00:00:00 John Daub: Going to Tokyo. That is a creepy position. What are you doing? That is so creepy. Yes. Behind me, that is Greg who is in Japan right now.

00:00:09 Greg: I'm short, but I'm looking extremely short in this.

00:00:12 John Daub: Hold on, wait. Okay, now.

00:00:14 Greg: There you go. Now we're the same. Yeah, yeah.

00:00:17 John Daub: So this is Kuramae. What do you know about this neighborhood?

00:00:19 Greg: I know nothing.

00:00:21 John Daub: Are you serious? I'm not the expert.

00:00:23 Greg: You just told me there's lots of coffee shops.

00:00:25 John Daub: I did say that. We actually just had coffee. We've been talking about. How you doing everybody? We just had coffee and I wanted to take you around this neighborhood. This is a really popular place for the foreign visitors that are coming to Japan. In particular, budget travelers, backpackers. A lot of youth hostels. We're going to walk past some of them, but there's also a ton of trendy cafes. What do you. You're like looking at me like yeah,

00:00:48 Greg: no, there's a lot of nice cafes. It was funny cuz John was looking for a cafe and we happened to buy like four or five of them on our way to the cafe he wanted to go to. So there's a lot of I guess independently run cafes. So it's interesting.

00:01:02 John Daub: Other than that's one of the reasons why I love this place. There's a cafe, right, A bar over there. There's another, a couple of small cafes here. We actually had a coffee at this cafe which is really good.

00:01:14 Greg: I got some single origin stuff, some blend stuff.

00:01:17 John Daub: I had the filter coffee and then you had the.

00:01:20 Greg: Look how small

00:01:23 John Daub: latte and I had this.

00:01:24 Greg: Look at the bees list though. They have a lot of varieties.

00:01:27 John Daub: Yeah. So you can take, take like a 300 grams of beans right there, the Kuramae blood, which is the neighborhood that we're in right up there. But yeah, this is a coffee nova, bunch of other small chains. So we're gonna walk with Greg for a little bit. He's gonna join us on this, on this walk for a few minutes and then take off and then take off across the street. We're right near the Oedo Line subway entrance. This is one of the youth hostels, I guess you'd say youth host. Just a hostel. This one was closed down in the pandemic and it looks like it's still closed. I don't know. They closed the front door. This used to be open and there was a lobby where there's a bunch of foreigners would be inside there. But this one is called the hostel in Tokyo Kuramae and they had I guess These are share rooms where people could stay. But what was great about this is that it's literally right next to the entrance of the Oedo Line. Let me show you where we are right now. So I kind of made a Google Earth video here, and you can see as it renders. This is Kuramae, which is right off of the Sumida River there. That's Ryogoku on the other side of the river where the sumo stadium is. And we're really within walking distance of Asakusa. So that makes us an especially really convenient place in. In that city. Urban sprawl, you see, there are tons of cafes and buildings that have been turned into guest houses and whatnot. So it's a convenient place to stay in Tokyo. We're across the street from the Oedo Line. There's the entrance to it. So you get into the Circle Line. Oedo Line is basically the Yamanote line of the subway. You can get around the city pretty good. I did 20 years. 20, 25 years ago. I actually met Akebono, who is a Grand champion Yokozuna, 25 years ago when he was in Nagoya. That was a long time ago. He's Americans. He spoke English and he saw a bunch of other Americans. So he said hi. And that was. That was really cool. He's massive. But retired now.

00:03:44 Greg: Retired now.

00:03:46 John Daub: There's a lot of sandwich shops, bakeries, chocolatier chocolaterias. Is that what you call them, places like this? I wanted to show everybody your tanagui. Can I do that?

00:03:56 Greg: Yeah.

00:03:57 John Daub: Yeah. Is that fair game?

00:03:59 Greg: It's. It's out now.

00:04:00 John Daub: Yeah. We did a prisoner exchange. He gave me his tanagui and I gave him mine.

00:04:05 Greg: Well, I probably have my. My other one that I actually. I use as a tenagui.

00:04:10 John Daub: Oh, no.

00:04:11 Greg: Maybe.

00:04:11 John Daub: Yeah. Here's. Here's Greg's tanagui. If you don't know what that is, what. How would you.

00:04:15 Greg: Yeah, I could do it on, like. This is the one I. I actually use as a tenagui.

00:04:20 John Daub: Oh, this is the. So I got.

00:04:21 Greg: Going around Japan, you got to dry your hands a lot because the bathrooms don't usually have any dryers.

00:04:28 John Daub: Oh, so you use it as an actual towel?

00:04:31 Greg: This is my actual one that I use.

00:04:33 John Daub: Oh, I can move back a little bit. That is way nicer than the one I did. The detail. How long did it take for you to design this? And who does it? Who did it?

00:04:42 Greg: So my wife can actually draw.

00:04:44 John Daub: Your wife drew it?

00:04:45 Greg: Well, yes and no, because. So we took screenshots right from Our different videos.

00:04:51 John Daub: Yeah, scenes.

00:04:52 Greg: And then my wife did, like, sketches of them. And her sketches are pretty good.

00:04:55 John Daub: They are.

00:04:56 Greg: But then when we looked at what the artist did, because there's an artist actually at the shop that does, you know, designs. She just took the screenshots, too, and then, like, traced over them and did her own artwork. So I don't think they really use my. My wife's art too much. But, yeah, an artist.

00:05:12 John Daub: I like that. The Maguro, the Torii gate with a little bit of red and blue. The more colors you add, the more the busier it gets.

00:05:20 Greg: I think this looks. I look better like this, right?

00:05:23 John Daub: Well, it's not a mask, Greg. The one that I. The one that I did was a lot simpler. You have mine, but see, I actually did it to be worn. Right. So mine was Karate Kid style. The one that you did is more. It looks like it's more for display. Right?

00:05:38 Greg: It's for display. It's for art.

00:05:41 John Daub: But mine came.

00:05:43 Greg: They actually work really nice as a hand towel, though. They do it on me all the time.

00:05:47 John Daub: They do. So I guess it's a hand towel, but it's not as absorbent. But mine was more for wearing. I like the polka dots and the oni on there. We both did blue and red, which I thought was kind of funny. And there's little smiley faces, Easter eggs inside of the circles. So there's stuff that you could do. But yours was. Was much more. I see you hiding behind there, basically. Yes. Yeah. But you. Mine. Mine did not have the same details as yours did. But I could see, you know, version two of mine having more details, but to add more colors would be interesting. Yeah, but that save. It's a different project. It's top secret. All right. You're heading off to Kappabashi, right?

00:06:32 Greg: Yeah, which is, I think.

00:06:33 John Daub: Okay. Actually, if you go.

00:06:36 Greg: Yeah, I just.

00:06:36 John Daub: Just here. And you want to tell people about what's coming up on your channel?

00:06:42 Greg: What is the next one? I don't know. I have like 10 projects that are backlogged.

00:06:46 John Daub: We both do.

00:06:48 Greg: And I don't know which ones are coming out next, but it's not a secret like that. I've filmed different things, so I. I filmed one about the rich vacation homes in Japan. Like the.

00:06:58 John Daub: The. You want to talk about that openly now?

00:07:01 Greg: No, that's fine. That's not a secret at all.

00:07:03 John Daub: Okay.

00:07:03 Greg: But I found some billionaires. Some. Some really, really multi billionaires. Home billionaires. Supposed.

00:07:11 John Daub: Supposedly in Japanese yen. Billionaires or American dollars, either.

00:07:14 Greg: Either way, you. You Go about it. No, no. It's like American dollars. Yeah. Yeah.

00:07:17 John Daub: Wow.

00:07:18 Greg: Yeah, it's pretty incredible when I found that. But I didn't get to go in the home.

00:07:22 John Daub: Oh.

00:07:23 Greg: I got drone footage of the home, though, which is pretty fun.

00:07:25 John Daub: Okay, that's a different story. If you've gotten inside. That's a different. See that. That area, that. That area where you filmed. I have a different angle on it. But that. The one that you did is pretty good. No, it's famous for a bunch of stuff, that town.

00:07:37 Greg: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were just recently in Kobe filming the Kobe beef.

00:07:42 John Daub: All right.

00:07:43 Greg: Narashiko sake region. They produce a lot of sake. So I don't drink, as probably a lot of viewers of mine. Actually, I don't.

00:07:51 John Daub: I don't really much either.

00:07:53 Greg: I don't really drink much, but I really learned to appreciate sake on that trip, so that was cool.

00:07:58 John Daub: Yeah, it's. Sipping it. You're s. No, just like.

00:08:00 Greg: There's so many different styles. I didn't quite understand it until I went and tried how much I'd like

00:08:08 John Daub: to see Greg a little tipsy. Did you get to that stage?

00:08:11 Greg: It's funny when I.

00:08:13 John Daub: Because I have.

00:08:14 Greg: Where I get really red, I get Asian flush.

00:08:16 John Daub: Right.

00:08:17 Greg: So I definitely got that. But at that point in the video, I was not really tipsy, but when I did get tipsy, I wasn't super red.

00:08:24 John Daub: How is it an inebriated Greg is what? More vocal do you talk more get loud, I guess my face looks slurry. Your face looks slurry.

00:08:34 Greg: I have this one still shot of my face.

00:08:35 John Daub: It looks liquid courage, where you start to dance and stuff like that. No. Well, maybe you're drinking with the wrong people. Maybe. I don't know. But that's cool. Yeah. Sake is like this thing you discover the more you travel around Japan, because we're both going from place to place, the more you start to see the regionality of the food and in particular with the sake and the shochu, which is a little bit stronger.

00:09:00 Greg: Yeah. I was just surprised with the sake that you could have. Like, they have sparkling sake now.

00:09:07 John Daub: They do, right.

00:09:08 Greg: And that's more my style because it's like. It's like a lot weaker in percentage. It's about 5%, a little sweeter. I like the sweet stuff.

00:09:16 John Daub: Oh, you like the sweet stuff? I prefer not sweet now because I'm. You could get the character of it. Yeah, well, the sweet stuff, you just get the sugar, though, no.

00:09:25 Greg: Yeah, yeah, I love. I love the sugar. We have this one called what was this called? Like, sakura.

00:09:30 John Daub: Ah, okay.

00:09:32 Greg: And it was. It was actually red because they had, like, this red rice that they used in it. It was so sweet. Like, I did not think it was sake. Like, it really surprised me that you have.

00:09:40 John Daub: That's like a cocktail then, right?

00:09:42 Greg: Yeah, basically.

00:09:43 John Daub: Oh, so you're a cocktail guy.

00:09:44 Greg: But, like, it's.

00:09:45 John Daub: It's.

00:09:46 Greg: It's only rice. I asked, did you put, like, anything else in it? But it's like, no. How do you get these flavors out of it?

00:09:50 John Daub: It's pretty crazy. They've been doing this for thousands of years. That's where sake comes from. So over that time, they've become masters, which is why it's Japanese sake.

00:09:59 Greg: And even with, like, the different, like, I guess more like traditional sake flavors that they have, you can still have some that's better warm, some better that's chilled. Such a variety of flavors, so.

00:10:10 John Daub: Oh, indeed.

00:10:11 Greg: I went to many breweries, but one of them, they had, like, a tasting bar. You can have them with food, and

00:10:18 John Daub: then let's walk down to the end of the street and then.

00:10:22 Greg: But the. The thing with that is you can try, like, many styles, like. Like five different, like, distinct styles of sake. And if you don't like sake after that point, then you just don't like sake. Right, right. But I did find myself. There's a few styles that I really enjoyed. So it's a process experience that I definitely recommend.

00:10:44 John Daub: I think it also grows on you. Yeah, it also grows on you over time. I'd like to open up a sake tasting bar. That'd be fun. It's a great way to get into the regional. A lot of people don't realize how big Japan really is. On a map, it looks like us, like California or something, but with all the 47 prefectures, all the regional dialects, and the regional cuisine and the sake, it's. It's interesting, but it's. It. Do you think the sake, now that you're a sake drinker, it tastes different at the origin than it does if you were to buy it in the city?

00:11:14 Greg: I think just drinking that far in my journey yet.

00:11:17 John Daub: No. Okay, I see. But for me, I think if you're drinking it at the. At the origin, it tastes different. Maybe it's from the at just the atmosphere or the. The air. I don't know what it is, but things always taste like Guinness in Ireland tastes better than Guinness in Japan. At least that has been my experience. Although you don't drink Guinness.

00:11:37 Greg: No, no, don't start. I'm Not a beer guy, not a wine guy. I'm not. I'm not an alcohol guy like I said.

00:11:41 John Daub: Yeah.

00:11:42 Greg: But I've learned to appreciate sake.

00:11:44 John Daub: I was an alcohol guy and now I'm starting to go the other way a little bit too much. Healthy, getting healthy, getting healthy, staying in shape. That's it. So we're here in Kuramae. For those that are joining us. This is a. They call this the Brooklyn of Tokyo. Yeah. Because I have. And it's got a lot of trees. It's got this really nice vibe down to earth. A lot of cafes, stylish restaurants. You can see just walking down the street how nice it is. The rain is coming down a little bit. But as is here. Yes. Soul's Coffee. That's my. That's my wife's friend's chain of cafes if you can believe it. Check this out. So there's on this corner. Let me just back up. Back off here. Look at this. This a pastry shop that looks like it came right out of France. And here's another one here. Look at that circle window with a bunch of confections. That looks. This is a brand new shop too. So they're opening up places and the more you walk through Kuramae the more you just start to discover these little teeny trendy non chain places. Surfing stuff that makes you curious. You know. I like it. So Kappabashi Greg is just straight.

00:13:17 Greg: Yeah.

00:13:18 John Daub: For seven minutes I think. Yeah. I'm gonna make a right at this next light and show a little bit more of Kuramae. But I'm. I won't see you until spring.

00:13:35 Greg: Who knows?

00:13:36 John Daub: Who knows, who knows. ROR2K Aloha from Hawaii. Aloha. And lovely Takeo writes in here. Super sticker. Oh thank you. Looks very cute. I'll be flying into Kai soon. Yeah. This is a good place to stay. It's a good place to base out of and I'll show you why. We're going to go over now to the river and take a look at that

00:14:02 Greg: around Tokyo. Yeah, I like people think about that.

00:14:06 John Daub: But there's the canals.

00:14:07 Greg: Yeah, I like the. I like walking or running or being along rivers. They're always kind of a little nice.

00:14:12 John Daub: Yeah. This is an old town so there's got a lot of canals as well near Asakusabashi in this region here. Well, it's good to see you. I'm gonna take the mic.

00:14:24 Greg: Yeah, I was gonna give it to you. There we go.

00:14:28 John Daub: There you go. Thank you very much sir. I'll see you again, real soon. Thanks for joining me for lunch.

00:14:35 Greg: Thanks for having me. Oh, I'm not gonna get hit over by car.

00:14:38 John Daub: Careful, red light there.

00:14:39 Greg: All right, all right.

00:14:40 John Daub: Peace out. Bye bye. Well, that was very nice that we got a chance to hang out with Greg. We talked for about two and a half hours about all sorts of. And that was nice to catch up with with a friend. I hadn't seen him in a while. We have kind of a chilly rainy afternoon here in Tokyo and I thought that this would be nice. And again, I'm meeting here because this is a good place to sit down with a friend and have coffee and just sort of hang out. It does have this like, steer. Greg is. Greg has a channel called Life where I'm from. I'm sorry I didn't introduce him properly, but he's. He's been doing YouTube for about as long as I have. I think he started in 2015 and his channel is really incredible. I got. That's one of the one. I don't watch a lot of content about Japan, but Greg's channel is one that I always will watch because I learned something new about Japan from his channel because he does a lot of research. And we were connected, Greg and I were connected through YouTube back then. YouTube over the last four years, five, four years, hasn't been very good. The community YouTube, Japan used to have a lot of events where they brought creators together and I would be able to meet with other creators doing something similar. Nowadays you don't have that anymore. But YouTube five years ago was really great and they kind of introduced me to Greg and we were able to sit down and talk and we always talk about some of the topics that we want to cover, some of the content that we have, things that we learned along the way over the last six months. Since the last time I was able to sit down with him and that kind of stuff helps with both of our contents, kind of swap stories. And not just about YouTube. There's a lot of like, life stuff because he's got. He's got kids, he's got a family here as well as I do. So that's always really good to talk to people about that. And honestly, I don't get out that much. I mean, I'm working here. Lovely, Takeo. Thank you. I'm working here in Japan, of course, you know, I don't. I'm not a tourist, but when I'm working I get out, but nothing like social like that. So that was. It's been a pretty good. Pretty good day. Pretty good day. Let's turn it around here so when I get closer to the river, you'll get a chance to take a look at it. But it is a. It's. It is an up and coming and trendy place. This is a brand new apartment building. It looks pretty nice. So a lot of the older places are being torn down and there's a lot of construction going on, not just here, but all around Tokyo. So the river's on the other side. And within these streets here you're going to find a lot of like youth hostels and cafes and restaurants. And that's what makes this fun. Walking around the streets in Tokyo. Getting lost is a good thing. Getting lost is a good thing. Just make sure you can find your way out. Imato says is, is the, is the mic okay? Let me know if you're having any issues. This is a live stream, which I like to do. I've been doing this for like six years. This is the sixth year of me doing live streams. We walked, I walked quite, quite a ways away from the river. So we're not going to be going back there. And then I'll take you through some of the areas of Kuramae. There's a good chance I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna be here again in the near future to live stream. There's some really amazing things, festivals in Kuramae actually in June, just a few months ago, they have the Torigoe Festival, which is a shrine. Maybe it's about 500 meters away from here. It's filled with street food. There's about 300 street food stands at this festival and they have the Omikoshi, the summer shrines that are going through the streets. It is such an amazing time to be in this neighborhood. And I did a live stream on this channel as many times from this neighborhood. So it's one that I come to quite a bit. Back in the day, sumo wrestling used to be in a place called sumo wrestling. Now is in Ryogoku, which is across the river from Kuramae. But the sumo stadium used to be here in Kuramae on this side of the river. And it was in the 1970s that about 50 years ago it moved back over and moved over to Ryogoku. The 80s maybe can't remember, but anyone who's seen the James Bond movie you Only Live Twice, Sean Connery was here in this neighborhood in 1966 filming for the the movie at the Kuramae Stadium. The old stadium is the one. And actually you want to. We can walk past there. I could take you to the spot of where the old sumo stadium was. Here we go. Across the street is the Apa Hotel which is everywhere. This is the Asakusa Kuramae Apa Hotel which looks, looks pretty nice. If you were to walk straight down this direction, you get to Asakusa in about 10 minutes from now. So that's how convenient this neighborhood is. And because it's not Asakusa, it's affordable. So the hotels here usually cheaper price because it's in between Ryogoku. I mean if you take a look at the map here. Let me just play it one more time. It's in between Akihabara, Ryogoku, Asakusa, Nihonbashi. It's in between so many amazing neighborhoods. You can walk to the Skytree. You see them? The top left, right there just went by there. You can walk to all those places from this location. So Kuramae is an extremely popular place for budget travelers. If you, if you want to be somewhat separated from, from the like the buzz of maybe the Ueno Okachimachi area, this is a good place. You can see there's the river down there. All right, let's walk down the alley. And this is, this is where Kuramae gets really interesting. Along the riverside here you'll find not only that, you can walk along the river without any traffic lights for quite a while. The Sumida River has these sumo wrestling art on this side of the side of the river as well. Because of the history of this area being.

00:22:10 John Daub: Oh, look at that little.

00:22:11 John Daub: Another little trendy cafe there. I say trendy because it just looks cool. So that makes it trendy. I don't know. Let me walk, walk by it a little bit. And then we're going to come back down the street. Street. Is that. I. I think that's a hostel there, isn't it? What is it called? E. Inf. Sumawa. And yeah, I think this restaurant goes all the way to the back with a, with a balcony. So you can take a quick look at the menu here. Yeah, there's. On the back there's a balcony with the views of the Tokyo Skytree. And you get to see the river with the boats going by on the other side. And it looks like it's Italian. Italian cuisine. Very cool. Let's walk up in this direction. We'll probably see a couple of other interesting places to stay. Just up a hotel doesn't really fit the Kuramae vibe of being a local business hub. You know, it just kind of sticks out a little bit. But you know, the Tokyo is always changing. It's. It's a city that's always in, always evolving. Now Kuramae has two stations for two. Two stations. One of them is for the Oedo Line, as I showed you. That's the kind of the purple pink line that goes around the city. That's on the Toei Line, which is run by the city. Metro is a. Is a different company. And then there's Oedo, the Asakusa. Asakusa Kuramae station, which is separated, so you actually have to go above ground to get from one Kuramae station to the other. That was. Wait, so this was a karepan shop. I just walked by it. I could smell it. It's like, wait, okay, so there's a little karepan booth there. And I'm. I'm seeing. Here's another Italian. Italian little restaurant here. And it goes out all the way to the back. You can go out onto the riverside. And that's. That's kind of cool. We're getting out to the place where the old Sumo stadium used to be, where Sean Connery shot that scene from you Only Live Twice. This is where we had. Actually. This is where we had lunch. Greg and I, we had coffee at that other place where we had lunch at the A Sage or Asagi restaurant. And I had some kind of meatball pasta. Oh, that one right there. It was a big, like, meatball on this Bolognese pasta. I didn't really eat the pasta, but I ate the meat based on my diet. It was good. It was good. I can recommend it if it wasn't raining. We were gonna sit outside, but because it was raining, we got trapped indoors. Now it's okay. This morning it was coming down. Cats and dogs, pretty, pretty strong. Tons and tons of foreigners here. You know, one of the things that is. It's not a problem, but it's a little bit annoying. Like I want to speak Japanese if I go outside, right? This is a hamburger bar. It looks like a coffee place, but it's actually. You can get coffee to go, but it's a burger place on the inside. So across the street here is where the Sumo. So this is where the sumo stadium used to be, I believe. I think there's a marker somewhere. Let's cross the street. The sumo stadium was right here. That smells really good. That smells really good. The light's gonna change, but let me look at the menu here. Avocado cheeseburger. Although that. That. The prices look really on the High end, but the way it smells, I would not mind to pay a little bit more. Burger. It's. I'm on a diet. Stick to the D. So many new buildings have come in here over the last decade or so. This is also the site of where the Sumitagawa fireworks are gonna be shot. Here, we're right here. So that's kind of a big deal. And the. The old sumo wrestling used to be here, I believe, or here, right next to one of the bridges. And that's Asakusa right here. So you can see how close we are to Asakusa or Asakusa, depending on how you want to pronounce it. I don't see. I don't see a marker. I thought there was a. A marker for the old sumo place, but I don't see it. Let me take you now to the river where we can get a look at the Sumida River. With the rain coming through, the river might be kind of high right now. Yeah, that's. That's it. Kuramae is quite residential. That's a good way to put it there, Arturo. Thank you. I'm still on the lookout for the old sumo wrestling back in the day. Whoa. Over there, across the street, check this out. Hold on a second. Welcome to the Sumida River. And across the street we have the Sky Tree. But look at how ominous. It is. Totally in the clouds. Satria writes in the Sky Tree. Lost its head. That's right. The rain is. The rain has covered it. You're not going to get a really good view today. But a lot of these bridges along the Sumida River have a history of their own. And back in the 1930s, I think I explained this to you. Some of these bridges, they were made out of steel after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. So if there was an earthquake, they would be able to survive it. And they were made out of the steel that they were going to use for battleships. So they're made quite strongly because of the treaty that they signed with the US and the UK back in the day. There's the Golden Poo. So we're very close to. Oh, there's the home base of the. Of the space boat. Facebook's over there. That's very cool. And here there's a walkway to the Sumida River. And I run on. On some days, you'll see me running down this road. Actually, it's a great place. There's no traffic lights, so you can. You can run or stroll down here without any traffic along the river. And there's some artwork along the Sumida River on the sides of it as you get closer to Asakusa. So it's kind of a neat thing to see the Japanese culture through some of the. The art on the side of the. The rivers. On the other side of the bank, you can see there's a couple of murals right there. That's just the. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local urban art of Tokyo. So you have that there. All right, let's go back. Let's go back in. Here's some public restrooms that you can go into, but let's go back along. Along the street here. I don't know where. I don't know where the stadium was, though. So we're gonna walk along the. The river on the Kuramae side here and see if there's. We can find a couple more guest houses and cafes that you might want to go in and visit. Oh, here's a post office. And I believe. Oh, I had lunch with Kanae a few years ago at this place. I might have to go across the street already. We see there's a. One restaurant called Mirror. That's that brown one in the center. Then right next to it, there's another place. There's the kitchen. And pan over here's the entrance to it. And I believe they have, like. They had a nice little balcony area where we ate. I think I ate with Kanae four years ago before Leo came. Was that. Is it. I forget the name of the rest. Let me see. They had paella. Some really good dishes here. Autumn cuisine. Pasta and rice. That dessert looks really good. Cielo Irio, which is Leo's name. That's interesting. So some really good cafe. I think that might be Kanae's favorite cafe here. So you might want to mark that one down on your map. A lot of these places, you probably want to make a reservation or at least go on a Google Maps. And I did. For where Greg and I ate, you can go into Google Maps and make a reservation. And they. When I came, they actually had the reservation. They go, oh, Dolbasan. And they knocked it and they marked me off, and I made sure I got a table. This is a youth hostel that is also a bar lounge. This might be one of the more famous places in Kuramae for places to stay. You can see up. Up there there's a dormitories. And right now it looks like they're cleaning. She just opened the window. Get some air. Hostlers. So it's checkout time. And on the first floor they have a cafe that's quite popular with a couple of internationals popping their head out. Maybe they're watching. And there's a bar here and they had some pretty interesting beers on tap, I believe. But I like the big windows and inside it looks like a factory kind of that kind of a vibe. Next door is a confection. Is that a confection shop? I think that was a confection shop, I think. But a lot of the. Get my umbrella. A lot of these places here are quite old buildings. This one looks like maybe a 1970s old concrete building. Like a post World War II type of building put up real quick, has a second life as a youth hostel. Now the prices for the hostel hostels, prices and like, if you're looking for budget places to stay, this is it. You can go to Okachimachi, you could stay at a capsule hotel. But I think, I think these are run about 4,000 yen or what's that, like $30 a night or something For Tokyo that's pretty darn good. And if you're trying to compare it to Southeast Asia where it's like $10 a night, you can't do that. This is Japan. This is one of the biggest economies in the world. I think it's number three or four. We used to be number two here. China passed us. I think we're number three maybe, I don't know. But having an experience here, especially if you're traveling as a solo traveler, you get to meet friends from all around the world. And if not in Japan, you probably have a beer in that in the cafe there. And you talk with a lot of other Japanese, especially on the weekends that are going there. You can make friends, learn new experience experiences, learn about new places. But this neighborhood is up and coming. Cuz this is. Look at this playground. It's a kindergarten. How you doing? This playground is up and coming. So this, this neighborhood is up and coming. So yeah, there's a lot, a lot of really positive changes going on as a residential place. But more than that as a place to stay for. For tourists who want a more, I would say more. I think this is a more Japanese experience than a Tokyo experience in Kuramae because it's a residential neighborhood. It's not Shibuya, it's not Shinjuku, it's this. Right, it's this. So you're getting. I think it's more of like a vibe of what Tokyo is really like. Because Tokyo is not Shibuya. Really it's like this for. For people who live here in the city. It's these back streets, it's quiet. A lot of Setagaya outside of Shibuya is like this. It looks like basically like this. But this one. What I like about Kuramae is that it's got a lot of character because it retains that like Showa, that old Japan feeling to it. And that's kind of unique, right? It's kind of unique. Let's walk down here a little bit. And we're take a right. Ginza is my vibe right in rollerblazer, you know. And the great thing with this neighborhood, Ginza's not that far away. Ginza, you can, you can walk there in about 30 minutes just along the river. You're in Tsukiji. Hey, Craig Kawaguchi's here. Thank you. Oh, here's the Toyoko Inn. I think this is kind of new. Toyoko in is also a chain, but they have a restaurant here. And look at this little robot clock. What's that all about? Interesting. Hold on. There's a. There's a sign board. Let's go take. Check it out. Robot mighty eight. Oh look, there's a story. Hey, Masudaya. Since 1824 or 1724, Kuramae once flourished as a center of Japan's toy industry. For a long time, both before and after World War II, hundreds of manufacturers and wholesalers were crowded along the Edo Dori street. With many people supporting the toy industry. Exports were also booming and many toys were shipped from Kuramae to the rest of the world. While times have changed and the city has completely transformed due to the changes in the market and the distribution system, we will continue to cherish this history and the efforts of our predecessors and hope that the world class Japanese toy industry will continue to prosper. Taking the robot Mighty Eight as a symbol. Lightning lighting the the way forward. The Mighty Eight was immensely popular. Walking with waving arms and emitting red, green, yellow lights from the chest. That was the very embodiment of the future of children at the time. Interesting story. I didn't know too much about that, but I. Apparently this building maybe or this area was where they made the toys. And. And kudos to Toyoko in for preserving that history. So they built the hotel, but they kept a little bit of that, of the history of it in that robot. And I'm glad that they have the sign to kind of let people understand about the history of this area. Every area in Tokyo has some sort of history going back centuries and it doesn't it's not always obvious unless you're reading the history books. But I'm glad that in English and in Japanese they have a sign that helps people understand what was once there. In fact, all these places in the buildings that were walking by there was probably some sort of significant historical building on this very spot that no longer exists. And it's hard to really know. Look that there's a dentist Dalquinnick. And the river is over in that direction. There seems to be a little park here right there. Let's go. And there's. I think there's some guest houses down here. Let's go to the main road and get a feeling of the vibe on this side. Look at this one. Restaurant. Cafe. This is a new building. Oh, this is brand new. Look at people waiting in line on the stairs again. That second floor restaurant. So you can see here in Kuramae like this is what I'm talking about. These really like small corner, trendy looking cafe, bar, restaurant things. This all glass building is pretty neat. Let's walk past the front of it and see what they have as a business. That's a cafe called N on the second floor and on the first floor it's the Brooklyn Roasting Company. And they have like BLTs and stuff here. Plate with pancakes, egg and bacon. This. How you doing everybody? I see in the chat there. Hey Daniel. Joy. I hate to see the word Brooklyn in Tokyo. However, Arturo, this is the nickname of Kuramae is the Brooklyn of Tokyo. So I could see why they would want to call it the Brooklyn Roasting Company. Although it. You might think it doesn't fit. It sort of does in a weird way to people who live here. They even have McDonald's here. Get yourself a burger. So there are chain restaurants along the main street. But what I like about this is that if you walk into the alley the residential areas, it's very small business feeling and that's kind of cool. Look at this one building. This one looks like it goes back to the Edo period. It's like falling down in between two other buildings. Is that it is leaning right. That's not just me. Wow. It's an old bookstore, I think. Wow. Oh, here's a little confection structure. Hop. They're selling oa. Selling green tea and green tea confections. There's a. A kitchen shop across the street. There's a Katsu Tonkatsu shop across the street. Tonkatsu bread, pork cutlet. So good. Let's take out 7:11. This is a lot of It's a pretty convenient place. And again, five minutes walking in this direction, you're in Asakusa. This is a weird thing though. So the stations are. They're both Kai Station, but they're not connected above ground. Ground everything is connected underground or overground. So you have to walk outside to get to the station. Slightly inconvenient, but that's the way it goes. If you walk straight, I think you do get to Bondi's old scent headquarters. Bondi again. I think they make video games and toys and stuff. Boy, that ambulance is going by fast. Seen a lot of ambulance over the last couple of weeks. I hate to see that because you know someone's in it. Right? Family Mart's been doing some pretty good stuff. They've got like these premium food packs. You see these here. So it's basically like beef curry and stuff. Beef hamburry steak. So you can heat these up and then eat it and it tastes really good. But it's minimum work. Probably not the healthiest thing for you. But we're finding like you, you can take, take these, take this food home and then you get a meal out of it. So Family Mart is looking to pre make this stuff more premium than their competitor 7 11. So it's not just about having cheap eats, it's about having better eats. And that's a good thing, you know. But still, what I said to you the other day, which is yesterday I had an episode about jet lag yesterday about how to getting over it. I still a little bit jet lagged. And somebody made the comment that Japanese convenience stores are healthier than the U.S. and I said, yeah, but they're still not healthy. You probably, probably shouldn't be eating at a convenience store. And this is true story. It's not home cooking. There are a lot of additives in it. So yeah, maybe eat at a convenience store as a last resort. Although tourists will often eat at a convenience store as their first choice. Which says, says a lot about convenience stores. Right. The appeal of it. They are fun, but they should never be your first choice for dinner. It's a last resort. All right. Keys. I don't mind. Better food for better John Lopez. Better food for better life. Thank you. I'm across the street here. Want to experience, experience eating Konbini food. I can see that. And if you've got jet lag and as I said yesterday, there's nothing else open, then that's a good reason to eat because you're hungry and it's there so you're not wrong. My goal is just to help you guys have a better experience. But sometimes a convenience store eating there is the experience experience because you got all this amazing food that you can't get in your get in other countries. I just want you to. To remember, Japanese food is not all healthy. On the contrary, Japanese foods have as many preservatives and chemicals in it for their processed foods. Maybe more so than a lot of other countries. All right. There's this rumor going around that what was it like? Japan won't allow Wheat Thins into the country because of some chemical in the bag. And that's not true. It was. It's only Europe that won't allow it because of those chemicals. I think there's just no market for Wheat Thins in this country because wheat products are not really popular. It's a. It's more of a rice country. But I don't know, I get like, somehow Japan got roped in to. And it's true that Japan won't allow certain chemicals. I think Reese's Peanut Butter cups had something in it where Japanese. Where they couldn't come to Japan, I think. But ekiben food is not bad either. Hold on. I like the fact that they. They more and more were finding history written in English so that internationals who come here can learn about what was at this spot centuries ago. And this is the grave of Ishikawa Masamochi. And you can see some images of the lantern of Kayadera Temple. So it's kind of cool to see this on the side of the street. Give you an idea of what history was was like walking around this neighborhood. This area was also really bombed during World War II. So that's why you won't find too many old structures around this neighborhood. A lot of it is, you know, it's been reconstructed following World War II. So a lot of buildings from the 50s to the modern era and a lot of those 50s buildings are gone because they were posted World War II concrete structures that did not fare well over the earthquakes and the temperature changes over decades. So, you know, the winter, spring, summer, fall of seasons does not make it not great for all the buildings. See, there's another ambulance. I've been seeing so many ambulances recently. Went the other direction there. Waiting across the street. So this is the Brooklyn of Tokyo. And I know some people don't like to hear that there's a Lawson's across the street. It's an interesting neighborhood. And if you are staying and you decide to make this your home base, you'll be rewarded because there's a lot of local eateries, a lot of really good foods. The prices are not over the top compared to, like, Shibuya Shinjuku. But what makes us great about this neighborhood. It's chill, man. It is chill. Look, there's just not a lot of people around. You feel that you have space to grow and learn and relax. And that's what. That's what I think. Why I don't like Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku. That area of Tokyo, even Asakusa is getting really crowded. But here you're within walking distance of Asakusa, but you can get like, you know, a chill vibe. That's really cool. And I guess this makes it an ideal place for guest houses and young people and getting an experience of Tokyo. So put this on the list. Put Kuramae down on your list. In particular, if you need to stay at a guest house or if you're a solo traveler, this is a great place where you don't want to be by yourself all the time. You get a chance to meet with other people. I traveled when I backpacked. 99% of my travel during my backpacking era was solo. Just me. I never made the excuse, like, I'm waiting for my friends before I travel. Heck no. I got a ticket and I just went by myself. Because you know what? If you're by yourself, you meet people, you make friends. It's the opposite of what I thought it would be like. And the more I traveled, the more I met other solo travelers who thought like me, and then we would all hang out together. And, you know, I get a ton of friends. This is before Facebook too, so I don't. Didn't keep in touch with so many of them. But nowadays you can make a network of friends all around the world backpacking, and it really opens up your life. You know, I. My friend Danny in Canada, I wish he traveled more, see more of the world. I know it's. You have to have a personality for it and. And. But it grows on you. The travel bug. Daniel writes in here, I say it in Kuramae, but you shouldn't be afraid to travel and wait for friends. I think in a lot of my American friends, they don't want to travel by themselves or they're scared. They think the world's a dangerous place. And it is. But I think America might be one of the more dangerous places to travel around. In my experience, traveling around the rest of the world, I've done it by myself pretty good, including hitchhiking across Japan. I've traveled through Eastern Europe by myself on trains. And, you know, I even went to Russia by myself. And that was quite a unique experience. So I traveled China as well. Back in 20 years ago, when it was a different China and I met a lot of other Western tourists that, you know, we was able to hang out together, go out. I never ate alone that much because I always found somebody to eat with, hang out with, and that's part of traveling. Oh, check this out. There's a genetic shop. You don't see. I. I guess they're going around Kuramae more and more. This history here, too. What surprised me most about China, all right, there's a 20 years of this, which. This is not a channel about Japan. So 20 years ago, China was a different place. What surprised me most about China was that I loved. I loved China. There's China, the politics, and there's China, the country. China, the country is so beautiful, so many attractions. It's like America. So similar in the fact that they have so much natural beauty, right? And as I traveled around, like. And China has deeper history than the US So you throw that in there, the food. I thought the people were pretty friendly and interesting. This is 20 years ago China, okay? It's different now. Before the industrial growth that they had, everybody had bicycles in Beijing. I loved riding a bicycle around Beijing 20 years ago, although I got hit by spit every now and then, boom, right on my chest a couple of times. You. You're like. You feel like you're one of many millions of people riding your bicycle around Beijing as a traffic light. You look around, there weren't many cars, but there were a lot of bicycles. Now there's very few bicycles and there's a lot of cars and a lot of pollution. I can't recommend Beijing as a travel destination, although I, you know, if you. If you want to go see the Great Wall of China, it's definitely worth it. Forget. Put politics aside for a second. The thing that I learned about China in 2018 and on, about 2015 and on when I went back and I. I have friends in China. Chinese families and people are very similar to American family and people. And it was shocking that they had the same ambitions and the same problems and the same issues and the same, like, they had the same problems as families in the US did. It was funny in that way and that and the society in China had changed to the point where it wasn't like a bicycle society. Everybody had a decent amount of money in the cities, so Everybody was driving SUVs. The highways looked American in China. Like I remember my friend driving. He was in a Tesla in China. This is four years ago. We're driving from a hotel in North Beijing back to Beijing, and we're in a Tesla and we're driving around this highways in Beijing. And it looks like America to me. The signs, the, the size of the highways, the other cars around me, big. It's very much less like Japan. And China's traffic was more like America, less like Japan. And that struck me as being really significant. China and America are so much more similar than, than people act. Unless you've been to China, you won't really see it. But they're more similar than we realize. And, and if we just watch the news, 99% of the stuff of China is political. China as a country is just so beautiful. And I, I know that like Scotty from Strange Parts who lived in China and other expats that live there, Everybody's got a problem with the politics. Okay, I get it. But as a country, it's such a wonderful place. China emulates America in many ways. Very much so. Probably taking a lot of things from America. It is their number one trading partner, most likely. So I figure if you want investment from America, you better learn the system of America. And they certainly did. But the changes that I saw over the last 20, 25 years, it's incredible. And now it's going in the opposite direction. And you know, I, as I said, I got friends in China and I, I do have my fingers crossed and, and you know, not a religious man, but I pray that they're going to be okay because the demographics of China is not in it going in a positive direction for success. So. All right, get back into Japan. This is not a country where the Democrats are democr. Demographics are working for Japan either. But Japan has been had this problem for a very long time and they're going to weather it just fine. And I think Japan is back to about 70, 65% of the tourists that they had before the pandemic hit. So they're gonna be okay in 2024. Despite the inflation and everything, it's still 150 yen to the dollar and you're getting a bargain. So I hope you guys can make it and consider staying in this neighborhood. I'll bring you another live stream tomorrow as I take you to another area of Tokyo. But I'll give you an update on some of the changes that are happening with the only Japan Channel. And I have an episode that is coming in the next couple of days. So look for that on the main channel next time. Bye bye. Oh, hello. Right at the end here. I. I might have a you found me card. I'm in front of WI Fi from the Prague. Okay. Where are you from? Prague. Yeah. Yeah. That's where we were a few years ago. Christmas. Christmas. Did I see you there? Yeah, five years ago. Holy smokes.

01:00:55 John Daub: He was the WI FI guy.

01:00:57 John Daub: Yeah. Holy smokes. I remember now. We changed a little bit. I see some white. You have white hair here. This is. We did a live stream there too. This is the WI Fi guy at the Prague Christmas market. How you guys doing? Oh, wow. But I don't think I didn't have this back then, did I? You found me cards. Oh, you're welcome. Oh, that's so great. Welcome to Japan. How's your trip? We are here for 45 days. Wow. What day are you now? And we have also something for you. Oh, okay. Ah, this Prague is a special city for me and Kanae. Because we've been there three times and we just have. Because we go there before we were married and after married. And now with Leo, if we go there again. So it has a real special place in our heart. This is Prague 1 though. Prague 1 right in the center. It's kind of crowded. Next time we go, I want to stay out of the center and see more of the areas around it. But it's such a beautiful city. What was. What was the best thing you guys did in this trip? This time maybe. Oh yeah. Two days after you. You just missed me. I. I can't tell you exactly what I was doing there yet. Cuz it's the main channel episode. But it was. It's pretty good. It was still smoking, right? Sakurajima? Still smoking. Volcano down in Kagoshima. Yeah. And you're going back to Prague soon? In 12 hours. 12 days. Okay. Okay. And we have also something more for you. Okay. You know this. Cookies. Oh, you did not. Oh my gosh. So you can carry this for a month with you. And if you like spirits. Oh my gosh. Oh wow. It says you're from the Czech Republic here. What. What is this one? I've never seen this one before. Herbal. Is this like a Jagermeister? Yes, it's something like that. Okay. I've had this once a long. This is old company. Yeah, I had this. So when I was in. The first time I went to Prague was 1996. It was one beer. Was like. Like 30. 30 cents. €30 cents or something for one beer. But then we ended up drinking something like Jagermeister and it was this. So this is really good memory for me. It's strong though. Good memories. Not actually not good memories, but it's overall was really giving. Well, thank you for this guys. I'm gonna have to bring some stuff when we come to Prague for Christmas again. They still doing the Christmas next. Next one. Next time we're going back to us this one. And then next year we're going to be doing Prague. And I'll put this in a safe place. Prague and up and down. I guess Eastern Europe is. Is nice. Poland and some of the places there. But yeah, yeah. Oh, yes. This is really cool. Wow. I'm happy to. I'm happy that you could catch me. Did you try to find me in other streams? I apologize if. Because I didn't do so many like

01:04:36 John Daub: four years ago maybe. But this one was first we were in bed and notification came up and.

01:04:44 John Daub: Oh, oh, you're staying near here? Oh, yeah. Okay.

01:04:50 John Daub: And so

01:04:54 John Daub: 40 minutes. 40 minutes. Oh, you took 40 minutes to get here. All right. And I've been live streaming for one hour and five minutes. Ah. Oh, very good. Well, you did catch me and, and good spot too here. WRX Turbos in the house. How you doing? Wow, great. Well, I think thank you for bringing us all the way from Prague. That's awesome. You missed Craig. Did you see Greg life from front? He's walking over in the other direction. I'll see you guys in. In on the other side in Prague. Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Ciao. And ciao to all of you too. Bye. Bye. Matane.