00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Tsukishima. This is Tsukishima, it means Moon Island. It's a man-made island. I don't live very far away from here and I thought that since I have to be here home alone with Leo—his mom is out—we're going to go for a walk and take you with us and share with you a little bit of this amazing street. I think it is pretty amazing. I've taken you in other live streams down some of the alleys here and you can see traditional Tokyo. Still very much a part of the city. Part of this neighborhood and it's only about 10 minutes walk from Ginza, which is crazy. It's about a 5-10 minute taxi ride from Tokyo Station. Great place to live.

00:00:32 John Daub: Joining me in this episode is Leo, who won't have a lot to say. How you doing Leo? Hello. He just wants to go for a ride. He's got his jeans on. He's ready for a ride. You ready Leo? You want to say hi to everybody? That's the best you're going to get when you just woke up. Another reason why this episode might be a little bit late coming. So let's go for a walk here and I'll tell you a little bit about this amazing neighborhood.

00:01:21 John Daub: Now most of the time these streets are shut down to traffic. I don't know if that's the case right now. Okay, it is. The next street over is shut down for traffic. So you just have to be a little bit careful. There's almost no cars come down this neighborhood, which is great. It makes it a very walk friendly place.

00:01:42 John Daub: This is one of my favorite melonpan (melon bread) shops too by the way. They have this yaki (grilled) melonpan right out of the oven. Do you see that right there? Oh my gosh. Alright, maybe we'll come back here and get one. You can smell it in the air. Alright Leo, let's get onto the sidewalk here. I've actually, for your benefit and mine, I'm trying this out here. This is the motorcycle harness that I set up here for cameras. I'm going to put you on here and see. Tell me if the ride is good. Nice and I'm gonna... it's a little bumpy. Let's see how the ride is and then if it's any good maybe I'll use this for my bicycle too. It's a little shaky. A little bumpy. Alright let's take her off here. There we go. Handheld is so smooth like butter.

00:02:50 John Daub: We've done a lot of changes here in this neighborhood. Check out this open-air okonomiyaki (savory pancake) place and the rain is... I think there's gonna be rain coming into Tokyo pretty soon. The wind suddenly picked up. Here Leo let's stop here for a second buddy. Let's just show the shop here. Matt's getting carsick so we better stop that here. Since the pandemic hit a lot of these businesses didn't have anybody in there so what they did was they used the time to renovate and we saw here a bunch of the shops they've just opened up the windows here and it's so nice to do that. It's so nice to do that and you can get the fresh air in there. So a lot of other shops have done this. This is a good thing.

00:03:33 John Daub: Check out this old police box. Probably from like the 1950s here. We're in the safe area now. Cars can't come into this part. Here's the time schedule for that. On the weekends it's from 3 in the afternoon to 7 p.m. and on the weekdays it's from noon until 7 p.m. So we're cool. I like that. Bicycles and pedestrians only.

00:04:17 John Daub: Now you see here, they have these triangles here. These are part of the old Showa era shotengai (covered shopping arcade) feel. Lots of monjayaki (Tokyo-style savory pancake) shops, which is Tokyo's version of okonomiyaki. Looks real bad, but tastes pretty good. But what they did was they kept these here. And if you look up, this is a brand new apartment complex, condominiums. They call them manshon (mansions/apartments) here in Japanese. And this is a beautiful building here. They put this up, I think it took a couple of years, but there was a huge debate of whether or not, how do you maintain the old feeling that this street is famous for and put in the new buildings? And they just kind of left the side shotengai looking thing here. Although when you go there, it's all like sunshine coming in there. So it's not quite the same. You can see what it looks like on this side of the street. There's these lower buildings. A lot of them are nagaya (row houses), which are these old style housing going all the way back to post World War II. A lot of them are just shacks. But since Tokyo has been changing earthquake proofing and upping the criteria for buildings, a lot of them are getting torn down, which is a shame. So it's another reason if you do come to Japan in the next couple of months, hint hint, you might want to just walk around this area because it is pretty nice to...

00:05:46 John Daub: Thanks for watching the movie and taking a break and joining me for a stream here in Tokyo. Here's what one of the alleys looks like in Tsukishima. This is Daiei, the supermarket. It's open 24 hours a day. I never come here for the supermarket, so I can't confirm that. But they got a lot of good stuff in there. So maybe I'll take you off road. Leo just likes going for a ride. And maybe we'll pan around and go back for that melonpan. What do you think here? Hey, Bandani is in the house. Yes. I'm going to start driving. All right, we got the melonpan sorted. All right, we'll circle around and go get one of those. You have to go around the towels there. Do you see what I mean when I say that this neighborhood has a really old school feel to it? 10 minutes walk from Ginza, about 10 minutes from Tsukiji Market, the old Tsukiji Market. And this is an old man-made island. There's something really amazing about Tokyo.

00:07:06 John Daub: The old part of Tokyo that I think, you know, everybody wants to go to Shibuya, Shinjuku, these glitzy parts, Roppongi. I love it here. Look at these really small alleys, row houses, lots of character. You can smell it. It smells old. Historical, I guess you could say. And, you know, if you look up, you have the telephone poles and other... It gets worse here on the corner. These are also part of the identity of old Tokyo. Now, because it's an earthquake-prone country, you can't exactly... Well, for the longest time, they couldn't bury it. But recently, you're starting to see more and more telephone wires being buried. And it beautifies the area greatly when you put the wires under the ground. But there's also a part of me that kind of likes the chaos above. It's just so Tokyo, right? I don't know. All this mix and match of wires to do something. I'm not even sure what.

00:08:40 John Daub: Leo, you hungry for a melonpan? Let's go around this way here. That old barber shop. This is a new house. You can tell because it's too nice. Yeah. Look at the pigeon in the road, Leo. Pigeons are... These are our friends protecting us from crows. You can see a lot of celebrities have been at this monjayaki shop. The monjayaki. If you've ever had monjayaki before and you're watching this, can you, in the chat, describe to me what is monjayaki? That's a very famous comedian. What exactly is monjayaki? Can anybody explain it to me?

00:09:51 John Daub: Oh, is this the Mon Yoshi [?]? I've eaten here a couple of times before. So, monjayaki, you can see they're eating at a teppanyaki (iron griddle) table there on the left side. So, these teppanyaki tables, they're also... You would have it cooked in front of you. And I can stop here. Leo, hold on a second, buddy. So, monjayaki, they have these tables here. And you can cook, like, right there. You sit down. See how they've made it all open air? It's really amazing to see this because it was always in these, like, small, tight shops. But nobody wanted to sit in there. So, they changed the style of it to make it like this. It's also a lot cleaner and nicer because it did remind me of, like, cockroach traps sometimes. Which isn't so popular in the city of Tokyo.

00:10:42 John Daub: But monjayaki is essentially okonomiyaki. But it's watery. It's, like, not finished. I don't know how to describe it. But they put all the same toppings that you have for okonomiyaki. And then it's, like, watery on the bottom. And you would grill up all of the stuff, the vegetables that came with it. You'd make this wall around it on top of the teppanyaki grill. And then in the center of it, you'd put the watery batter. And it would start to bubble. And then you would mix it all together to make this, like, melted cheese-like batter thing that you would scrape off of the grill and eat like that. So, it's a scrape the crud off the grill and eat it. It's a food made for kids. And it's so much fun. It feels like it was made for kids. But it's Tokyo's version of okonomiyaki. Monjayaki was born here. Where okonomiyaki was born down in the Kansai region and down in Hiroshima. There's also two different varieties that are quite famous for okonomiyaki. Monjayaki is distinctively Tokyo. And it's weird. At first, when I ate it, I was grossed out by it. But eventually, it grew on me. Because when you start looking at the way it does, the only place it could go is up. Same with natto (fermented soybeans). It's so gross when you first try it. Over time, you will learn to love it. True story.

00:12:16 John Daub: Alright, let's go see if we can get a melonpan. How you doing, Leo? He's enjoying the ride. Alright, I can get the melonpan now. I think it's 200 yen for each one of these. So, I'm going to get one and share it with Leo. Because I think he's going to like it. I think he's going to like this. So, let's go get it. Leo, you can eat the melonpan, okay? Okay. Alright. Menonpan has been purchased. Are you ready, buddy? Remember this? We had this the other day. Melonpan. Oh, wow. The question is, is this melonpan or meronpan (melon bread)? Because I've learned that meron is kind of smooth skin, the honeydews. You can smell it, can't you? Ready? Don't tell Kanae Daub I gave him melonpan, okay? I don't know. Is he going to get angry, maybe? I'm ruining his appetite. Do you like it? Is it good? I see. No comment. She could watch it, but I don't know. Does she really watch these videos? I don't think so. Good? No, Tig, he's just really tired. He just woke up. We should see him in the videos. He's running around crazy. Acting like Blippi, some guy on the TV. This adult guy who never grew up. I think Leo likes Blippi more than me. I'm going to have to do Blippi videos. Leo, who do you like, Dada or Blippi? Dada or Blippi? He's probably wondering who Daddy is talking to in the camera. No, we do FaceTime all the time, so he's tired. No comment is needed. He's just hungry.

00:16:50 John Daub: Leo, they have ice cream. Leo, they have ice cream, too. Let's go, buddy. You know what? It doesn't work too good. The stroller cam is not so good. I've got to find a way to balance it out. I've got a drink for him. It's called water and mugicha (barley tea). Leo likes to drink mugicha. That's a barley tea we both do in the summer. Let's see what we can do. Let's see if we can find a vending machine. Leo, shall we go through here? Leo also has been sick and he had a fever. It wasn't COVID. Kanae Daub also had a fever. It wasn't COVID. I was feeling sick for about two hours. I thought it was something coming on and then nothing came. Maybe all of the zinc and vitamin D3 pills and vitamin C I'm taking are actually doing something. But Leo... Leo goes to hoikuen (nursery school) and that's a preschool, a nursery school, I guess you could say. Something equivalent to that. And kids get stuff all the time, which is because they build up their immune system. But in this era, it's maybe not so good if he comes down with COVID. But he really can't help it anymore. But he's taking off. He took the day off from hoikuen. And that meant that I have to take care of Leo for a little bit.

00:19:07 John Daub: This is the lower side. It's kind of older. This looks like an old sake brewery. Look at that wooden door. Very cool. It's quiet. Alley 2. I like the political posters. They just kind of add the touch. Sugoi (amazing). I wouldn't call this a melonpan area. This is more or less Tsukishima, which is Monjayaki Town. And this is the back alley of it. I've never seen this. I don't remember seeing this restaurant. It's a chicken restaurant called Chicken Country. Cool. Leo loves talking to himself. I'm serious. He loves singing to himself and he makes up songs and stuff. Look at this. This guy's driving a truck and he's got a bakery inside of it. Let's walk by it. That's pretty cool. Check it out. So this bakery truck, it's got all sorts of nice, good stuff in there. I'm almost regretting getting the melonpan.

00:21:18 John Daub: Oh, I felt the rain coming. I'm gonna drop. Uh-oh. Leo, rain's coming. Run, Leo. The rain is coming. Look. Wow, Leo, how are we gonna get home? J Jersey Girl. Enter... Good entertainment for my graveyard... For my graveyard shift in Utah. Hey. This stinks. Okay. Yeah, you know, it looks like it's not that cloudy over there. Oh, this is the melonpan shop. The one we went to is so much better, though. It's local. All right, buddy. We're gonna have to wait a minute. Unless you think we're gonna be able to get to the melonpan shop. I think we can make a break for it. Leo, you think we can do it? Or should we wait it out? Touch? Yeah. I don't know. Just gonna have to wait it out.

00:23:00 John Daub: The great thing about the shotengai... All right, it's already starting. It's already stopping. One of the great things about the shotengai, these kind of covered shopping streets, is that they have covered shopping streets. Like, they got a place where you can stay dry. Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that there are a lot of these mom and pop shops, right? This one's called Akachanya. But it's not for kids. It's for, like, older ladies. But a lot of these shops are selling out. And what's coming in are shops like this one, like a really trendy cafe that serves up these, you know, chocolate confections that are so nice. I've got to come here and we get to do a street food episode or something here. Because two years ago, these kinds of places didn't exist. And now they're all over Tsukishima. This is a really trendy bakery. This is ice candy? What? From Ibaraki melons. This is a Japanese bread special bakery shop. You can see it's quite pricey, but the bread is quite good here. Can I get some stuff for Leo every now and then? For here? She likes to get him good stuff. Can't argue with that. But when I was growing up, we had Wonder Bread. Loaves and plastic wrap. There's a coffee shop where you can buy it by 100 grams. It smells pretty good. Different kinds of beans from all over the world. I like to get the coffee from these kinds of shops, too. I have a point card for this place. Look at this. This small yakitori (grilled chicken skewer) place. There's some liver. Alright, Leo. I think the rain is done. We are good. Yeah. Yeah, you can smell yakitori. That's nice. So you have a bakery next to a chocolateria. Next to a yakitori restaurant. Next to a monjayaki restaurant. Next to a melonpan shop. And then these buildings here just closed recently. I guess they're doing some sort of renovation work. Possibly because of the earthquake proofing required. And there's the Monja Association.

00:25:56 John Daub: If you ever come here... Can I tell you something? Okay. I'm afraid to give you local inside information. What is the best monjayaki shop to go to? Alright. First off, if you're just arriving here, you're probably going to get here from exit... I think it's exit number 7 from the Yurakucho line and the Oedo line. So you get out of exit 7 and right over here is the Monja Association. And they have information on all of the shops. I think there's like 40 or 50 of them in this area. And then you can pick which one is best for you. With that said, I can tell you this pretty much definitively. Everything on this street, almost everything is so touristy. I've never had a decent monjayaki on the street. And the staff, not often Japanese. Which is not a problem. But, I don't know. When you get mediocre monjayaki or okonomiyaki... And, you know... Foreigners running it. I guess as a foreigner myself, you kind of get... Maybe they don't get it. Because I've eaten a lot of monjayaki and okonomiyaki in my life. So the best places are the ones that are off the main street, around the main street. Isn't it always the case though? I guess it's like you would never buy pizza on Times Square. In fact, you probably would never buy pizza around Times Square. But, maybe you would about 30 years ago. I don't know. So the monjayaki places on this street... The Mon Yoshi is pretty good. That's not on the main street. You saw it's in one of the alleys. And, I'm going to stop here for a second. It's in one of the alleys. This is the entrance to Monja... There was thunder!

00:28:00 John Daub: I think it's time to go home, buddy. We gotta go home. He's so serious. Alright, we gotta go home. The thunder and the lightning. I think it's gonna rain again. You gotta go off of the main street to get to really good monjayaki places. A car! Yeah, that's a car. Good job! He wants to see buses. And, he's impressed with garbage trucks, buses, and any kind of truck. Mostly buses right now. And trains. Taxi. Police car. I've been teaching him all these... All the... Yeah, transportations. So, I don't think he's impressed because there weren't that many cars there. He wants to see tractors. And deer. Do you know deer? What? Deer. Because we saw them when we were back home in the US. Lots of deer. He wants to see that, but we don't see it here in Tokyo. Truck! Truck! That's what I do all day. No bulldozers here. Yeah. But, all in all, you know, I think if you're in... A John Deere would be pretty cool to see. But, you don't see those in this area very often.

00:29:29 John Daub: I think if you come to Tokyo and you're looking for a place to go with local food, alright, you're probably going to find like izakaya (pubs) and things like this and Shibuya and Shinjuku and all these other places that you all want to go to. And, if you're visiting Tokyo, it's hard not to... It's hard to not want to go to those amazing places too. But, if you're looking for like a down to earth Tokyo eating experience... Bus? Bus? No, that's a SUV. Car. It's a car. Car. Car. You probably want to come to a place like Tsukishima because all of the restaurants here... Now, the ones on the main street might not be that good, but they all offer a pretty good experience. And, cooking your own teppanyaki, that's what this place is known for. So, I would come here for okonomiyaki to get like a really down to earth experience of eating in Tokyo. That's here in Tsukishima, I think. It's a pretty good place to live around here. I think it's a pretty good place to live around too.

00:30:27 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching. Leo and I are going to go back and watch more Blippi. Leo, can I not watch Blippi? Can we watch something else? No Blippi. Please? I'm jealous. You like Blippi more than me. Please? You know, I'll even watch the fire truck song. Don't Google it. Or the Humpty Dumpty with the creepy Humpty Dumpty guy. Don't Google that either. The Humpty Dumpty child song. It's very, very creepy. He likes it. He likes it. And the music sticks in your mind. You can't get it out of your head. It's all... It's sickening. I couldn't sleep last night because I couldn't get that Humpty Dumpty song out of my head. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. And there's like this background music that's very... It just sticks. Is that why you like Blippi, huh? It sticks in your mind. I guess I can live with that. Blippi's good. Peppa Pig is good too. All right, Leo. Say goodbye to everybody. Bye bye. Bye bye. He's doing it. He's doing it. All right. Bye bye. And bye bye, everybody. Thanks for watching and spending a couple minutes with us. That was cool.