00:27 John Daub: This, ladies and gentlemen, is a beautiful sight. It's Tokyo Tower. It's in the center of the city. You can tell by that international orange color. Wherever you look in the city, it's just looking down on you. Except recently because there are so many more skyscrapers now that are blocking the view of Tokyo Tower.

00:48 John Daub: The Tokyo Tower is 323 meters high. At least that's what it used to be. I think this is actually my favorite picture with the trees going around it like this. What do you guys think? How you doing? I'm only doing this episode because I'm right now going at some of the places that have over-tourism or spots that are extremely crowded. Right there is a stairway that is one of them. I was waiting in line for about 10 minutes. I'm not even sure what the line was. It was actually to take pictures from the stairway looking up.

01:21 John Daub: I don't know exactly what the attraction to this is but maybe some of you can tell me. Since the last couple of years when tourism came back, this shot has been taking over the internet of the Tokyo Tower you can see from the bottom of the stairways looking up. Everybody seems to want to get this shot after coming to this area. Maybe some of these shots are even better but the ones from the stairways you can see them make up a vast majority of Tokyo Tower photos, which I thought was really funny. All of them coming from the parking lot of this stairwell. So I wanted to see exactly how long is the line, how crazy is it. So let's go find out. Let's go down the steps here, go down there and check it out. You can see there's actually a line of people right there. That lineup of people are those that are waiting to go down into this area. Now I have to be careful because I don't want to get into somebody's picture because people can get a little bit upset by that. Respect the line. The fact that people know about this line is kind of crazy. You can see I'm going to pan over to the right here. There's people trying to get out of the way. I guess they're also waiting in line or waiting to get down there to take a picture but it's all to do with this stairwell. This is so ridiculous and tourists are down there taking pictures. They're coming in thousands every day going down there to take a shot.

03:01 John Daub: This group was next up online I guess and they're going down there to get their shot. We can ask somebody if they want to show us to see what their picture looks like because I'm kind of curious as well. Where exactly is this in the city of Tokyo? Well I have this asset here. Of course I use these Google Earth zooms because it's better than a drone shot. Check it out, it's right there. I mean we're really close to Tokyo Tower. It's a pretty good shot I guess because if you look around it's hard to find the perfect angle. This one is an angle that's already been judged to be really popular by a lot of people so it's a place that a lot of people want to come. It's right across from a tofu restaurant that I've been to a couple of times. It's a very nice tofu restaurant. I think even the park is named after like tofu park or something. There is the name of it right there: Tofu Yashin Park [?].

04:06 John Daub: I've been by here hundreds of times and I never realized that going down the stairwell would make such a photo. Did any of you? That's kind of crazy to me. This is the photo that you would get if you go down there. I just googled Tokyo stairs Tokyo Tower steps and I got that photo there from Miho's Happy Life and a couple of other Instagrammers I guess. What do you guys think? Is this the shot to get when you're in Tokyo? It's really nice I guess. It shows like the urban-esque of Tokyo Tower and you also get Tokyo Tower actually does have stairs in there which is an interesting image of its own. But it's going down this particular stairwell that really has become a popular tourist attraction. You see I guess they're done with their photo and the next group is up. The line keeps getting longer.

05:14 John Daub: I like it. It's very orderly. Nobody's getting well almost no one's going into the middle of the street. I guess they're getting a photo. Did the line get all the way down to the end of the street there? But people want to get that shot and I'm not gonna judge them. Crazy people. I'm just kidding. I am a little bit gonna judge them but look. If you're coming to Japan and you want to get the shot go ahead and get the shot you know. I'm not sure I'd wait in line for it because I think for photography for me it's all about finding the shot that nobody else has. The shot and maybe it's the shot is me being in it that makes it original.

06:05 John Daub: So what I did was I went out and I tried to find my own. Photoshop this is a stairway okay this is a stairway that is just about 30 seconds from here literally around the corner and I went to go take a picture from here and I thought that this is a good spot. What do you guys think? There it is Tokyo Tower hey baby me and steps. I think I look pretty cool. I'm rocking it. No what do you know you feeling it why not? I mean it's almost the same isn't it? You get steps you get Tokyo Tower there's no line there. What do you think makes the one with the lines better? I don't get it. As many times as I go and redo this I think this is cool and I didn't have to wait.

06:57 John Daub: Hey Vasily, Constance here. What a great way to end my day with a J-Daub livestream. Give it a good work. Thank you, buddy. Much appreciated.

07:10 John Daub: I'm tempted to wait in line and just go and take it but I don't know. I don't need it. I just think it's really interesting. What's different about this spot and the other ones is that there's actually a place to line up on the sidewalk. There's order. It's not really blocking traffic except unless you're walking up the sidewalk there. It's not too bad. But if this line does get longer and it does get a little bit crazier I don't know on different days of the week apparently the lineup is here even on rainy days which makes no sense. Even on days with fog and days when you can't even see Tokyo Tower I heard that there's people here that want to get this picture. I guess if you got to take it you got to take it. But I want to know what you guys think in the comments below. Is this the shot to have in Tokyo? Is it worth waiting? I would say I waited there for 10 minutes and the line didn't seem to move. I guess somebody really was trying hard. Is it worth 30 minutes of waiting in line to get that picture? Let me know your thoughts below. And mind you it might not be perfect because people might be going down the steps and ruining it. And I don't know how much time you got but just keep in mind that the primary focus of those steps is not to take the picture but to use the steps. So for me I'm seeing people that are actually being quite polite and not going down there and photo bombing it. But like a part of me wants to go down there and go oh and then walk back. But I don't know. It is what it is. It's a photo spot.

08:56 John Daub: All right there are some general rules. Apparently the city knows about this. You're not allowed to bring tripods and set it up like that. You have to do everything hand-held. So bring a long selfie stick or something like that. Shadow Angel not worth it. Sir Lansago Geo go in the middle when no one's there. That's not a bad idea. Wave Chan Princess writes in I'd wait. Tiff A so dumb. Vinicious Tsugi other spots wouldn't get so many likes because it's not the exact spot that the algorithm is telling us poor humans to go and take that picture. I think so maybe that's part of it. Everybody people just want to be people know where the famous spots are and people just want to be where those spots are. A lot of people have taken the picture there and they all want to take the picture in the same spot. I don't know. Let's see we can ask somebody. We can ask somebody if they'll show us their picture. Maybe they'll show it to us and I'm kind of curious.

10:00 John Daub: All right she's getting the shot here. That's not a bad looking spot here. Let's see if they'll show it to us. Wait a second. See some people just can't wait in the line. They're just standing in the middle of the road. And that I'm going to get out of their photo. I'm going to hide behind the flagpole. I don't want to be in anybody's photo. Look at that guy's just peeking around there. You done yet? You done yet? You done yet? No. You done yet? No. Every time he does that he's probably getting in the shot. Look it's very easy in Photoshop to remove people from it. But behavior of humans I love it. He did the watch check. I guess he's got some place to go. Lady standing in the middle of the road. I see her head's popping out there. So they're trying to get the right angle. All right she's directing them. She's doing video walking down the steps shot. I like that. Did you get a good photo? Did you take a good photo? Yes. OK thank you. She doesn't speak English. All right.

12:06 John Daub: Here's one. They're on the side here. That's very interesting. They got in trouble here. Someone was in the picture here. So I'm just going to walk past the line here on the side of the road. You can't actually walk along the sidewalk. It's so crowded. So there you have it. I just wanted to bring you this spot. Again you want to get the shot get the shot. I think it's kind of a neat shot. It's now become overpopularized. So it's not exactly as attractive as it once was. But now everybody's been there done that it seems like. For me as a photographer I wouldn't want to get that shot. But if you're visiting Tokyo maybe something you'd want in your photo album. I've seen though if you looked on Instagram people and that line is about 30 to 40 minutes long because people take a long time with the photos. But like I've seen people with their wedding shots they wanted to get this in their wedding shots. And I can kind of understand that maybe. But I mean I think what I took was pretty good no? Look at this. Steps Tokyo Tower wide angle lens beautiful day pose. There you go. This is as good as it gets without waiting in line. But seriously people waiting in line for this. It's pretty good.

13:54 John Daub: All right everybody. That's all I got. I'm actually going to go over and have a burger down the street with a friend of mine who also is a YouTuber. But it's too late to YouTube that one. But thanks for joining me. Let me know in your comments below. I'm really interested to hear what you guys think about this spot. And if you know of any kind of ridiculous tourist photo spots here in Tokyo leave it in the comments below. I will go check it out and see what the lines are like for you. All right? Matane.