00:01 John Daub: And that is the train arriving at Kichijoji Station. That's the Chuo Honsen. You can also get here by the Sobu Line. And in this episode, I'm going to be taking you from this station, Kichijoji, all the way to Mitaka through Inokashira Park. This is going to be a lot of fun. Let's get moving. It is a cloudy day, kind of rainy. I think it's a perfect day.

00:31 John Daub: Here comes the Sobu Line. You can see the colors are different. That's yellow. The other one is orange. Those are the two that will get you here from Shinjuku or Shibuya Station, taking a private line. Let's follow the crowd down, and hopefully the signal will be strong as I take you through here. Here's a map to let you know. It's about 18 minutes to get there, but I guarantee you it's going to take a lot more time for us.

01:06 John Daub: You want to take the park exit, which is the south gate. There's a lot to see here in Kichijoji, but this is the west gate. Make sure you take the right exit here. How you doing, everybody? I arrived here on JR. I switched trains at Ichigaya. I don't get to this area of Tokyo very much, but I took a poll and asked people where they want to go, and Mitaka Kichijoji was pretty high on that list. So let's go out this park exit, and I will take you to Ghibli. We're going to Ghibli! The Ghibli Museum!

02:03 John Daub: Boom. We are out. Park exit right there. Let's do it. So the walk to get there is kind of interesting. I like it better than going to Mitaka Station. A lot of people will go to Mitaka Station, and you're walking through kind of city. It's not a really pretty walk. Getting off at Kichijoji, maybe even spending some time here is better. Let's take the steps.

02:45 John Daub: I'm already lost. I can't remember the last time I came here. Wait, which way is the park? Oh, this way, okay. Oh, this is funny! You guys want to hear a funny story? Alright, this is a really funny story. Last time I was here, might have been Simon and Martina, who are two YouTubers, they had a Halloween party here, it was like 2016, and a bunch of us had all come together to celebrate at their house. It was the first time for me to do any kind of this YouTuber event. And who was here? Rachel and Jun, Sharla, Chris Broad, Simon and Martina, Dan, who was the cameraman, was there, Makayla? And a couple of other people, I think. Oh, Tay, somebody, some fashion vlogger. And I remember walking in through here, and the only time I could remember was the only time that I ever met Chris. I still remember it, and I don't know why, he was just standing here, and he looked down and he saw me, and just gave one of these smiles, I remember.

04:14 John Daub: That's a funny story. I don't know why I remember that, that was the only time I've ever met the other YouTuber on the other side. Alright, let's get walking. Taylor, yeah, that was her name, that's right. Oh, you guys have a good memory. That was 2016? Oh my gosh. And the only times I came to Kichijoji were to see my friends Simon and Martina, who we'd go hang out in some of the cafes, or at their house, because they had a really nice house here. I'd often go drinking, and I would crash on their sofa. That was before I was married. Alright, enough of that.

04:43 John Daub: As you can see, Kichijoji is an amazing place to live, because look at all of the bars and restaurants and places to go in and drink. It's just awesome to just look at, coming out of the park exit. The other side is even more colorful if that's possible. I think I was the oldest one of that YouTube group as well, I just didn't feel like I fit in. Alright, let's go through here. I know where I'm going, mostly, but that's what the map is for. So as soon as I get lost, I will refer to this map.

05:25 John Daub: This takes us past the only, well, the biggest L.L. Bean, so I can even go shopping there a little bit later. But you know, it's not that long, it's only about 20 minutes to get there. It's not too far. This is the Marui Building. There's a Don Quixote over there as well. So actually, you could go around here and then take a left, and that'll take you maybe a little bit faster. You can see there's another route, the gray one, which is four minutes faster. But that's not the adventurous route. This is.

06:08 John Daub: It's a good place to get lunch or breakfast before you go to the Ghibli Museum, if you can get tickets. I've heard how hard it is to do that. Now let's cross the street here, and then we'll have a little bit more relaxed. So you can see the walk over here. There's a green light. You can walk across the street. It's pretty easy to get here, and it's not hard to miss this. So to start off, it's pretty easy.

06:43 John Daub: Just to look back. You can see the Kichijoji. Let's get moving. Now, there's some really nice cafes before you get into Inokashira Park (Inokashira Koen). Inokashira Park is one of my favorites at cherry blossom time. It's really colorful. It's green. I'm trying to think. I said it's really colorful, and I stopped for a second. I said, wait a second. It's just pretty much green. I can't think of another color. But it's a great park.

07:27 John Daub: If you do come in the summer, they do have a zoo. There's a place where you can see elephants, I believe. There's a little bit older elephant. One of the places that I love about it is that there's a squirrel park in there. And I remember going in there and getting somewhat attacked by the squirrels. And you know, I guess they're in a cage, sort of, a walk-in cage. They want out. So if I was a squirrel, I also would attach myself onto me and try to make an escape. Right? Squirrels are not smart. They're very intelligent creatures. They survive outside in the winter with nuts. It takes a lot to do that. All right.

08:13 John Daub: Here's the biggest L.L. Bean in Japan, I think, for those of you from Maine. This dream has been brought to you by a shop that used to guarantee all its clothes for life, but no longer does because too many people started to return them over the last 10 years. That's what they said. They told me they used to do it for life, but they don't anymore because people took advantage of it too much. Now, L.L. Bean feels like fast fashion, but I still have a couple shirts from there. All right.

08:56 John Daub: So you can either go on the left or the right of the building. I took a left for a reason. And we're going now to the left. But if you went right, you would take a left. All right. Just refer to that map. We're good. We're about to go into the park side of it. So we've got through the Kichijoji Station area.

09:46 John Daub: This is an awesome little entry into the park because you have these shops selling fashion. It has a different feel to it, much more relaxed, almost like a village rather than the city of Tokyo. A lot of trees and plants. And again, it is quite green. Let's get a little 360 around here. Kichijoji's quite often ranked as the top place to live in Tokyo, and you can kind of feel why. Just by looking at it the last five minutes, it's lighter. It feels more free out here. It's not so like all put together, crowded. But more than that, it's a little bit more relaxed. You got like these really trendy bars and cafes and places for coffee and lots of really good restaurants. Pricey, but very good. I think that makes it an amazing place to live because every day you're in this paradise.

11:09 John Daub: I remember sitting down. It's hard to disassociate this place with my friends. Here's the melon. Starbucks got something good. It's hard to disassociate my friends in this place, but we would often sit in a cafe and drink and sip coffee with them. And we would talk about how amazing it is to live here and why I don't. I move out here and then I would look at the prices of the rent and go, yeah, it's actually cheaper where I live in the center than it is out here, which is pretty crazy. All right, let's get a move on. I think you're getting a feel for the area now. We've moved away from the city and going straight into it.

12:05 John Daub: Before I get deeper, let me introduce to you. We have a friend here from Indonesia. How you doing? Stepu. Let's walk into Ghibli Studio with the camera on. That's not going to happen. One, I don't have a ticket. Two, they're very, very strict. All right, let's take a look here a little bit more about this walk that we're doing. I want to do a Google Earth here. You can see Inokashira Park, which takes up most of it. The Ghibli Museum is right there. We're going to walk kind of like an L shape or a J shape in there from the station on the left side through the park to Ghibli Museum, which is now in the center of your screen. There's a race, like a track over there. So we're going to go around that. And then there's the Ghibli Museum. You can see the robot on the top. It's hard to forget.

12:48 John Daub: I personally, I've been in the museum once and I didn't like it. I thought it was too small, too crowded, and it was kind of a waste of time. I'd rather spend my time in Kichijoji and just walking around the park. But I think if you're a Ghibli fan, you got to do it, right? You got to go in there. So that's our destination. Let's get moving. I do have maps. So if we do get lost, I will be found. And if you are here, I've got a couple of you found me cards and you can help find me out of here.

13:20 John Daub: As we hear Toby's cousins making this for a somewhat unpleasant, uncomfortable walk through the park. And just rained. Yesterday was an awful day. It didn't feel like summer at all or spring at all. The temperature dropped as well. We basically after I got home from yesterday's live stream at Tokyo Station. I was showing people the streamers here. The koinobori (carp streamers) was the last day for them at Tokyo Tower. You can see that live stream on this channel as well. And right after I took this, it really started to downpour. It stopped this morning. It rained all the way until then. And I said, I'm going to put on shorts and go for a hike.

14:12 John Daub: I forget the name of this bridge. Nanai Bridge [?]. It's been a while. During the cherry blossom season, these are all sakura trees. And it is beautiful. This one, I believe, is a sakura tree that goes down into the water like that. So beautiful. And on the weekends, probably yesterday, these are all out. I bet all of these swan boats. You can't even see. But now it's a weekday and people have gone back to work, including me. I'm working right now is empty.

15:11 John Daub: So I asked everybody, what are some of the places that you want to go to? And we had 80 comments on the community post. Nobody sees these community posts on YouTube. But we got 80 responses on that. It's pretty amazing. And Mitaka and Kichijoji were pretty high on the list. The other places are also places that I think I'm going to go to as well. So I'll do more of these polls because I think it's good to get your feedback on what you want to see. No ducks, no swans. I did see a duck land over there.

15:51 John Daub: There are these birds called cormorants. I don't know too much about them. I just know in Gifu, they put a metal thing around their neck and they dive down and catch fish. But because of the metal ring around their neck, they can't swallow it. So that's how they would fish in Gifu, which is pretty interesting. Cormorant fishing. They use fire to attract the fish to the surface. So if you're ever in Gifu, taking one of those boat tours is really recommended. Right down in the shadow of Gifu Castle.

16:43 John Daub: Let's keep on walking. Oh, the Inokashira Park Zoo is closed. What? I would pay just to support them because that's the one thing I would not want to see them out of business. But Monday is a day where a lot of museums are closed. In fact, the Ghibli Museum might even be closed today. Because it's Monday. I didn't think about that. I could be closed. Can somebody check online? Let me know. This is a live stream. So we've walked here from Kichijoji Station in 17 minutes. This is awful pace. Across Nanai Bridge. And now we're going to take a right and go around here and get lost probably and make our way to Inokashira Park. Which we will go around to Ghibli Museum. Boom. Let's do it.

17:42 John Daub: Ghibli Museum is great if you can get tickets at retail value. Not worth the absurd third-party markups. I totally agree. If you can't get the tickets, don't get a third-party markup ticket. It's not that great of a museum. You watch the movies. There are the ladies over there. They're doing it. All right. We're going to take a right here. Google Maps says it's open. It's open today. Thank you, Bobby. It's such a pretty park. I smell just green. It smells green. Look there in the distance. Do you see that?

18:33 John Daub: Ghibli is really smart. They know that on Monday all the other museums are closed, including the zoo. So they open up on a Tuesday. Or they close on a Tuesday. They maximize their profits. Sounds very much like a Miyazaki business venture. Creative. The most successful creators are the ones that can also make money. They can also put the business together and make a business out of their creativity. Because without that, you can't grow it. So it's very amazing what Ghibli has done.

19:13 John Daub: In the domestic market, you can't get Blu-rays of Ghibli. They're like $50 for a Blu-ray. Nobody even buys Blu-rays. And I don't think Apple TV or any of the online streaming services care. They're like the most popular Ghibli movies in Japan. It's crazy. You have to buy it from like Ghibli directly or something. Hasmat0 writes in here, just wrapped up a great two-week Japan trip filled with many OIJ and PBG top tips. I'm so happy they helped and you're very welcome. Thanks so much for telling me about your trip. You know, if you get a chance, go to our Discord server and share some of your photos in there. We have a ton of people that are in Japan right now sharing their adventures, giving people more tips. Also gives you a person to communicate if you're not traveling with anybody, you can communicate with other travelers here in Japan.

20:38 John Daub: Thankfully, this is still the city of Tokyo, but I gotta be honest with you, there are times where I'm somewhat scared to do this walk when there's nobody around because you're still in a freaking forest. And now you know, there's all these people at the station where they go our tour routes in here.

21:19 John Daub: It says it takes 17 minutes to walk and we're 21 minutes in. I'm not good at this. So we're about halfway. Hey, Ghibli Museum 820 meters. Boom. Let's do it. I didn't bring any bear repellent Matt. The only bears here are just really big people. Bear hugs. Don't see any carp in the water.

22:09 John Daub: Christian is here. Are we hunting samurai ghosts? Merry Monday John Daub. Konnichiwa. Thank you Christian. Merry Monday. Jimmy Tuesday. John Friday because Fridays are nice. Can I Thursday she deserves a day? So see I see something in there. Is that a stump or an animal? The stump. Brought attention to a stump in the lake. Famous stump. So if you come to Inokashira Park, make sure you find a famous stump. Won't disappoint.

23:04 John Daub: I think you're getting a feeling here of at least I am it's just green especially in the beginning of spring when the new leaves come out. It's got that new leaf color and the smell is like moss. Fresh air it just doesn't feel like Tokyo and yet it is so so Tokyo to come Kichijoji. But I think what makes Kichijoji apart even more special is the fact that it has this mysterious feel to it and places like this. We're going to walk in just a little bit. I think this is a kind of place that you can explore on your own, but it is really nice.

24:23 John Daub: Walk. Bring your camera. I actually have my camera here to take some pictures for my Patreon postcard club. If I see something, I'm going to snap it. But this green is just so pretty. If I can add another element like a shrine or a temple, get that striking red to it, it really makes the photos pop to have that color. You can see already the red just so strong against that green background. Now, later today, the sun is coming out around 1 p.m. A little bit early. I smell like mushrooms. This is a fire smell. Chill in the air, but it smells like someone has a fire going.

25:27 John Daub: Whoa. That's a big crow. No. This is an omen. Don't tell me where to go. There's another one. Get off that sign. I can't go if you're there. Hey, go. Dude, really? He's going to attack that dog. Do you see him eyeing that dog? Look, they're on each side of the stairs. These are two crows you don't want to taunt. Let's get out. Let's get out of here. Toby (crow).

26:22 John Daub: I want crow repellent. I have music. Does this work? Does this music work? Okay, turn this off. Okay, that didn't work. Sorry. This is the walk up. Oh, it's hiking up a hill. This is good exercise. This is where the signal sometimes is not so strong. This is also where I tend to get lost. This is why I have a map. All right. So it seems like we can't go around there. Which direction should we go? All right. We want to go to the Inokashira Athletic Field. That athletic field is where that green arrow is. So there's some good signage here. Oh, no. I want to go to the... I don't want to go that way. Let's go this way. You don't want to follow the signs. Where's the adventure if you follow signs?

28:06 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Go that way. You know, if I was... If anyone ever see Walking Dead, you remember that one with the sanctuary. Oh, yeah. We'll save you. Come this way. Look. Follow the arrows. Then they made people in the sausage. Don't follow arrows. Except if it's on a thumbnail like this one. Then you follow it to the Ghibli Museum. Well, because I showed you the destination. You know it's a happy place. Hey, Angel. Forever 59 is here. Thanks. Well, if you're going to walk through the park like a place like this, you're going to think about Walking Dead. This would be a pretty interesting place to film. They should make a Japan episode.

29:02 John Daub: Let's cross the street. Look at this little cafe. Is this the Bunny House? A Cafe Deliver. That looks good. Look at this. These cafe food. Look at that. That curry rice looks good. With egg on top. I can do this. They have a takeout menu so you can get it to go and then eat it in the park. Is that a deer? Is that a zombie? What's behind that tree? Is that a deer or is that? That's a guy. I saw him. He had like a color of a deer color he was wearing. All right. Just keep going in this direction.

30:11 John Daub: Last time I did this walk was just after the pandemic started. I think it was June of 2020 and Kanae Daub had come with me and we walked or something like that. But I do the same walks in different ways because things change. Things change, especially in Tokyo. And what was there once is no longer there. It's something new. In fact, an entire town's vibe can change in just two years. So when I was doing Tokyo Eye for NHK, we did like the same topics over and over again, which could be seen as boring, but they never really put them online. And once they were broadcasted, the episodes were gone for good unless you had a DVD and they gave me a copy really not a good copy.

31:36 John Daub: Those old ones were really good. But the point is that Tokyo continues to evolve. It continues to change. And there's more interesting places that come up and sometimes we lose places that we loved. And we need to see that that's why when you come to Tokyo a second or third time it can be a completely different. There's totally different hotels they're totally different restaurants Shibuya is actually the station is totally different.

32:29 John Daub: Totally mostly freaking crow and not to make sudden movements they will literally gang up on you I've seen them take down pigeons poor pigeons little pigeons do nothing just drinking puddles hanging out by a puddle boom crows all over them there was a fireworks festival 20 years ago where I saw a crow attack a little kid trying to fly away with them like what ambulance in the background. Toby (crow).

33:04 John Daub: All right so if you take the sign that says Ghibli Park you can do that and probably shave off about three minutes on your time but the issue with that is that it is you're walking along the street and I think it's better to walk three four minutes through the park than it is to walk along the street with a lot of traffic it's just not a really pleasant walk you could rent a bicycle too and ride around.

33:42 John Daub: Here's the big opening here boom all right now we're at the at the green spot at the bottom that's the park I guess it's like a racetrack I used to run track and field anybody else used to run track and field in high school oh my gosh that 400 was always hard the best time is 56 seconds back in the day Wow my senior year I got really good kind of grew into it 56 seconds.

34:22 John Daub: Should I do some pull-ups should I do some pull-ups how many you think I can do it sounds like a challenge tripod here I do how many do I do I'm fit I'm hip I'm cool. So then you can confirm but keep in mind I was in bad shape for a very long time i'm still in not great shape i do chin-ups eight nine eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen no this one doesn't count it's like 12. Oh baby i could have done more i chose not to i earned my boss coffee all right follow the track around knowing that you can get a little workout if you do do the walk.

37:21 John Daub: Look at all the crows look they're all like um in mild minefield pattern all separated by five meters it's like the game minefield you remember play as a kid you'd get tagged and have to stand there and then you become a minefield try to touch the people running back and forth the crows are playing right now while they eat bugs. Toby (crow). And my goal is to maybe do 25 pull-ups one day all right we're nearing the end of the walk our destination the ghibli museum we're just about there.

38:16 John Daub: I came here by the Sobu Line i changed at Nakano to the Chuo Line so i changed that to the Chuo Line at Nakano and uh they got me here pretty quick oh i see it we have arrived let's go ultra wide we're about to see totoro this is if you come in this direction you also can see the side totoro you better pick it up if i say slightly out of tune it won't be hit with copyright infringement i don't remember the tune anyway it won't matter all right we're here that's it it takes me 40 minutes but i'm not the brightest bulb i wasn't i didn't have my head down i stopped for pull-ups so whoa look at all the people there's a lot of people.

39:59 John Daub: What are they doing? Oh we can go into this gate! Okay let's do it! You just took a photo with Totoro and now you want one with me? I watched all the YouTube videos I was hoping to see you here today. Yeah I just came out here. I can give you a card too. I'm here because of the video. Thank you so much! You're welcome. Okay one, two, three. Thank you so much. You're welcome! Are you getting in? We already went in. How was it? It was great! Crowded? That's the line? How much were the tickets? 1000 yen. Was it easy to get the tickets? No, my gosh. It was the hardest fight I've ever put up for a ticket. That's why I'm just walking around. I can't go inside. Nice to meet you! Thanks for stopping! That's nice!

41:26 John Daub: Let's take this out here. So this is the line. Let's go see what the front of the line looks like. How long is the line? So this is the start of the line. Just to give you an idea. 1000 yen is pretty good. It's just about 8 bucks. But I'm walking to the front of the line. You're going to see. Oh my gosh. Here's the entrance. That's a pretty long line. I bet you if you don't have tickets the tickets are connected to some kind of entry time. Wow. Man, I wish I had a ticket.

42:18 John Daub: I went there like many years ago and I wasn't that impressed. So I was like okay, this is great. I guess it's good to go once maybe. There's the robot. You can see some of the stuff just from outside. There's the robot. And there's that guy. How you doing? It's a pretty long line. But if you come into this area you're going to want to come here. Because now that I'm here I kind of want to go inside. Nooo. Let me in. I promise I'll be good. I won't touch anything except for the stuff you said I can touch. It is pretty crowded for Monday.

43:18 John Daub: Golden Week is over. And in fact today congratulations to Japan. I'll do a livestream about this tonight maybe. Because of the rain and everything. But today is May 8th. And May 8th means that the end of the pandemic starting in April of 2020 Japan shut down to 72 countries a lot of countries including the United States. And it shut out a lot of foreigners that were living abroad that had gone abroad and couldn't return back to Japan. This was the craziest era. Wikipedia even is incomplete with its timeline of the Japan. And today it's officially over. Well I mean it's still out there. But they're ending it as a thing. It's downgraded. So no masks. I would still wear them in crowded places. It's part of being polite.

44:42 John Daub: Basically you do the opposite of how you if you're from the US do the opposite of what you're feeling. Does that even make sense? If you feel like not wearing a mask you probably want to wear one then. I don't know. That's how I think it might be maybe kind of a way to look at things. But yeah they did it right. Of course they ended the border procedures changed on the 28th right before Golden Week started. So you could just go straight through. No longer do you need vaccination cards and all this other junk. Just whizz right through. And people are getting in pretty quick. It's a good thing. I think it's about time. And it's about time we start to feel a little bit of normalcy.

45:09 John Daub: Poor little Leo was born during this time and he's used to people wearing masks so it's not the greatest thing. Oh look we can see inside. It says do not enter. If I was Barry Allen ah I can't go this far. I couldn't get a ticket. I'm sorry. It's popular. Wow. So you can see here this is what it looks like the exit. So there's a cafe here that's really nice. And there's a walkway we can go up into there. And this is the way back to Kichijoji Station. So you can get back up there. So it's kind of nice to walk around here.

46:19 John Daub: Thank you. That was nice of her. Come on over. That doesn't happen very often in Japan. I'm mildly impressed. I could get tickets but it was for one person. Yeah see like it's never perfect. It's never perfect. So there you go. The walk is complete from Kichijoji Station to Ghibli. It's not that bad. And you can see it can even be something of a little adventure. You got crows you got shrines you have zoos, you have lakes you have green, you have a pull up bar you have mystery lots of mystery.

47:09 John Daub: Yeah if you go up to the top you see the nice big robot. I think that was the most impressive thing for me. To be honest, that robot. And you have an old manhole cover. Look at that. I haven't seen one of these in a long time. This is an old 2020 Olympic manhole cover. It looks like it hasn't done that well. This looks like the Olympics felt to me. It's like a big mess. It's kind of neat. It's like a footnote in history. I was here for that.

47:57 John Daub: Kerry writes in here 300 likes equals more chin ups. I could probably get up to 25. I could probably just double what I had too. I feel pretty good. It was like a primer. Alright if you jump into our Discord server if you would be so inclined hit the like button if you haven't already do check out this episode. It's starting to go viral. I just made that up. But it could because they're chickens and you never know foot and mouth disease or whatever. But I did go to the farm and I met that chicken. You get to see him. In fact Peter von Gomm the voice of Only in Japan the guy who does Only in Japan it's on your favorite streaming platform YouTube right now. I hope it's your favorite.

49:00 John Daub: I will see you guys in another live stream really soon. We saw Nakano was on the list. What other places was there were there there are a bunch of other neighborhoods. But there's so many places to explore here in Tokyo and I'll try to take you there. May is going to be a lot of editing. Got a video on the main channel coming this week. And it seems like everything is back. Feels good. Time to get out explore spring is here. Can't wait to see you guys in Japan. And I'll probably do a meet up this month as well. That'd be pretty fun to see everybody coming to Japan. We'll see. Alright have a good day. See you from Mitaka from Inokashira Park. Can't believe we had a signal the whole time. What wait I gotta walk all the way back to the station. I'm pretty sure I can do it faster than 49 minutes. Gosh. See everybody.