lucky. It's been raining like every day. So just to be out here in the sun. I'm just ecstatic. Because I didn't think we'd have this chance here today.

13:55 John Daub: What do you think guys? Is this Skytree a place that you visited before? Is this a place maybe you'd consider coming to? It's primary purpose is not a merry-go-round. Thank you for being a traveler for 17 months. Michael Sassano. Such a nice day compared to the livestream yesterday. Exactly. It's been such an awful week. We lucked out that the 20th was a nice day. Because there's a very good chance if it had rained today. And it didn't look that great this morning. Gosh what would I have done? I would have to come back again. And we're leaving in 8 days.

14:32 John Daub: Has any of you guys already backed the Kickstarter project? We're leaving in 8 days. Which is crazy. So I'm happy that this episode is all filmed. Which is really good. As soon as I get this last shot here. It's all filmed I can start editing it. And I probably won't get it out until September. Because I got so many other things to edit. Gosh I can't catch my breath. Things are moving fast. Like this. This is awesome. I gotta keep it moving.

15:01 John Daub: I'm in the trunk. Chan please. It's so hot outside. I know in Australia it's not as hot in the trunk there. But if you are in Europe for some reason. Just drill a hole or something. And maybe. I can't imagine. Michael thank you for backing the Kickstarter. But it's been a while Chan. It's nice to see you. The video quality is quite clear today. It's getting better. I updated the YouTube app. I've given them my concerns. And told them please. You can see today they're cleaning the window. On the upper deck. I was on the outside above all of that. Leaning over. And looking. So that was my main focus for today. The window cleaning. And filming the dudes who were cleaning it. Nice guys. Hard working dudes. Honestly I don't know how they do it. You have to have some balls of steel. To do that job.

16:04 John Daub: Because I had a cable on it. I could look over it. But standing on it all day. Going up and down. If there was an earthquake. I don't think it would move that much. I'll show you in the video. Very interesting.

16:24 John Daub: I just wanted to show you this avenue. And make sure you mark this on the map here. If you come into Tokyo. And you want to see the Skytree. Get the best picture. You're going to want to do it here. If you have a super wide. Maybe go back about another 300 meters. You can get more into the camera. But this might be the best place. To take the Skytree video. If you want to get the whole thing. Because the street is so straight. You get one of the clearest views. That's why they call it Tower View. The wind is really strong. On the microphone. The dead cat is on the mic. It's just that windy. If I turn my back it's better.

17:23 John Daub: Alright everybody. I'm going to go home and start to edit this. But I wanted to share this day with you. Because when you see the main channel episode. And the window cleaning takes place twice a year. If you're lucky enough to catch it. The Skytree is extra special. With the ninjas outside on the gondola. Super cool. Have a good day. Thanks guys for watching. And I'll see you tomorrow. The Kuwae Burger looks pretty good there. I might get a burger. Thanks guys.