Japanese Cherry Blossom FOOD and DRINK Season
Japanese Cherry Blossom FOOD and DRINK Season
Overview
In this livestream episode, John Daub explores the arrival of spring in Tokyo, focusing on the seasonal cherry blossom (sakura) food and drink offerings available near Tokyo Station. He visits the Marunouchi Building to try a sakura latte and imagawayaki (wheel cakes) filled with matcha and sakura mochi flavors. John provides a detailed taste test, explaining the unique salty-sweet profile of sakura flavoring derived from pickled leaves.
Beyond food, John takes viewers on a walk around the Imperial Palace moat and Edo Castle ruins, sharing a favorite quiet spot for eating bento boxes. He discusses practical travel information, including JR Rail Pass validation at Tokyo Station, the recovery of tourism infrastructure like Hato Buses, and the administrative structure of Tokyo (clarifying that Tokyo is a prefecture, not a city). The episode also touches on seasonal challenges like hay fever and the current state of travel costs as tourism rebounds.
Highlights
- 00:00:00 John introduces the sakura matcha latte and explains why he seeks alternatives to Starbucks.
- 04:43:00 Discussion on the rise of green tea shops versus coffee cafes in Japan.
- 07:54:00 Price breakdown of the sakura latte and imagawayaki in USD.
- 10:10:00 Detailed taste test of the sakura mochi imagawayaki and flavor profile explanation.
- 20:08:00 Guide to validating JR Rail Passes at Tokyo Station North Tower.
- 26:44:00 John reveals his secret spot near the Imperial Palace moat for eating bento.
- 29:37:00 Explanation of hay fever season (February to March) and mask usage.
- 38:32:00 Clarification that Tokyo is a prefecture (Tokyo-to), not a city.
Timeline / Chapters
- 00:00:00 Intro & Sakura Matcha Latte Tasting
- 02:54:00 Seasonal Weather & Imagawayaki Overview
- 07:54:00 Menu Review & Pricing
- 13:19:00 Matcha Daifuku Tasting
- 20:08:00 Tokyo Station Rail Pass Info
- 25:19:00 Walk to Imperial Palace Moat
- 29:37:00 Hay Fever & Pollen Season
- 33:25:00 Hato Bus & Tourism Recovery
- 38:32:00 Tokyo Geography Lesson (Tokyo-to)
- 42:29:00 Closing Thoughts & Shorts in Spring
Japan Travel Tips
- JR Rail Pass: Validate your pass at the North Tower of Tokyo Station inside the JR office. There is also a Japan Rail Cafe on the other side.
- Regional Passes: Consider regional passes like the Tohoku East Pass or Tokyo Wide Pass; they may offer better value than the nationwide JR Pass depending on your itinerary.
- Tokyo Station: The Marunouchi side features red brick architecture and a park-like atmosphere renovated around 2010.
- Transport Costs: Airfares and transport prices are currently high due to high demand and staff shortages post-pandemic; prices may lower by summer.
- Health: Be prepared for hay fever (pollen season) between February and April; many locals wear masks during this time.
- Etiquette: Do not swim in the Imperial Palace moats; it is strictly prohibited and enforced by police.
Japanese Language & Culture Notes
- Sakura Flavor: Sakura flavor is not just sweet; it involves pickled cherry blossom leaves which add a distinct saltiness to the sweet floral taste.
- Tokyo-to: Tokyo is administratively a prefecture (metropolis), not a city. Addresses are written as Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku (where Chuo is the city/ward).
- Itadakimasu: Said before eating, meaning "I humbly receive."
- Shincha: The first harvest of green tea, occurring around cherry blossom season.
- Hay Fever: Known as kafunsho, caused by cedar pollen, affecting many residents and visitors in spring.
Food & Drink Guide
- Sakura Latte (00:00:00): Cherry blossom flavored latte with matcha. John finds it slightly too sweet, likely tailored for Western palates. Price: ~600 yen.
- Imagawayaki (02:54:00): Round wheel cakes cooked on a special grill. John tries two flavors:
- Matcha Mousse: Green tea flavored filling.
- Sakura Mochi: Contains sweet bean paste, mochi, and pickled sakura flavor. John describes it as sweet, floral, and salty. Price: ~200 yen.
- Matcha Daifuku (13:19:00): Organic matcha mochi cake with cream filling. John notes the strong matcha flavor and soft texture.
People
- John Daub: Host and narrator. He guides viewers through the food tasting and walkaround.
- Peter von Gomm: John's friend, mentioned frequently regarding past collaborations and stays at the Palace Hotel.
- Kanae Daub: John's wife, mentioned regarding travel plans to the US.
- Leo: John's son, mentioned in the context of Hato Bus tours.
- Joy: A moderator visiting Japan whom John hopes to meet.
- Joe HaTTab: Fellow creator mentioned for a collaboration video at the world's oldest hotel.
Key Takeaways
- Sakura flavor is a complex mix of sweet, floral, and salty due to the pickling process.
- Tokyo is technically a prefecture (Tokyo-to), not a city, which affects how addresses are written.
- Tourism infrastructure is recovering, but labor shortages are keeping travel costs high.
- Spring in Tokyo brings beautiful cherry blossoms but also severe pollen season (hay fever).
- Tokyo Station's Marunouchi side offers quiet spots near the Imperial Palace moat for relaxing.
Notable Quotes
- 00:00:00 "I'm always looking for alternatives to Starbucks. Because everybody knows that Starbucks at this time of year has those cherry blossom latte, sakura latte."
- 01:50:00 "I think they make it sweet for the Westerners, though. I don't know if Japanese would like this too much."
- 10:10:00 "It tastes pink because it is pink. But I guess. Mmm. It's pleasant."
- 16:54:00 "I guess in a way I am Japanese because I've been here for 25 years this year."
- 38:32:00 "There is actually no city of Tokyo. There's no city of Tokyo. It's a state. It's a prefecture. Tokyo-to."
Related Topics
- Tokyo Station Architecture
- Cherry Blossom Forecasting
- Japanese Rail Passes
- Seasonal Wagashi (Sweets)
- Imperial Palace Gardens
Search Tags
#only-in-japan-go #tokyo #travel #sakura #cherry-blossoms #matcha #tokyo-station #marunouchi #imperial-palace #japanese-food #spring-in-japan #hay-fever #edo-castle #jr-pass #travel-tips
Full Transcript
00:00:00 John Daub: Pink to it, it is striking. The green color of the matcha, it's such a beautiful green color. A little bit of cherry blossoms, sakura flavoring on the top, and then on the bottom I guess this cream is supposed to be all about the sakura. We're going to find out in about 30 seconds. This is from a shop called Ichimaru Hachi Matcha Saro. I'm always looking for alternatives to Starbucks. Because everybody knows that Starbucks at this time of year has those cherry blossom latte, sakura latte. It's not that bad. I think it's more like chemical sweetness to me. So you try different things. And the matcha is something that really goes well with the cherry blossoms because of the season. This is the season where you get matcha harvest, the shincha (first harvest), down in Shizuoka, as well as all around Japan.
00:01:05 John Daub: Let's give this a try because I'm looking at it right now. I also got some food here, so we're going to try some of that too. Yeah, green tea and Tokyo Station. You can't really go wrong with that. Matcha. It's not green tea. What am I talking about? Itadakimasu. Okay. So it's a little sweet. Yeah, I was... the store opens at 11 o'clock. It's in the basement of this building here, the Marunouchi building. And there are a lot of Westerners, surprisingly. I guess this is something that Westerners are looking for. Right now there's a lot of people for the Tokyo Marathon in the city. So, yeah. There's a bunch of Western faces here, which is cool.
00:01:50 John Daub: I think they make it sweet for the Westerners, though. I don't know if Japanese would like this too much. It's a little sweet. The reason why you want matcha to be bitter is because Japanese like that on their palate. I think Japanese palates are a little bit more sensitive than Western palates. We might have too much sugar. Like, our breakfast in America is all sugar. Syrup, cereals, things like this. Not everybody, but culturally speaking. For matcha, for me, you don't want honey. You don't want sugar in it. But, look at the positives. We're freaking eating and drinking the cherry blossoms. And that's all part of the season, right? Very soon, all these trees are going to have green on them. But first, they have pink. Or white.
00:02:54 John Daub: And that's just a special time. Winter feels like it is over right now. I have a lighter jacket on. Tokyo's weather is always kind of funky. It's like three days cold, chilly, three days warm. And then spring breaks and it's nice every day. Then the rainy season comes. But, yeah, you get a chance to drink it. And then eat it too. So, in here I have got Imagawayaki. This is the shop down in the basement of the Marunouchi building. It's not very big. In fact, there's only three chairs for people coming to sit down. So, most people just take it out. But if you want to drink real quickly, you can. They've got a sakura menu. It seems like every shop's got some sort of sakura cherry blossom menu.
00:03:54 John Daub: They've got two different kinds of drinks at this particular place. But the Imagawayaki, look at that. This is what I'm going to have in a second. Just, oh man, the green matcha in the bread there. And then they have that red anko, red bean paste. And then there's mochi in this one. This is going to be something special, I think. She just made them. They should still be hot. There she is preparing the drink in the shop there. How you doing, Danny? He'll be here in a little bit more than three weeks. Looking forward to it, Danny. And Arthur Vandele is here. Look at that. She's putting the Imagawayaki together. Oh, man. It's really good.
00:04:43 John Daub: So, I like these kinds of shops here. I like the shops that bring a little bit of Japanese culture. I've been finding more like green tea shops opening up. A great contrast because there was a cafe boom. You'd think in Japan people would drink more tea, and they do at home. But when you go out and you leave your house, you don't want to drink green tea. You want to drink coffee. Because it has more value. It's not something that you normally drink at home. But I'm finding that there's more green tea places coming in here. It's still warm. Which one should I have first? All right. Doesn't matter. So, this is an Imagawayaki. It's basically like a pancake, right? They have these special makers, sort of like a takoyaki maker, a grill.
00:05:55 John Daub: I put it on the tripod, and then I rip it open. And this is the best way to find it out here. Three, two, one. Oh, my. All right. So, this would be the green tea... Sorry, matcha mousse. Oh, no. Ah, it's hot. Ah, ah. If you eat enough of this, you turn into the Incredible Hulk. Literally. Why not just take a bite, Patrick? Where's the drama in that? I'm going to make it a little fun. Can I... Rodan, she wants a matcha cake. All right. I'll bring... Do you want a matcha custard or sakura mochi? We've got two kinds. Yeah. There is steam. There's steam coming off of it. That's just beautiful. Oh, man. Wow. I love food. Food brings people together, like us. Right now.
00:07:54 John Daub: Here's the menu. They had this weird one. See the one on the left? That's the one I got here. It's like the sakura-flavored latte. I mean, it's okay. But this other one, matcha with Perrier, looked kind of interesting, but I know it's not... It's going to be average, I think. So, this latte was about 600 yen or what is that, like $4.50. And the Imagawayaki was like two bucks. $1.50, I think, with the exchange rate. It's not too bad for us, it's a little price. It's like the value of the yen with the exchange rate. I think it's around 135, 134 to the dollar right now. It's not too bad. All right. Part two. And it is kind of neat. I'll take you around here to Tokyo Station if you guys want me to for 10, 15 minutes. I got to go to the post office. That's why I came to this direction.
00:09:11 John Daub: Joy is visiting. Joy is one of our moderators. Joy is visiting Japan right now, so I'm hoping to catch up with Joy. I told you I was here today. We got a couple of other people that are here visiting Japan. There's a lot of people. I'm sorry I can't meet up with everybody. It's just impossible. I'm there in spirit, but I'm editing and doing. Here we go. Just eat it. That's it. Somebody said, Joy, just eat it. Well, what if you can open it like this? Oh, oh, oh, okay. Yeah, you can. Look at that sakura mochi in there. Oh, my. All right. This is going to be interesting. I think there's some red bean paste. Maybe not. I don't know. We're going to find out.
00:10:10 John Daub: I like this because it feels like a McGriddle. Introverted Otaku, happy cherry blossom season. Thank you. All right. Let's go. Wow. That's it. This is the one. It's seasonal. You see the sakura mochi? It's white. It's a sweet bean cherry blossom. And then there's the mochi on top. And then, of course, the pancake around it is just so good. Zoom in and really give you a close-up look of it. What does sakura taste like? It has in Japan. It's sweet. It's very sweet with a floral sense to it, and then it has a saltiness to it because typically sakura mochi, or the sakura flavor, they'll pickle it with a little bit of salt. So there's a sweet floral saltiness to it, and that's sakura. And then when you have it, you know. It tastes pink because it is pink. But I guess. Mmm. It's pleasant.
00:11:45 John Daub: Walk with me. A week and a half to go. This is so exciting. I saw a bunch of people after the marathon livestream yesterday. We had two people come up and say hi. I guess they didn't want to disturb during the livestream, so I gave them the You Found Me card that I carry with me. That was cool. I wonder if Joy is going to make it here. I don't know when I'm going to get another chance to see her. Oh, my. This is good. This is really good. You know what would be good with this? Maple syrup, maybe. Like, dip it in maple syrup. Close to the camera. You can get six packs. You can get as many as you want that they make there. But they can only make a limited amount fresh. So she's, I think it takes a little bit of time, but the lady down there is consistently working to make them. Because of high turnover. It's a good location though, the Marunouchi building.
00:13:19 John Daub: Bianca June writes in here, love the drama intro to the food. You got to have a little bit of drama. You can't just eat it. It's boring. You got to play with your food. In Japan, we often, we make our food so beautiful and decorative. It is pretty much like playing with it, isn't it? Let me. Mochi. Wah, ha, ha, ha. There's drama. Is it? Last bite. We're not done. Grant, you are not behind me. Are you? Matcha cream daifuku. Organic matcha. It's always a good sign. I'm not sure what makes it organic. Isn't all of this good? Is all matcha organic? I mean, I don't know. Daifuku is basically, how do you say it? It's like a mochi cake inside. It's just mochi and inside of it, there's some sort of surprise. Usually, there's a cream or anko red bean paste or something, but it's one of, you can't eat too many of them, but it's a really nice confection to eat in Japan.
00:15:12 John Daub: You can see when you use your finger, it's almost like a memory foam mattress, right? It remembers your, you know what? Someone has to make a daifuku mattress challenge. Just a really big daifuku mattress. I would love to sleep on one of those. I think it'd be very comfortable. It's just, right? Who would want to sleep on this? Or at least maybe like a pillow would be nice. I don't, oh man. Wow. I am reading the chats. Nightshade giggle. I'm just not focused on it. I'm focused on this. Look at that. That is really strong matcha flavor. All these people walking by. One person's going to come and take a bite. It's kind of nasty. It's got my bite mark in it. Joshua Skidmore found the green heart marks. Cool. Oh my gosh. It's good.
00:16:54 John Daub: I do not eat a lot of matcha because it's got so much caffeine in it. My body does not function the same as normal like Japanese. I don't know. It's so much caffeine. Sometimes I'm shaking from the caffeine burst from the matcha. It seems like it's more than coffee. My western body handles the coffee more. Although, somebody said to me, if you have been in the country for over ten years, or seven years, your body has been remade by the, by, it takes about seven to ten years. So I guess in a way I am Japanese because I've been here for 25 years this year. It's hard to say. I'm certainly not 100% American western anymore because I act funny. I try to avoid confrontation. I don't know. I'm shyer in a way. You take on the habits of your surroundings and your environment after a certain amount of time.
00:18:00 John Daub: So when I go home, it feels shocking to go home. It feels normal to come back. That's how you know. I love going back home to America. I love seeing all the different kinds of people and faces because in Japan everybody, almost everybody is like Japanese. When you go home to America, it's awesome because you have all these different kinds of people. It feels great. I saw that in yesterday's Tokyo Marathon. It was a very international event. And there are a lot of people that came for the Tokyo Marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon. You can do that. This is such an easy course, I think. I'm a little shy. It depends on the situations. You know, before I came to Japan, I was a little shy. Before I started live streaming, maybe I even talked different.
00:19:01 John Daub: I think if you've been teaching English for a long time in Japan, and that's what I did before I was doing YouTube, you have an English speaking voice. Like you talk a little slower and you enunciate or you just have a different way of talking. It's not natural. And I found when I did Tokyo Eye for NHK, it was a show that I was, I've been doing, it ended last year, but I've been doing it for like a long time. Like 14 years or something. The first couple of years, I found that the way I spoke was not native. It was like some dude who'd been living in Japan for a long time. And it's, it just happens. And it's because you don't have a lot of American friends here, too. If you live out in the countryside, you have the friends who's around you. And usually they're non-Japanese, or non-American speakers. I lived in a town. I was maybe the, maybe only two other Americans. And there were a lot of English, a lot of Australians, a lot more, I should say. So you start, your accent starts to change a little bit.
00:20:08 John Daub: I think, you know, I grew up on the East Coast. So everybody in my town where I grew up had a very, had an accent that you could definitely tell. I never got that accent. I don't know why. I went to Ohio State and I picked up an Ohio accent. I don't even know what that, maybe it's more like a Midwestern accent. Then I came to Japan and just messed it up. Because you're hearing and speaking to people who speak different all the time. That's kind of exciting. Yvonne celebrates 27 as a member. Thank you. The great thing about Tokyo Station, trains! Don't even need to say that. Excuse me. This North Tower here, inside the North Tower, if you've got a JR rail pass, that's where you would validate it, or you'd be able to get information in English and make reservations with the train tickets all over the country from inside this tower, on this side of Tokyo Station.
00:21:14 John Daub: They also have another booth on the other side, you know, the Japan Rail Cafe. There's some really friendly ladies who I go in and visit and I buy the Tohoku rail pass. It's five days of unlimited travel in Shinkansen for 20,000 yen, which is a steal. But there's usually a line and there's about four or five people helping, so the line moves quickly. I think you might even be able to buy a JR rail pass here. Maybe don't make sure you get it before you go, but you might be able to. But there are other rail passes besides the JR rail pass, like the Tohoku East Pass, or the Japan East Pass, or the Tokyo-wide pass, or down in Kyushu, there's a Kyushu pass. And these regional passes could work out better than a rail pass. But I definitely think that the Japan Rail Pass is a steal. If you just go like round trip to Osaka and back, that costs the same as one train. One week of unlimited travel on the Japan Rail Pass. You tourists have it made. I am so jealous.
00:22:17 John Daub: So I got another video. I got two videos coming out, I think this week. I have one on chicken nanban, which is my favorite Japanese dish. Deep-fried Japanese chicken in Miyazaki. I went to the farm, so it's a farm-to-table episode, which is, I guess, in a way kind of cruel to some people to see the chickens and then eat them. But I always thought it's always good to know where your food is coming from. Finished that video, and then I have the world's oldest hotel, but it's not about the world's oldest hotel, it's about something else. So it's taking a little bit more time to... I changed the focus. It's taking a little bit more time to edit that video. But you can see on my friend Joe HaTTab, he released a video and I'm in it. It's already gotten two million views. He released it about three days ago, I think. That guy's amazing. Good friend of mine.
00:23:01 John Daub: You can see the Sunrise Izumo night train, as well as the two trains. Two of us at the world's oldest hotel with the Guinness Book of World Records and the owner of the hotel. We got a chance to interview him in one of the biggest rooms that they have there. The same water that Tokugawa, the Shogun, bathed in. It's pretty cool. That video's already been released, so you can go and check that out and share some love in the comments, because I know Joe appreciates that. I think it might even be in Arabic, but you gotta turn on the subtitles. I love Joe, man. He's such a great guy. He contacted me when he had 30,000 subscribers. I still remember this day. He was inspired by the shows I was doing. Now he's got 12 million subscribers. It's just such an inspiration. That's on such another level, right? 12 million subscribers. I'm just so proud of him and so happy for his success. How he's continuously evolved his channel is extraordinary.
00:24:04 John Daub: Go and watch his channel. You don't have to speak English to do it, speak Arabic to do it. But the quality of the video is insane. I'm gonna be honest with you. You wouldn't think... When you watch other content creators, his is a step up. He's coming from the Arab world, which I think doesn't get enough respect for content creation. But he's done it, and I'm just so proud of him. Go check it out. It's an amazing one. The last video he put up on his channel is from a Japan experience that he had with us. 12 million is a pretty big number. I'm gonna take you to the end of the street here. Shout out to Laura. This is your package. Daimyo package. She wants me to send Legos instead of food stuff. I'm taking that to the post office. That's the package right there. I'm gonna take you to my favorite spot. We're gonna see if they have cherry blossoms over here.
00:25:19 John Daub: That daifuku was so good. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Here's the menu. You see that there? I'm gonna make it a little bigger. Side there. Like that, but I love putting a little bit of attention when a company innovates like this. And in Japan, they're always doing something cool. And have cherry blossoms. Not just, you know, not just see it. You can, in Japan, eat it. And that's just kinda cool to me. This is the... Peter von Gomm and I stayed in a room right there. A couple of years ago and live streamed from there, I believe. I forget the name of this hotel, but it overlooks the Imperial Palace. And years ago, they never had... I don't think they had hotels that looked into the Imperial Palace. But now they do. It's quite large. Kind of expensive, but it was... You know. We didn't pay for it.
00:26:44 John Daub: I am taking you right now to one of my favorite spots. And I'm debating on whether or not I should do that. Because sometimes showing you places that I like to go that are just meant for me ruins them. I don't know. I think maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. Tokyo Marathon was yesterday. My friend Joseph ran again. Right there is where I'm taking you. This is one of the guards... One of the towers of Tokyo's Edo Castle. Which is now... Was destroyed by fire a long time ago. But I will take a bento sometimes if I'm in this area. And I don't want to eat at a restaurant. I'll buy a bento and then I'll go over to this place and eat inside there. Usually there's nobody inside of it. It's like, what a waste. I remember walking by there and going, this is a good place to eat a bento. So you could buy a bento because there's shops all over Tokyo Station because it's Tokyo Station. And then you would just enjoy yourself. It's nice and relaxing inside of there.
00:28:06 John Daub: So I'm going to take... I think I took you there once before in a livestream. But if you do come to Japan, you're at Tokyo Station, you can come to this chamber and watch the ducks. Alright, let's do it. Green light. That's the Palace Hotel. Right, that's the Palace Hotel. Now I remember. They'd renovated it. It's so nice in there. Wonderful breakfast and Peter von Gomm and I had dinner in there. That cost us kind of an arm and a leg but it was so worth it because... Well, we... Didn't have to pay for the breakfast in the hotel room so might as well pay for the dinner. Oh right! That was before... That was when we got the party train. I remember, that was a great episode. We... JR gave us our own train. So we had this offer, like, we could stay at this hotel if we wanted to. But I live like... just to... I live like a... Asian, okay? So like, really? Alright, you know what? I'll stay at that Palace Hotel. So we did and it was... I'm glad that we did. That was a fun episode.
00:29:37 John Daub: Peter von Gomm and I woke up the next day, we got like 20 bentos and we ate them all. Oh no, there's somebody in my hut. There's some people in there. Oh, Tokyo Marathon people. I just ate my own tongue. Um, at the... between February 20th and March 15th... I look a little sick every year. The reason why is from the pollen. Hay fever. It's just really bad and it takes the color out of me. Um, this is a reason why a lot of people will wear masks. Um, the pollen, it just messes up with my immune system and stuff. And it... I think it messes with a lot of people's systems. But... yeah, it might even go on until April. It's such... it's such a wonderful time of the year, but it's also... It's also, um... pollen season.
00:31:00 John Daub: Ah, man. Alright, let's go back in here. I don't know. There's one across the street here. Usually, there'll be a lot of people not inside of these huts, these guard towers, but people getting wedding photos here. Because if you take a look on the right... on the left side here, you have a straight view to Tokyo Station's, uh, the old... old facade of Tokyo Station. It's kind of romantic, I guess. European-ish. Uh, Tokyo Station is modeled after Central Station in Amsterdam. And if you look at the two, if you Google Central Station with two A's, you'll get, um, the one in Holland, the Netherlands. And it's, of course, on a different scale, but you can definitely see the resemblance. Built in 1912, uh, in Central Station. It's such a beautiful station in Amsterdam. I'm taking you in there. So you can see there's like a table here. And usually there's like swans or ducks. Oh, there they are.
00:32:20 John Daub: Don't try to swim in the moat. I remember there was a British dude who said he lost his wallet. I don't think so. I think he just went in because it was too hot outside, so he decided to take a dip in here. And then all the police came, and I think the helicopter came, and he was arrested and deported, I think. Don't try to swim in the Imperial Palace moats, okay? It's like a big no-no. But I like getting here because you got, you have like these tables here, so you could eat your bento here. Although the chair's a little bit far away. Um, it's kind of nice in here. And the Imperial Palace is just straight ahead. So I thought I'd show you a little bit, a little bit of a place that I like to hang out.
00:33:25 John Daub: What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments if you see one of these Hato buses with Leo. Hey, Jeffrey. What do you think? The, uh... Hato bus and take you on a trip with me. Hato buses, it really is great, and I feel like I need to see it a million times. Without tourism at all, and the domestic tourism's... Um, I'm really happy that they're still here. One thing that they did, the city did to support them was they rented the Hato buses to get people to the vaccination centers. So a lot of senior citizens would come to Tokyo Station, and they'd get on the Hato buses, and the Hato buses would shuttle them to the mass vaccination center, which is a couple kilometers away. Um, now they could have taken taxis and stuff, but the city said that, look, we gotta help this company. What if Hato bus goes out of business when you return from the pandemic? So I'm really happy that they could manage to get through there.
00:35:02 John Daub: Everyone is hiring in Japan. But that hiring is all coming from the tourism sector. There's another Hato bus going right now. Nobody cares. The airports, the airlines, the bus companies, everybody is starting to hire. In a couple of months, prices will start to go down, because especially airfares are high, just based on the fact that there are not enough people. So the prices have doubled. In fact, Kanae Daub and I were thinking of going back to the United States this end of spring or early summer. But we can't because it's... It's literally three times the price. A lot of seats are sold out. It's just the demand is higher than the airlines kind of like that the last couple of months. So I'm guessing by summer, they're just gonna say, look, we gotta open up more routes, because now we're losing money because we could be taking advantage of more people. And then the other airlines are gonna open up the routes and lower the prices, and then the competition is gonna come into place again.
00:36:22 John Daub: But it does feel like... Peter von Gomm and I had a beer here once, right here on the corner. It's a good place to chill after a long Shinkansen ride to get into Tokyo. Maybe you just wanna be outside in the air and have a drink. This is one place you could come. After 5pm, a lot of business dudes. A lot of suits. This is where we're gonna end the livestream here. This is the back of Tokyo Station, or the front. I never could figure that out, but this is the Marunouchi side. And every time I come here, I'm just impressed, because you don't see red brick buildings in Tokyo much. But you do here. And all this empty space. They did such a wonderful job renovating it. For those that were here in 2010, you probably can tell the difference. But they really... They closed up the center there and made it into a park-like atmosphere. And that's just done so much to encourage people to come out and hang out in this area. And underground, there's shops and everything. So, that's all good.
00:37:43 John Daub: Yeah, Nightbot has just shared the Discord server. I encourage you all to go on to there. We have 16... 17,000 in our Discord server. People helping other people. If you're traveling to Japan, you have questions, there's always somebody who's here in Japan on the ground who'll be able to help you out as well. And you can always try to ping me and get me to answer. You can try. As tourism returns, I find myself looking back at the things that you guys are gonna see here. And this is kinda cool. Like these kiosks that they have around the city that offer Wi-Fi. You just can touch and the NFC will give you the password type of stuff. Touchable maps in different languages too. So, you'll find these almost everywhere in downtown.
00:38:32 John Daub: But probably in the next couple of days, I'm gonna make a video because there... A viewer had reminded me that Tokyo is not a city at all. And every time, like, you know, all the cable news networks and media outside of Japan talk about the city of Tokyo. There is actually no city of Tokyo. And I... I just... I knew that but I didn't realize it until somebody had reminded me recently. There's no city of Tokyo. It's a state. It's a prefecture. Tokyo-to. So when you write a letter to me, you would write in Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku. Chuo is the city. So the city hall that I go and get my stuff done is Chuo City. It's not Tokyo City. And that's pretty cool when you think about it, right? Tokyo is a metropolitan area but there's no... Metropolitan meaning what? Tokyo-to is considered like a state. So, metropolitan area is not a city.
00:39:45 John Daub: Or the metropolitan area is pretty big. Is... goes out to the mountains. It's massive. It's massive. So yeah, Valentino... Yokohama might even be considered a bigger city. Right? It's weird like that. Austin from Hawaii says, Aloha. Visiting in June. Joy, if you're watching this, I'll try to find you. I'll try to meet up with you but it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be really hard. But I'll try. Yeah, the state of Tokyo. Or the metropolitan area. When people ask me about the city of Tokyo, I always think about the 23 wards, which is like the five boroughs of New York. But New York is actually the city. You write New York, New York on an address. But we would write Tokyo, Chuo. And Chuo being the city. It's weird. And then you have a town which is, you know, the... The Chuo that you live in or the machi. Tokyo is not a city. It's not the biggest city. Maybe... It's also not a city. Osaka is the same thing. It's like a metropolitan area. It's Osaka-fu.
00:41:20 John Daub: Most livable city in the world. This year, it's Tokyo. No, it's not. Is it? Just funny. It's funny-haha. What's the weather prediction for next week? I don't know. It's the same. Same. There's a slight chill in the air. And I always thought that spring is chillier. Than winter. In the sense that you're prepared for winter. You're prepared for it to be cold. But in spring, you're prepared for warmer weather. But you get this air with chill in it. And it can feel colder in a way. In a weird way. I think... Somebody asked me, can you wear shorts in March? You can wear whatever you want. My feeling is this. I'm all for equality. And Japan is like... For gender equality is like ranked 107th in the world. It's pretty bad. But in a world where girls can wear miniskirts in March. Why can't guys wear shorts? I just think that's wrong.
00:42:29 John Daub: I think if you have a socially acceptable nice legs. If your legs are nice. What is that? It's like a radiology truck. That's... What's that for? If you have socially acceptably nice legs. Why can't you wear shorts? Discuss amongst yourself. I don't... For me, from around the end of April. From Golden Week until November. I'll wear shorts. And you can't stop me. I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown. I amuse you. I make you laugh. Yeah, I watch a lot of TV too. I remember all these movies. Lines from movies, right? Alright folks, that's all I got. I'm just happy we could hang out a little bit. Gotta get back to work.
00:43:32 John Daub: That's a New York cafe. Dean & DeLuca. I guess they have it downtown in the city areas. Because a lot of people go to New York on business and stuff. In the New York area. Alright. So, I'll see you in another livestream probably tomorrow. I'm gonna try to get out one a day. Get back to the Go channel a little bit in March. And then I'm gonna focus mostly on Only in Japan main channel for the rest of the year. So the number of livestreams is gonna go down a little bit. But I think that's a good thing. It's an investment. It's an investment in edited content. I think we need to do more of that. I'll see you tomorrow everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. Leave me a comment below. And don't forget to check out this video here. This is the Snow Age Wagyu beef if you haven't already. This is a new take on a brand of beef that I didn't know existed until this year. They say it's more tender and actually was. I just didn't realize that refrigeration and the way that the beef is made. Refrigerators actually has an impact on the taste of the goods in your refrigerator. And storing your stuff in snow makes more sense than I thought it would. The vegetables tasted better. I think it was the vegetables tasted better than the meat. But I could tell the difference in the snow aging of vegetables than I could in the meat. But it did have an impact. And if you just like Wagyu videos. This is one of them. Alright, see you guys.