00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings. Hello everybody. Welcome to Ginza. It is a really hot summer-autumn day. It's hard to remember that it is autumn. It's hard to forget because now you're seeing some of the autumn decorations here. I'm in Ginza right now in front of the Nissan building and I just wanted to share with you a slice of life in October in Tokyo. The weather is unusually warm and it's kind of a good thing.

00:00:24 John Daub: Pan around here. You can see the way that people are dressed. A lot of people are dressed for autumn but I'm sweating. And I got a long sleeve shirt on. I have shorts as well. They have the temperature up there, the Daikin. So it's currently 26. It was 28 about 30 minutes ago. So the temperature might have dropped because the sun has gone away, but it felt more like 30 degrees, which is like mid 80s, which is kind of crazy.

00:00:53 John Daub: So it's hard to predict the weather. This is the reason why I always say that October is maybe the best temperature to be. So I'm gonna say right now it feels like 28. Look at it here. 28 degrees is 84 degrees Fahrenheit. You can see it's 9/5ths plus 32. You should learn how to do the conversion because nobody's using Fahrenheit if you come to Japan. In fact, the rest of the world is using Celsius. So it's a good thing for my American travelers, my viewers to get used to the Celsius.

00:01:23 John Daub: That's the Wako building right now. We have overcast skies, which is probably trapping in that heat here. But yesterday I was sweating with shorts and a t-shirt on walking around the town. It's kind of a nice time. Again, October may be the best weather to visit Japan. As you can see a lot of people here crossing the street. We do have the Amais right now in front of the Nissan building. Some of the race cars here. People cross the street and everybody stops and takes a look here at this. It's pretty amazing.

00:01:58 John Daub: So what does the weather look like for the rest of the week? If you're coming to Japan, you are in for a treat. Yeah, it looks like it might rain some of the time, some of the day. But most of the day will be cloudy and the temperatures, we're talking like low 80s, upper 70s. This is so good. This does not feel like autumn. And again, it's so confusing because like the autumn leaves are about 10 days late this year. And got chilly and now it's warm again. So Kanae made this comment as well. She's like, what's going on with the weather here? It's really hard to predict.

00:02:30 John Daub: If you're looking at the Kanto region, which is the Tokyo area that includes Mito, Chiba, we have Nagano in the distance there. You can see the temperatures are pretty comparable. The Sea of Japan, just a little bit cooler than Tokyo. So that's a good indicator here. Chiba at 27, 28 degrees. Again, that's low 80s right now in October. It's just it seems really surreal to me.

00:02:54 John Daub: Ginza is really cool. If you're definitely in Tokyo, have to add Ginza to your itinerary of places to come in particular on the weekend when they shut down Chuo-dori (Chuo Avenue). Again, I'm here on this live streaming channel all the time showing you some of the places around Tokyo. Ginza is my backyard, so I'm here quite a bit.

00:03:14 John Daub: What is really interesting? And again, it's not just about the weather in this live stream. You see that building that's got that circle on the intersection now to the right side of the intersection there? That's gone. And they're renovating it, making it better. As far as I've known, Tokyo, when they show Tokyo, they show that Ricoh, it says Ricoh on the top there. R-I-C-O-H. That's right now gone. And the images of Tokyo that I've always had when they show Ginza, that building is so unique. That's usually there. But I'm going to show you it's not. They've torn it down and I guess they're going to be putting something in its place real soon. I hope so, because that building was pretty iconic. It's like this kind of felt like that bubble era Tokyo, right?

00:04:01 John Daub: Guess who's in the house? WRX Turbo, how you doing? So this is a look at what was once there and maybe going to come back again. Maybe they're going to build a taller or better. Maybe they failed earthquake inspection. The integrity of the building was not good enough for the stricter earthquake proofing required in buildings these days for the safety of the public. So hopefully they bring it back. But Ginza, the street has changed so much over the last hundred years. I kind an amateur historian and look at some of those pictures there. But what has not changed is this building right here. That's the Wako department store. The facade of it quite famous. They ring that bell every hour and about six minutes you're going to hear it strike two, which is going to be kind of a unique thing. And that's probably the way we end this live stream here.

00:04:53 John Daub: The temperatures around the country pretty good. Down in Kyushu, it's surprising a little bit cool. Outside of May to visit Japan. Japanese summer just way, way too hot. But what makes it challenging is that it's hard to dress. I'm not sure why I'm visiting Japan because if it's warm like this, you didn't pack summer gear. I live here so I got shorts on and I got sandals on. It's right here. So I'm well prepared because it's just a five, ten-minute bike ride to get here. But if you look at the tourists, some of them have sweat coming down here, which is real interesting. So this is sort of, dare I say, the October surprise. At least for us. It's the weather. I did not expect it to be this warm. I expected to have, this is where you break out the jeans and you have it the whole time, but not so much for many of the people here.

00:05:54 John Daub: You better go check NTV clock instead of the clock in Ginza. You know what? I've already done a live stream on the Ghibli clock over there. So I don't know. I think this clock is pretty cool and it's a lot closer. If I go over there, I'll probably start the live stream an hour later. And I don't know if the signal is as good. I'm able to tap into the Nissan building's free Wi-Fi because the signal is not so good in a lot of areas. It's not the download speed, it's the upload speed for these live streams here.

00:06:27 John Daub: So you can see the way people are dressed. I'm going to next week, or maybe this weekend, bring you a live stream on how to dress for November and December. Because a lot of questions I've been getting from people are, what's the difference in the weather? How does the temperature change? And how do you pack for it? David is coming here to Japan. He's leaving this weekend and coming here on Monday. So he's probably packing and thinking about what he should be putting in his suitcase. It's interesting.

00:06:54 John Daub: So they're finishing up the new entrances to Ginza. So now we'll have it on all the corners. The brand new exits and entrances. The new building is done as well. Sony had on the third floor kind of hijacked. It's still there. Sony had torn down their Sony building at the next intersection. And put up, I guess, rentals. They're trying to find out an event space inside of the Nissan building for long term as their building gets done. Tsukiji-bashi intersection where Tsukiji-bashi Jiro, the 90-some year old sushi chef, his shop is down that street. And let me tell you right now, it is a tourist trap. It's like mostly all the regular Japanese customers. That documentary ruined the poor guy's business. So if you go down there, you're going to see about 100 signs saying no pictures. Trying to maintain whatever the tourists are doing. And you're going to see the locals that they had, the regular customers. I think that they're pretty much just fed up by the...

00:08:17 John Daub: I'm right now just waiting for this bell to turn. That's the only thing. The facade. Or if someone is visiting Tokyo, sometimes we'll hang out here for a little bit. Give out some You Found Me cards. You never know who's going to come and say hi. Have you seen these blue taxis that are coming in? Usually they're all black, but I'm noticing more diversity in color. Which is very interesting. I just voted as well in the US election. My county, where my last address was, takes voting by email, which is interesting. I was able to get my ballot and then send it back by mail. Which will get there in time. We're two weeks out, so it'll get there in time. But they're going to accept the email ballot, which is interesting. I hope everybody votes, if you're in the US, for either candidate. Whoever wins, the world is not going to be destroyed and end right there. It's going to be all fine. I know there's people panicking on both sides. More so on the Democratic side than the Republican side at the moment. But this election is like... It's going to be like such a back and forth. It's going to be razor tight. So, just go out there and vote. Say that you did take part in this election anyways. Because I think you might regret it one way or another.

00:10:40 John Daub: You're only going to get two chimes because it's 2 o'clock. That chime hasn't changed in, I think, 100 years or more. So, kind of cool to hear that on the streets of Ginza. Still chiming out there. Since before World War II, that's very cool. So, this episode is more like weather and time. But I guess there's just a lot of tourists that are coming into Tokyo. Which is very interesting. And I've been seeing a lot of these G-Wagons. I didn't know that was a thing here in Japan. But there's a lot of these G-Wagons. But if you just stay here and live stream from the corner of Ginza, you're going to see some amazing sports cars going by here. But tourism apparently is pretty peak right now. So, if you are coming here and you have some questions about packing or something, leave them in the comments below. Or you can help other people. I like the way that the community here answers some of the questions.

00:11:35 John Daub: Hello. Oh, hi. Hello. Oh, hey. Wow, you made it.

00:11:41 Guest: I did. Hi. Nice to see you, bud.

00:11:43 John Daub: Nice to see you, too. How's your trip going?

00:11:46 Guest: Great. I did exactly what you said on the Ginza... Sorry, the Uniqlo thing. Where you just get all your clothes at Uniqlo and just pack like. It makes it easy. Now you're packing. Now you're going to go back heavy.

00:11:54 John Daub: Exactly. I hope you're doing okay.

00:11:57 Guest: I'm okay. I'm okay. Hungry, though.

00:12:01 John Daub: I'm going to get soba. Thanks so much.

00:12:02 Guest: You're welcome.

00:12:04 John Daub: Good luck. Oh, hold on. Turn it around here. You can say... Hi.

00:12:08 Guest: Oh, there you go. You are on. Hi, everyone.

00:12:10 John Daub: I didn't mean to interrupt.

00:12:12 Guest: No, not at all. It's much more fun.

00:12:14 John Daub: Yeah, I was a block away when I saw my notification. Yeah, mine's as well. I'm like, oh. I'm like a block as I kind of just turn around. Yeah, hustle out here. I'm kind of dragging it out. So people can come and maybe come and say hi. Because last time someone traveled 40, 45 minutes to get here. And I was like, I felt really bad about not being able to go say hi.

00:12:33 Guest: I will take a picture. Hi, everyone. Hey.

00:12:35 John Daub: Awesome. Yeah, thanks for coming out.

00:12:40 Guest: Yeah, definitely. On my last day of my vacation here. So my first solo trip actually come to Japan. Oh, last day. Wow. Yeah, last day. So I'll be flying back out to the States a little bit later. So just doing some last-minute shopping.

00:12:55 John Daub: It's really hard. I had to hit up so many Starbucks to find the right cup of coffee.

00:12:59 Guest: They give you the free cup of coffee too. So you have to make sure you use that here. Yeah, I used one. I haven't done that yet. I'm going to use the other one before I get out of Japan. But I'll see if I can. Airport. Airport. Yeah, definitely. I feel like that's probably the best way for me to go and use that.

00:13:16 John Daub: And I've been watching your lessons for a while. It's been great. Thank you very much. And you've been here for?

00:13:24 Guest: I've been here for like November 19th and then I'm coming back in February. I just left working on Star Wars so I'm taking a break and all that kind of stuff.

00:13:32 John Daub: What do you think of this weather?

00:13:34 Guest: It's pretty nice. Well, I'm in Texas. So it's weird. Because for me it's nice but I know for everyone else it might be humid.

00:13:42 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. It's humid for me. I'm from California so. Right now it's humid. Well, for me here it's humid. Because after the rain it went really humid like yesterday.

00:13:53 Guest: It rained a bit. And I just couldn't get away from the sweating. I went to like a Mos Burger and not get to the escape of Wales.

00:14:03 John Daub: Yesterday was pretty hot. And this is like because I just got done. We just got done with Japanese summer and it's so humid. This is like perfect right now. So when you say it's humid it's like yeah it is kind of humid. But actually this is really nice. Only the train stations do you feel more of that humidity if that makes sense?

00:14:19 Guest: The train stations, yeah. Because they put the heaters on right now or something like that, right? Which is like. That's a good point. Yeah. Because like especially on Ginza Line. It's pretty.

00:14:28 John Daub: It throws like a wrench into everything because the vending machines right now are just starting to put on the heated drinks. Yeah. And you want the cold drinks right now. So it's kind of that tweener-y time where you can't quite get it right. But if you need a pick me up for like that heat, Oronamin C, it's still the best drink to have during this hot weather.

00:14:48 Guest: Oh yeah. I'd send it for with Pocari Sweat. It's usually my default.

00:14:51 John Daub: The Pocari Sweat default. Nice. Yeah.

00:14:55 John Daub: Well thanks guys. Thanks for saying hi.

00:14:57 Guest: Yeah, definitely. I'll see you in February as well.

00:15:00 John Daub: Take care. Alright, see you guys. Bye bye.

00:15:04 John Daub: I'm glad that they said hi now because I was just about to end the live stream. I gotta get back and start to edit the video. But they got the. I have about three more You Found Me cards. So gotta order some more. Alright everybody, take care. Thanks for watching and spending about 15 minutes here in Ginza. It was pretty eventful. Let's just say we got to hear the bell. If you are here, just one note, do go in here. I would say one of the first bakeries was that one right there in all of Japan. The Kimuraya bakery, the panya (bakery) there. Try their anpan (sweet bean bun). It was the one that the Emperor Meiji ate and said, I like bread. Like really? Okay. Because this is such a rice culture. But this is one of the historic bakeries in all of Japan where yeah, they started eating bread because the Emperor said that he liked it. So it's a unique story, unique place here in Ginza. See you!