00:00:06 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Asakusa. This is Nakamise-dori, a busy street here in Asakusa, central Tokyo. How you doing everybody? I'm going to take you from here, this location that's bustling, crazy, crowded, to a street that might not be so crowded, but it definitely should be on everybody's itinerary. Kappabashi (kitchenware district). This is the place where you have budget kitchenware, you can get Japanese knives, chopsticks, plates, all sorts of really interesting things. In order to get there, all you gotta do is walk like 750 meters. Here's the route. The main shop here that I want you all to know on Kappabashi is called Kamata (kitchenware shop). There's a big chef's head, and that is our final goal. You're going to have to wait until the end of this in order to see that big chef's head. That in itself is a sight to see.

00:01:12 John Daub: Say one last goodbye to Nakamise-dori. There is a lot of street food, but you can find a ton of it in the side alleys as well. Unless you're really hungry, just be a little bit patient because there's better places to find. Let's go down this direction. We're going to take a left onto the shotengai (covered shopping arcade). If you don't know what a shotengai is, it is a shopping arcade that is covered, and in case it rains, you'll be in good shape. It is the start of the rainy season. It started about 10 days earlier than normal this year, so I'm hoping that it ends 10 days earlier as well. I'm just surprised at all of the people that are here on a rainy day. It was pouring this morning. A lot of people here in cosplay, dressing up in kimono. Cotton kimono is called yukata. They're for the summer, and I think it is pretty cool to walk around Asakusa because it is a traditional area of Tokyo. This is a place where you can feel like you're back in time a little bit, so wearing a yukata here is kind of cool. There are places all around here with rentals. They're about typically 5,000 to 6,000 yen a day. But the price goes up, especially if you're a lady, because you have to get your hair done and makeup done, which is optional. You can do it yourself as well. But looks pretty cool when they do it because they know how the style kind of works with this. For guys, yeah, you could just wear a tenugui (hand towel) or nothing at all. Just be yourself.

00:03:55 John Daub: Everywhere. And some of the yukata are pretty colorful. Look at how colorful that they're wearing. That almost looks comical. I think that they're promoting a comedy show. Let's go check it out. Might as well, right? So, I think they're doing some kind of comedy show because nobody dresses up in that color of kimono on purpose. Oh, they're doing something for a TV shoot. There's like a director and a guy with a crane and everything. Oh, they're going to play something. All right, let's hide here in the corner. This is kind of cool. Are they going to play like a song or something? There are people in the distance. There's a director. This is like some sort of commercial shoot. Okay, we're kind of hiding in here where they have some sake cups and things like that right now. Honban desu (this is the real take). We're hiding here watching some sort of commercial shoot behind a pole between the businesses.

00:05:25 John Daub: Hi, John. Love it when you're in this area. Afternoon sec. Thank you. Is that Michael? I will see you soon, buddy. This is fun. So where are they going next? Here they go. How cool is that? All right. WRX Turbo is in the house. You see the jinrikisha (rickshaw), the guys pulling people. You can get those rides right in front of Kaminarimon (thunder gate), which is the big gate. That was a nice ride. It was worth waiting a couple minutes for, wasn't it? The thing is it's not going to be very long because they're doing it for a commercial. Maybe like it's an inbound tourism thing because Japan has been making a ton of commercials. You might see some YouTubers in some of those too sometimes. I did a commercial shoot for JNTO (Japan National Tourism Organization) a couple of years ago up in Tohoku.

00:07:16 John Daub: It's changed a lot. Every time I come to these, and these tatami slippers are pretty cool. These usually will go with the kimono or the yukata. You can wear those with it and they're so comfortable. This is a dog cat bag. All these places are packed solid right now with tourists and that's a really good thing. These are gangster baby dolls with tattoos. I've never seen that before. Have you? With fundoshi (traditional undergarment), thongs. Nice. And that snack shop up there, check it out. That looks like the ghosts from Pac-Man, doesn't it? The ghosts from Pac-Man are now on a restaurant's signboard. All right, a lot of you might know where we are. We're on Orange Road right now. Why is it called Orange Road? If not, leave a comment below.

00:08:30 John Daub: There's a good taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle) place. I've gotten many midnight snacks there, even though I think they're open until 10. Oh gosh, you can smell grilling custard. Oh my gosh, that's so good. Tokyo Soy Milk Grape King. Interesting. Never heard of this company before. Not a soul in sight. I think it might be Taiwanese, Chinese. I'm not sure. Here's a place I think where you can do a kimono rental as well as buy. They often sell used kimonos at these shops in Asakusa. If you're looking for one, this might be the best place because first of all, they cater to Westerners who are typically taller than Japanese. So if you're looking for like this one here, it says kimono. It's a cotton kimono. This is a yukata. It's not a kimono. Well, maybe it is a kimono. I'm not sure. But you can find them usually in sizes about 180 centimeters or just what, 5 foot 11. That's what I am. So those sizes are really hard. If you look at the guy coming to us right now, his kimono goes all the way down to his feet. So you want that. So it's really hard to find a size of kimono that does that if you're over the average heights.

00:10:14 John Daub: Nick writes in here, I miss saying hi as you only did one live stream. Yeah, I kind of been focusing on the main channel the last few days. I haven't been doing as many live streams, but that's about to change. I'll be pivoting back. The streets here have really been renovated. It doesn't look as rough around the edges as it did about five years ago. They've really done a good job of cleaning up, renovating. And it might be just simply old businesses going out of business. I think if businesses, family businesses sell their business, new businesses come in usually with new money and they renovate the shop and often the area. I've seen a lot of those new businesses become failed businesses. So the result is they might just tear down the building and then build a new one in hopes of getting higher rent. This one's torn down on this side and there's a vacant lot on this side here. And the property is for sale. You could build a five-story building and charge rent. And if it's a modern building, you can charge a higher rent. See how this works. All right, if we look at the map here, we're about halfway. We're getting at the traffic light in front of us to the street right where the Tsukuba Express is in the middle there. So we're about halfway. We're walking slow. Why would we go faster?

00:12:04 John Daub: Shout out to my friends, Randy and Katina. Here's a picture. Here's dinner last night. Randy and Katina are food fighters, competitive eaters. They are so good at what they do. Katina's channel is really engaging. It's like you start one, you can't stop until you watch to the end to see if you can finish it or not. And more often than not, she does. And Randy, of course, is a very, very well-known food eater for a very long time. And I'm glad that those guys came. I saw them in 2018 and they're friends. So Leo enjoying some monjayaki (savory pancake). Her channel is Katina Eats Kilos and Randy is just simply Randy Santel. And you'll see me in some of the old Randy videos helping him out as he came here. Now, I'm famous for sort of eating, not eating a gyoza. Hey, guess who's here? Jennifer French. Excited to make a gyoza. I'm going to take your trip to Japan really soon. I'll be in Hawaii in just a few days. But I'll be back.

00:13:27 John Daub: Oh, I'm just noticing something. That karaage (fried chicken) place is out of business. And this cafe, it's a Doutor (coffee chain), which is like a cheap cafe. But they've put it into a, what is it, Tajima Pano Tajima. So they've kind of changed the image to make it look fancier than what it really is. Fukushin was here. But right here. I think next door. This was where there used to be a karaage place. Is it the Ginza Paris or this other booth? And that place is gone. Or was it here? The ramen, I can't even recall. That's so weird. We had this view of the Skytree, which obviously you cannot see. It's in the clouds. At any moment, it could rain here. Sorry. That's the Skytree view. This is me and Eric's Surf Six. Shout out to the vending machine here. I'm the king. There's a Skytree behind all those clouds. We were here eating karaage just a year and a half ago. And now that place is gone. Oh, no, here it is. It's really good chicken. They always have some special chicken.

00:14:54 John Daub: All right, we're crossing the street here. There's one place to note that's in particular popular. Jennifer, you might want to note this too. It's really popular with tourists that are visiting Japan. Not so much with locals. Over there, you see straight ahead, that is the one to the left of the red building. That is the fluffy pancake place, the souffle pancake place that everybody raves about. You know how I know? Because I was just there. That's right. I'm scouting. I got this. I have to go back two and a half hours later. It said here, please return at 3:40 p.m. for your pancakes after paying a ¥1,000 deposit, which is a little bit odd. So one pancake, one visitor, ¥1,000. I probably have to pay more. If you get there at 8 a.m., you can make reservations for the opening time at 10 a.m. So no matter what, you're probably going to have to wait. So there you go. We're leaving now Asakusa and heading over towards another area. And we're going to go via alley. Let's see. Is this one interesting? Let's go down a little ways. I think it's a little bit more interesting if we go the next street over.

00:16:28 John Daub: What is that supposed to be? Is that Mick Jagger? Denver French has just put in for the Takoyaki Fund. Let's see what we can find. I don't see as many Mick Jagger tongues out there anymore. They used to be everywhere. Hey Tobias is in for some snacks. All right. Let's see what we can find. I'll tell you this. I will post a picture of the street. I will post a picture of the pancakes that I eat for my scouting on Instagram. This is the street. If you look down to the left, you'll see the Suntory poopoo building. The golden poop. Is that a banned word? Here is the pancake place. Beni Tsutsu, I think it's called. And you can see, I think, oh, okay. The next reservation is here. It's a reservation now 6 p.m. So if you make a reservation now, you can't eat until 6 p.m. And the place looks empty inside. Hey, they know how to make pancakes. I'll just have to wait my turn.

00:18:01 John Daub: All right. Let's go down here. It looks quite retro. I love the way the moment you leave Asakusa and go out to the alleys off of the Tsukuba Express Street, you really are feeling like you're going into another world. This is old Tokyo for sure. And not a lot of people come this direction. You can see behind me, it's just us, sort of. They put up a new apartment building right here. So anyone thinking of moving to Japan, you probably have a good place, good view across from the pancake place. I wonder if they have discounts for locals. All right. Let's get on the move. You probably can find more interesting restaurants if you cross the street as well. Now, Asakusa's got some pretty neat bars outdoors that you can get a taste of. You can get a drink and enjoy yourself. But if you want to get off of the beaten path, you can come across the street and start walking towards Kappabashi, which I can already see at the end of this street. What? Look at that. There's like a French cafe right here. La Chèvre (goat-themed cafe?). Quiet street alleys here. Very quiet. There's a love hotel. Hey, love hotel. Sushi shop. If you see a love hotel, you really can't tell. They all are very distinctive. Names like Hotel California or Hotel Dinosaur, they're usually kind of outrageous, have themes. Enough that you can understand. That's the Filipino flag. Hey, Pub 83. Whoa. I think that's the Philippines. Yeah. How cool. It's quiet over here.

00:20:18 John Daub: Is that a snack club actually serving real snacks? See, it's behind these doors. We can't see anything because snack bars typically are places where you would be entertained as well, and there's usually a high seating charge. But again, you're probably going to stay there for a while to be entertained. Usually the lady of the shop is quite entertaining. Thus, she makes a living from it. Look at this street. Straight and quiet. And you can see those telephone poles going across the street. They're just so iconic. And when earthquakes hit, all of these shake violently like crazy. So you can tell an earthquake's here from the sound of the shaking. That's one of the sounds that's etched into my brain as somebody who lived through the great Tohoku earthquake in 2011. I just remember the sounds of the shaking, the building, and of course outside. You can hear all of those wires above rocking back and forth. Brings back bad memories. We have confirmation that was the Filipino flag. I hear a cat. Do you hear it? Awww. That looks like a boss cat. He's fat. Like in a good way. Kind of like armor. You're tough. What's your name? I wouldn't want to tangle with you. You've been on the streets and you got armor. Look at you. Getting bad vibes. Let's get out of here. Do you see that cat? Yeah. That's a tough looking cat. If you're going to live out on the streets and you're a top cat, you look like that. Man, tough face. I've seen some action. She's not following me. Alright, we're good. Braveheart battle cry. That should get him. Meow. I just said freedom. Oh, don't get under the car. Hey. No. Oh. No, that's dangerous. I think that that cat knows what he's doing though. That's going to be fine. And don't ask me to meow freedom again because I don't know.

00:24:14 John Daub: Alright, let's get on the move. This is supposed to be like a 13 minute walk. Look at the design of some of the houses here. That's interesting. It looks like it's from the 70s, but could very well be from last year. I can't tell sometimes the style of the houses. But we're at Kappabashi. There's another Filipino bar. Look at that. Yabo. It says yabo. Look at that. There must be really vibrant Filipino community to have all these bars here. Oh, look at this. There's an empty lot for more. You can build a house here. All right. We have reached Kappabashi. That's it. That's as easy as that. If you do a live stream, it'll take you 27 minutes. If you just walk, it'll take you like 14. So there you go.

00:25:14 John Daub: A couple of things I want to point out here. In-N-Out Burger was here. This is just for fun. Oh, it's all crooked now. Here you go. In-N-Out Burger was in Tokyo for one day. Literally, they were in and out. There was a line for three blocks around the corner. They were supposed to be there from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The burgers were sold out by noon. People were waiting in line at 8 a.m. or before that. And anyone who wasn't there in the early morning didn't get anything. I think that's not really fair. I think In-N-Out should just make a permanent shop here. Okay? Let's just put it like that. Now that I'm done with that, we're about to hit. If you haven't already, please do check out the latest video on my edited video channel called, How Japanese Food Vending Machines Work, where we look inside of Japanese food vending machines with Scotty from Strange Parts and examine exactly how they work with the original. Scotty is the owner who owns 108 vending machines. All of them very special to him because he's resurrected them, brought them back from a state of extinction. A lot of them. They were just decaying in somebody's garage or something like that. And he would buy them, fix them up, and put them back to use. How cool is that? That story is part of the channel. And I think every YouTuber has been here who lives in Japan. It's one of these pilgrimages you have to take. But I haven't seen anybody that actually interviewed the owner to get the idea why he does this and look inside the machines and how they work. The curry rice machine is the most incredible machine that I've ever seen in my life because of the way it pivots around a knife to open up a bag of curry and dumps it onto a bowl of freshly made rice. Unless you open up the machine, you don't actually know how much work is being put into it. So I hope you guys will check that out on the main channel. If you do, leave me a comment. I want to hear from you. What were your thoughts?

00:27:28 John Daub: This is a place where you can get Japanese chef uniforms. And I don't know if that's a weird thing to get, but you can. I've been in here a couple of times for props. But it's very reasonably priced because they do uniform a lot of restaurants. White shirts. And if you're going to be a chef and study in Japan, probably want to have a white shirt. And if you have the right clothing, you would buy that here. Also, utensils, too, because this is a bargain place to get those. I've been here before. But I just wanted to show you how to get here. There's also a lot of knife shops. Hello. Look at that. Oh, this is the other uniform shop. I went in here looking for something the other shop did not have. And if you've ever wanted a chef's hat just for the heck of it to wear in your own house when you're cooking and having a party, you can find that here. Right? It's a chef's hat. Talk to the chef. How do you know who's the chef? They're wearing a chef's hat. Isn't that the perfect gift? You can get that here. I think they were 2,000 yen. It's going to be varied. Oh, this is the place where you can get plastic models to take home. You see this? That's a plastic watermelon, plastic sundaes, plastic crepes, plastic sushi. That's plastic. That's plastic beer. Check it out. And then you can get bowls of meat and things like that over there. There's some breaded pork cutlets over there. Very cool. This shop has been here for a very long time. I don't think that they make it here.

00:29:35 John Daub: Oh, across the street, you can see over here, they have the chōchin (lanterns). So you can get sushi lanterns that say sushi or ramen. If you want to take this for your room, you know, you're a teenager, you got posters all over. You want to add something cooler. There you go. Kaboom. There's too many shops here to highlight, so to speak. A lot of these are specialty stores. So if you're running a restaurant, especially if you're in this area, you're probably going to be here quite a bit. Often they can undersell even Amazon. Or, I'll tell you this. Often Amazon doesn't even have what they have here. If it's for cooking or restaurants or anything in the kitchen, they've got it here. Like this plastic, look at this. That's every kind of broom. That's incredible, right? Every kind of broom here. So you can go, you can find anything that you want on this street. Here's trays. Some stores have been special. Here's wicker and bamboo ware. These are not shops for tourists. These are people that are in the industry, okay? And the prices are going to reflect that. Bargaining? I wouldn't do it. You can't really. Price is the price. It's usually very, very competitive. It makes people feel bad. They've already given you a really cheap price and you're trying to ask for a discount. That's not part of Japanese culture. Oh, there's a nice shot. I took a couple of friends in there once. Because he wanted a left-handed knife and they had it. This shop or the other one? I think it was the other one. There's a couple of knife shops. Actually, there's about a dozen of them.

00:31:54 John Daub: Walking down the street of Kappabashi is just so cool. Yeah, Saya, good point. If you are in Osaka, you can bargain a little bit for something sometimes. Osaka has more of a culture of that, but not in Tokyo. Not really. How much more discount do you want at a discount shop? Alright, we'll cross the street. That looks like a good place to go. I think if you look on the top right, you see our goal though. Oh, check it out. Look at these bento boxes. These are plates for kids. This plate looks like a Shinkansen (bullet train). Oh, I gotta get one for Leo. Look at this plate. It's a fire truck. Oh my gosh. This one has a clown on it. It's a food place for kids. A police car. The Shinkansen ones look awesome. Problem is that the shop is closed. What? That's so badass. That's awesome. Sean, 808 is here. Here's for the snack fund. See you in Hawaii. Yay! I'm kind of looking for the snacks. I think I might have gone past where they all are. Let's just say I might do another live stream back in Asakusa because I got some time to kill.

00:33:36 John Daub: What is a kappa? K-A-P-P-A. Kappa is a mythical creature, a magical creature that might or might not exist. Someone said they existed. I don't believe them, but you always should leave a, have an open mind. That's what it looks like right there. It's sort of like a frog or something. The myths are interesting to read. I think there's something on Wikipedia about it. What do they do? They steal kids and bring them to the river. I'm not sure. I'm a little rusty. It's been a while. But, right, a yōkai (supernatural creature). But if I pivot up here, my voice is cracking out of excitement. Nimi and the chef. Boom! That is a massive head. And I don't know. Does he look Japanese? Who exactly is the mascot of Nimi? Which is a big kitchenware company. Japanese or French? I'm not sure. But the mustache is, he's very trim nostrils. No ear hair. A sulcone. I don't think that that's Chef Boyardee. Although, it could be. I don't know. But they're like copyright. Wouldn't there be copyright issues with that? But everything has a story. And I bet you the head of Nimi has a story maybe. So maybe I'll dig that out. We're across the street here. So this is the road that we just came down. That plate for Leo looked really interesting. There's kids plates. If I can find something, I'm definitely going to snag one. And I'm on the lookout for it. I didn't even want to buy one. And now all of a sudden, they hooked me. Because it was just out of the coolness. It could be the CEO of the company. That's a good observation. That could be right. I'll probably take a quick look inside here because I have time. Look at these nets for noodles. Like ramen or udon. Strainers to go into boiling pots. And if you need a boiling pot, they got you covered here. Look how big these are. Wow. And I'll be honest. You can find a lot of these things on the auction sites as well. People that have restaurants that have went under are selling these off. So there's lots of budget places where you can buy them. But having a nice new pot if you're in the restaurant business is kind of nice.

00:36:44 John Daub: So here you go. This is the chōchin store where if you're starting a restaurant, you're going to need a pot. This is a kaya or oden or takoyaki. There you go. There's a takoyaki right there. Nama biru (draft beer). Very cool. Very, very cool. These are all family-run businesses from what I understand. I've talked with a couple of the owners for an NHK show I did before. Here's a pot. You put a candle or a special fire candle underneath here, and you could cook right off of it. That's pretty. You see there. Prices are like $50. That's pretty good. Here's some more pots on the left. It's a nice relaxing day. Hang out. Shop for knives. The bottom line is if you could just look around, there aren't a lot of people here. All right? It's pretty quiet. And that's not a bad thing. If you want to escape the crowds, Kappabashi is a good place to go for a stroll, spend a couple of hours. It's just different.

00:38:03 John Daub: Mamu, hey, John. Here's some snacks and drink fun from Philippines. Thank you, Blink 1510. I'm trying to find something to put that to good use here. We have some knives on sale. Here's the bargain bin. That's cheap. 1,600 yen for that? Honcho? That's pretty good. Knives last forever. Why would you give a bargain? Oh, I wonder if they can make neon lights. I could see that with the Only in Japan logo on it lit up for the background. If you've got a YouTube channel where you just kind of talk, you could probably get a sign made here, I wonder. I'll have to come back and inquire. Here's one with the arrow pointing and blinking into the shop. That's about $900 for that. The Honolulu meetup, I believe we're doing it at a shopping mall, I think on a Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. I'll try to post that information tonight. I got to schedule stuff. There's a lot of stuff I have to do. If I'm going to schedule a meetup, I have to know for sure. My purpose is not to do a meetup. I just really want to meet up with everybody, so I'm hoping that the time works out. Look at the professional kakigōri (shaved ice) makers. Look at that. You get a big block of ice and it shaves it. And they have professional blenders and things like that. Look at that. I think if you just want to have a nice kitchen at home, you can come here and get some stuff. Look at these cookie cutters. Oh, look at this smiley face cookie cutter. That is so awesome. You want to make a kid happy, get one of those and make the food fun. You want to make me happy, do that. I don't have to be a kid. Wow. Look at that. It's not copper or silver. It's goldware. So if you're going to be presenting stuff to, oh, I like these tin cans down here. 70 yen. That's less than 100 yen for these tin cups that look indestructible. If you're going to be presenting food, these look like ashtrays though. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get them. I'm not sure if it's a bowl or an ashtray. That's an issue. A Toro Toro Porco right in here. Do you have a place picked out? I think so. I think it's that shopping mall near Waikiki, isn't it? Is Brandania here? I don't know. I'll try to do a live stream either later today or tomorrow and go in more details.

00:41:07 John Daub: That's where the plastic sample shop is on the other side. Our friend Arthur Vandele is here. How are you doing, Arthur? Here's another shop where you can get these chalkboards, which you have in front of restaurants. Those are handy. You can find stuff here in Japan that you would need for your own restaurant in another country that just made it interesting, I think. And the prices are pretty reasonable since the yen is pretty weak. This is the black, white, and red store. And look at that. Photos are okay. A lot of shops, I don't know, they're so against photography and filming. I could never understand that because it's such good promotion in a way. Get it out. Some shops just don't want it. You have to be pretty prosperous not to want it, though. So just a shout out. If you do want to do the Jumbo Gyoza Challenge and you want to film it, it's not free to do that anymore. Just a little shout out. So if you're coming to eat the... Look at that, fake cakes for windows. Interesting. You have to pay a media fee. And I can understand why. Every YouTuber has tried to eat that, and it really does break up the flow of the restaurant. So he asks that you come off hours, and then you have to pay the staff a little bit for the overtime. I don't think it's a little bit. I think it's a premium. But you have to pay the staff. Oh, I can't cross the street here. We just passed a retro vintage sign shop that you would put, like, in a restaurant. Look at that. So if you're looking for, like, old Coca-Cola signs and things like that, this would be cool. If you just have a house and you want it... You get signs for your room. I don't know. That stuff exists here. And it's not touristy. Oh, hey. Kitchen gachapon (capsule toys). I'm actually even looking for a vending machine. Can't even find that. We've already completed our mission. We found Chef Boyardee on the top of the Nimi building. So I'm just kind of aimlessly walking because I have time to... I always wanted to have one of these, but would take up all of our counter space. It's a hot food heater. I could buy food at night, at midnight, when it's half-price, put it in there, wake up in the morning with hot food for the rest of the day. You get those hangaku bento (half-price boxed lunches). Wow, look at that big kappa on the side of the building over there.

00:44:12 John Daub: It's a pleasant walk today. Some of the shops have really renovated. I don't remember the shop looking this nice. Look at the wabi-sabi (rustic aesthetic) cups that they have here. They're all pretty affordable. They're about 800 to 1400 yen. These are more 2000 and 3000, and then the top there gets more expensive. It's fun to walk around. There's some miso soup bowls. Looks really nice in there. Oh, this is the shop that my friend got his left-handed knife in. They made it special for him. Oh, no, was it this one? I can't remember. It was like four years ago. My friend Peter from Denmark came here with his family. Old friend from Ohio State College. He's Danish. And we found a knife for him. Left-handed knife. And that was pretty cool. They can customize... And they can even make it for you, which is really cool. It's a little bit more. Then they lasered in his name in Japanese. Some more kappa. Trying to kappa feel. Down boy. Look at these green pans. Oh, here's aprons. The store pretty much specializes in just aprons and signs. Noren (shop curtains), they call these. So I like that. When you specialize in stuff, usually you do a really good job of making it. And these are materials. They're all made here in Japan. This is a vending machine across the street. They're all made here in Japan, so it's always well made. All right, let's go to the end of the street here. Oh, pizza oven. One day. Either machine or machine. I'm just going to make a bunch of bricks and make my own pizza oven.

00:46:54 John Daub: I don't know if you guys know, but I've been on a diet for the last six weeks. I've had moments where I've failed myself, like last night. But I think those are really rare, and I ended up losing quite a significant amount of weight. Significant because you can notice it, that's all. I just stopped eating. What is it? Intermittent fasting. I'll eat at 7 p.m. and then I won't eat again until like 1. I haven't eaten today yet, actually. And it's what, 2:30? I'm not hungry. I usually have a happy time, which is, you know, like pudding before bed. I don't eat that anymore. I gave up beer, except last night when Randy was here. But I hadn't had a beer in weeks. Interesting. It's interesting that it could be done. I think it was this shop. There's so many knife shops. I don't know. I don't know which one it was. There's another knife shop. This one, very inviting, with big windows. There's a second floor. There's people speaking English that will help you. That's impressive. I haven't had a pizza in a month. That's how crazy this is. More, maybe. My God. One day I'm going to... How am I going to survive Hawaii? I'm going to have to just... What's the word? I'm just going to have to revert, go back to the way I was for three days. But will I be able to change back to the way I am now in three days? After Hawaii? I don't know. It's scary. Yeah, it's like I just eat cauliflower and meat, things like that, very low carbs. I'm still running and going to the gym, and I'm eating for only like six hours of the day. Here's where the kappa is. This is a special place. It's somewhat flooded because of all the rain that we've had, but you'll find it's related to the kappa in gold. It's like the statue of David, but it's kappa. It's more human form, don't you think? See this little friend there.

00:49:33 John Daub: I had to recover from the pandemic. I was just not doing too well. I'd gained a lot of weight, had less energy. It was a problem. It affected my work, I'll be honest. I don't think I was very productive. I just felt sluggish. So I'm not finished, but I was like, I can make it to June. I started in the middle of April. I said, I can make it to June, and I got here. And I feel a lot better. I have more energy. Certainly my pants are looser. They fit again. But I'm still out of running shape, so I have to get back into running shape. Cardio. Even when I went to the vending machine area for the last episode I uploaded, I didn't eat the whole burger. I only had one or two bites, and then I put it back in the box. Then I forgot about it, and then I found it two days ago, and it didn't look good. Which is a good sign. It was organic. I'm just guessing. I guess if it starts decomposing, it's organic, right? That's the test. So there you go. Kappabashi is pretty cool. I think that if you do come here, you will not be disappointed. Even if you're not interested in buying kitchen stuff, you probably will find something of interest here. Just because it's cool. Like an old ramen sign, or like a chōchin, or a knife, or bowls or something. It's cool. Kappabashi is cool.

00:51:14 John Daub: That bus is pretty cool. Old school. Alright everybody, I'm going to make my way back to Asakusa now. Look at that. That is a big... Did you ever try that funnel coffee? That is the biggest one I ever seen. What do you call those? Like pour-over coffee or something? Look at that. How much do you think that is? It looks like a science project gone right. There's nothing in there. If it had gone wrong, it would have exploded. This is Union, the name of the shop. Ah, Union. There you go. Alright everybody, I'm walking down this way. This is where they have a festival. I think the Tanabata festival is here. I'm standing in the middle of the street. This is the perfect place to sign off. Thanks everybody. Make sure you click the like button and leave me a comment. Don't forget to check out the newest video on the main channel here. How Japanese hot food vending machines work. It's fascinating to look inside those machines. I'll give you a quick look at Tokyo Skytree in the rainy season. I don't think there's going to be a lot of people up there that paid money to go to see the observation deck. What do you think? I'm guessing no. Alright, I'll post. I owe you guys a couple of snacks, so maybe I'll go live again. Probably not, but maybe, I don't know. And I'll see you again tomorrow at another live stream. There's a festival going on in Kuramae, so I might be in this area once again tomorrow. And I'll post a picture of these fluffy pancakes on Instagram. See you there.