00:00:00 John Daub: It opened the doors last year and the cherry blossoms are on the way. You can see it's extremely crowded. This is crazy. I did not expect it to be this crowded, but it is a Sunday. That's a lot of people. What's it going to be like in summer? How you doing everybody? So in this live stream, I'm going to be taking you around Asakusa a little bit to show you some of the changes that have happened. But more than that, let's go get a meronpan (melon bread). Let's go get some food.

00:00:37 John Daub: There's some street food here that's really great. And at the end of this, respect to the victims of the firebombing. We just celebrated the 77th anniversary, a year since the Tokyo firebombing, March 10th, 1945. There's a memorial that's on the river, so I'm going to go take a look at that at the end of this live stream. We're going to cut through here. My only worry is that the signal might not be so great. I'm shocked at the amount of people here. That's a good thing for the economy. I kind of already miss though the days when there was nobody here. If you are in Tokyo, you can come and find me. I do have some You Found Me cards, but I'm not going to be around for too much longer. I got to get back to work. If the signal does get a little poor, I apologize. This is a live stream. I'll do my very best to get into an area where you can see nice and clear. We're using Prism Live and 1080p. It's a beautiful live stream and I appreciate all of the support. Thanks guys. All right, let's get moving.

00:01:52 John Daub: I'm already starting to see cases too. Hello. Made in Japan. Yes. How you doing? Yeah, I see you on the wrong channel. Yeah, no, you are too. Thank you. Let's cut through here. I'm not going anywhere near that front. Oh my gosh. I'm having trouble just walking around here. Now here's Kaminarimon (thunder gate). If you've never seen a map of Asakusa you have now. So we're right here in the center of the screen. You see what you see in front of you on the screen on the right. This is the big gate that leads to Sensoji Temple founded, I believe it was 709 AD. And we're going to walk in this direction towards Sensoji Temple. This is a meronpan I like to get. Let's see how long the lines are for stuff. But I'm already getting the feeling like this is going to be a pretty crazy live stream here.

00:03:00 John Daub: All right, I'm just going to do it really quickly. Just going to go take a quick look. Oh my gosh. How's this signal holding up? That's a lot of people. Oh my. Hey, Michael Sassano is here. I have not seen Japan like this. This is a very, very, very happy feeling. Starting tomorrow, you no longer need to wear masks. I'm just a day ahead. I've always liked to stay a step ahead. Oh my gosh, this is crazy. That is a lot of people. And you can see here on Nakamise-dori (Nakamise shopping street), they have the cherry blossoms out to decorate the shops. All right, let's get out of this crowded area. There might be some places with some weak spots. So let's get away from this crowded street and into different areas where the signal might be a little bit better. Again, our mission is to get a meronpan and I could probably do it right here. The further away I get away from that area, the better. So we're going to cut across here. Let's go down the alley. Good things always happen down dark alleys. Thank goodness it's not dark.

00:05:10 John Daub: This street. So we're going to walk up in this direction. Try to avoid the crowds, which is impossible because we seem to be. Let's see what we could do. Try to get to a different area. Wow, this used to be a rest, a souvenir shop, but like an old family run business. Things have changed here. You can write in, Hey John, it's buffering. Hey, but don't complain about it. There's not much I can do. I need to hear from you guys. You are my eyes and ears on the other side. This is a really great inn if you're staying in the area. It's an old building. Got a lot of history to it. I know that this side was not as powerful either. There's no for the next couple of minutes, there's no like win-win solution. Crazy. Look at this. The shops are so full. Michael says, center, you're right. Much more crowded than I expected. Met upon on me, my friend. Thank you, Michael. Look at this. This is a new shop. I think it was aliens running it. There's aliens running it. Takoyaki. Is it Mexican food? Or is it takoyaki (octopus balls)? Or maybe they just put the best of both worlds. I'm guessing it's takoyaki. Yeah, it's up to your comfort level. I'm okay. Not wearing them. I'm done.

00:07:28 John Daub: Golden Week this year is the same as every year. It's somewhere between April 28th and May 5th. It's almost like clockwork. That's the way it goes. All right, we're gonna take a left here. We're gonna sneak through the back roads. It is really telling that the alleys are as crazy. Look at the crowd here. A lot of new cafes, a lot of new places have opened up. So I'm seeing that those, those pretty quick. This area has a lot of matcha. I remember doing a street food episode here, a live stream. And then there's the one with Eric Serfass and myself. We did it. Look at this roll cake. Oh man. This is a nice one stop and you can see Tokyo Skytree right there. I wonder if the signal's being transmitted from up there. Everybody's getting an Instagram shot of a... Gotta get your green matcha Instagram photos for sure. Wow, it's like a party out here.

00:08:56 John Daub: All right, let's cross Nakamise-dori. We're gonna go to the old avenue here. Take a little look to the right and wow. Looking down to Sensoji, it's just a sea of people, which is really nice to see. A lot of people are dressed up in kimono. It's kind of a fun thing and I've done it before too. To do the opening of the old channel, I rented a kimono here in 2012. They dressed me. I had it only for six hours. I took the train, went back home in front of a blue screen in my studio and I took video of it and I ran back and put the, and took off the kimono. It cost me, what is that, like a hundred, $150 or something. It was so worth it. Back then, not a lot of people, I don't think a lot of people really dressed up in the kimono. But now you see a ton of people doing it and that's really great because a lot of small business owners have created their business upon dressing up.

00:10:21 John Daub: Let's look back here. This is where the menchi katsu (minced meat cutlet) is and right now they're closed because they're making it or something. Wow. So they're kind of closed making it. They need time to make it. Interesting. Wow. They're sold out. That's crazy! I'm so happy! Arturo writes in here, John, I love this spot but this is ridiculous with the crowd and to think I'm coming to sakura season next week. I told you guys it wasn't going to be long before it just came. It looks like almost 2019 again. And you have masks half on and half off. And once again, for those that are thinking about it, Mitsukoshi Department Store, JR East, a lot of stores and merchants and businesses are saying you can wear a mask if you want to. You don't have to if you don't want to. It just depends on your own comfort level. It's up to you. I think the government had to make that kind of policy because people just didn't know. And now they do because it's a policy. I'm just a day early.

00:12:09 John Daub: You see the girls over there. They're in kimono in front of the pop color wall. That's kind of cool. What are they doing? Playing something for TikTok. We're taking a long way to get to the meronpan. I hope they still got whipped cream. I don't like the ice cream. I prefer whipped cream. These rickshaw drivers. Jinrikisha (人力車，pulled rickshaw). I'm really happy. And a lot of YouTubers have been featuring them too. So when they're featured, they get a lot of attention. And my job keeps them in shape. And it's really cool to see that. It makes it feel like it's old Tokyo. Here's some used kimonos. Check this out. Wow. Probably these are kimonos that were at the shops, for rental shops, that have been worn a thousand times. But they're still good. I mean, the thing is, I don't think a lot of people would wear that. I don't think they should allow cars to come down this road, to be honest with you. Stop a lot of street food on the left and right. That's thanks to social media.

00:13:56 John Daub: I've never had a fruit sandwich that I was happy with. The fruits all jammed in the front. It's nice to take. Enjoyed my fruit sandwich experience. $10 used kimonos. Exactly. Oh, here's the dango (skewered rice dumplings) shop that I featured a couple years ago. Look at the line. You gotta be kidding me. What? Look at the line. There's a line. That's awesome for them. I don't want to wait. I never had to wait before. Wow. All right, let's go. Stay on target, John. We're going for the meronpan. Does anyone know what this street is? Can anyone name the street? Who watched the episode on the main channel?

00:15:18 John Daub: Jason, this is Mission Meronpan right now. Yeah, a lot of these are old shacks going back to the Showa period (1926-1989). Some of them have been redone like this one here on the left. And I like it that they've renovated it. It makes it look cleaner, more inviting. I know some of these places probably have been waiting for years and years. Family run businesses probably taking a long time. But I think it's a good thing that they're doing it. And now we have the weekend and these places are packed out. And that's really, really good. You can go down this alley and find some more. But I would say the weekends starting on around Thursday. But when tourists are here, it's crowded every day. It's just a nice place. This is one of the places that I love to come because I love to come down the street. And when I'm with friends, I do like to come out here. This is because you can get that experience of sitting outside and drinking and eating foods. And that's a really cool experience. You don't get that in a lot of places because Japanese don't like to eat outside on the streets. But they do here in this shitamachi (downtown, old-town) in this section of Tokyo. You won't find that in Shibuya, people eating on the streets. Although they open up that new shopping mall where they do have these kind of benches. But it's sort of not the same. It's all kind of closed in. You know?

00:17:01 John Daub: All right, we're close. I can smell the meronpan. Fingers crossed the signal holds on in there. Now, my wife doesn't drink alcohol. So she'll go, but she doesn't drink any booze, which is good. And as a result, I drink way less too. That's a great thing. Rainer's here! Have a nice Sunday walk. My younger cousin is in Osaka right now. Good to see you. Hey, Rainer. Also, I want to get in touch with you about... I think some of the stuff from the last Kickstarter didn't arrive. So now I can send that back to you because all the mail... And that's another thing. The mail has really improved situations over the last several months. And after I got the Hokkaido documentary out and all the goods to everybody, I can go back and make sure that you get... Resend some of the stuff that didn't arrive by sea mail. Which was the only thing. We had EMS, which was super overpriced. Sometimes that wasn't even an option. We had sea mail. And then it took three and a half months, four months for some people to arrive. What are you going to do? Let's go this way.

00:18:30 John Daub: Yeah, Rainer's awesome. You and your mom, I'm so thankful you guys are here and joining us on this trip. This is new. So they finished a construction here in this like some side of massive sweets factory. What? Hey, Rainer, the Hokkaido video has been out for like three months, bro. Check the update. Hope you guys... I hope you can see that. We put a lot of work into that thing. This is interesting. It's like a matcha cafe type of deal. But look at the massive size of it. And it goes up a couple of floors. This can't be all one place. So I guess it's been under construction for a while. Finally, it's open with the tourists back. People didn't come. So I want to take you... To the other side. Wow. I thought they were cast from Disney. That's right. I guess it's a factory upstairs. Let's see what they have on offer.

00:20:05 John Daub: I love the contrast between the hojicha (roasted green tea) chocolate and the regular matcha chocolate. And then they have usually different colors of them with different levels of matcha-ness. That's kind of neat. And here you can find eight grams of matcha, four grams of matcha. And as the matcha level goes up, so does the price. That's just cheap. That's genius. That's so smart business-wise. Do you really need a super matcha? Four grams can't taste that bad. I think it's just more caffeine. These matcha places are popping up all over the place. And that's... You know, matcha is really healthy. But I'll tell you, when I have matcha, if I have matcha after like 2 p.m., I can't sleep because the caffeine is stronger than coffee. Or my body rejects it or something. I don't know. Oh, look! We've got festival food! Awesome! When you hear a generator, that means there's festivals! Shopping! What? That's Kanae's favorite. Wow! They used to have the festival food on the other side of Sensoji, and now they have it here. And that's really awesome. Maybe I gotta go for some festival food. Is it only on the weekends? Is there something really going on? Jason, Mission Meronpan. Mission Meronpan. Stop. Stay on target. I feel like Luke Skywalker sometimes, you know? I gotta be told by Obi-Wan to stay on target. My expanding waistline cannot take too much.

00:21:58 John Daub: This was not here over the... This is the first time I've seen it on this side. That's great. Oh my gosh. I think there's a line for the meronpan. I might not even be able to get one. Oh my gosh. This is the line for one. Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me? Oh, there's no way. So this is... Yuki-san is the president of the company, and he told me... He studied about the fermentation process and how to make it fluffier and better. And I featured his business in 2013. And he moved to a larger location. And look at the line. Holy macaroni. I think it goes pretty quickly. Hold on. I guess we gotta just wait for it, huh? Oh my god. The line keeps getting longer. I need to stand up here. What do I do? How fast does this... Will this go? Is it worth the wait? I need to shave. I don't know. Would you stay this long for a meronpan? I hope it moves fast. They must be baking a lot of them.

00:23:39 John Daub: I thought that this amusement park was gonna go out of business, but somehow they hung on. It's got these old retro rides, and it's pretty cheap to get in. This is also a meronpan. I guess you can escape the crowds by going in there, because you have to pay to get in there. Very interesting. So, this is a wall where people usually come to take photos, and I think the background changes quite often. Today it looks like it's some kind of origami pinwheel. I wonder if it moves in this... I guess it moves if it does get windy here, but right now it's not very windy. Oh my gosh. I don't think I have the patience to wait. It's weird. For two and a half, three years, there was no line. I would just get it, and now I have to wait. It just feels weird. The line is moving. I can give it that. You can see people are eventually getting it. There's a group of people who are munching on the meronpan over there in a circle. That's how zombies eat. They hoard. They find a victim, and then circle it, and they eat it. I did the same thing. You gotta get a circle and eat your meronpan. How do you do that if you're just one person? You have to hug the meronpan.

00:25:44 John Daub: Oh look, they put it like Disney. Can you just take those? I don't think they're real. Or they're real stale. Bottom line, they've put little attractions in line like Disneyland, so you feel like you have something to look at. And here we have the meronpan to look at. That's interesting. And it comes in different colors? Or is it different burn levels? Are those real? Should I touch it? And they just rejected ones? I'm afraid to touch it. I'm not gonna touch it. I feel rude. The line behind me has gotten long too. There's a lot of people behind me. So there's a never-ending line of customers for this place. There's some sweet fish over there. Ayu (sweetfish). All right, we're getting close there. This is to Michael Sassano. Thanks, brother. Let's see here. I got a 500 yen coin. This is an old one. The new ones are pretty sweet. They're bi-color. Oh, we're so close.

00:28:10 John Daub: I never get the ice cream. I always go whipped cream. You can get coffee here. Oh, hey. I eat whipped cream and I go to the supermarket. Thank you. You're welcome. Nice. Nice. Ice cream. Thank you so much. You guys, we just finished everything ready. We just have bags of them waiting. You want a few, Yuki?- None. Bye. Thank you. I got it. Let's get out of here. Run away. Get away from the crowds. I got one. I got one. Get away. I got to go into the little corner by myself here. Was I followed? Is anybody around? No. All right. We're good. Let's see this. Let's see what five minutes of waiting got. Whoa. It's still hot. Oh my gosh. Jason, mission complete. Almost. Now I got to eat it. Warming up the muscles. Oh my God. Now I know why it's in the envelope. The whipped cream just oozed out. I just licked my palms. This is what happiness looks like. Whipped cream is the best. Oh my gosh. With the Hokkaido ones, I'm not sure. I don't compare. I just enjoy. Yeah, I don't think so, pigeon. I had to wait five minutes through this. If you stand here for five minutes, I'll give you a piece.

00:31:32 John Daub: Wow. Yari, you have no idea. Yari, it's really good. All right, let's go. Let's cut across here and I'm going to take you to the firebombing memorial so we can pay our respects. It's a memorial that not a lot of people know about, but I do because it's important. Asakusa Hanayashiki (Asakusa Flower Park amusement park). There you go. Asakusa Hanayashiki. It's a thousand yen to get in. Like eight bucks. It's open until ten to six. All right, let's cut across and to the memorial. Oh my gosh, that's so worth it. They say you're not allowed to walk and eat. All right. I know the rules. And then you can break them. Learn the rules before you break them. So you've learned them. Now you can break them. Just make sure you don't... You don't want to lose them. You want everything. Leave places cleaner than you left them. And one of the reasons why they don't like you to walk and eat is because you usually drop it. You make a mess. Oh, wow.

00:33:19 John Daub: They sound they are not from Japan. I think almost no one who wears a kimono here is from Japan. But I find that taking photos of visiting visitors who are wearing the kimono is really nice and they all will happily do it. But then the tourists think. Oh, look at the beautiful Japanese girls in kimono I found. And they're from Taiwan. And that's funny to me. But it's also really cool because I like the fact that visitors come here and dress up in kimono. This is the back of Sensoji Temple. And during the Sanja Matsuri (Sanja Festival), which is one of the big three in Japan. Maybe I think it's the biggest in Tokyo. It's on this side, the back of it on that day where you will see members of the tattooed clan. Dare I say the name back here against the wall. And you can get shots if you come in the morning as they prepare to conquer the streets. Because that's how they roll back here. How to destroy the view. Stick your face in a vat of whipped cream. They didn't give me a napkin. What? How do I get the last pieces? How do I get to put my face literally down into this? This is no other way. All right, here we go. So crunchy.

00:36:30 John Daub: First, we're going to say goodbye to Sensoji Temple. And you can see I don't want to go there. It's so crowded. A lot of people going up the steps to give the prayers, take pictures, get an omamori (protective charm). I always like to get an omamori, which is about 500 yen. You can get an amulet. Which will protect you for your car, help you with studying. Here's a sakura tree. Is this a Somei Yoshino? No, I don't think it is. Whoa, that's a big crow. That's an omen. Bad's going to happen. I think it already did with that whipped cream. That feeling so great. Yeah, we showed you that there were some varieties of the cherry blossoms that have already bloomed. Some of them are already done. And this one looks like it's just starting to bloom. I usually can tell if it's finished if you look on the ground. So we don't see a lot of petals or they've been blown away. So I think it's still blooming. Maybe it's been cleaned up because we're at a temple and they're very good at cleaning it. Yeah, that's not Somei Yoshino. This is a different variety. Let's get ahead of the crowd. It's a tour group with a yellow flag. Welcome to Japan. Welcome. I wonder if you took him out and you got a yellow flag, you could leave this group somewhere. Somewhere different. Have to take him out somehow.

00:38:34 John Daub: We're cutting across the now. Jinrikisha versus bus. No one's chasing through this real quick across the street here. We're getting closer to Tokyo Skytree. You can see that up there across the street is Sumida Park. So now you saw we just left Sensoji Temple. We're cutting across past where it says the sightseeing bus. I think that's what this is, right? And then you see a line of cherry blossoms, the pink. That's what we're going right there. And not far from there is where the memorial to the Tokyo firebombing victims of 1945 are. And of course, there's the highest freestanding tower in the world. Tokyo Skytree. I got an episode on that coming soon. Ever since the earthquake in Turkey. All the experts have been booked up and I'm trying to get an expert. To talk about. How Japan handles some of the earthquakes here and that's been really tough. Sometimes it just takes a year to make an episode. Keep a lot of things on the burner. Beautiful area, isn't it? And it's so much freer when you leave. No more whipped cream. I shaved it off. My tongue. All right. We're just about there.

00:40:48 John Daub: I noticed that. It doesn't take very far to get into residential areas in Tokyo around the tourist attractions. Even Shibuya has a residential area and then not a lot of people know about. You have to walk about... I don't know, like eight minutes away from Hachiko Scramble and you're in a residential area with very expensive real estate. What is he going? Jinrikisha is going fast. We caught up to the other one. Oh, yeah. It's a green light. Green light. Look, I didn't make it. There's a cop there. Looking at me. He knew what I was trying to do. It's still blinking. It's good to go, right? No, I better not. Patience. Maybe a Ferrari will go by. Lord, transport for wagyu. Oh, you can smell it, too. That whipped cream feels a little dodgy in the gut. All right. I need a little bit of help here. I haven't been to this memorial in years. So if anyone is looking at the Google map, this is live. You guys can guide me so I don't get too lost to Memorial, the firebombing memorial.

00:42:53 John Daub: There's two really nice people getting a ride from a jinrikisha driver who looks like he's in starting position. He's really in. He should take off that mask. She's fine. Or he. I can't tell. Awesome. They're great guides as well. Guides with information. And I think it's good that people do that because then you can also practice your English and Japan certainly needs more people learning English to help with the tourism industry going forward. And here you have a lot of people getting a photo with, of course, the Tokyo Skytree in the background, which is really cool. The wind has really picked up here on the riverside. Sorry about that, guys. I didn't have I have an external mic. If it gets really bad, let me know when I can. I can try to fix it with the external mic and plug that in. This is Sumida Park, I believe, is what it's called. Yes, Sumida Park. This is a wonderful place in the cherry blossoms, but we're not quite there yet. But we kind of are. Check it out. This might be one of the spots to get a picture of the Tokyo Skytree with the cherry blossoms. One of those shots that a lot of you are looking for for your Instagram feeds.

00:44:41 John Daub: Zaizakura (double cherry blossom), I believe that's the variety there. That's the kind of cherry blossom that they also pickle. You know, they don't use Somei Yoshino, the most prevalent cherry blossom, sakura, in Japan. That old boat. Is it old, or is it new, or is it old and it was made to look old, but it's new? I don't know. Hey Gary Johnson's here! Hey Gary! It's so peaceful out here. The Sumida River just looks different. It just looks different from this side. I live in Chuo Ward, not far from the Sumida River, and it's just really... it's a different feeling. Look at this! Oh my! Train going right over it! That's a Tobu Line. I'm sure you get so much love in Japan. I love it. That's great. But too, the zaizakura has a really interesting smell. Alright, let's go on a little bit. There's another one over here. They're taking wedding photos. As someone who is married and has taken wedding photos, there's no need to linger. There's a lot of wedding photos being taken here.

00:48:26 John Daub: Two, one, let there be poo. That's... we affectionately call it the golden poo. You might have a different name for it. It's a proper name. Wow! So I'm guessing this is zaizakura. There's so many varieties of it. Let me see what we got here. Oh no, it's not. This is the Okanzakura (late-blooming cherry). These are some Yoshino here, and they're just starting to bud. So if you're coming to Japan, you're angry at me, a couple people were angry. They said to do something about this early blooming. Don't worry! There's just different varieties of sakura that are blooming at different times. That's, you know, normal. And here we've got... These are the Somei Yoshino that are just... They're waiting for you! So if you bought your ticket like months in advance, you're going, dude, really? What's up with this? Don't worry about it. There's just... There's lots of cherry blossoms. These bloom every year around the beginning of March. My advice to you is to... Even if you come in April and it's done in Tokyo, because I think around April 3rd, around April 3rd, the blossoms, the first wind or rain that comes, they're all gone. They just scatter. And it's really sad. Sometimes, just sometimes, you'll have a couple of days with no wind, no rain, and it just lingers and those cherry blossoms hold on to the little nub of a stem. And then the rain will just come pouring down and there you go. It's all on the ground and it's the saddest thing in the world to see a bunch of white petals, like, dead.

00:50:36 John Daub: Where are they going to go? They're dead. They just float. It's like the scene from Forrest Gump with the feather flying. Except it doesn't fly. It just lands in a gutter. Those who don't know that you can actually walk across here, you can eat these aizakura (edible cherry). That's the pink variety. That's the one that you'll see in confections. And they pickle that with a little bit of salt. But the Somei Yoshino, I don't see that pickled. They actually have farms to make that. So it's quite an interesting thing. Cherry blossom confections. Foods. You can get it on Amazon.co.jp. You get a bag of them. Take it back home. That whipped cream meronpan is really starting to stick to my gut. Michael R. Murphy is here. A little bit of this and that. All right, let's go take a look at our friend space boat. Oh, what happened? I forgot to go to the memorial stone. I can't remember if it's this way or the other way. I think it's still this way. I almost forgot. Does anybody have Google Maps open? Somebody guide me to the Tokyo firebombing memorial.

00:52:24 John Daub: It's to the north. I don't even know what north is here. I'm just going to go this way. What is he going to be doing? I don't have a compass. I should have a compass. All right, here's a map. If I access the phone compass, we will not have a live stream anymore. This live stream will end. I'm guessing it's further this way. Oh, there's Kototoi Bridge this direction. Okay. Oh, yeah, you can see here. There's six varieties of the cherry blossoms. You see it in this park. And you can see they start to bloom here. The first one, the Okanzakura, is the first one on the chart here. That's blooming right now. And you can see the Somei Yoshino and the other ones are blooming in the center. Somei Yoshino is at the last third of March, which is coming up. And then it'll be blooming here until the middle of April, it says. So that's really good information. There's the chart there. The Kanzan (showy cherry) is the last flower to bloom, apparently. Yeah, they all do. But I need to bring a second iPhone in order to look at it because I'm not going to cut off the screen. I know it's going to happen. Thank you, Johnny, in Cleveland. Go Cavs. That's a nice shot. What do you think? Pretty. You can get that shot here at Sumida Park. There's another one. Another Okanzakura straight ahead. And there's the dude who's playing the music. I believe the memorial is better served if we go up the street here. They're better, easier found. The last time I was here was like, I don't know, a long time ago.

00:55:19 John Daub: A lot of people who get married come to this park. I'm not sure the weekend's a great idea, though, because it's just so crowded. Check it out. Cool shot. That's true. I'm not sure normal people do work on weekdays. I guess you get married whenever you can. But you can take the pictures anytime, too. I would take a day off so that you get the places to yourself. But a lot of people, they like to take the photos at Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi side because of the red brick building. And the only way to do it is to get up at 5 a.m. before crowds of people come. And there's nobody there and it's such a peaceful background. Or you could just CG it. I don't know why. I guess it's a memory. It's romantic to be there because then you can come back to the same spot 20 years later. And you know that brick station's going to be there. Alright, we're closing in on our final destination here. Now that was a copyright music comedian street performer guy. He's got a drum and a puppet. This is such a big contrast to where we just were 12 minutes ago at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Watch the playback if you want to take a look at that. That was amazing to see how different it was. How different Japan is now compared to just a year ago. There's nobody here. Now there's lots of people.

00:57:37 John Daub: Alright, now I'm trying to find how do I get across the street. Can I go under the bridge? Red Hot Chili Pepper fans would go under the bridge. I found it. Okay, there it is. Chili Peppers are here. A couple weeks ago we heard them in the livestream. We heard them tuning their music, their instruments in the background. We were in the park across the street from Tokyo Dome. I was showing you the ume blossoms and we could hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers warming up. That was so cool. It's like, what is that noise? Who's here? They said Red Hot Chili Peppers. What? How come nobody knew? And they played in Osaka and they played in Tokyo Dome. And I think they continued on their tour. That would be cool to see them walking around or something. I wonder if they've got You Found Me cards. Probably not. There were some people who were tracking them to Osaka and then when they arrived, you can see the video on YouTube, the band arrived at Osaka Station and there's people just like following them with their cameras. I can see that being kind of annoying. A lot of security. Group is so amazing. Even after 40 years, right? 30 years, they're still big. And people that go to their concerts, they're still young. They're always making new fans. That is just a testament of how good that they are. Yeah, Flea, you're always welcome, buddy. Not only in Japan. Anthony as well. The whole group. What am I saying?

00:59:44 John Daub: Nobody's here. We're just a couple days removed from it. If you are in the area, I think it is nice to come here and pay your respects. There's some fresh flowers here because they did have memorial service here on the 10th. I didn't get a chance to go to that, unfortunately, but I filmed at the... I want to go to the shrine in Ryogoku. Here it is. This memorial is for those that lost their lives in the great air raid of 1945. Over a hundred thousand people. More than Hiroshima. And it's often forgotten because a nuclear weapon wasn't used. But you know, this is my home and a lot of people lost their lives here in the city I live in and you have to pay your respects. So for everybody, you know, we give our respect. Yeah, respects to the people here. 77th anniversary of the firebombing, March 10, 1945. Yeah, it was horrible. I've seen the museum, I've seen the photos, it was just really rough. You see a thousand paper cranes here. Lots of people died. We're so far removed from World War II. Japan is one of the biggest allies that we have, probably for the Western world. And after living here for 25 years, half my life now has been here in Japan. And my grandfather fought in World War II, and Kanae's grandfather fought in World War II on the Japanese side of it. And now we're married and have Leo. So I think we've put all of the things that we have in the past behind us. The wars that we fought. They're horrible. No war should be fought. That's the last resort, really. And in my mind, that's not a resort at all in the 21st century.

01:02:09 John Daub: But yeah, I do tear up when I now think about some of the stories that I heard from people who lived in Tokyo. Because I did interview people and talk to the older generation about how, what was the occupation like. And I did not hear anybody who had anything negative to say about the United States. The occupiers in the country. That is a huge testament. I heard only positive stories of generosity. A lot of the people didn't even want to be fighting in World War II. Just regular citizens. When the Americans came, it all ended. It was a lot of misunderstanding. And, gosh, World War II is such a tough subject to cover. But I think it's an important one that we don't forget. Right? I think a lot of our grandfathers or great-grandfathers. Or even fathers were either fought or were somehow involved in that war. And we shouldn't forget about it. Right? Jacqueline writes in, no comment. Yeah. You just pay your respects and understand. It's a deep, deep topic. I'm making a video on this topic. There's also a really awesome movie out right now. If you're in Japan, please do go check it out. It's called Paper City. I believe it's still playing in theaters for a little bit longer. He worked for three, four years on this video. Australian film producer. I met him for just a brief second on the 10th in Ryogoku. Really, really nice guy. He's been in Japan for a very long time. And we have the same kind of affinity for this country. And he, you know, respect. And his film is awesome.

01:04:14 John Daub: I don't know if it'll be on Netflix or something. It's up for some awards. Maybe not the Oscars, which is going on right now. But Paper City is the name of it. And the trailer looks incredible. And he interviews, he follows three people that were in Tokyo during the firebombing. And discusses their experiences, what they saw, what they felt. To go back to those places, to the park. And to look at the park and the surroundings. And then hear the stories that they say. I'm not going to ruin it for you. I'm also making something very similar. But again, you know, like a 12-minute format for Only in Japan. But he put together an incredible documentary. And it's heartbreaking. And it's also so important because the people who tell the story, they don't want you to forget that this happened in their city. And it's more important than ever to get, to hear them before they're not here. And the sad thing is the... And the, over the course of the last few years, and I got a chance to meet him very briefly. The curator of the firebombing museum has passed away. And I mean, he was quite old. But he shared so many stories with people over the years. And those stories live on on YouTube, which is what I think is great about this platform. Why I love it so much. These stories will stay here. And you can learn from them. I don't think a lot of the younger generation. I was born in the middle of the 1970s. So I'm sort of in between the end of World War II and today. So it's the people that I knew and grew up with that were older were either baby boomers or had fought in the war. So I got to hear a lot of that when I was growing up. Or not. You just read it on people's faces. A lot of people didn't want to talk about it. But I'm really happy that people do want to talk about it. And then we don't forget about it.

01:06:19 John Daub: So that's where the memorial is. When you lose family in the war, either fighting in it or as a victim of it. Gosh. We don't want to forget. But you learn from it. And it shouldn't let you bring you down. But you have to pay respects. Because I think that they would appreciate that too. They're watching. Alright, let's go back. Towards Asakusa. These fat wheel bikes are really growing in popularity. What do you guys think? Leave me a comment below. The city of Tokyo, all these buildings that you see around us are brand new. I mean, in the sense that Japan is such an old country. And here, look at this old looking Merrill shoe shop. Japan is such an old country. History going back thousands and thousands of years. And yet, almost nothing in the city of Tokyo remains. In its original state beyond like 1945, you know. So much was lost in that firebombing. You can't go back in hindsight and change it. You can't debate that. It's done. You have to learn to move on from it. And that's... It's so hard. This is something I find more and more of too. Hattoya Asakusa. This is just a little... They're making matcha for people standing. Like it's a cafe. Standing matcha cafe. I've never seen that before. Wow.

01:09:02 John Daub: All right, everybody. Yeah, if you want to discuss this further, we have a community on Discord. Please go over there and you can continue to discuss it. Leave me questions. You can even tag me if you have something you want to talk about. This is this month's postcard. It is totally awesome. And I just sent them out yesterday from Tokyo Station. This helps to support the channel. I give these out every month. And the collections that grow over the years are pretty awesome. On the back is a picture of me actually there. And the snow walls are... Gosh, it's one of those places that's so far away in Toyama. But if you do go there, you're rewarded. It's just an amazing thing to be among these snow walls, nature above you. And to see the buses, which are quite larger than us, to look so small in the face of nature. That's awesome. So that postcard has gone out and it's on the way. And I put a very nice stamp on the back of it. With a natural scene from Tokyo Station. Japan. The stamps over the years have been... We've had Doraemon stamps. We've had anime stamps. Pokemon stamps. I try to find the coolest ones to put on there because I love stamps. You put so much artwork on a little teeny stamp. It's pretty cool to me. I appreciate the support, guys. It's just fun for me to send these out. We have some backers that have been part of it for over five years now. Who have every single one. And it's just impressive to me. To see the collection. Oh, there's Asakusa Station. You can see the train. The train and the terminal.

01:10:54 John Daub: Some of the supporters want meronpan instead of postcards. I'm going to have to get a postcard of a meronpan. And each one I'll stain them with a little bit of whipped cream. That would be pretty funny. Al Santos is here. Thank you, buddy. Oh, hello. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Oh, careful. That's nice. That's nice. Oh, she said Only in Japan. Oh, cool. Imagine how weird that is. I'm just walking right by. All right. So I guess one month we'll have to have a meronpan with whipped cream postcard. And on the back, you'll have me with whipped cream all over my face. That was pretty nasty. Oh, that's you can't erase that from your mental picture now, can it? It is what it is. And for me, it's back to work. I've got a lot of work to do. I'm going to go to a Japanese chicken farm that I went to visit in Miyazaki as well as my favorite. Well, top five dish in Japan. I'm going through some of the dishes for episodes. Chicken nanban (fried chicken with tartar sauce), one of my favorites. Oh, my gosh. The tartar sauce that they put on there made from pickles and stuff on top of a deep fried breaded piece of chicken with a very tangy sauce that it's been dipped in after it's been breaded and deep fried. Just a little bit of crunchiness on the sides of it. Oh, it is amazing. And Miyazaki is the home of it. And two chefs from a little restaurant called London in a small town north of Miyazaki City came up with the concept and then they had a fight or something and then they broke off in the two strains of chicken nanban. One of them more of a vinegary taste. The other one that creamy tartar sauce. And guess what? Guess which one won the tartar sauce? Chicken nanban. And it took me ages to find a chicken farm that would let me film it. So that's why we're going there. Because of all the risks. Here we're looking through towards Sensoji Temple, across the street. You can see at the end of it, the gate going into there.

01:13:35 John Daub: Yeah, we're going to end the live stream right in front of the Asakusa station here. Yeah, this part of the station is quite old, isn't it? On the backside. Looks really retro. The steel garters a little bit rusty. It's been painted over a couple of times across the street here. The third one is the main. Since we've done a meetup. I think two and a half years since the pandemic. I'm not quite sure when but usually will do a live stream with it and it's really cool to see everybody who comes out to say hi. No need please just no need to bring us gifts especially sweets. Oh my gosh we've got so many really delicious sweets from around the world. I'm on a very strict diet after this meronpan. After the meronpan. I'm back on the diet. I don't even think I could do a diet. It's hard the job. Sulo's been waiting since 2020 to come. Right now the flights are super expensive we were gonna go back to the US for summertime but we just couldn't because the price of the flights were three times more than when we went in 2021. And it's just so high. And with Leo I think we can wait. One of the reasons why the flights are high is... If someone wants to help if somebody wants to give them anything. They don't have enough flights they haven't increased them really and the demand is so high right now everything is booked so when they open up more routes which they're going to be really slow to do because they want to try to maximize the demand the price to try to get back money that they lost I reckon around summer it'll just become competitive again where the airlines are competing if United Airlines has five flights to Japan and JAL has one you know JAL's gonna start to increase the flights because they want to get passengers paying on their airlines so that's how it usually works competition is a good thing see here welcome to Taito City inside of Tokyo the state is Tokyo this is the station for the Tobu line the subway that was in this direction and that's where i'm headed in so i hope you guys enjoyed it it was a fun pretty fun hour and change get to hang out a little bit but i am so happy because japan is back it feels like it did in 2019 that area where all the tourists are it is packed if you're just joining us now go back and take a look at it because it was just like mind-blowing to me to see so many people in this one spot starting tomorrow there's no need to wear masks inside of some of the department stores it's just up to your comfort level now you can decide whether or not you want to wear a mask and i kind of ditched it a while ago but do what makes you feel comfortable now japan officially has announced this so if you want to wear a mask you can wear it if you don't want to wear it you don't have to wear it a lot of people here don't want to a lot of people want to wear it so that's cool but the great thing about tomorrow is we don't have to keep hearing about people talking about it anymore all right do what you want to do dude it's a free country sort of just remember you're not in your country you don't have rights the same way sort of different but starting tomorrow i'm not talking about it anymore all right it's done jr jr said you don't have to wear them either welcome to the new world japan and opening up the country really didn't do all this damage that they thought it might do right it's been pretty good for japan all right everybody thanks so much for watching this has been a lot of fun i appreciate all the super chats for the meronpan and uh i'll see if i can bring something home for you guys for the Kanae leo they're having a nice time with grandpa today see you tomorrow another live stream