00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Harajuku. Just over there, they've unveiled a brand new shopping center. The mock-ups looked like this in the corner. Wow, it's just across the street from the existing Tokyo Plaza. And this one is the Tokyo Plaza Harajuku Harakado. They've just taken down the sheets that were surrounding it. I'm looking at the top and the garden is just stunning. Let me zoom up in there. Look at that. They've really done a great job with this. It looks like a jungle or a park up there, almost tropical in nature. I'm sure there's going to be some really nice cafes overlooking the intersection here at Harajuku. But this building has been a long time coming.

00:01:12 John Daub: That intersection over there used to have Condomania on the corner. They took that down very quickly in 2021, 2022, and this building went up really fast. Now across the street, you can see a building that looks somewhat similar. Of course, the architecture is different, but this one has been something of an icon of Harajuku lately, especially the escalator that's filled with glass and mirrors coming down it. Taking videos looking onto the intersection has been iconic. Just over there is Harajuku, Takeshita Street (Takeshita-dori, crowded pedestrian street). There you go. It's some big changes coming. Let's go across the street. We're going to go this direction in the sun and take a look at it from a closer view. This is where there used to be a Jonathan's up there on the intersection. And now I think everything is out of business. There used to be a UFJ bank, which is gone. So they might be just tearing down this and putting up another building that looks exactly like this.

00:02:14 John Daub: WRX Turbo is in the house and Mao is here. Nice to see you guys. All right, let's cross Meiji-dori. There's that burrito place I was telling you about, Guzman y Gomez. It's pretty good. And if we get enough people watching, I might take you down Takeshita Street just a little bit. Everybody knows that it's not my favorite place to go to. So let's while we're across the street, take a look at it. Let's take a look at where we are exactly on the map here. So Harajuku is as central as you can get. Here's the intersection of Meiji-dori and Omotesando. When you come down, you can see the construction zone right there. It's on the bottom left behind that building where the crane is. That's where the building is right now. And across the street from that is another Tokyo Plaza, which has a beautiful garden on the roof as well. That one you can go to right now. There's a Starbucks and a couple other cafes. You can sit down there. It's kind of like a local secret. A lot of tourists don't know about the garden up there, but it's harder to see than the new one.

00:03:15 John Daub: This is the site, the construction site that is now a building. And how fast did it come? It was crazy. If you pan out, you can see it's right next to the stadium, Meiji Shrine and Shibuya's Hachiko Scramble where I was yesterday in a live stream and Shinjuku. So you can't get much more central than Harajuku. Not a place that I like to come to, which is why it's shocking to me to see this today. So that's where we are right now. And here's the building right in front of you. Very cool. Now, according to Time Out, we've got some information here. This article is a little bit old and this is a mock-up of it. It says Harajuku is getting a new shopping complex with a rooftop vertical garden. That just sounds cool. It's the shiny new Tokyo Plaza Harajuku Harakado. That's the name of it, the Harakado. And it's set to open next year, although I think it looks like it's ready to open now.

00:04:20 John Daub: We've got some more information here on the other side. Named the Tokyo Plaza Harajuku Harakado. The new building is right across the street from the Tokyo Plaza Omotesando Harajuku. They sound very similar. It's going to be really confusing. To avoid the confusion, the pre-existing building will be renamed the Tokyo Plaza Omotesando Omokado. That's less confusing. Oh, and there go the Mario Karts. I think that's the difference between the two buildings because they do look very similar in nature, the geometrical shapes of it. Let's look across the street. I think it's the mirrors in there that's very memorable inside there and the exterior of it is brown. But what they've done is take the mirrors of that building and they just put the whole thing on the exterior of the Harajuku one across the street. Tokyo is a massive company that seems to own quite a bit of property in the Shibuya area. And now here in Harajuku, they also have their own railway, the Tokyu Toyoko Line. I used to live along that in Futako-Tamagawa. But as you can see, the scaffolding is still inside. They just got the windows open. But it's a big change.

00:05:44 John Daub: This is where that very famous Condomania shop was. It was such an in-your-face shop. You could say, I'll meet you in front of Condomania. It was just like a common thing to say. And now it's gone. And I'll meet you in front of the generic Tokyo building that looks like the one across the street from the one that's across the street from it. You know, at that intersection. You can't even say, I'll meet you next to Jonathan's or the bank because this intersection has just changed so much so fast. So, yeah, that happened. I'm actually here filming a final scene for my episode on school uniforms when I saw this. And my jaw dropped. I'm like, they're finished that fast? And you can see here's the entrance to it. This is the door where it actually opens. Finally, the public can see what was behind all that scaffolding.

00:06:40 John Daub: I had a friend who used to live behind here. Her family was filthy rich. I met her about 20 years ago. She used to work at the Gap building before this one. And there was a Gap in there. And she helped me find a pair of jeans. I am loving the recycling right here on the street. They do a really good job of that. And they have lights in there to check for security reasons. A lot of people say that Tokyo doesn't have any garbage cans. Well, in Harajuku, they actually do. I'll just swing in here. So there are garbage cans here. But it's not common. And they're probably made really strong for security reasons as well. So that's interesting. Interesting nugget of information.

00:07:31 John Daub: Omotesando right now is amazingly beautiful because of the leaves changing. But as I said before, the autumn colors this year are really not good because the summer was too hot. That has a repercussion. The repercussion is that the colors of the red and the yellow are more brown. The leaves were really exhausted over the summer. And you just don't have the same kind of autumn feeling. And I think the HDR of the iPhone makes this look better than it really is in person. But we'll take it. They call this the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo. Which is a famous Parisian street of shopping that everybody knows. This is a little bit narrower and not as fancy. But the shops on the left and the right, they really are super fancy.

00:08:25 John Daub: Alright, I've decided I'm going to call an audible and I'm going to take you down Harajuku. I'm not going to go to Takeshita Street because it was so crowded when I was there about an hour ago. I just want to avoid it at all costs. It's so great to see WRX and Turbos here. The stream is not complete without seeing you. I took some video of the girls here. I was here working with a company. This episode should come out next week, believe it or not. And what's interesting is that in Japan, Japanese students will wear uniforms that are not part of their school. They're just uniform-looking clothes. They wear uniform-looking clothes even though their school is out. So they like it for purikura (photo sticker booths) and all sorts of other things. It's cute. So I can get behind that. And I went into the purikura booth that they were at as well. And I got a chance to take some shots of them for the video coming up of doing purikura. Which is kind of neat. They were in there forever. Just some short scenes. And that's what Harajuku is very famous for. And the uniforms are quite cute. They're nice. Even the guys have them. The cardigan sweaters now are in style. Autumn colors. Autumn jackets and stuff. But it's autumn. So a stroll down Omotesando is definitely a good idea. Just so that you can see and experience for those that aren't here in Japan right now.

00:10:14 John Daub: I've also noticed a new Cold Stone ice cream opened up. And there are a bunch of new shops down here. It's always changing. I walked down here and I saw like a dozen shops that were all new. And most of those are places that I would actually go into one day. Yeah, I've been filming this episode for about four months, the uniform episode. So it's all edited. One of the conditions of the episode was I filmed in their factory. I went down to the factory. One company makes most of the uniforms in the country, believe it or not. Which is an interesting story. So I went to their factory and I filmed in there. But they have to look at it and approve it. Because I don't want to show something that I'm not supposed to. Maybe a trade secret or something. So they're right now reviewing the episode. And when it's all good, this is how you're supposed to make a video as well. You're supposed to get permission and have people check it. So you don't get in trouble. So when that's all checked off, I'll upload it hopefully by Thanksgiving. So four months is a marathon episode.

00:11:23 John Daub: This is Cat Street. Very famous street. And sometimes you see a basket full of cats in front of here. There's a famous person who has about 30 cats in a basket and walks around there. But it's a beautiful street if you look down there. It's got some street food. I think there used to be a Keds Shoes shop over there. And Patagonia has a shop down there. It's pretty nice. Across the street is Omotesando Hills, which is a shopping mall of shops that I would never buy anything from. I can't think of anything that is worth buying. But it's amazing how fast this place changes. Let's go up the steps and I want to show you the street from above. See there's some more trash cans. I'm starting to see Tokyo having trash cans. That's interesting. I remember seeing a ton of students in uniforms. The kids here, they wear their uniforms after school. They have a choice. They can wear the uniforms. They can take it off and change. But instead they choose to keep the uniforms on. Or they wear uniforms that aren't their school uniforms just to look like they're wearing uniforms. And that's really cool in a way. A lot of people had the same idea as me.

00:13:00 John Daub: Alright, let's look back down. Looks like they've taken out a lot of the trees. Doesn't it? Doesn't look quite the same. The Christmas lights are already up. So at night you'll see that. Wow. You can see like the red and the yellow are more brown. Not quite the same, huh? Hey, if I'm wearing a uniform it's going to be a kindergartner's. They have those nice yellow hats and light blue shirts. Very stylish. I did that once for Halloween here in Japan many, many years ago. In fact, I have that costume. I did it for an episode on the old channel. Which I don't encourage you to watch. Shouldn't even bring it up. There's the new building across the street. You can just see it. Just see a little bit here. Another trash can, which is odd. And let's do a little walkabout. We're going to walk past Omotesando Hills.

00:14:21 John Daub: I'm more curious about the signal strength. I'm not sure how the signal is going to be. But I've noticed a lot of 5G terminals above the telephones that people still use. I saw somebody go in there the other day. The last thing I think I did here was, wow, there's a Starbucks underneath the Omotesando Hills. They are powerful. It's interesting to see how much Tokyo changes so fast. The only shop that I really go to often in Harajuku, in this Omotesando, is the Niigata store, which is behind Omotesando Hills. And you can get some really good sake. The Hokusetsu 32, I think it is. It's a Junmai Daiginjo that I really recommend. It's made on Sado Island. So good. Hokusetsu, write that down. Robert De Niro has a stake in that company. So if you ever go to Sado Island, go take a tour of Hokusetsu Sake Brewery. They age it with Beethoven, I think, in a little aging cave. And they also have pictures of De Niro totally plowed. Which is legendary when you see him with the CEO of Hokusetsu. Just drinking and eating. That big smile of his. It makes you feel good to see it. Because everyone has seen him in the really tough roles.

00:16:09 John Daub: Alright, I'm looking at the chat now. If you have any questions, let me know. I will respond to it while we're walking towards Omotesando Station. This is the way I go home. Yesterday I was showing you the construction right now. The lines are still closed down in Tokyo. The Yamanote Line. If you're in Tokyo, this is good to know. I made an episode about this yesterday. But until today, the long way around, take the Fukutoshin Line, which is a subway. It's the brown one. That will get you to Ikebukuro just fine. The signs are everywhere. So I think if you're in Tokyo, you probably already know about it. This was yesterday. Again, the signs are right there. There's a lot of people. But it's interesting to see the Shibuya Station. The station kind of shut down a little bit. You don't see that very often. JR is doing such a great job of never having to do that. The view from Hikarie, which is the department store across the street on the backside of Shibuya Station, also offers a really great view of the intersection. But as I said yesterday, you can see the workers on the line. I think they're on the other side today. This made the news all over Japan yesterday as well. NHK covered it pretty good.

00:17:53 John Daub: And I have tried the school uniform. If somebody super chats me, maybe I'll even show it. It's kind of embarrassing. That was a long time ago. That was a few months ago. I'll have to pull up that photo from summer of 2023. I had a gakuran (traditional Japanese boys' uniform). I think they wear the gakuran in junior high school too. Unfortunately, I found it. Oh no. Alright. The only way I show it is if somebody really requests it. I would prefer not to. So this is the Niigata store in the background here. I sometimes even go in there just to get a bag of rice. You can get Niigata rice at the supermarket just about everywhere. But there's just something nice about it. Maybe it feels more local when you go into the Niigata store.

00:19:31 John Daub: Ellis, how dare you. How dare I even ask and give you this opportunity. Alright, here you go. Ellis, this is sponsored by Ellis. Unfortunate, Ellis. This is very unfortunate. This is John in a gakuran a few months ago. Very embarrassing. Yeah, there you go. I put it on in the dressing room. The pants were a little bit too big. Couldn't be helped. Here's my buddy Matt Alt and I with some of the students, some of the idols for the... models. Matt right in the middle. How did he get in the middle? He's so big. It was a good time. He'll be in the episode, I believe. That'll be good. I did interview him slightly about... He was in a gakuran when he did an episode of NHK show. There you go, Ellis. I hope you're satisfied.

00:21:11 John Daub: Alright, let's go up. This Wayback Burger has really decided to go all in for America because they are American. I don't think that they're doing too well. I went to their press release. This location was not a good one. I think it used to be the Mos Burger cafe and they're learning they got to go big here. Go big or go home. But yeah, they're really good burgers. So if you're here, you need a burger. Go on and help our friends at Wayback. They invited me to their press conference and I was really thrilled. I went with Peter von Gomm. It starts from $4.50, right? Look at the green burgers. Interesting. It's got like green buns. Ah, it looks sloppy good. I'm going to pass. That's not good from trying to stay in shape. Although burgers aren't really the problem. It's just sugar. Maybe it's the ketchup and any of the artificial stuff. That's really the problem. Eight patties. Just a little bit. Johnny, did you count that? You're so silly.

00:22:51 John Daub: Alright, we're almost at the Omotesando station. Some people are underdressed here. That's not a criticism. It's just shocking. Oh, you see the trees here. The trees here have LED lights on them. So the evening is going to be really pretty. I think this might be the best time before the leaves fall off because the light reflects off of them a little bit, kind of canopies the LEDs in. So the streets are a little bit brighter. Here's that shop that I'm not a fan of. Although I still buy their products. What are you going to do? Autumn in Tokyo is really, it's okay. It's so much better if you go out to the countryside.

00:23:46 John Daub: Yesterday, I brought you to Yamadera. Do you remember this? That was three days ago. That is stunning. That's what you should be coming to Japan for. Looking down on the town of Yamadera, there's the JR station in the center. It's just stunning. And it's right at the end of it. You're probably going to get this for another few days. But the sunlight is really good around 3:30. I thought the light kind of goes down a little bit and it's not so bright onto the leaves and the colors pop a little bit more. Wow, it was nice. Gosh, I want to go back there. It wasn't enough time. And it was empty. Look at that. There's not a soul there. Well, I was there, but other than me, there was not a soul. And then you got this and people are like, oh, that was so nice. Are you kidding me? Did you see what I just saw? And then here we are.

00:25:02 John Daub: That's Omotesando station. And this is the end of this stream. So I want to thank you all for joining me and checking out the new building, the Harajuku... What's it called again? I can't even remember. It's confusing. Thank you, Time Out. It's called the Tokyo Plaza Harajuku Harakado building. It's brand new. It looks very much like the rendition of it right there in the picture from last year. And it's been unveiled. And if you're in Tokyo and you're in Harajuku, go check it out. It's going to be opening in 2024. And I'll be a person who goes in there, probably to use the restroom. Because they're brand new and they got to be nice, just like a new car. Someone's got to christen those things. Why not me? I'm here. All right, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. I'll see you in the next live stream, probably tomorrow, as I talk about a safety situation that is endangering tourists that are arriving here in Tokyo. There's an event going on and we want you to be safe in Tokyo. So tomorrow I'll be talking about that in the morning. Matane.