00:00:02 John Daub: Seems like I'm here in the jungle of Tokyo. This is right above Tokyo Station. I have this amazing view of Tokyo Station from the sixth floor of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu building. Check it out. You can see the Shinkansen just come in here. But from this viewpoint, you get a really amazing view of the platforms down at Tokyo Station without having to buy an entrance ticket or go through the crowds. It's kind of cool. You also get a really nice view of the city.

00:00:43 John Daub: I thought I'd come up here. I haven't been to this sixth floor observation deck in quite a while, or ever. There's a lot of construction going on right now on the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station. You can see the cranes bringing in stuff. That building going up really quickly is this one, the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu. On the sixth floor, there's a brand new observation deck. Here's the view from there of the Shinkansen coming in just a couple minutes ago. It's really cool to see. The people look like little ants down there.

00:01:37 John Daub: It's kind of neat because it's a viewpoint that didn't exist about a year ago. This is a brand new place that opened up around the beginning of January. There are a lot of neat restaurants, cafes, and places to sit looking over Tokyo Station. That's the observation deck on the other side in the Kite Building, which is the international post office. It probably has a better view than here. But this is the first time taking a look at the trains from this side of Tokyo Station, and it really puts everything on this side in perspective.

00:02:22 John Daub: Let me take you over to the window now. The great thing about train spotting from Tokyo Station is Dr. Yellow. When that happens, this is probably a good spot to be, and then you can run down to the platform for close-ups if you want. It's about 150 yen for a platform ticket. You don't have to buy a Shinkansen ticket to get onto the platform. Down there you can see the train, the taxi queue. The taxis go around in kind of an S curve. The queue is pretty long today. What I do is cross the street from Tokyo Station and grab a cab in about 30 seconds. But don't tell anybody that little secret.

00:03:30 John Daub: If you've got a lot of luggage, might be worth waiting. You have the Tokyo Station sign right there and the Shinkansen. I hear the bells. The Shinkansen is going to leave in about 30 seconds. Let's get a view now of the Tokaido Shinkansen leaving towards Kyoto. It's a good view of all the stores and shops. I didn't realize how big that second deck of Tokyo Station is. They even have sofas. It's kind of cool.

00:04:10 John Daub: Once the Shinkansen starts to go, I'll zoom in. That's a neat view. The Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station is also quite pretty. You can walk through the station—there's a tunnel that goes to the other side—or just walk around. Let me show you on the map exactly where we are as we wait. Oh, wait. There she goes. You're going to see all 16 cars. Of course, it doesn't hit top speed until well out. That's a pretty clear view all the way down to Nagoya.

00:04:59 John Daub: Again, probably the better view is over at the Kite Building. This one's not too bad. Let me walk over to the corner here. Oh, I didn't realize how nice this is going to be up here. Zooming down where we are—this is the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu Building right there. It's brand new. You can see Tokyo Station coming into view. Those sails on the right side, and that's where we are. Marunouchi side—that's where the Imperial Palace is on the top there. Skyscrapers that have come up just in the last seven years on the right side.

00:06:21 John Daub: Now we're spinning where the Marunouchi side is in the foreground. That's all more legacy stuff, a little bit older. The Otemachi on the bottom of your screen right now. Most of those on the left side are brand new buildings on the Yaesu side. You can see where I am—that blue dot is the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu Building. The view that we have right now is pretty special. I think a Shinkansen is starting to come in over here. You can hear the birds chirping. That's pretty cool.

00:07:12 John Daub: Shinkansen come in and go out, quickly picking up passengers and making their way to Kyoto and Osaka. It's a nice view. Now on the other side you can't really see the trains taking off like that. That's probably the Shinmaru Building. There's some green on the top of that one over the dome of Tokyo Station's Marunouchi side. I always get them confused—both are the Maru Buildings. From the sixth floor there, you also get a pretty neat view of Tokyo Station, but you don't get quite as good a view looking into it past that brick facade on the Marunouchi side.

00:08:19 John Daub: I think the Yaesu side is good for that, but the sail here is sort of an obstruction. You can't see into the Tohoku Shinkansen. I'd say the Kite Building is probably the best, though you can only see the very end of Tokyo Station with the trains sticking out, including the Tohoku Shinkansen. All the Tohoku Shinkansen go that direction—none come in this direction. You guys got any questions about this neat train spotting spot? You can take the escalators or elevator up to the top here. I took the escalators—it's basically deserted. There was nobody up here when I got here.

00:09:01 John Daub: It's a great place to get a bento if you're waiting for the Shinkansen or your train. Grab it from one of the basements and relax up here. It feels like you're in a park, which I guess is the effect they were looking for. Very cool. There's the McDonald's down there and the bus terminal. These are the highway buses from Tokyo Station—that one and these two here go to the airport. You can buy tickets inside or use your IC card like Suica and get on the bus to the airports.

00:10:04 John Daub: I'm curious what these restaurants are on the second deck. It's not too bad of a day here in Tokyo. You can hear the birds chirping—that is crazy. They've made a home here, or is that all artificial? It's hard to tell. This is going towards Nihonbashi. That's the way to get around Tokyo Station—you make a left at that intersection to get over to the Otemachi or Marunouchi side. There's the Shutoko (Tokyo expressway) up above, which is scary because people drive really fast on a little narrow track. It's a tube-like highway.

00:10:59 John Daub: The building itself looks pretty modern—the whole side is just one big TV. That's all kind of cool. I think that's a real bird. Hey, aloha Michael Sassano. Afternoon snack, run if you're up to it. Always love seeing the Shinkansen, especially while in Tokyo missing so much. Thank you, Michael. Yeah, they got a burrito place down here—Rio Burrito. I sometimes grab one for lunch, which I haven't had yet. That looks like the Chuo Line, that orange one coming in. The domestic terminal is way over there, and the Shinkansen is much closer to the Yaesu side, so you get a lot better view from here.

00:12:03 John Daub: I got angry at HelloHi821, our moderator—what he called Rio Burrito. I was just kidding; it wasn't such a big deal. A lot of people getting off the Shinkansen—many international travelers using it at that time, and business travelers going back and forth to Osaka. Usually you'll see them getting on, not a lot of families. Most vacations start on Friday afternoon—you'll see people leaving on the Tokaido Line. The JR stations are pretty good; it's easy to get around. They've designed it with that in mind. The signs are all in English now.

00:13:00 John Daub: When I first came here in 1998, the signs weren't all in English, if you can believe that. It made it a really adventurous, authentic experience—getting lost is part of the fun. Just give yourself a lot of time. But in this decade, people don't have quite the same patience. There just weren't a lot of tourists back then—very little tourist industry. Most international travelers were Japanese who'd have to leave the island. International travel was like 2.8 or 3 million per year back then, and now it's close to 30 going on 40 million.

00:13:37 John Daub: I see Ramsey's Island has found the Leo emoji—that's pretty funny. I really do have to change them up. The sun is starting to come out—it was pretty cloudy. I had to get ready this morning on and off, but it's a pretty nice day. I think it's a nice day to be hanging out up on the top. I walked down around this building too—there's construction on both sides. Once that's completed, it'll quiet down quite a bit with some new restaurants. It'll have a totally different feel than five years ago. I'm kind of curious to see how that pans out.

00:14:28 John Daub: But I want to walk across here. I'm hesitant because the signal wasn't that great, so let's go and see what we can see on the other side. If the signal dies out, it'll be back soon. They are real trees. Oh, it's darker on this side from the trees—the forest is thicker. Check it out—I can go touch it. It's wrapped up there. What do you think? Does it look real? It looks real to me; it smells real. You can smell the soil. Just a little bit different view if you walk to the other side of the building here.

00:15:53 John Daub: We should be able to see the Shinkansen take off in about a minute. You got the Yamanote Line over there. Yeah, this app is sluggish since I updated it a couple days ago—it's still experimental with some lag issues when changing assets. It freezes sometimes; it throws me off. That looks like a really neat restaurant—I'm going to have to check that out next time. Maybe I'll do a stream of the second deck here because Tokyo Station is just too much for one video. There's some people running, so I'm guessing the Shinkansen is departing any moment now. We'll get to see all 16 cars take off again.

00:17:09 John Daub: The Shinkansen is very long—I can't even see the end of it. It's taking up the entire station. I always wanted to ride the train all the way down to Kagoshima. I had a friend with a JR rail pass—it took him most of the day, like seven and a half hours. He left on the first train, got there well after lunch, spent an hour or two, then came back. That's crazy—you could fly there in like 95 minutes. Here comes another Shinkansen. I think that's the Kodama on the far end and Nozomi on the near end. That's not a bad zoom for the iPhone 14 Pro. Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm guessing Nozomi.

00:19:20 John Daub: Fun fact—you can figure this out by checking the schedule. Next stop is Shinagawa. But if you're in Tokyo and unless you're staying in Shinagawa with a reserved ticket already, if you have a nonreserved ticket or JR Rail Pass, it's always smarter to come to Tokyo Station and have your pick of seats. Especially if you want to sit on the right side to see Mount Fuji. You're gonna want to come take the Yamanote Line to Tokyo Station and pick your seat at the origin. From Shinagawa, because of business travelers wanting that two-seater side, you have a higher chance of no seat during peak times. There's butt prints in those right-side seats, and in the morning that's the side where the sun doesn't shine in your eyes.

00:20:41 John Daub: That's good advice—always try to leave from the origin if you're that close. Shinagawa is only like 10 minutes away on the Yamanote Line; it's worth it if seeing Mount Fuji from the train is a highlight for you. We're still waiting for the Shinkansen to depart—it does feel like it's taking off. Y'all watching a live view of Tokyo Station from the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu building—my first time up here. I've been in the building before, but took a little while to find this terrace. It's on the sixth floor—you take the escalator; they sort of stop on the third floor where the restaurants are, and you go to the ends of the building to find the other escalator.

00:21:43 John Daub: Oh, there's the Narita Express taking off. Here comes a Shinkansen coming in. The Narita Express is not a train—that was underground; I think comes in underground at Tokyo Station. I've never taken the Narita Express from here because I believe the bus is just so much easier. Unless you have a rail pass and really want to ride the train, the bus is the way to go. To Haneda, just take the monorail or Asakusa Line, which is the Keisei Line—it connects Narita to Haneda, but it's a long local train ride even with expresses. Much easier to take a shuttle bus.

00:22:53 John Daub: I wonder if the Haneda to Narita shuttle bus takes you under the Aqua-Line towards Chiba. If it does, that'd be pretty cool—underneath Tokyo Bay to cut through so you don't go through Tokyo traffic. That'd be much quicker, bypassing a lot of traffic—basically bypassing Tokyo going straight into Chiba. If you had to go from airport to airport, bus would be best. Most domestic flights are from Haneda, but some budget airlines like Jetstar leave from Narita, so you transfer. Very rarely the other way—not a lot of domestic from Narita.

00:24:20 John Daub: Haneda has become much busier because of the new terminal, especially before the Olympics. That was a bunch of waste of time and money, but it's really improved the infrastructure—you can get around the city quickly and painlessly now. Anybody who gets lost or has trouble navigating Tokyo might not be ready to travel anywhere because this is maybe the easiest country to navigate. All the signs are bilingual now and logical. Accessibility has gotten really good—a lot of subway stations now have elevators.

00:25:28 John Daub: But yeah, that's all I got for you today. I just wanted to hang out for 30 minutes and check out a new site. If you're a train spotter, this is a neat new space—just got a haircut too, by the way. I'll probably be coming up here a lot more. I'd like to go to that Kite Building deck—eighth floor or sixth? The top floor there has a terrace too. What I love about these new buildings, like the one across being built, is they're all going to have these terraces as community spaces. A lot of new skyscrapers in Tokyo want community spaces, like in Azabudai—it's not just shops; it's a place to hang out.

00:26:25 John Daub: This seems like a jungle in here. I think I just got a mosquito bite. Yeah, there's the entrance over there. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. This is just a tweener—I've got some work to do; been putting up some shorts. So there's a manga shorts coming up this week, and the postcards will be going out. See you guys. Matane.