00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the side of Tokyo Station, more or less Nihonbashi, and that there is the Torch Tower. You see the picture here on the right, on the left side. That's what it's going to look like when it's completed, and this will become Tokyo's tallest building. 390 meters, 1280 feet into the sky, quite high. I never thought that Tokyo would actually have skyscrapers this tall. They started construction today according to an article from Kyodo News here, and they've been talking about this for quite a long time. In fact, I made a live stream here from the Tokyo Station post office showing what it's going to look like on the skyline when they first announced the plans, and I can't believe it's finally here. They're starting the construction down there. I'm kind of excited about this.

00:58 John Daub: In this episode, I'm going to be taking you around this area. It is a very interesting place to be in, and it's extremely exciting to see because it has changed quite a bit in just a little amount of time. I live not too far away. In fact, this is Chuo-ku, my town, my neighborhood. So for me, this is my neighborhood changing. This used to be the Pasona building, and right here, this alleyway is going to be an entertainment area that's kind of combined with this. Let me just show you really quickly some of the features of this. I think I have a picture. This is what it's going to look like in four years.

01:43 John Daub: You can see that the left side is the right side, and the right side is the left side because it's taken from the other side of the street. But this is pretty amazing, right? So what the Torch Tower is going to be, the one that's on the left side there, that looks pretty futuristic with ramps. It looks highly accessible and a lot of fun. A lot of green as well. The building on the right side is the one that I'm standing at. That's also the Torch Tower and that's already been completed. You can see it does look like a pretty fun place. Now I thought that this Torch Tower on the left side here was quite high and in fact it is. If you take a look up it's pretty darn high. This is not even close to what the height of this building is going to be.

02:36 John Daub: This space that is blank is going to be filled with this. Check this out. It's a little blurry. This is an older photo but that looks really cool. This is actually like a sky deck that's supposed to look like an indoor park, an outdoor park indoors, and it's going to be a public space for everybody to kind of hang out in. At least that's their hope. They always write that but it always ends up being not quite exactly like that image but it does look really cool. That's the finished building and you can see on the left side that's the building that I just showed you right there. Yeah this Torch Tower is going to dwarf that building you see on the left side. It's not even close. Oh my gosh. This is like one of those mega projects that you never think is actually going to happen until it starts and that's what's happening right now. It's really incredible.

03:35 John Daub: Look at this. It looks pretty much like an amusement park. This is going to be a shopping mall. It's right across the street from Tokyo Station and it looks so cool. Let me see if I go up here I'll keep the signal really strong. I want to show you where exactly I am on the map here. So this is Tokyo. This is the construction spot. This is the old Pasona building which is no longer there. There's the highway that's going to be going underground as part of the Nihonbashi revitalization project. Tokyo Torch Park is there. The building is that low-rise building to the right of the blue circle. That's the part that's been demolished. That's now going to be the Torch Tower. And there's Tokyo Station right there. So close to Tokyo Station. This is the whole Yaesu, Nihonbashi, Marunouchi, Otemachi area of downtown Tokyo.

04:40 John Daub: You can see the Shinkansen (bullet train) tracks cutting right through it. So it's a super convenient place. That green patch is the Imperial Palace. This is going to be an amazing place in 2028. They say it's going to open. If you pull in you can see all of Tokyo. It's very central. Very cool. Now this is going to be the tallest building in Japan when it's completed. But it used to be the Landmark Tower in Yokohama was the tallest building until it wasn't. Then the Harukas in Osaka ended up becoming Japan's tallest skyscraper. It's a pretty tall building the Harukas. I haven't been actually in there yet but that was trumped by the Azabudai Hills which is now the tallest skyscraper in Japan. And it's 380 meters.

05:49 John Daub: And then when this building that I'm at right now is completed it will become the tallest skyscraper in Japan. The highest. So nobody stays on the top forever huh. This is what it looks like that black building right there. That's the tallest building in Japan currently. It's pretty high. You can see it from quite a ways away. But it's dark so it's hard to see at night. You can't really. I don't think it really sticks out too much. This Torch Tower absolutely does stick out. It is a very remarkable looking thing and I think they wanted to really make a statement with this.

06:20 John Daub: Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to take you. I think the signal is going to be OK. What I want to do is I want to show you the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station for the record. We're going to go across the street and you'll see how this is just evolving. If you haven't been in Japan or Tokyo for the last three four years you're going to see a remarkable change. It really is striking to see here. By the way as I'm walking to the other side if you haven't already definitely check out my latest video. This is the Hiroshima atomic bomb trains. Now we all know that Hiroshima was the site of the atomic bomb and it's a really sad story. But I found one that wasn't so sad. This is actually an inspirational story in a way. Despite all the horror and tragedy that was around. Hiroden which is the streetcar company found a way to get the train tracks up and running 72 hours after the bomb.

07:38 John Daub: It's a story that we don't hear a lot about in the West. It's sort of unknown. But when I first heard this story and I realized that these trains that I've been riding on were 80 years old many of them were destroyed burned out in the atomic bombing were reconstructed put back together and now are still riding the rails? I had no idea. So it makes it a very unique attraction in its way because you can feel the history riding. This is car 653. I ride this in the episode. I had special access to film as well as go to the Hiroden garage and talk with the company about the struggles that they had to rebuild the trains. And I even went underneath the train to take a look at the bogies and see how the condition of it is. It's a fascinating story with Sasaguchi-san who is 92 years old. She was 14 at the time of the bombing and she describes to us in great detail what it was like to live through the atomic bomb. The flash of light, the fire. She hit her back on her desk jumping underneath it and it hurt really badly and that was the worst that she got.

08:42 John Daub: You're going to have to hear the story from her. And leave me a comment below on that episode because I love hearing from you guys. This is on the main channel. We're now walking across the street and already you can see there's a building in the center of your screen that was not there about a year ago. In fact it wasn't there six months ago. It was recently completed about two months ago and had an opening event. There's some restaurants in the basement. Sort of connects with Yaesu Chikagai. So I'm going to turn now to the left. And you'll see I don't know what that building is but it looks top secret. And this is the building that used to be a bunch of trees on the side of it. They'd renovated it while I was here and then in 2016 they knocked it down right before the pandemic and this thing went up real fast. This building is going to be dwarfed.

09:38 John Daub: But what's going to be in the sky right here? And that space is where the construction is right there. And there's the Shinkansen track over there. I filmed this from the balcony about 15 minutes ago. You can see how close the Shinkansen tracks are just across there. So they're going to have a pretty neat view. There's a Tohoku Shinkansen going by the red Hayabusa and Toki green. And I want to give you a little information that Toki green which is the green side of it. That empty space is going to be filled with a mega building soon. That Toki green you see that there? Tokiwa Bridge is the name of the bridge where this building is being constructed. Over there that's Nihonbashi in this direction and then right next to it is Tokiwa Bridge. And Tokiwa Bridge is a historic bridge that is next to the Shinkansen. And that's the building, the Torch Tower. I think that was called the Tokiwa Tower maybe. I forget the exact name of it but I did a live stream at Tokiwa Bridge and there's a park there that's really nice filled with history.

11:00 John Daub: We're walking down in front of Tokyo Station. And that in fact today and tomorrow morning is the last day to get the Hiroshima postcard. But this month's postcard for the Postcard Club is that train 653 going past the Genbaku Dome which is the atomic bomb dome. I think it's a pretty symbolic postcard because it shows how history has passed by here in Japan and how they kind of protect it in a way that I really like. It just has a lot of meaning and the last thing that I say in that video is that when that streetcar rolls down Hiroshima's streets there it is a way also for us not to forget those that lost their lives on that train. There are people in that train. Same with 651. Eighty-nine people lost their lives with the driver. One person survived. So you're gonna want to watch that episode.

12:23 John Daub: Alright this is another skyscraper which is gonna be going up. This is called the Yaesu Midtown. This was not here very long much too long ago and in the basement we have restaurants. There's some shops up there on the sixth floor and a deck that you can see into the Shinkansen that I heard. The thing is this building you know the construction in Japan is just ridiculously fast and this is gonna be completed so darn quick. Historically just for the record that building in the center of your screen is a holdout. They did not sell. They decided no we're not gonna sell out to your project people. The value of this property is gonna be gold even more after the building's complete. So they decided to keep it there and this is like a pawn shop. Alright discount ticket and pawn shop figures and this little teeny building that's three four stories high is right in front of this mega skyscraper. It's kind of funny. They couldn't let the project hang so they just built it around it. You gotta respect those that hold on to their old properties.

14:02 John Daub: I'm kind of sad about the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station because back in here and we're gonna cross the street across the street here. On the other side of this is Yaesu and this is what was called Sakura-dori (Cherry Blossom Street). I've been here about six months ago a little bit longer than that to do a live stream and you can see Sarah Lee's a cafe with dessert cocktails coffee and food. This used to be filled with sakura trees and they've cut all of the sakura trees out and this is I'm hoping that they bring it back. Because how can this be called Sakura-dori and not have sakura trees? Right it says Sakura-dori right there. Obviously you need to have sakura trees down Sakura-dori. They do about down at the end here but the point is this area behind here in Yaesu has utterly and tragically altered too quickly towards something weird. In the distance there you can see an early 20th century building. That's the Matsuzakaya department store which is an old fixture here in the Nihonbashi side of Tokyo Station.

17:01 John Daub: They have a beer garden on the roof in the summer. Not too long ago I did an episode on the oldest, a thousand-year-old sakura tree that I believe is the emblem, one of the symbols of Japan. This tree is a symbol of Japan and the Miharashizakura which is in Fukushima. It is a massive 1,000 year old cherry blossom tree that's pink when it first blossoms and changes from pink to white. It's just an extraordinary tree that has a lot of history. I made an episode there that almost nobody watched. Who watches an episode about a tree? Sometimes it happens. They used to close down this tree in March and people could sit underneath there with blue sheets and celebrate cherry blossoms at 5 p.m. but they stopped doing that. I guess it had to do with this construction of this building here. This is going to be a massive addition to Yaesu and the thing is it's going to bring in more people too because they got to fill this up with offices and stuff. I'm guessing they're pretty optimistic about the economy of East Asia. I'm not sure I share that.

18:20 John Daub: All of these buildings here were back in the Showa period and a lot of them have been destroyed. In particular, on this side. So if you walk down it, there are a lot of little izakaya (pubs) with oyaji (middle-aged men) like guys in their 40s and 50s drinking booze and getting wasted. That's gone. There used to be this weird shrimp truck that went back and forth. That's gone. Old restaurants. Maybe they're getting spots inside the skyscraper. I'm not sure. It would be interesting to figure this out. We're going to walk a little bit further, and I'm going to take you to the newest addition, which is complete.

19:02 John Daub: Now, as I was telling you, the Harukas used to be the tallest building, and then the Azabudai Hills building is now the new number one right there. Look at how it dwarfs Tokyo Tower, which is, I think, 333 meters high. The Azabudai building right there is 330. It's 50 meters higher than Tokyo Tower. Sorry, Tokyo Skytree is the tallest freestanding tower in the world. But it's interesting how Tokyo has evolved from being a city with very few skyscrapers. Tokyo had very few skyscrapers. We had, before Roppongi Hills and Roppongi Midtown were built, when I came to Japan, and Shiodome, when I came here to Tokyo, there weren't a lot in 1998. Then Shiodome started. That was around 2000. I remember the skyscrapers came up near Shinbashi, and there were skyscrapers that popped up in Roppongi. Roppongi didn't have many tall buildings at all back then.

20:27 John Daub: It was a really low place until Mori Tower and Roppongi Hills and Roppongi Midtown came in the early 2000s as well. Now we have Shibuya, if you guys have ever been there. If you go to Hachiko Scramble, holy macaroni, it is filled with skyscrapers. They're not as tall, I don't think they need to be, because the land is a little bit weird over there. The Shibuya River used to be an awful place to have to build, because it's really low. If you remember the Ginza Line, if you're thinking about the Tokyo geography, the Ginza Line comes out, in Omotesando, it's underground. And then when you go to the next station, on the Ginza Line, you come out of the underground into above ground. And then you're on the second floor of a department store. And that used to be Shibuya Station for the Ginza Line. It was above ground, so you can see that the subway didn't go further up or down, it stayed the same level. So it shows that Shibuya is actually in a valley, and it makes it really hard to build there, until recently when engineering innovations made it a little bit easier to construct.

21:37 John Daub: And now you're going to be seeing in 2024, most of that's going to be completed, and all that construction is going to melt away, and we're going to be left with quite an extraordinary part of the city in Shibuya, thank goodness, because it's been a disaster since 2016. So it's going to be like eight years of construction. That's Tokyo Station right in front of us. But you can see here now the skyscraper is going up, and this should be completed by I think the end of the year, we'll see the top of it. It'll top out. They had a pop-up shop where I got a burger once, and it was maybe not one of the best burgers I ever had. It was kind of dry. Oh, this is where you can get the Access Narita from here. You get the Keisei Access Narita. They used to be on the other side, but now it's in front of Tokyo Station. I think this used to be the 1000 yen bus, but now it's 1200 yen. They raised the price. It's still cheaper than the JR bus. Prices went up. Inflation.

23:33 John Daub: See here, I can walk across the street. This is the Yaesu Midtown right there. This is the Yanmar. I think that's a construction company or a machinery company. And then behind there is the Yaesu Hills, which is part of the Roppongi Hills, the Hibiya Midtown, which is like the Roppongi Midtown, and now we have the Yaesu Midtown up here. So they've been making these buildings. And then of course there's Tokyo Station.

24:35 John Daub: This exterior of Tokyo Station also has been...

24:39 Passerby: Hi.

24:46 John Daub: Up from Hawaii. Hey, aloha. Welcome. How are you? I'm actually live. Is that okay?

25:02 Passerby: Oh, wow. Have you just arrived?

25:15 John Daub: Here you guys go. You found me. Thank you. I started out at Hokkaido. Going all over the place. We've got six more days here. How is the weather up there? Cooler? The humidity melted away. It's pretty bearable now. Thank goodness. Oh, hey, macadamia nuts. We got a lot of Hawaiians watching because of the time of day right now. I think everyone on the west coast is asleep. These are the caramel ones. I saw these when I was in the Don Quixote near Maui. Gosh, you lost a lot of weight. In the summer? I started to fast. I don't eat breakfast. So I eat dinner at around 5:30, and then I don't eat again until around 12:30. I'm not really that hungry anymore.

26:24 Passerby: Yeah.

26:27 John Daub: After the pandemic, I'm not going to eat anymore. I feel like I could have used a little bit. Now I'm taking it the distance now. I feel like I'm 20 years old again. You're not 20 years old. On TV, you're a little bit. It puts on a little bit of weight, I think, the lens. Well, I'll share this with Kanae Daub if you don't mind. A little Leo. If you ever come to Maui, come and see us. Or we have a Discord server. I think most of the community is in there writing to each other about Japan and stuff. Or Patreon. I sometimes scout out the Instagram mail. I think there's an email link in the YouTube website, YouTube main page. I think if you click that, you have to show you're not a robot. And I think you can send me an email.

27:36 Passerby: I'll be back in Hawaii. I've brought Brandy and Michael. We'll probably do a barbecue in the Magic Island area there or something. We're on Maui. You better come to Maui. How is everything over there? It's okay. It's mostly... Except for Lahaina. You know, where the locals live, Lahaina Front Street area. But they're opening up, I believe it's October 28th, and they're opening up a pass that'll be Kapalua. You know, like the Ritz-Carlton and all those big hotels. They were not affected at all. Oh, on that side. And then when you're coming to Lahaina, Front Street, that all burnt down and went clear up to the mountain. We live in Wailuku. But we live... It's as close as the airport. We live like 10 minutes from the airport. And we're in the mountains. So, Wailuku and all of Kapalua. And we're in the mountains. So, the high altitude, and up country is fine.

28:44 John Daub: We'll be there. I'll bring Kanae Daub and Leo. That's what we're talking about for much longer. Because I grew up on the east side of the US. So, Hawaii seems mentally further away than Japan to me. Because it's Hawaii. It just feels like that. That's why we come to Japan. Because it's so easy instead of going, you know, to the mainland to come to... We come to Japan.

29:10 Passerby: Oh sure sure well we'll be it.

29:14 John Daub: We'll be there next year for sure. I know that we're talking about it all the time. We have so many viewers that are in Hawaii as well. So I think we had like 30 40 people show up for just for a quick meet and greet. So we got it feels like a family on Oahu so now do you go find our Maui family? Right oh you didn't you missed it by a few weeks to the fireworks fireworks trip was fun. How often you come to Japan?

29:44 Passerby: Four times.

30:04 John Daub: In fact we went to Ginzan Onsen in Yamagata.

30:10 Passerby: Oh you went to Ginzan Onsen?

30:12 John Daub: Yeah but we went before everybody else was going. And you know now it's crazy. And you know that one sign that your wife was trying to read.

30:24 Passerby: Right.

30:25 John Daub: That's the hotel we stayed at. How did you get it people have been writing me they can't get reservations to go into the places you have to go to.

30:34 Passerby: You have to call them.

30:36 John Daub: It's old school Ginzan Onsen you have to call them. Or fax them fax machines. We found it we got to Tokyo and then we just went to the tourist center. And I had this magazine and I said I want to go here and she's like you want to go here most Tokyo people don't go all that way. For that kokeshi (wooden doll). Am I saying that right?

31:07 Passerby: Kokeshi.

31:15 John Daub: Did you get a kokeshi (wooden doll)? Oh I love those they make good ones there.

31:24 Passerby: Yes the original. The carvers has a store. What is it like a third or fourth generation.

31:32 John Daub: Yes making those dolls. He was in the video right the same guy. Well he was in your video. You know when you walk by.

31:42 Passerby: Right. That's the store. That's the store. And we hiked to the mine.

31:48 John Daub: Oh you did? The silver mine. But we went all this beautiful point all the way up. I've been there three times and I think it's time for a fourth time now. But not going one. Should we go to Ginzan in the fall or the spring. Might be better. It's really hard. And very crowded. You're actually probably lucky to get a room. We just came to Moji Onsen in Omori. That's where we stayed the night. Oh okay so that's where you're coming back from the Shinkansen. Four hour Shinkansen trip. You're probably tired. We're doing day trips all over the place. That's a good thing with the Shinkansen. You can do that. Do you know where the K.O. Hotel is.

32:43 Passerby: Brestle Inn is supposed to be over here. I think so yeah. Most of the hotels are in this way. This is all really construction.

32:54 John Daub: That's what I'm doing today. Showing all the construction going on here. Everything's new here it's kind of neat.

33:03 Passerby: It's a building actually. If I remember correctly.

33:10 John Daub: Nice meeting you. Thanks for the chocolates. Bye bye mahalo.

33:17 John Daub: That's so cool. It feels like we have everywhere we go we're always bumping into Hawaiians that are here. People living on all the islands. But I'm just glad to hear that they're doing okay. Because what's been going on in Maui everybody knows about that. It was just mostly one side of an island. It's good to hear that they're getting back to business. That is just a tragedy.

33:49 John Daub: That's about all I have. I kept on streaming anyways. Thanks so much for the super chat. I can't quite understand it. It says here 9090. So I appreciate that very much for the super sticker. By the way if you haven't already this episode is out. The Hiroshima atomic bomb trains. But also on top of that there's another episode that's coming out next week which is going to be on the Japanese samurai armored racing and battle royale. It sounds really exciting because it is. This is Soma Nomaoi. And that video is done. I've been really busy. It's just taking a lot of time to the little details. That video is 25 minutes long. The firebombing episode is like 20 minutes, 25 minutes long. These episodes are kind of long in the tooth. But how do you cut an interview like that? You can't. It's such vital information.

35:21 John Daub: Let's move on to my bicycle. I gotta get back and get Leo his dinner. Leo and Kanae Daub. But just to reiterate here everything in this area has changed quite a bit. You can see the skyscrapers are changing the way that the skyline is looking. And it's just really amazing to see. By the way they've already started the Nihonbashi revitalization or redoing it. Putting it underground. So the construction around the Nihonbashi is going to be going on for the next 5 years. It's going to be pretty crazy down there. But the end result is going to be really nice. When you combine that with 2030 with the new Shinkansen line coming and all the other changes there's a lot of stuff to be excited about with Japan.

36:50 John Daub: As somebody who lives here for 25 years I've seen it change from one generation to the next and out to the next. And this Reiwa period is super exciting already. There's still some challenges. The population is declining. We're very top heavy in those over the age of 65. Not enough people are having kids. There's incentives to do that. They're giving us a lot of nice bonus thingies because we had a child. I think there's even more incentives to have kids now. It's just really expensive in Japan. With all of the you have to go to juku (cram school). You have to go to special schools. You have to pay for so many. It's like that in every country. Japan is cheaper than the US and the UK maybe. But more expensive than Europe.

37:54 John Daub: Tokyo station to the Nihonbashi entrance to end the live stream where we started. I don't know what that building is right there with the crane. They've been working on that for a long time. Oh I shouldn't tell you guys this but there is an old izakaya (pub) down this alley that I did for NHK Tokyo Eye called Fugu. And I remember I took a famous Indian Bollywood director there for dinner with Hakuhodo which is an advertising company to talk about a movie. I haven't been back there since. I think that was 2016. I don't think the movie ever got the budget. They were going to make a remake of a Bollywood movie called Love in Tokyo before the Olympics. I don't think they ever got the money to produce it.

39:13 John Daub: Alright everybody if you have any questions leave them in the comments below. Thanks for joining me on this walking adventure. Now in the corner of Sotobori-dori and this road leading to Otemachi. And right there you see that empty space. That void will be filled in a few years. And it's a nub of a building. And you will see this in 2024, 2025. Everybody who rides the Shinkansen and coming to Tokyo Station is going to notice the Torch Tower in all its glory. Look at that. She's going to be right there. And you're going to love it because it's got a huge deck here that looks surreal. I'm going to love it too. Alright everybody, see you later. Go watch the video! Bye bye.