00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Tokyo's Hachiko Scramble. That's the doggy Hachiko right there. Everyone is lining up, so many to take a picture of him, in particular at this time. This might be the best spot right behind him because you have these two sakura trees (cherry blossom trees) that have been here as long as I've been here. I can't remember a time when they weren't here. They bloom just a couple of days earlier than all the other trees. They look like they're even past full bloom, which is super early. But this is kind of a special time because it's only at this time you can see Hachiko Scramble looking like this, which is why it's so popular.

00:40 John Daub: And it was for the longest time that people couldn't see any of the cherry blossoms because they are approximately 12 days late. They're just late. Full bloom is not expected in Tokyo until about Friday or Saturday, according to the news. They keep releasing updates to the cherry blossoms. But if you go in different spots, you're going to find that the blossoms are pretty much bloomed right now in some areas because some places are a lot warmer than others. Shibuya Station is one of those warm places. On the other side of the station, let me show you a little bit about Shibuya Station right now. You can see where I am in the city.

01:22 John Daub: Shibuya is a little bit inland, so it's going to be slightly warmer. It's also a lot of buildings, a lot of glass reflecting sunlight when it is sunny. The station has been under construction for years, and it looks like it's closer to the end than the beginning, which is a good sign. The stations are a little bit easier to get around than it was about a year ago, which is good news. There's a few places around the station with the city infrastructure, which makes it pretty interesting with having the sakura trees. I'm right now at Hachiko Scramble. You can see Hachiko Square, they call it as well. And right down there, you can see there's the two trees.

01:59 John Daub: The Scramble is probably the busiest in the world, and maybe the most beautiful right now. You have thousands of people crossing every 90 seconds when the light changes. It can be chaos, and maybe we'll get a chance to cross together. But on the other side of this, there is a place that is super beautiful. I went there right before this live stream. You can see that this, I forget what it's called. It's an incline, a sloped road where you can get the cherry blossoms going up. The problem is that cars still use this, and Instagramers that are fearless stand in the middle of the road when the cars come to try to get the perfect shot.

02:48 John Daub: Not very far from Shibuya Station, you can see right there. This is from a different angle. And you can see the Instagramers are working hard, getting that shot. It's nice down there. It's good to walk in that area as well. Check it out. In fact, if we have some time, maybe we'll go and do that. But the star of today is Hachiko himself. Let's go around and take a quick look at him.

03:28 John Daub: I was just on TV. I was on TBS Hiroobi, which is a news program. Wow, look! The go-karts were there. I get a chance to go on TV every now and then. They called me about 16 hours in advance. And I'm like, I'm not doing anything special today. Just editing. Okay, I'll go in. But there was a big earthquake down in Taiwan, actually. Okinawa was really impacted. So I hope everybody in Taiwan is doing okay. It was magnitude 7, I believe, or higher. It was pretty strong. There was some question of tsunami coming into Okinawa. So it delayed the news, my part on the show.

04:10 John Daub: I am wearing a necktie. And I like to wear my America Japan pin. Love and peace. But it's nice to go in there and talk to a Japanese audience about what you guys are thinking. So the comments that I get from you on the videos, I kind of accumulate that in my knowledge. And I go in and I tell the people on TV a little bit more about it. I've been going on this show... This is my 10th year. You can see I'm pointing to my name up there. I've been on this show since 2014 when they saw me on the front page of Sankei Shimbun, the newspaper here. And they asked me to come on the show. And I guess I did a good job because they keep calling me back maybe two or three times a year to give my impressions on things. It's a big honor.

05:00 John Daub: I'm also really nervous because it's a live program where I have to speak a second language. And I'm not 100% sure what they said to me. But my instincts say that I should respond this way. I do okay. Enough that they call me back and I really enjoy it. Someone's got to do it. But it really makes me nervous. And it's a good feeling because I feel alive. I've only messed up once. And you have to ask Peter von Gomm what it was because Peter knows my whole story because I've told him about it. But I said something that I shouldn't have. And Twitter really went on fire because Twitter is pretty big in Japan.

05:47 John Daub: Look at the line of people just to get a photo. This is kind of new, the Hachi box. It kind of gives you some information, an overview of Shibuya. I wasn't here seven, eight years ago. So it's good that they get more information. Tourism boom started around 2015-ish, really. And it was around then that they started to revamp the infrastructure so you have a lot more help in English, which is great. You can see there's still some buds on there. Not too bad. But it is not the best of days. It's raining, kind of dreary.

06:48 John Daub: This isn't a place that I would consider a hot cherry blossom spot, though. I seriously don't like urban cherry blossoms. Because I want to connect with nature, and I want to get away from the crowds. And I don't want the stress. And when you are here, I feel stress. So I want to go to a tree in my neighborhood and just hang out there. But again, for a lot of people who have come to Japan, and you don't live here, I think it is a special time because the city really does change at this time. The spots that you've seen before never look like this except now.

07:25 John Daub: Speaking of things that don't look like this, look at that big puddle. What YouTuber is going to show you this one? Interesting to tie up with this building has been closed down for renovations for quite a long time. It looks like they're going to open this up back on April 22nd, just in a couple of weeks. But whether or not the Starbucks Cafe returns here is yet to be known. They used to have a little takeaway shop here on the side as well. But that was prime real estate. And when I first came to Japan, Starbucks did not have that property. That was like 25 years ago.

08:26 John Daub: This area is always changing. It's kind of exciting in that way. Do I like to come here? You can get some nice shots from up here going towards the Inokashira Line. And about 10 years ago, I took video. I went up the elevator and I took some video from that window down up the crossing. And that was really good. I would recommend getting permission to do that though nowadays. But for now, it's these two trees here which are the main attractions. And I'm going to go back to the other side. Because it's just so pretty.

09:28 John Daub: Michael Susano is now at... Okay, Michael Susano nudged me right there. Alright, let's go ruin some photos and stand in the background. I feel like I don't want to get in anybody's pictures. But I want to walk behind Hachiko here. Here, you can just get a shot of what it looks like here. It's kind of neat. Now, I was in a couple of people's photos. It's the Susano effect. Thank you, Michael. Aloha. I hope you're having better weather than we are in Shibuya right now.

10:21 John Daub: Alright, I'm going to walk underneath here just to give you a brief overview. I'm not going to stick around too much longer. I'm pretty tired. I was preparing for this TV show for a while last night. The producers called me at 9:00. And I gave them my take on it. I tried to find something original that nobody knows about. The fact that tourists see the sakura as an attraction, not just as like a season. Many people come here and don't even know when they're going to bloom. But this year was really impactful as the go-karts go by. Because people are learning about the cherry blossoms. They're learning about the different varieties that bloom at different times. Which is great.

11:07 John Daub: Our community right here knows all about the Miharutaki sakura, the waterfall sakura trees. All the different kinds. I've never done it. I consider them a nuisance. But it does look kind of fun. I don't know anybody who lives here in Tokyo that's like, oh, that's great! Everyone's like, ugh, alright. What are we going to do? You can complain about it or you just shrug your shoulders and say, please don't get in an accident. Please don't stop your go-kart in the middle of the road to get a picture at an intersection. Which is just crazy. Dangerous.

11:53 John Daub: You can see the construction on the backside of Shibuya Station. And it is quite chaotic. It's bound to change. But they're doing a better job of marking the stations. Even in English. Shibuya Station. One of the big stations in the city of Tokyo. As you can see, this is an older part of the station. I expect it to close down and then to demolish this whole part of the Shibuya Station. And you see the cranes are there too. Because they already have Shibuya Stream which is wrapped around. It's a new building wrapped around the Shibuya Station. And I think this is the next one to go. And then after that they're done. And boom. Shibuya will be finished. And there won't be any more construction. Right?

13:02 John Daub: There it is across the street. You see where I've walked. This is the most beautiful part of Shibuya I would say over there. Ramsey Silent has nudged me. I'm getting 18 of snow at the moment. You are not. Are you? You're having great weather. Comparatively, yeah. I'm sorry to hear that. Ramsey Silent I believe is also a Midwest guy. Sort of like me. I went to school in Ohio. So the weather there can change quite rapidly. I remember I grew up on the East Coast going to Ohio. They had tornado warnings every Wednesday at noon. And I remember the first time I was freaking out.

13:53 John Daub: Here you can see the Yamanote Line going by here. There's a mega Starbucks right here. So I wonder if they've taken that property which is a lot more chill. Stay warm my friend Ramsey Silent. Stay warm. So there's the scramble. Japan I believe felt the earthquake down in Okinawa but nothing in Tokyo. And I didn't know the magnitude of it. I was watching the TV station I was going to go on into the studio today. And I wondered if they were going to cancel my bit, my part about the cherry blossoms. And they didn't because they had to talk about something positive.

14:53 John Daub: There's a mega Starbucks on the side. You can see they've wrapped it all up in pink. And the window there is so nice. You can see the cherry blossoms. It's overlooking the street that is absolutely stunning. And you can see some people have found it. But even from inside where it's not raining it's really pretty isn't it? Hello Brian. And you can see people try to get some photos before the cars come. It can be dangerous. I think before you try to get the shot, make sure you're clear okay. And follow all the local laws. Because the worst thing is to get hit by a car and get injured in a foreign country. It's not fun sort of at all.

15:57 John Daub: Alright let's go down and see what we can see. Because I have not been down here before. I haven't been this way ever. This is the first time. And I might get kicked out because I don't think holding a stick. This could be problematic. I'm on private property. So I'll be really discreet. I'm glad the signal is holding up. Despite the fact that I'm deep in Shibuya. They've done a great job of updating the cell coverage. For LTE upload speeds in this area. So kudos. Shout out to Docomo.

16:50 John Daub: We can do it. Okay we got it. There's Hachiko on the side of the bus. Alright we're here. Hey Raymond's here. I must have missed the announcement. Which morning program did you appear on? TBS Hiroobi. Raymond. I've been going on there for 10 years this year. And it's really awesome. And I'm glad that they do that. And for all of you. Take a big bite out of this view here. It's nice. I like to put the chochin (lanterns) on here. These lanterns. They're sponsored by the companies.

17:43 John Daub: Only Japan should get one of these. Maybe one year we'll do that. And you guys can come and see our community represented on a chochin. Which is kind of cool. And support local neighborhoods. Although I think I'd want to get out of this area. But it is pretty. Even in the rain. Maybe the city is the most beautiful. You know. A city lacks a lot of character. It's just a city. It's got buildings around it. In particular if you're living here. But at this time with all these blossoms, it really does feel kind of special.

18:34 John Daub: When your city looks as pretty as it does today, I can dig it. And again, you have a lot of people. Because this is a sakura tunnel. I guess it would be categorized as where they meet in the middle and make a tunnel. Which is beautiful. This is one of the few that is in the city of Tokyo. Most of them are outside. But again, if you are going to stand in the street, please, please be careful of cars. A lot of Instagramers getting the shot.

19:25 John Daub: Okay. There you go. I felt like I wanted to ruin something beautiful today. This scene from Fight Club. Salvador Dali. Alright. It's fun times. Fun times. Nice blossom in the rain.

20:02 John Daub: Fireworks festivals are all listed in the websites. The dates are already decided. They almost all happen on a Saturday. In particular right before Obon. The first Saturday in August is quite busy. And then the Saturday before is the Sumida Gawa fireworks. And then all through August there's fireworks. And I usually do a fireworks tour in September. This will be the second one. Annual. To Katakai. Which is where we have the mega shell fireworks. The Yonshakudama. Which is the only place in the world that launches it annually. They launch two annually by the way. Not just one. That's how insane Honda-san is. A friend of mine who's been the creator of the world's biggest fireworks shell. That's launched daily. He didn't do it just for giggles. You know, to get in the record books. He did it because he's just insane. In a positive way. Because it's genius. There's geniuses that are somewhat crazy. And that's part of being a genius. Where you just are going to be an original. And he is one of a kind. Bless him. He's amazing. And a kind man. And I'm looking forward to seeing him again every year.

21:37 John Daub: Alright. Thanks for the motivation guys. I appreciate it. Michael, Susano, Raymond and Ramsey Silent. Thanks guys. I'm going to go get a cup of coffee with that. Start a warm up. And I wanted to talk about how to dress for spring. It's actually not that easy. This is the time of year where things are just absolutely crazy. Because the weather swings from hot to cold. And I was looking at the weather reports. We're only going to have one really good day of the cherry blossoms this year. It's going to be sunny. It's going to be Saturday. So if you're in Tokyo and you're thinking about coming around, Saturday is going to be packed with locals. It's going to be packed with foreign tourists. It's going to be the day where it's sunny and full bloom. And in Tokyo we only have that day. Because it's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

22:24 John Daub: You know that really stinks. And then the rest of Japan is going to be like... Like the weather is just saying like a big finger to the world and saying we're going to give you one day this year. And we're going to make it ultra late. There's nothing positive about the cherry blossom season this year. It's really messed up. Global warming. Anything about the earthquake? Yeah, you know I was at TBS. One of the TV stations here. And they were playing it on the news the whole time as I was preparing for it. It seems like there was a typhoon warning when I left. There could be aftershocks. It was quite a big earthquake that happened in Taiwan. But again, you know the whole country of Japan is thinking about the people down there. And Okinawa, I'm not sure what the impact is there. But I know that they felt it. In particular, Okinawa is not that far away from Taiwan. So the islands, there are lots of islands in Okinawa. Ishigaki-jima where we were just a month ago is very close to there. And all the buildings are made of concrete, you know. I don't know how prepared they are for a big earthquake like that. So please if you are, keep an eye on this as well because they might need some help. And I really love that area. Ishigaki-jima and the islands, Okinawa. The people are so awesome down there.

24:06 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. I'll give you an update on everything tomorrow. I'm planning to do an episode about preparing to come to Japan for the cherry blossoms. It looks like it's going to be raining tomorrow. So I might be inside. I've got my podcast studio. I guess you could call it that. Sort of set up for this kind of stuff. And I'll be able to do more stuff from home. In particular, news stories without having to prepare too much about going outside. But I love this format. I can just take you with me to the outside even when it's raining. And show you something beautiful. And I want you in this channel always to feel like you're with me somewhere really special. And that's what really makes it cool. And a shout out to the Postcard Club members. I really appreciate it. Your postcards should have arrived at the exact time. Just starting to get there. I think they got in Wisconsin today. They got there at the exact same time as the cherry blossoms were blooming here. Thank you so much for the support everywhere. I still got some daimyo boxes if you're interested in getting things sent from Japan. I send packages to help support the channel. And I appreciate it, guys. Very much. All right. I'll be back soon. Time to go home. Get dry.