00:00:02 John Daub: Hello and welcome to Akihabara. We are at this station for a reason. Not only does it have a lot of vending machines, it has a lot of gachapon (capsule toy) machines. Akihabara is one of my favorite places just to hang out and walk around. It's also a place where a lot of things have changed over the years. How you doing everybody? In this episode I'm going to take you around Akihabara not just looking for businesses that have gone out of business, but we're going to attack some of the gachapon capsule toy machines because I'm looking for stuff for my son Leo. They kind of bring him a little bit of cheer and if I buy a bunch of them and space them out over the course of a couple of weeks, perhaps he'll go to bed a little bit earlier.

00:00:44 John Daub: I don't know, but we're gonna have some fun today and I already see some capsule toys right here. I'll be walking around the city. The signal might go in and out. This is a live stream. Feel free to jump in and out anytime you feel like it. Let's see what they got before we start spending our hard-earned cash. This is from NewDays, which is a JR Japan Rail-run convenience store. Oh this is kind of cool. They got souvenirs from the city of Tokyo. There's Tokyo Tower, Astro Boy, some other stuff. Yeah, you know what? I'm not looking for this. Yeah, let's just move ahead.

00:01:22 John Daub: Cool shot of the Tohoku Shinkansen cruising by. Look at that. Whoa! Train's going right underneath us. Oh, that's when they're kissing! Do you see it? Oh awesome! Look at that. Gosh, I wish I was on the shinkansen heading north right now. It's kind of a warm day here in Tokyo. Let's get out of here. We're going to, let me see, get the right exit here. Showadori. I don't want to go that way. I'm lost. I almost never come in this direction. I got an idea. Let's just go back to the platform and I think we can get out via the Yamanote line. Yeah, let's go out via the Yamanote line.

00:02:17 John Daub: Aloha, Brandania. Nice to see everybody here. This is pretty exciting. Now, just a little bit of an update. Tomorrow, I will be doing another Japan travel update. I don't wanna become that guy who just does travel updates. That's not what this channel's about. I can't wait to see you all here, but I wanna do other stuff, and one of them is to take you around Japan. So don't forget to subscribe so I can do that. But yesterday, the government did update its website, so we do have a lot of the criteria now that's required for you to come to Japan. It's all listed in black and white on the link that I provided in yesterday's travel update, and I'll go over this again tomorrow.

00:03:03 John Daub: All right, let's look for the entrance here. Gosh, I love riding the trains in Tokyo. Yeah, this gate. Smells like Akihabara, which is usually body odor of otakus, all in a group going to their idol shows. A lot of those places are out of business, and no, I'm not an idol otaku, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, we're gonna swing out the gate here. I came out of a weird direction. That's Showa Avenue and the central gate, so let's go this way. Boom, in the right direction.

00:04:11 John Daub: Everywhere you go in Akihabara, there are gachapon machines, and I would not be surprised if there were some more right inside the station. The idea behind the gachapon is simple. They want you to get rid of your pocket change, and if you don't have any, you have to make change. I think I've got enough for a couple of them. Depending on the price, gachapon usually start at around 200 yen, but really, 300 to 500 yen are the good stuff here. I rarely spend less than 300 yen, because then it's just like a waste of time. If you just pay another 100 yen, you get something so much better. But you'll find that all over the city, including the airports.

00:05:02 John Daub: Whoa, it's true, look at that. They changed the Sega to Gigo. Do you see that? That's just weird. It's like, this is the very famous Sega across the street. I'm not digging it. Gigo, it just sounds so geeky. I shouldn't prejudge, but I don't know. It's still that iconic red. I'm kind of glad they kept that. Erwin, you already, how do you know how this livestream is gonna end? How did you predict that? That's crazy. WRX Turbo is in the house.

00:05:38 John Daub: This street has changed quite a bit. A couple of new stores have opened up and changed hands, and this building, I believe, is new. It was unoccupied for a couple of years, and now there is somebody in there. That's kind of good news. Bitto Akihabara, that's a new building. These are still here, and I don't know for how much longer. These electronic shops, I do know that there was a lot of talk on shutting this area down, but I don't know how you could do that because it is such a big part of the history. You find all sorts of stuff here. These siren lights. I thought when I first came here in 1998, this is the coolest place in the world. You're just attracted to all the lights and the cool gadgets and stuff. I don't know how you can get rid of that, though. Yeah, it's like police sirens and stuff. Wouldn't you want that in your house? Awesome.

00:06:34 John Daub: All right, we're here for gachapon, so let's go take a look at a couple of shops here. So the best gachapons that I have been going to were in front of the big camera, which used to be Sofmap. That's right around here, but let's take a look right across here. Look at this. You have four or five of them. You never know what you're going to find, so it's worth just having a quick look-see here. What is that? That looks like a kabuki mask. No, I'm not digging these. All right, that was easy.

00:07:24 John Daub: Just weird seeing that Gigo. Let's put it this way, okay? They've kind of cleaned it up a little bit, and it's still here, and it's still a game center, so there's a lot of pluses. It's just not Sega, and it just feels weird. But everything feels weird at first, doesn't it? All right, look for any gachapon machines here. We're going on the attack. And I'm going to make this a series. Maybe once a month I'll be coming here, because I no longer... Oh, here we go. No. That's what Leo says when I'm going through the channels on the TV. He's like, no, no, no, no. Even if it's a yes, he just says no now.

00:08:08 John Daub: This is weird, like spicy ramen. I'm not really into it. I'm not digging it. But this I might. Look at this. One of these glitter trucks. You know these trucks that go around Tokyo blasting music? That's pretty neat. But it's not 500 yen neat. I'm not sure. All right, now... Oh. I don't think it's a dekopon. Dekotoras are actually like real trucks. They're not like just... They're just really lit up. It's one of the coolest parts of Japan, dekopon (decorated trucks).

00:08:53 John Daub: All right, when we cross the street here, we're going to get to probably the largest, most famous bank of them outside of the Akihabara Gachapon Kaikan, which is... We'll make a quick look-see over there. Yeah, what I was saying is I'm going to... Oh, I had a drink here with Patrick Galbraith about five years ago. Weird. It's like this came back to me. I'll make this a series, and I'm going to be checking out gachapon machines around Akihabara maybe once a month because I don't want to come here looking at businesses that went out of business. It's kind of too sad. So I'll come here looking for that, but I'm going to be focusing on those across the street, and they're just kind of neat, and I'll spend as much as I have to to get what I need to get, which is going to be, I don't know, whatever's in my pocket. This is my AirPods Pro pocket. I guess I could trade these in. Ugh, Apple.

00:09:59 John Daub: All right, looking back here at the street, there's the iconic facades of those Akihabara buildings, the red ones being those game centers from Sega. Now they are Gigo. Still kind of cool. Yeah, I am looking for doorbells in particular. I've got three of them now, but two of them have lost their battery, and one of them I made a mistake. It's a doorbell dash. It's a doorbell that looks like the doorbells that we get, but it doesn't play music. It's a car. So you push the button to unlock it, and then the wheel brings click into action, and it just takes off. Ding dong. You get it. It's kind of geeky. So at first I was disappointed. It doesn't ring. And then I found that a doorbell with four wheels, like a Matchbox car, when you pull it back, it can roll and goes. It's kind of cool. Leo doesn't quite like it as much as the one that makes a sound like a doorbell. It's like somebody's come to the door every time he rings it.

00:11:01 John Daub: Well, we'll see what they got. You just never know. The fun thing about this is that they're changing so often. The series, new series come, and old series go to your disappointment. And knowing that, it's also a reason for you to hurry up and try to get all of the ones for the series that you want. We're going to start at the end and work our way to the front. This is a massive panel of gachapon machines. It is beautiful. Oh, look at it. All the latest stuff is here. These are kind of neat. These are like ekiben (train bento boxes), but the ones we had for our Kickstarter are better. Better quality. So I don't think I need to get an ekiben. I have my own ekiben. Only in Japan, ekiben.

00:11:50 John Daub: Well, this is funny. String cheese. But it's a necklace. Wow! These are awesome candies, but they've made like jewelry out of them. Some more. The collaborations with brands that you know are always kind of fun. Some Japanese comedian. It kind of makes me feel bad. Hey, look at this. This cat will hold your pen or pencil. It's in a position so it stands on your desk and you can put your pencil on the top and it holds your writing utensil. That's cool. Whoa. All right. That's on my list. It's 300 yen. See, Leo won't care about that, so I'm not sure. But it's on my list. I always do a walkthrough before I get it.

00:12:42 John Daub: Colorful stuff. Menma crab turtles. I like that idea. Some things are just... I don't understand Japanese culture as well as I think I should. I don't think Japanese understand Japanese culture, though. Some of the stuff is just weird. These are cool for model homes and stuff. I notice that more and more people are building these little model homes when the pandemic hit. So you see little lanterns, takoyaki maker. They're like this big. Those are kind of cool. What is this? Mochiri hamster. What? Is it real? I got to get one of these now. That's just weird. I think Leo would like this. Mochiri is like mochi mochi, kind of like a gooey hamster.

00:13:54 John Daub: Or is it a real hamster and this is just cruelty? Has anyone ever, as a kid, your parents flushed the hamster down the toilet? Or the parakeet? Well, why do that when you can flush the toilet? And you put it in a gachapon capsule. I feel like this is not good. Oh, that's so sad. Oh my gosh. Oh, that's just wrong. I feel wrong. What do you think? Let's help him out here. He's got to breathe. All right. Let's get this here. This is peda has entered the chat. All right. Let's just open this up here. I feel... You know, it's like a bag. Yeah. I got this. It's soft. It's like a little pillow. It's got little feet. It's cute. Will Leo like it? Maybe. But I don't want him chewing on this stuff. It feels good to smush it. But I feel every time I smush him, what happens if my fingers are so used to smushing this hamster when I get a real hamster? They might just go by muscle memory. I think it's wrong. I should send this to Kevin Riley, my buddy at Kuma's Kitchen. He's got a guinea pig.

00:16:09 John Daub: The packaging's funny. Okay, so we're going to keep this one and we're going to see which one Leo actually likes the most or the least. And I guess I'll show you on Instagram stories or Facebook stories. Okay, let's see what else I got here. This is interesting. It's like a mini karaoke machine. So because it's like see-through, sometimes you can see a little bit into what they look like. I'm not into that one. Give it a name. I'll let you guys give it a name. What should I call it? Dead? I don't know. Here dead, here dead. It's wrong. That's so wrong. Oh, this is, Leo won't like this, but maybe you will. These are animals peeing at urinals. It's funny because some of them are so big you can't see anything, like the polar bear or shirokuma. And then there's like the badger and the mouse and the raccoon. This is funny, right?

00:17:13 John Daub: These are 400 yen and I have a couple of these actually, the gorilla one and the pig, I think. But, you know, I just never get... Whoa. Leo would like this. Look at these. Oh my gosh. Look at the black bulldozer. Whoa. All right, this is high on my list. What do we got? Dinosaurs with those things that the dogs have around them so they can't bite you. That's actually a pretty good idea. Why didn't they think of this for Jurassic Park? If a velociraptor has one of these, they can't actually bite you, right? Oh, this is kind of cool. These are things for like... Play rail, which is a rail system we got. Oh, check this out here. These are these little pirate game catcher things. Leo's a little bit too small for that, but I could see getting one of these and having some drinking games going on. And the great thing is it's so small, the game's over in like 20 seconds. So there's benefits to that.

00:18:25 John Daub: Oh, these are the Japanese gyaru. Miniature virtual reality 1/12th scale. I don't know why you'd want that. Here's a cute dog that brings you your toast. See, Leo's a little bit too young for that. He wants bulldozers and cars and buses and doorbells and stuff. The kakigori (shaved ice) monster looks cool. No. Do these actually float? I don't know if they float. No, no. These are all like cutesy stuff. If you don't know this anime or manga, you don't really buy it, you know. You have to be a super fan to put down 500 yen on a flat piece of plastic. Oh, this Doraemon was good. And Ellis, if you're watching, I don't know if you are, Leo called Doraemon Anpanman, which is very odd. I don't know. I didn't have the heart to correct him.

00:19:45 John Daub: Oh, check this out. Are these stretchy guys? I think this is just hard plastic. If it was stretchy guys, I would get it. It's like Kinnikuman. Kinnikuman is Muscle Man. Ninikuman would be Garlic Man. If you could stretch it, it would be a good thing. If you could scratch them, I would get it. But it looks like it's made out of hard plastic because it's 200 yen. All right, let's go to the next one because there's just so many of them. There's no reason to compromise. I know what I want.

00:20:22 John Daub: Well, that's a tough job when you're the one foreigner in the group. His name is Nuwara. Cool. Yeah, I'm not kind of happy with the hamster. I thought it would be a little more detailed. All right, hang a right and we got an entire new bank of gachapon machines. This is crazy. So this building, I believe, has been renewed. This whole street looks too clean for Akihabara. Usually, it's supposed to be a little grimy. It's too clean. What is this? Oh my God. This is pretty cool. This is Japanese highway street signs. Oh, this is cool for me. I don't care if I give them to Leo. I want that guy. They have these actual robot dudes on the highway and they wave the flag. So the robot flag wavers, right? That's so awesome.

00:21:31 John Daub: All right, that's 200 yen. So I'm guessing they're just going to be the signs. I think... Yeah, I don't see any of the robot. Let me kind of look inside and cheat a little bit. Oh, these are cool. Sunny truck. So these are called sunny trucks, like truck cars. Aren't these like El Caminos or something? I forget what they're called in the US, but they call them sunny trucks in Japan. The Beatles. Oh, there's another pencil holder. So this seems to be in style. Whoa, a mini vending machine. I don't know. So many. Hey, for those that like Gusto, the family restaurant, you have your pick right here. Half the menu is on there. Hey, Eagle Eye Tony. Thank you. I'm putting that into a gachapon.

00:22:34 John Daub: This corn pizza though is kind of creepy. I never had that until I came to Japan. Oh, there's more weird hamsters. These look a lot better than the one that I had. Should I keep going with the hamster theme? That hamster looks a lot cuter. Whoa, check it out. Look at these trailers for Matchbox cars or Tomica as we call them here in Japan. That's pretty cool. But over here, we have even something cooler. These are the natural gas tanks for apartment complexes. So you can create or grow your collection of natural gas tanks. It's nice. Very important if you're doing a lot of cooking. I think there might even be some gas in there. Doubt that. There's some stationery stuff, markers and rubber bands and stuff. Some Yamazaki bread. I don't know. Nothing is making me go, hey, I need this. Although, we do have these kei cars. Check it out. This is the Spacia. Suzuki Spacia. Leo does like cars. And then here's some Hiace vans. That looks pretty cool.

00:23:57 John Daub: So right now, I'm into the cars from this bank here. I got to get one, something from each one of these banks that I stop at. I'm going to try to anyways. Oh, I just saw it. Hold on. Oh, yes. Okay. That's something. Look at that. It has five different types and they have different kind of bells. They're not just the bells. All right, I got to get that. These aren't just the bells for doorbells. These are like do not enter doorbells. What? All right. Oh, and these look pretty cool too. Check it out. This would be good for a play rail because they have a train set. Yeah, ding dong. We got it. All right, you got 400 yen right here. It's about $3 with the exchange rate right now. All right, let's hope for something good, guys.

00:24:49 John Daub: What? Take my money. All right, good. All right, which one do we want? This do not enter looks pretty cool. What? Wait, what? Wait a second. I put in 400 and I got 700 yen back. Is that right? Wait, what happened here? What? Is this like some kind of gambling? All right, only one came. If I shake it, does it... Is that illegal? I think they got video cameras. Oh, my gosh. It's a scale. Damn. Sometimes you have to put it in the right position. All right, you know what? I'm thinking that fate... Oh, it took one of the 100 yen. I'm losing money now. All right, I lost some money now. All right, you know what? Okay, I think fate has said no. It's like me and Apple. They keep ripping me off and I keep going back. I'm out of here. Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough. Let's go find another one.

00:26:50 John Daub: All right, now that we know that those exist, I'm pretty sure I could find them at Gachapon Kaikan. That's weird. I put in 400. 300 came out. I pushed the button and another 400 came out. What? Then I put in more money and then it took... It was like 200 yen into that. So I guess I'm up 100. I angered somebody before then. Just wandering the streets of Akihabara. Let's see if we can find something. So there's a bank of gachapon just around here. So I'm not going to go into the gachapon machines. I'm going to stay out on the gachapon shops except for Gachapon Kaikan because I know the owner. But out on the street, we're safe. All right, nothing there.

00:28:01 John Daub: Eagle Eye Tony writes in here, I feel sorry for Japanese people when the big wave of tourists are coming. I don't feel that sorry. I think the economy is like going, please give us your US dollars. A lot of businesses have closed down. As long as the tourists don't stay here, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to stay in just in Tokyo and spread out. I think it's a pretty good thing. All right. There's some more gachapon across the street, but I think that there's some in the alley here. Oh, no, we got it right here. I'm sticking just to the street sides. I'm not going into any shops, copyright music and all that. Let's see what we can find here. I'm noticing that I'm seeing a lot of the same stuff at the first bank of gachapon machines, which bodes well for... Oh, there's a Land Cruiser. How cool is that? Toyota Land Cruisers. So, Leo might be into that. So, that's a backup. And I only had 400 yen, but thanks to the extra 100 yen that I got out of the 700 yen that came back and 200 yen I lost, I think I got enough to cover that.

00:29:22 John Daub: What? Sweet potato? That looks like the hamster, just different pattern. Oh, no, they got to have the doorbell. No. Where's the no enter doorbell? A Toyota 2000GT looks pretty sweet, though. Where's the doorbell? No. Oh, these are the tactile pavement. Do you see this here? It's for the visually impaired, people who can't see. And I guess you can get roads with tactile pavement. How cool is that? And create your own tactile pavement city. What? I guess that's good for the model world. All right, you know what? We're just going to have to keep going because I know that there's more gachapon machines. I'm not going to compromise. I know what I want.

00:30:17 John Daub: This isn't right. You're not supposed to block it. This is actually the straight to the shrine. And this is not supposed to be blocked because this is a public road, believe it or not. So I feel almost like I should complain. This is not a place to store this thing. But this here is a literal public road, which is why the shrine still exists here. So these people can get in trouble for that. How do I know that? I researched the history. And when I did the shrine video, I found out a lot of interesting things about that road. And it's grandfathered in. It's too narrow to be an official road, but it's grandfathered in as a public walkway. Unless that's changed. I don't know. I don't think they're going to take hundreds of years of history and then just say, Okay, you can put your balloon here. That's just kind of not good.

00:31:14 John Daub: All right, Carl's Jr. is still here. That bodes well for Americans. Sometimes you get tired of eating sushi and other stuff. You just want a burger. It smells like it, too. All right, here's some more gachapon down this alley. Boom. Fingers crossed. Looking for doorbells, but we might find something even killer. You never... Oh, wait, no. Okay, there's some here. Yeah. These are weird ones. No. There's a Street Fighter game there. I don't want to know what that is. Some of you might want to know. This is the shrine, the hidden shrine. There's somebody there. Let's give the shrine 500 yen, or five yen. I missed. Spiritual. They've cleaned up the hidden shrine. It's still here. It's still hidden, but there's that balloon in the way.

00:33:17 John Daub: All right, let's just go around the block here, and we're going to wrap around. Okay. I still got to get a haircut today, and I'm traveling down to Kyushu to film three episodes on the main channel on the 5th to the 11th. So I actually fly back to Tokyo on the 11th, which is the day that tourism opens. So I'm probably doing a live stream from the airport on October 11th, just to see at the international terminal what's happening at Haneda on the 11th. What has changed? That's going to be pretty interesting to see. But maybe it won't be a live stream. Maybe I'll just upload it later on, but I will be at the airport on the 11th. Hi, Wayne in Western Australia. Hey, David. Kimura's here. Feed that gachapon toy machine. You got it.

00:34:22 John Daub: All right. We're having a little trouble finding the right ones, though. We tried to feed it. Sometimes it just spit it up. It's going to be good to have people coming back to Japan. I know that a lot of other YouTuber friends that I have here have been there. Some of them have found ways to get back in here, but you have to do a little bit of paperwork and stuff. There are advantages to coming here earlier, like not a lot of people here. Oh, there's gachapon Kaikan across the street. All right. That guy's crossing the street. We like to do that. There's no cars coming. The traffic lights. Every traffic light hits at the same time, so it's really... People are always walking across the street there. I did that because there's gachapon. I'm going to go to the next gachapon Kaikan. This is the ultimate of the gachapon places here. I've filmed in here a couple of times. Actually, a few times. Very nice owner.

00:35:31 John Daub: All right. Let's see what we got here. We're looking for that doorbell here. They always have the coolest stuff. It looks like a doorbell, but it's not. Keyboards. Old arcade games. Although the Ninja Cat collection looks pretty cool. Rondania. That would be a cool outfit for your kitty. I don't see it. I know that they have it. Let's look in the front. They do have a change machine, so I can... Do you guys see anything? I don't see it. Sometimes you have to... Oh, that's kind of cool. Like a stamp or hanko (personal seal). I know that they have it here. I'm pretty sure they have just about everything that's out available at the Gachapon Kaikan. Wow. Wagyu. Oh, like all different cuts of wagyu beef. That's... I don't think Leo wants that. His mom might want that. Oh, here's the bug section. Oh, they've got to have it.

00:38:01 John Daub: I'm moving around too much. Stack of notes. I think I must have missed it. Sometimes you have to look up. These are old lockers. That's kind of cool, but it doesn't go ding dong. Oh. Oh, Leo loves Tom and Jerry. It's funny art collection. I could go into that. Yeah, Leo really likes Tom and Jerry right now. Just kind of violent. Sandwiches. I'm guessing that I missed it. All right, I don't see it. Usually it would be here. Just a chance. All right, let me take a break. I know that there might be a lag inside there. Last time I live streamed back there, it was pretty rough in the back. That's not good. I couldn't see any of the doorbells, but the Tom and Jerry looked interesting. All right, let's get one thing from here, and then maybe we'll walk back towards the station.

00:41:14 John Daub: Yeah, let's try one more thing here. I found that there were some things right at the entrance, so we don't have to go deep into it. But I'm kind of disappointed, because usually they have the good stuff right in the front here. This one's pretty interesting. Do you see this? This is the train platforms, on the trains where the seats and the holders are. That's kind of cool, right? It has different trains, different styles. I don't see the doorbell, so I'm going to have to just get what I get here, which is a mini gachapon machine. Oh, look at this. These are a miniature create your own vending machine corner. Oh, jeez. And then here are the mailboxes, but they don't make any sounds. All right, let's go for the Tom and Jerry, because I know Leo will like that. Oh, wow, this is small. So this is why I never get anything that's 200 yen, because they're always so small. You get what you pay for.

00:43:25 John Daub: So I think when he's putting the gachapon into the machines, I don't think he actually tapes them. I think they come taped. I'm not sure. Actually, you know what? I think I might ask him if I can film in here again and get more details on the gachapon business, because I really don't know. Oh, hey, it's little Jerry. I think Leo's going to like this. Little Jerry. All right, that's cute. I think Tom would be more interesting to Leo. He likes Tom, but Jerry's cute. All right, let's go back to the station on the back streets. I still have to go and get a haircut. I'm not sure even if I have time to do that today now. Yeah, I'm going to be on an NHK radio show, which is cool. And this morning had an interview about what we're going to talk about on this show. It's a living in Japan, and my friend Ruth is going to be on it. She's on the show, and I got invited to join and talk about trains, so I'm pretty excited about that. We'll talk about transportation in Japan, because I can get around. I get around. I'll be on the show with Ruth and Stuart O., who's awesome. Stuart's a good friend of Peter's, and Ruth is a good friend.

00:45:15 John Daub: Wow, you can really smell that kebab. The back alleys of Akihabara are always very colorful, and I know there's a desire to stay on the main street, on Chuo Dori (Chuo Avenue), but I think that a lot of the character of Akihabara is in the alleys here, and you certainly are going to find something different each time you walk down here, because it's changing so fast. Team Mark. Martin writes in here, Ruth is so cool. Indeed. She used to be a cheerleader. I think she still is a cheerleader. You can feel that energy. All right, let's go back here to Chuo Dori. Unfortunately, gosh, I couldn't get what I wanted to really get. Wow, with the construction of the buildings gone, you can really get a wide-open view of Akihabara from here. Look at that. Usually it's blocked off with whatever it used to be here. Nice view of the Don Quijote.

00:46:42 John Daub: That's interesting. So the AKB48 sign was gone and now they've replaced the other one, which was a very famous Chinese game, I believe, with another game. So it used to be AKB48 for years, like a decade or something. And now that's gone and AKB48 really suffered through that pandemic. The live shows and the appearances with fans and things that, it just crumbled. And I don't know. I don't even know if they're still around. I haven't seen any news on them. AKB48. And they were doing that genre, the idols, was getting so strong until the pandemic hit. And they couldn't meet their fans and they couldn't do the same types of things. They tried virtual online meetings. And I think that that didn't quite work out the way it was supposed to. So I know that in Akihabara, so many of those shows and performances are gone. Mr. Donuts is not, though. There's the Sobu line up above there.

00:48:01 John Daub: Akihabara does feel like a theme park in many ways, doesn't it? It feels like a theme park, but it's a city. And I bet you in the next six months, this place, especially from here onwards, is going to become more like a theme park. I can't even imagine what the change is going to look like in six months with the streets full. It's just right now shocking to see that you actually have space to walk. When the tourist boom was going on 24 hours a day, it seemed like it was crowded here. And now it's not. And it's just a little odd. This way is the Yodobashi Camera, which is a massive electronics store up there. I think if I had to pick between Akihabara and Disney, I would pick Disney. Like I think everybody would. But hey, you know what? Akihabara is cheaper because it's like free to walk around the streets. So take that. I think Mickey felt that. Don't hit me, John. Hi, Mickey Mouse. Such a brute.

00:49:24 John Daub: I've been doing Mickey voices to Leo. It's getting better. He says Mickey Mouse now. He can say it in English. Mickey Mouse. Pointing at all sorts of random things and calling it Mickey Mouse, though. Feels like he called Doraemon Anpanman. He's a little confused. And when we watch Cobra Kai, he calls Daniel LaRusso Daddy. That's very cringy. Honestly, I don't know. I look nothing like Daniel LaRusso. You know it. I know it. The world knows it. I was not bullied in 1984. People trying to fight me and then wedging me and saying, OK, was your crane kick now, Daniel? You know, then it happened to me. No one ever stuffed me in a locker. I said, oh, yeah, you're really good at karate. Can't even fight your way out of a wedgie, huh? It thinks a lot, Daniel LaRusso. If I ever meet him on the street, I'd ruin my childhood. But I do have to admit, I think that my wedgie balance is pretty even between wedgies received and wedgies given. I think it was pretty even. I was batting 500. So there's the wedgie meter. Some people were batting 1,000. They were just huge people, you know.

00:51:06 John Daub: All right, let's wrap around the street. There's a vending machine here. Maybe I'll get a drink. They have the durian drinks there. No? I mean, if you were one of the ones who were a net receiver, you know, you'd be a lot more than a net receiver. Raise your hands right now, because I feel for you. Support for the John Burrito Fund and YouTube. You know, our moderator Jim once called Leo the Leo Burrito, and I timed him out. So you got to be careful. I'm traumatized by the Leo Burrito comment. It's funny when you time out a moderator. Does that go on your permanent record? All right. This street smells like Bangkok. Like incense and city. I don't see any more... Oh, this is a pretty good ramen place here. You see that on the right side? I don't see any of the gachapon machines here. I thought there were more gachapon machines. I guess it's all UFO catchers on this side.

00:52:31 John Daub: All right, here's four gachapons here. And I know there's some around the corner here. All right, yeah, I don't... None of these are interesting to me. I never got into dolls and figures. But I could see how people could get into them. Right? Into collecting dolls and figures and stuff as adults. I can see that because now that I give Leo stuffed animals and plushies and stuff... Yeah, you know, I can see how kids would take that to the next level as they got more money. And if your mom and dad wouldn't allow you to have these figures when you were a kid, when you grew up and became an adult, you probably just kept... You wanted to do what you want to do, right? So I don't give the people who want to collect dolls figures wedgies and call them geeks. This isn't Revenge of the Nerds. The nerds have won. All right? Let's be honest here. Alpha Beta. Even when I went to Ohio State, I looked for the Alpha Beta frat house. It doesn't exist. You know why? Because the nerds won.

00:54:20 John Daub: Ellis has called up a Doraemon. All right, Ellis. You have it. And I'm sending the dine meal packages. I sent half of them yesterday. So I think yours is still at home. I maybe might even be able to sneak it in there. If Leo rejects your Doraemon, it has to go somewhere. Yeah, this town is definitely going to evolve. Around the corner is where the number two Sega building went out of business, and it still is empty. Interesting. Okay. Thank you, Jamie, for being a traveler for four months. I appreciate that. Thanks to all the travelers. Welcome aboard. I'll put a couple of polls up for you really soon because I got some questions to ask about the future of stuff that I film. Oh, there's the sign stuff again. All right. I got to get one. Wow, that's so cute. Hey, do you think this would bring a smile to David's face? A shark cat? I could send him a shark cat. What do you think?

00:55:21 John Daub: Wow. That's messed up. Muse de Auver. I think that's Lou. Is that supposed to be the Mona Lisa? All right. You know what? I'm going to have to go with shark cat, actually. I don't see... Oh, grooming. Grooming animals. Yes. Lion. Does the mirror come with it? That's pretty cute. All right. Right now, it looks like I'm in for this shark cat. Who's with me? Shark cats. Shark cats come together. Although windy animal looks cute, too. Windy animal? No? That's shark cats. Okay. We'll get shark cats. Stay on target, John. Do not... Oh, there's a cat. Retro cigarettes? No? Okay, stay on target. Alright, here we go. You want it, you got it. Shark cat. Let's do this. Which one are you hoping for? Shark cats. Come together. It's time to battle crime. Nya nya. Looks like Abe Lincoln. Alright, four score and seven years ago. Can anyone recite that by memory?

00:57:21 John Daub: I think we got the best one. Maybe. Whoa! Look at that. Is that so cute or what? Travel with Love is calling for a beer break. I'm trying to get a haircut break actually. Look at that, he's got a fin on the back. Whoa! Mike Da Silva. Good job. Did you copy paste that from Wiki? You can admit it. I don't know how he can breathe in the bag, but this will come out. I'm trying to keep him from the water, although I think you would want to be in the water. It's a narwhal. Right, Brick? It's a narwhal. Brick's got it. Alright, let me show you the whole collection here. So we got the narwhal here. Oh, look at the little one on the side here. Hey, how you doing? I'm a cat shark. Oh, look. Oh, yeah, this is just full on shark. Alright, the narwhal's cute. Alright, Ellis, I'm putting a narwhal in your bag here for our buddy, our brother in arms, David. Let me bring a smile to David's face. I can't send a bento, but I can send a narwhal shark cat.

00:58:42 John Daub: Now get Tom for Leo. Yeah, I know I'm going to have to get him. I'm out of 100 yen coins. I should have changed them at the Gachapon Kaikan. But I really do got to go get a haircut because I'm a hippie man. I haven't gotten a haircut in like six months. And I don't consider what Kanae did to me a haircut. Kanae did to my hair a haircut. She got the razor out and she chopped me down. But I don't want that again. I want a different experience. I want my hair barber. He's 1,800 yen, 1,100 yen now, 100 yen for tax. So there you go. That's the Akihabara gachapon experience. Pretty cool, right? Yeah. I think that's pretty cool.

00:59:30 John Daub: So I got to, I don't even know if I got time to get the haircut. I'm probably going to have to go tomorrow morning. But yeah, I got to, I better go back. But it's always a lot of fun to share some time with you. I'm going to do this again. I'm going to, I got to come back to Akihabara. But again, every few weeks, they change the contents of the gachapon. And I'll go back and see if we can spend some more time at Gachapon Kaikan and film there. I'd like to make an episode there again because it's always, that will survive the trip. I certainly hope so. And I'm using the, I'm not using the boxes, but that indestructible envelope this month because the Nagano gifts that I got for the Daimyo packages were too big for the boxes. So we're going to see how that works out. Thanks, everybody.

01:00:16 John Daub: Don't forget to join our Discord if you'd like to get our Blu-ray, Hitchhiking Japan. It's a like two and a half hour documentary adventure of me hitchhiking from the very bottom, the very top of Japan. There's two audio tracks and a director's take, so you can watch it over and over and over again and never get bored. Well, I had to edit that, so I got to see it like 2,000 times. I might have gotten bored. But check it out. There's one last chance here. No, I don't see it. No, no. Although, Kanae might like this. Takoyaki ring. Jim, what do you think? Do you think Kanae would like this takoyaki, a konnyaku (yam cake) ring? No? Do you think, it's like proposing to her for the first time. Konnyaku rings? No, no. Leo says no. Okay. See, I would have no sense of that, you guys. I would be completely lost.

01:01:38 John Daub: All right, time to get that haircut. One hour together is more than enough. I'll see you again tomorrow. Travel update in 24 hours or less. It should be pretty informative. And I will be on Discord taking your questions again. So I'm looking forward to hearing from you. And if you're that panter girl who is panting, you can call back, but just tell me that you were just nervous or something, because I'm still having nightmares. You have to watch yesterday's episode. It was funny. I think she was just nervous. But you can, yeah, call back, but you know, write down your question or something. Or pre-record it on your iPhone and then play that, you know. You have to think ahead. All right, everybody. Have a good day. See you tomorrow.