00:01 John Daub: Welcome everybody to Asakusa in Tokyo. We're here with Leo. He's going to walk around, but I wanted in this episode to tell you about how we got here. This is an amazing way to get from one side of the city to the other. It's the suijo bus (water bus). It leaves from Odaiba, comes to Asakusa and goes back, or vice versa. Either way it's 2,000 yen, and I wanted to show you some of the things you can do here.

00:32 John Daub: Here's what it looks like, the routes. If you're coming from Asakusa, tons of lines. There's tons of routes along the Sumida River which cuts through Tokyo: Ryogoku where the sumo is, Edo-Tokyo Museum, under like 20 bridges. There's a lot of history on this trip until you get to the Statue of Liberty and Odaiba Seaside Park, where Leo and I took off from. But first we're going to eat something.

01:05 John Daub: Leo-kun. Brandy? Leo? Oh, they're over there. Leo-kun. Oh yeah, I can't leave here because the signal will disappear. Leo, let's eat melon pan. So I got two whipped cream melon pans: one for Brandy who found us at the terminal, and one for Leo. Here you go, Leo, take a bite. You gonna try to eat it? This is famous at this shop here, Asakusa Kagetsudo. My friend Yuki-san. Oh my god, are you licking it? I'm gonna get the paper. This is oishii. He said it's delicious. What? Lemon? Leo, you want some more?

02:35 John Daub: This was our goal, but coming from Odaiba is a lot of fun. I made this video while we were chilling. Take a look at this video. Go take it, Leo. Thank you, Brandy. This is us leaving Odaiba. You can see Rainbow Bridge there. Leo has his own camera. It's great because there's a beach, good for families. I don't think you can go swimming, but you can wade in the water a little bit. Here comes the space boat. Leo and I are making our way to catch the boat. This is the Himiko, but we took the Total Luna, I believe. We got inside. Ticket was all online, 2,000 yen. We got onto the deck right before leaving. That's another boat, the Sakura, which is also nice. That's the Hilton where they did all the TV broadcasts from the Olympics. I remember Lester Holt on NBC every night from that balcony.

03:32 John Daub: Here's the inside of the space boat. It's really nice, modern in there, with a restroom—that's a space toilet, which is really something. We got to go underneath Rainbow Bridge—I'm gonna show you the 360 video of that in a second. Here we are going towards Asakusa through Tokyo Bay. Now here's the Sumida River. You can see Skytree under the bridges, which is so nice. After this first bridge, they make us go underneath the boat because they take down the ladder. We're going past some canals. Tokyo is very much a canal city. We're going past Skytree right there. Leo didn't like the smell inside the boat—it had a weird smell. He kept saying kusai (stinky). That's our little video on the space boat.

04:45 John Daub: Check this out—I got this 360 video. One of the great things about the space boat is you get to go underneath Rainbow Bridge. With a 360 camera, I recorded this experience. For me, it's a big deal because everywhere you look you see this bridge, and to finally go underneath it is fun. The Skytree space boat does that. With 360, you get this surreal experience.

05:33 John Daub: Your melon pan—it's not as messy. I think it's because you're not supposed to rip it in half with your bare hands like I did. Leo, can dada have some? Can you share? Please. You have money? Because dada paid for it. You don't have any money—you have to share with daddy. He's like, I don't think so. Is that his penguin walk? I think he's a penguin from somewhere. Anyway, it's a pretty good experience to ride the suijo bus here. It's Golden Week in Japan—that's why this livestream is 720p, it's so crowded.

06:38 John Daub: Check it out—I imported some video we just took from Asakusa. This is Nakamise-dori—super crowded right now. I guess this is what it's like normally on weekends, but with Golden Week, in about an hour it'll be shoulder to shoulder. It's still slightly early, around 2 to 3:30 p.m. it's super crowded as everybody comes on tours. There's Kaminarimon, the gate. But getting here from Odaiba—this is just a wonderful day. We left our house at 10:30 a.m., went to Odaiba. We were gonna get a burger at Hawaiian burger and french fries, but the line was too long, so we got a cinnamon roll and coffee. Then we got on the space boat after hanging out on the beach a little bit.

07:49 John Daub: Where's the beach? I think I got some beach footage. Yeah, are you finished? Oh my gosh. He won't even share—he's running from me. Here you go. I got some video at Odaiba. This is why I really like it compared to Asakusa—it's just chill. Look at this: we have a beach, Leo's enjoying a juice, I'm enjoying coffee. Pretty cool vibe. He can walk around the beach, make sand castles. There's some jellyfish in there, but not too bad—just don't step on them barefoot. From here, I booked online a ticket on the space boat, got on 15 minutes before takeoff. Over there they play volleyball—completely different vibe to Asakusa.

09:01 John Daub: What are you doing, dada? I don't think I want any more—he turned his back on me. He doesn't want to share. Brandy, you don't want to share with me? Say to everybody hello, hi. No? Say hello, hi. You want ice cream? Well, can I have some? You said you're not hungry. What are you, shaving cream? Remember daddy shaving in the morning? You're gonna share with daddy. Just one bite. No? I don't want your face cream. Can I have one bite? No, just one. You're not gonna share? This is not fair—Brandy got one, Leo got one, I didn't get one. This is my favorite food. Is that fair, Leo? Okay, well when you look at it, I don't think I want a bite anyway. It's kind of grody.

10:25 John Daub: Well there you go. One of the great things about Asakusa—on weekends they have yatai (food stands), and there are tons here. This one is crepes. I've seen tons of takoyaki, okonomiyaki down there, cheese one, jaga butter (potato and butter)—really good, caters more to the Japanese crowd. Pretty colorful in there. Feels like a festival. This is an onsen (hot spring bath). Last time Brandon and I did the livestream, we went into the bathroom at the public bath around the corner—the nicest bathroom in the area. This is Hanayashiki amusement park, around for a hundred years. Really nice place.

12:37 John Daub: So that's pretty much the whole deal. 2,000 yen—you have to get tickets in advance online, up to five minutes before the suijo bus departs. The ticket's really interesting: digital ticket, you can't actually see it. When you get there, he touches your smartphone with a device, it shows the ticket and cancels it. I took a screenshot—doesn't have my credit card, thank goodness. Leo was free, by the way. Hope this is informational for you. If you have questions, leave in the comments below.

13:51 John Daub: Right now it's 158 yen to the dollar—mind-blowing. Brandy's checking. 158.10. How did it skip 157? 158 yen to the dollar. Alright, Leo's taken over the entire area with his cream face, and I'm gonna get off here.

14:27 John Daub: Do you have any questions? Let me know in the comments. I really love this route from Odaiba in the morning, then to Asakusa. Don't do it the other way around—start at Odaiba because everyone's coming here first. Or do it in the morning when everything's closed, then Odaiba in the afternoon for the beach. Either way, it's fun—one of these routes I highly recommend. Bye from Skytree in Asakusa. We'll see you in another livestream. Matane.