00:00:04 John Daub: Hello everybody! Welcome to Ginza! This is the heart of the city of Tokyo and in this episode we're going to take you around this neighborhood and take a look and see what the windows are like at some of the historic department stores in the city. Greetings! Welcome! It is just a few days to Christmas and it is an exciting time. I haven't really felt that Christmas spirit too much. Just a couple of days ago we were at the Christmas market in Hibiya Park, which if you are going, you should go if you're in Tokyo. It is absolutely wonderful. Not a great signal for live streaming, but it's even bigger than it was in the past, which is a great thing. Just buy your tickets online because if you don't, you're going to have to wait there forever.

00:00:50 John Daub: I'm already looking around the windows here. It's a weird Christmas because everything is subdued. It's not the same. Usually we would have more over-the-top decorations. This is still vintage. It's very, very important because we're going to have a look around now and give me your feedback on whether or not they hit the mark or they failed. It's okay to fail. That means next year they just got to try a little bit harder.

00:01:16 John Daub: Alright, we're in front of Yonchome and this is Wako. This is the great department store that rings every hour with a big bell on the top of it. I guess it's the bellwether. This is the department store. This is where you would see the best of the best, perhaps. A lot of people here doing last-minute shopping. So it seems like Japan is getting into the NFT thing despite it not being very popular abroad. I don't know why. What do you think? Wako's main window is right in front of you. To me, pink, white, purple doesn't quite do it for me. What do you think?

00:02:19 John Daub: It's weird. It doesn't really sit well like a holiday thing, I guess, for ladies maybe. I'm not sure. But I don't know. It's there. Across the street is perhaps we're going to have a little bit more luck. This is Mitsukoshi. Maybe the most popular department store because of its location in the corner. It's not as upscale, I guess. It's still pretty upscale but not quite the same as Wako. On the front of it, you can see there are some candles. And they do have an app that allows you to look at it in augmented reality, AR. So there's an app. I haven't tried it out yet but it looks really nice. They don't light it up until after 5 p.m. which is a shame.

00:02:56 John Daub: This street closes down on the weekends so you can walk down the center of it. But the street turns back into the cars that you see at 5, 5:30. And that's a shame that the lights aren't on until then. Although the street is dancing with lights from about sunset. Which is great. Let's go across the street here and we're going to take a look at the window and see what they got. I'm looking at the Nissan building across the street. This is also shared with Sony, I believe, until the Sony building is finished at the intersection just to the right from me. They're sharing with Nissan. I don't see much Christmas love on the other side, do you? It just looks like it normally looks. Which is a really bizarre thing.

00:03:44 John Daub: Sandrak is here. He writes, have you introduced Leo and Kanae to Christmas movies? You know, it's not easy to get them because Netflix and Amazon Prime have different stuff than they do in the U.S. So I bought A Christmas Story from 1983, I think it is, last week. It cost me like seven bucks off of the iTunes store or something. So that's really nice. Let's just look really quickly right into Mitsukoshi. Because this is maybe the most impressive. Look at that golden shower of light. That's impressive when you look back. You have to look like this. It's flashing because of the electrical current here. But as you saw, it's not flashing in real life. It's really nice. And they have a wreath in the center there. There's a Christmas tree. But they're also starting to get the decorations out for Shogatsu (Japanese New Year), which is the big holiday in Japan. It's not Christmas, but Shogatsu. And I might be back for that because that's even more impressive.

00:05:02 John Daub: As you can see here, the lion is wearing a mask. And we're still very much in the public—you know, despite the fact that we're outside, almost everybody has a mask on right now. And it's just something you can't take away from the people here. They feel more comfortable with that. All right, let's walk down the street this direction and see what we see. You can see some Christmas-like shrubs. I guess you couldn't call it a tree. The ornaments are nice. It's a little bit more impressive at night. I've noticed a lot of TV right now outside interviewing foreign visitors about visiting Japan and traveling in Japan.

00:06:11 John Daub: What do you think? It's really creepy when you see this. I just feel bad, right? Who's with me? That's just wrong. You should never have headless mannequins, ever. I guess you're supposed to feel like you're the one wearing the clothes because there's no head on it. I don't know. Just reminds me of scenes from Braveheart, you know. It's not good.

00:06:43 John Daub: All right, across the street is Mikimoto. And this is usually one of the most stunning window shopping experiences. And it's kind of underwhelming in a way. You can see they have these pearls that illuminate, which is actually quite nice. But it just doesn't feel like Christmas. It's like they've skipped it this year. All right, we're going to have to find something. I think if we go to the right here a little bit, there's the big foreign brands like Coach, Bulgari, Gucci. They all have shops down here on the street. So I figure they're going to be in the Christmas spirit.

00:07:29 John Daub: This intersection looks like it's going under some big changes here. That used to be a UFJ bank. It's now moved. And then across the street, the Apple store moved to a smaller location. Obviously, the rent would have been massive on this. So you can expect another big name shop to open up in its place. It's a popular location. I bet you the rent is so high nobody's going to take over. I thought this was maybe the most interesting Christmas decoration in Ginza right now. Check it out. So everybody knows Nebuta Festival. Nebuta is made from paper. It's from Aomori Prefecture. And the summer festival is one of the most amazing in Japan. You have to go to the Nebuta if you're here in the beginning of August. You just have to. And they've made a Christmas Nebuta.

00:08:26 John Daub: I'm not sure what the elephant represents. I know what this represents. There's Santa in Nebuta form. And this is really impressive. You can see the wires. The lines in his head are the wires that connect the paper and the coloring. It's so brittle, the paper is. It's amazing that they can put the color and then get it to look like this. I love on the top of him the polar bear. It's really cute, like riding Santa's back. I guess there's no reindeer love here. And the elves got demoted. Instead they promoted a raccoon or a tanuki. He looks really cute and angry. I think he's been naughty. What do you think? I haven't met a raccoon that has been completely nice. But perhaps this year he'll get his present.

00:09:22 John Daub: Why is that elephant attacking Santa? Writes in Jason from Michigan. That's a good question. I guess in Nebuta lore there's got to be some sort of violence perhaps. I'm not sure. But it does look like the elephant's getting the better of Santa. But in the end Santa will win the war. Will you be videoing the Nebuta festivals? I might this year. It's been a while since I did a Nebuta festival. Like five years.

00:09:56 John Daub: Let's see if I can get some coins for them here. To get all the change in my pocket. There's the Salvation Army. You don't see the Salvation Army very often in Japan. But there they are playing the trumpet. And they should play louder. Alright let's move on from Santa. Move down the street here.

00:10:40 John Daub: Oh check this out. I know we're not allowed to film in here. But just—they have another Santa Claus in there. Alright I can't show it to you. Oh yeah you know what. I'll show it to you from a distance. It's kind of a shame. They have a very strange, trick-looking guy. Now you know one of the things that really disappoints me about Japanese department stores at Christmas time. It's that there's no Santa Claus that you can sit on his lap and tell the presents that you want. Because I still do that as an adult. And I don't have the chance to do that. I have to like sit on my own lap or something. I don't know. It's kind of a sad reality. Leo's still too young. He can't talk. If you ask him what he wants, he'll say yogurt. Because he likes yogurt and strawberries. I don't think Santa can deliver that. Unless it's Greek yogurt. You gotta ask the Greek Santa.

00:12:03 John Daub: I think the US embassy should be more proactive with that kind of stuff. I'm getting the feeling the US embassy is probably quite busy. But when you compare the US embassy with a lot of the other European embassies, there's not a lot of cultural experiences for people. Like the Belgian embassy and then the French embassy. And they have all of these events. Which are pretty neat. Especially for citizens. I think the Swedish embassy has parties or something. I heard. Like we can't even get in the door to the American embassy. Because the walls are 20 meters thick. Without an appointment anyway. But it'd be nice to see like a Santa hut. Where people could wait in line and get a picture with him. And just maybe the ambassador could be Santa. I'd like to see that. I'd like to see Rahm Emanuel playing Santa in Japan. He is the current ambassador. And I did get a chance to meet him from a distance. Which is kind of cool. When he came here.

00:13:25 John Daub: Alright. This is Chanel. And it's very underwhelming. This is very odd. Is maybe something happens at night. I'm not sure. But I don't see any green or red at Chanel. It's like they said they gave a big middle finger to Christmas. In Japan anyway. Cartier is doing a little bit better across the street. They have Christmas colors in the windows. And on the first floor some ornament lights. I'm digging it. Because I like how even the traffic lights have more Christmas spirit than Chanel. Look at that. Red and green traffic lights. They even flash.

00:14:13 John Daub: Michael Cisota is in the house. Finally KOTO Livestream. Missed you my friend. It's great to have you here Michael. Welcome. I'm in front of Louis Vuitton here. And you can see they have something Christmasy. But they do Christmas their own way. Which is not at all. It's weird. Like you would expect way more. Who else is disappointed? It's not just me right? I mean Christmas I could see. I did get Legos for Leo as well. But what's the deal Louis Vuitton? What's with the Legos? Is that some sort of Christmas thing? And the white Legos just look like snow. But that's extremely underwhelming.

00:15:01 John Daub: Bulgari. They have a snake that goes around the building. It is an incredible thing to see at night. It is really beautiful. It's not lit up. So it's underwhelming. But well look at all the cameras. They look like video cameras. There's suitcases. I'm not sure. But let's keep walking and see what the front of this shop looks like. It looks like they're kind of also underwhelming. Oh hold on. I spoke too soon. There's a—well we could let's cross the street and then look back. There's a Christmas tree on the side of Louis Vuitton. How could you forget Christmas? But still. It's so weak. Really? That's their Christmas design. It's on the back side where less people see it. What is up? Just bizarre.

00:16:07 John Daub: All right. Let's keep going to the end of the street here. There's got to be something better. I know that Tiffany's is here. Tiffany's got to have something good. Yeah. Bvlgari has got just a winter theme but nothing Christmasy. I don't know. It's like they did not want Christmas this year? It's weird. Tiffany might be the best of them all. I think Tiffany wins. What do you think? The colors are not Christmasy but I'm OK with people busting out and being creative. Greetings from Andy Warhol. That's interesting.

00:17:24 John Daub: I guess Christmas in Japan is mostly for couples. Christmas Eve is a date night where they have a decent Christmas tree in there. Christmas Eve is a date where couples will go out. It's actually—cover your kid's ears—it's called Sexmas Eve. So I'm not joking. Amongst Japanese daters. I guess the 20s and 30s where you know if you have a date on Christmas Eve the love hotels are full up and that's typically what that represents is it's a romantic evening it's not one where you wake up in the morning with presents or the trees but by all means Leo will get that because just like I had friends that were both Jewish and Christian and got Christmas and Hanukkah gifts and was completely jealous it wasn't fair Leo's gonna get both which is nothing from the Japanese side and everything from the American side.

00:18:26 John Daub: All right across the street is the Ralph Lauren. And they've got something going on here this is a sort of a new location I believe they tore down whatever was there and built it up and I heard there's a nice cafe in there too but I'm digging that wreath because the choices are limited things to dig. Let's go back to the beach behind there and walk down some of the alleys of Ginza. The Harry Winston seems to have something going on over there I don't know. Isn't Winston's the cigarette company? I don't know much about brands. When the sun is setting soon it's gonna look really nice tonight I bet you we get a real purple sky going in that direction. Let's go behind here hopefully the signal holds nice and strong let me know your feedback in the comments if you're watching this live. Which window was the most Christmassy which do you feel underwhelmed do you feel disappointed do you think Japan is doing Christmas really poorly or expected?

00:19:46 John Daub: Oh see this is what Kanae was telling me about they have like this cafe behind the Ralph Lauren building and I think it's an ice skating rink. I think Ralph Lauren wins hands down there's no question and look at the green sweaters that wins for me although we're not done yet there's got to be a lot of stuff going on here. A couple more places here we'll walk around down to where the signal is bad so we could see how awful this live stream can get. Check it out his kids and Christmas stuff on look at the little Santa girl we got Leo's got a Santa Claus outfit he's got a beard on oh my god that's so awesome.

00:20:46 John Daub: All right across the street is the Hakuhodo store we don't see any Christmas there again Christmas is not a holiday that Japan celebrates. I remember working on Christmas Day the first year I came here at an English school and it was just weird you know Christmas Eve me and the other English teachers went out and made a couple of drinks Christmas Day we had sushi for dinner but we had to work so we all went out for drinks again. It's 1998. Nothing in the alleys it's not really too Christmassy. What Japan does really great at Christmas time is shopping. The confections you'll feel it there. This looks really Christmassy. Oh even the confections are Christmassy in there. That looks fun.

00:21:59 John Daub: Look at this vending machine bank. So Japan does a few things really well with Christmas. One of them is probably besides shopping which the whole city turns into a shopping mall they also do illuminations better than a lot of places. And Marronier Gate (Marunouchi) just over there. I'm not going to go there today, but they have one of the best illuminations this year. It keeps getting better every year. Yeah they totally need an eggnog vending machine. I would just plant my butt there as it expanded through all the eggnog.

00:22:48 John Daub: A big shout out first off to Andre in Brazil. Brazil just opened up your postcards as from 2020 are going out slowly Andre so thanks for sticking in there and being a Patreon supporter and we got a bunch of new Patreon signups we got Manuel from Austria that's this card is going out right now and who else do I have here Tyler's in Alabama um Chanel in Trinidad and Tobago and Jason in San Francisco and Jonathan I have your card here Jonathan thanks for signing up again this is going out to the Republic of Korea awesome so thanks guys it's going up from a post box here in Ginza okay wow they got the nengajo (New Year's cards) ones already all right this is going on in the normal mail.

00:23:47 John Daub: Oh we were gonna go down to the place that there's no signal I know there's no signal in front of that McDonald's because I did a McDonald's Hawaii episode a year and a half ago and it's a dead spot like I'm gonna avoid there then yeah if you want to get a postcard you only have to sign up for the samurai level this month because it's five dollars and you get a postcard and just make sure you write your address because it doesn't come digitally it comes in the mail. I still love postcards so much and I love sending them out and just amazing to me how a piece of paper which is very thick cardboard by the way can get to your house from a location on the other side of the world. This is so cool.

00:24:47 John Daub: Alright, this is one of the side streets in Ginza. I believe this is um we're parallel to Ginza Gochome and moving over towards Ginza Yonchome. There's a Uniqlo, a massive one here in Ginza on the right side and we're gonna see what they have for Christmas in front of their shop. I'm sure there's something, right? Cuz again, I've been underwhelmed. It's like I think that stores this year are just trying to survive. 2023, I feel is gonna be much much bigger.

00:25:21 John Daub: And there's been debate now with masks in Japan on Japanese TV. Doctors coming in and saying that going two years without people showing their emotions and stuff has damaging effects as well but does it really work right now in a situation where everybody's walking outside? It's interesting that it's being debated here in Japan so that's a healthy thing and that's a really good thing to do. No matter what side of the issue you're on. Japan is Japan. Let them figure it out. Uniqlo, not so Christmassy. They sell the flowers out there all the time.

00:26:16 John Daub: This Miki Moto building is quite famous. It's a really interesting one and there's nothing. They don't even put candles in the window. If anything, they should be putting pearls. Alright, this signal might not stand strong. But we're going to go around to the intersection. I always had the names always just be tongue twisters. The end of year for Uniqlo. Always good stuff but I always buy underwear and socks and that's about it. I don't really get anything from Uniqlo anymore. Underwear and socks. They make the best underwear and oh and T-shirts sometimes. Sometimes T-shirts but they don't fit me right because the Japanese size like I'm a US medium. I used to be US like extra large. I don't know. I guess people got bigger. Yeah but now I'm in a US medium and in Japan, I'm a Japanese somewhere between a large and an extra large. I guess it'd be a Japanese large tall but they don't have that size. Japanese large but it's still not long enough and it's mostly a problem with the shoulders. Westerners have wider shoulders than Japanese do. So, that becomes the issue. I'm not sure about the sleeves and the shoulders. For men, I'm not sure about how the ladies would fit but I bet you it's something along the same lines.

00:27:54 John Daub: Alright, we're now in front of—see there's the iconic building in Yurakucho. I think that's a restaurant up there. I don't know if it's closed down or not but I have not had the pleasure to eat there. Uniqlo's storefront is really sad. We're three days from Christmas, four days from Christmas and there's not a tree anywhere. Well, there's one but it doesn't count, okay? It looks like a pyramid.

00:28:21 John Daub: GG love forty few right in here. I'm six-foot-three. I would look like Godzilla over there. You would look a lot bigger? Yeah. I bumped into a guy who was a university student from the US. Basketball player. He was massive. Nice guy. He's just massive. I was intimidated. I was like, I want to see people that big. You're here i'm uh five foot eleven I think and uh that's pretty tall here it's actually average now because the younger generation is taller than their parents for sure so when i came here 25 years ago 24 years ago i was way taller than i am now now i'm average i bet you in 20 years i'm going to be a shrimp even in japan people are getting taller.

00:29:45 John Daub: Does anybody know the name of that anime i think i just showed it there all right this side always had christmas decorations at sukiyabashi intersection hey loyal valkori or i just saw a notification thanks for signing up to patreon awesome and for the message i'll read that when i get back home that's really nice. I can see the Nishi Ginza building's got a little bit of christmas spirit you see the holly and ornaments underneath there that's something.

00:30:22 John Daub: Really is let's cross the street here and we're gonna take a look at two places that i think might have some christmasy spirit and if not we're gonna bail because this is depressing i've really am a little bit shocked at so few christmasy stuff the salvation army and ralph lauren were the two places that did it for me but then after i gave money to salvation army they wanted to give me some literature and i was like save the paper. They should have qr codes if people want it they can download the pdf right. This is nice i like the champagne glasses it's sort of christmasy it's in the spirit of you know drunkenness but sort of an italian looking design i mean is it christmas or italian i'm not sure what do you think. This is funny ah disco balls what does christmas mean to you.

00:31:35 John Daub: Go your heather fling writes in here i'm five foot four in japan yeah i think your average here. This is kind of a unique cultural note here the um every new year's they have a big lottery drawing and the lines to get a ticket for it are usually hours long and we're starting to see it is pretty long line it wraps around like the nyc sandal that i gave our daimyo supporters a couple months ago i had to wait in line for about an hour to get to the store and i had to wait in line for a box of caramel chocolate cookies for 40 minutes ridiculous but they're that good.

00:32:25 John Daub: There's the Tokyo department store no christmas decorations in fact the first floor is closed down there's the empty spot of where the sony building is going to be built it used to be a park but now that's gone and they're going to put something in its place which is a new building skyscraper and sushi jiro the uh 90 or maybe 100 year old sushi chef is in the basement of this building here no filming allowed so i think around here we're going to see some kind of christmas tree or decoration i hope. Oh there's the end of the line for the lottery it's 10 oku en which is what how much would be like ichioku en is a million dollars ten million dollars which is a far cry from the u.s lotteries which are in the hundreds of millions but ten million dollars is pretty big with the exchange rate it's more like eight million actually but you can probably treat your friends to a nice dinner that would be pretty nice if you win.

00:33:38 John Daub: Think of uh Leo and Kanae Peter maybe Kevin if you're in Osaka congratulations to kevin who just started an osaka tour company or something like that. This is the Gate Hotel this is one of the places the hotels is a pretty reasonably priced place to stay so i would always recommend them in Asakusa if you're going there it's across the street from the shrine it's an amazing location and reasonable price you've got a great little cafe where you can drink outside with a view of the Sky Tree but here in Yurakucho my friend MJ from United Arab Emirates he was staying here and i had coffee with him on that balcony there a few years ago before the pandemic it's crazy how fast time has blown by.

00:34:35 John Daub: Jason sharing the happy kuma there happy bear yeah 100 million yen so isen manen is 100,000 and ichioku en is 1 million dollars after isen then after jyoku and senoku then you get into cho which is you know massive amounts i could be wrong sometimes i am. Hey Robert's here merry christmas john please enjoy a treat on me you got it robert tonight Kanae Leo and i are going out to dinner and uh Peter and Joji are going to join us and so might his wife as well which is great.

00:35:48 John Daub: This is a shortcut that i usually take from ginza going towards yurakucho station and i figured there'd be some christmas by yurakucho but i could be wrong because i've been extremely underwhelmed with what i saw in ginza it's not the same kind of christmas spirit that i've seen in the past nevertheless people still have their credit cards on fire from shopping it is the season in japan another america and everybody makes a reservation for christmas cake if it's either at the supermarket or at a specialty shop or online they'll have it delivered.

00:36:28 John Daub: The pachinko is doing a better job of christmas than the department stores dude really oh my god all right you know what i don't believe in gambling but if they're gambling in the spirit of christmas that is not good that's not good that's not Christmas. The pachinko has the best Christmas. What? Usually there's girls in um really small Christmas cards to get guys to go in there and gamble but today they just have uh stuffed Santas and they're very thin stuffed Santas. They're very thin. Don't you think? He's not jolly at all. It's he's just a laugh like a bowl full of jelly. How do you do that when you have no bowl full of jelly? He's way too thin or is he happy to see us? You're way too thin. Gotta eat some more of the cream puffs and those cookies and stuff. He's been eating a diet of rice and miso soup. He needs a little bit of KFC.

00:38:17 John Daub: Indeed. Alright. Actually I'm very disappointed. Let's go one more spot and then we're gonna call it. I'll take you around tomorrow. I see what we can see perhaps. Uh tomorrow, Kanae and I and Leo are going uh shopping in the morning and then I have a ton of editing to do. I think I'll be able to manage to get the next episode out um tomorrow morning. It's just really close to done. It's a special episode on holiday gift wrapping in Japan. It's so interesting to me. The culture before. I went very quickly to like I'm always kind of adding stuff to episodes. It makes it really hard. I went really quickly to uh to a shop to film. Do you guys know what a furoshiki is? Is a uh cloth that they use for wrapping and before paper was too expensive to wrap gifts in. They wrapped it in cloth which could also be reused and uh I went to a shop that's from Kyoto. That's here in Nihonbashi and they uh in Ningyocho and they showed me a little bit of that wrapping magic from the past.

00:39:31 John Daub: I think you all know what this is. This is an iconic building and they do have one Christmas tree. It's near the air conditioners. At least I thought it was. They had a Christmas tree somewhere. Oh, there it is. That is very small. I think there's a concerted effort to try and downplay Christmas this year. How dare they? I smell confectioners sugar. Must be this way.

00:40:18 John Daub: Alright, so there you have it. Uh Tokyo's window shopping is an incredible disappointment. The winner is Ralph Lauren. You guys can give me your list. If you think it's so bad, maybe there's no list. In second place is Pachinko Parlor. So bad. This is awful. In third place, uh champagne, Italian wine looking thing that made a champagne Christmas looking tree. And in fourth place, I guess you'd have to give it to uh to Wako's pink thing right there in the corner. I don't know. It's really disappointing. Maybe um uh Marui building seems to have some Christmas trees in the lobby and they got a Charlie Brown. So Marui right now just on default here takes fifth place. That's awful. They're not even in Ginza. This is like Yurakucho. So there you go. Although Mitsukoshi's lights on the inside are quite nice. They take sixth place. What are you gonna do?

00:41:25 John Daub: Alright and skinny Santa was number one rights in Ryan. Really? Okay. I can see that. I can see that. The Shinkansen is right above me here. Uh this is a pretty fun walk. Thanks for sharing it. 40 minutes. I'm back going home to get ready to go out to dinner. Finish up a little bit more editing. I gotta pick up Leo and him and I are going. Mommy's gonna join us a little bit later. It's nice to get out finally to have some sort of a I guess date or meet up with somebody and we'll probably send you a picture on Instagram or something. Discord server for sure. There's still some postcards if you wanna join the postcard club. I'm really thankful and if you're just joined as a samurai for five bucks, you get a postcard sent to you. I'll get the notification. Just make sure you write your address right. That's the biggest thing. Make sure you don't mistake your address. I had to write in some people to confirm. Make sure it's okay. And Jason, I got your message. Merry Christmas to you and also to Carrie in Australia and everybody else who are watching. I'll try to do a couple more live streams but I'm gonna hunker down and get the main channel content rolling and that's gonna be my priority in 2023.

00:42:48 John Daub: Yeah and we're gonna say goodbye here right in front of the skinny Santa who is moving now. Oh really? He is happy to see me. You are a happy Santa. He stopped but he's jerking his hand. There's not a good hand. Oh my gosh. You know what? Just move away from that Santa. Hey Ryan, he's been disqualified. It's awful. Look at this. Is this like the Norwegian Santa? Alright everybody, that Santa was obscene. So we're just gonna move on to the Shinkansen and say goodbye. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in another life. As we get closer closer to Christmas, the spirit is here sort of. You just have to kind of look for it. Probably on that Shinkansen. Bye bye everybody.