00:00:02 John Daub: Greetings. Welcome to Asakusabashi. This is a neighborhood in Tokyo that I really love. It's got so much personality here. As I pan along the Kanda Canal, the Kanda river here. This is used in the Edo period to get a lot of the goods and services around the city. Kind of like the Yamanote Line, the river to the Sumida river just over there. This area, very convenient.

00:00:34 John Daub: A lot of people stay in this area. You can see the Sobu Line, the train that goes over there over the street. We're going to head in that direction too. As the pedestrians walk across the street, you can see Tokyo is buzzing with life. I love the kind of throwback feel to Asakusabashi. It's actually just a 15 minute walk from Akihabara too. So this might be the place that you like to hang out at in Tokyo, especially in the evening to get a drink.

00:01:12 John Daub: These yatai bune boats are everywhere too. So these tours have been increasing over the last couple of years. I think it's really worth it to get a ticket and you can eat your dinner on it as it sails around. Not sails, but chugs around. Tug boats around the Tokyo canals here. How you doing, everybody? It is a chilly day here in Tokyo. I got a chance to meet my friend and have a cup of coffee with him.

00:01:46 John Daub: I hadn't seen him in about seven or eight years. We both look a little different, I'm sure. Cold. The weather is. Gosh, it feels like winter already. The leaves are starting to change. It's quite a difference than just two weeks ago. All right, let's get moving here. I got a map of Asakusabashi right here. But let me show you a Google Earth rendering that I did here.

00:02:18 John Daub: You can see it's east of the Imperial palace and Tokyo Station northeast. Akihabara is on the top left there. So it's basically just directly east from Akihabara. You can follow underneath the Sobu train line from there. And it's right up the Sumida River. There's the canal that we just passed with those pink boats that are in the Google Earth rendering here.

00:02:48 John Daub: As well as a train line that cuts through here. There's Asakusabashi Station on the bottom right of your screen. This bridge here kind of starts it out. The Kanda river going all the way around the city. There's Akihabara. As I said, it's about a 15 minute walk to get there, which makes it super convenient for tourists. And then that's Ryogoku on the left side right there.

00:03:20 John Daub: So the Edo Museum, which is a must visit, will be reopening, I believe, in 2025. That's the sumo Stadium as well. Right there, the arena. And so this neighborhood is kind of between a lot of stuff. Asakusa to the north, you know, and then you have Tokyo Station to the southwest. So it's between a lot of stuff and often gets forgotten. But for those that recognize the potential of this neighborhood, you are really given a treat here.

00:03:58 John Daub: And I'm going to show you why in this episode. All right. And it all starts right here on this map. This is a live stream, so usually all the good information is in the first 10, 15 minutes. And the rest of it we're just kind of walking around here. So I'm starting off here, cutting across the Kanda river, the canal, and here's Asakusabashi, which is on the Sobu Line, and the Asakusa subway line.

00:04:32 John Daub: These two, you could walk. You can walk from Kuramae and Asakusa as well, but typically. Or from Akihabara, which is the Yamanote Line, which is just right here. Actually, you get not too far away, not too many parks, and there's a couple of hidden places in there. But there's a couple of reasons why this might be good. One of them being the hotels are a little bit cheaper here than in other areas of Tokyo.

00:05:07 John Daub: So I kind of recommend staying here instead of Akihabara because there's a lot more restaurants that I think are better than in Akihabara. And I want to be honest with you, Akihabara is really touristy there. You got the— I just missed it. The Sobu Line popped. Was cruising over the street over there. So we'll get another Sobu line. That's the one that goes to Akihabara.

00:05:38 John Daub: You've seen it cutting across Akihabara as well. Let's cut from the canals here and go into some of the side streets and alleys. Starting with this restaurant or shop right here in the corner, which sells taiyaki, and I might grab one. Say thank you to everybody who always gives us super chats. I try to put it to good use here by getting some food or stuff.

00:06:09 John Daub: The area is also famous for Bakurocho. Bakurocho is the textile region. It used to be where they would store the horses, the stables for the Edo period, back in 150, 160 years ago now, 1868 was the Meiji Restoration. And I want to see if I can get a taiyaki. Let's see what they got here today. Oh, hey, you can see they're making them old school here. You see they got the, the iron, the really hot iron grills there.

00:06:44 John Daub: He's buttering it up, putting in some— some butter. Oh, there's the premium custard. Oh, wow, that looks really good. All right. And here we have a taiyaki right here. This one is custard, premium custard. I'm not sure what the difference is. Abby, thank you. This is brought to you by Abby. Thank you, Abby.

00:07:16 John Daub: He— the guy warned me. He said that this taiyaki is really hot. Look at that. So this is whenever I come to Asakusabashi. I may be getting one of these as well, but it's definitely famous in the neighborhood. Oh, yeah, I almost got the red bean paste, though. That's more subtle. Typically I go tail first because it's crunchy, but today I went head first. Very odd for me to do something like that.

00:07:49 John Daub: There's a lot of textile stores as I was telling you. So you're gonna find dolls, traditional dolls, and other kinds of tradition. Check this one out. Talk about, talk about Christmas presents here. I'm a big fan of the old Star Wars. I think they've kind of messed it up over the years. But look at this Darth Vader armor. What? Oh, my goodness. This is so cool. Look at the lava flowing in the background. See, I got a price here.

00:08:21 John Daub: Darth Vader's armor was— comes from samurai. So he, George Lucas was very inspired by the armor apparently from Matsumoto Castle. So if you go to Matsumoto Castle, you sometimes see Darth Vader over there too. But, oh my. The price is 33,700— 4,000 yen or about $3,000. But there's a bad looking, bad looking doll here. And there's another one which is about half price of that.

00:08:53 John Daub: This is 143,000 yen and smaller scale. I think if you're gonna spend that much, you might as well go full out. Mega— Mega Darth Vader. That's pretty cool. But you find a lot of shops like that in this area. Again, the doll shops right here. There's the Hina Matsuri. Oh, look, there's a song. So now you're starting to get a feeling of what this area is all about.

00:09:24 John Daub: Now it's real colorful, but it's— the alley is here. Thank you, Abby. V. I appreciate— minutes or so. Check this out. So this place seems to have a lot of— they have like this takeout window for karaage chicken. And it's— it certainly smells like it too. It smells really good. The food here is way, way cheaper than in Akihabara. Again, like, if you're gonna look at that little—

00:09:57 John Daub: The little shop there. If you're going to be eating or you're going to go out drinking, this is my recommendation. Just get out of Akihabara. There's so many tourists there. I don't like the direction that Akihabara has been going. And my friend just told me, because he works in this area, he said that they're going to be tearing down the old electronic building that's right outside of the Denki Town exit of Akihabara.

00:10:32 John Daub: It's been— I forget what the word he used to— but it's— they've been talked about and they kind of already decided that I think it's going to be gone. And that's heartbreaking. This is Asakusabashi. This is underneath the Sobu Line. And you can see it's that feeling of the throwback that makes this place just— it's like the best place to stay. You can go and visit Akihabara.

00:11:04 John Daub: But if you're going to stay someplace, you probably want to stay in a place like this. And it's so close to Asakusa as well as, you know, the Yamanote line. And it's got everything that you want. Here's the entrance to the Asakusabashi Station, JR. It seems like it was here a few months ago. Apparently in the morning there's a guy who tells all the salarymen workers—

00:11:36 John Daub: Gambare. He's been in the news a couple of times. I don't know if he's still doing it. But before, you know, those last four years where we all stationed at home. He was out here every day wishing the salaryman. That was like his job. Gambare Ganbare. Gambare. I don't get up that early and come here to see if he's still around. It's a good story though.

00:12:06 John Daub: Something's coming here. It's for rent. A lot of warehouses in the back alleys too. And I think a lot of them are being converted into restaurants or places that require big open spaces. So I think— look at this Kyoto Whopper. What? What's so Kyoto about it? Is it the rice? I don't know. It's a set menu. 1,290 yen or— that's kind of expensive for one burger.

00:12:37 John Daub: A Whopper makes me almost want to get it just because I'm curious. But, you know, the options next to the Burger King are so much better. You have the Hanamaru udon, which is a third of the price of that Whopper. And then you have Yoshinoya, which is half of it. And you get a really good beef bowl on Yoshinoya's menu. Again, I prefer this. This is 200 yen cheaper than the Whopper burger.

00:13:10 John Daub: I would prefer the Yoshinoya over the Burger King. I'm like wondering who would go into the Burger King. All right, this is a shop that I wanted to show you on the tour here. I see— Ellis, I'm gonna read that in a second. Hold on a second. This is Shimo Jima, and Shimo Jima is an institution. This is a place that's been here for generations. I believe it's a stationary store.

00:13:43 John Daub: It's kind of like Itoya, but it's— you know, this area's version of it. And they have all sorts of stuff, including, of course, stationary, which I think is cheaper than Itoya, which is based out of Ginza. This is more of a family business, I suppose, but they got the Christmas stuff out here. You got all sorts of things. The pens, pencils, the paper, the bags, the boxes, the—

00:14:15 John Daub: The packaging, all the neat stuff you can find in here. And it's so cheap inside. So I would highly recommend stopping in there, taking the steps up there. They don't have an elevator, and I don't think they do. I get a point card for there, so I often would buy the boxes and some packaging stuff there. Ellis, if you're watching, it's a lot cheaper than Amazon.com inside of there.

00:14:48 John Daub: I wish I could send the tubes and things like that from in there. It's a cold day. It's good for a hot drink. I second that. I wish I should— I wish I'd bundled up a little bit more. All right, this is Kanae's dad's favorite. So I think it's— it's Kanae's dad and people like him, which are a lot of people, people in their 60s are keeping it afloat, but they made some pretty good ramen.

00:15:21 John Daub: And it is— it is crowded at lunchtime. There's a butcher shop on the right. So you got a lot more, how do I say, like family run— family run businesses are still a thing here, which is again, a part of the personality or character of any neighborhood. Asakusabashi certainly their reputation built upon that. There's a yaoya, which is a fruit and vegetable store across the street there.

00:15:54 John Daub: And I want to take you down the alleys here. There's tons of stuff. If you cross the street, you're going to find a lot of new things. There's a place I filmed with Randy Santel, who's a competitive eater. We were able to— one of the— there's an egg restaurant. Japanese eggs are amazing because of the color of the yolk and all that, but there's an egg restaurant that allowed me, Randy and his girlfriend Katie to film a food challenge in there.

00:16:32 John Daub: We ate like, like 5kg of eggs and rice, which is crazy. Blew my mind. That restaurant's over there. Little Yammy, I think it's called. That's on the other side of the tracks. Oh my gosh. Ellis, I'm gonna need that coffee. I think I'm gonna get it right after this. Thank you so much, brother. I'm gonna see David right after this too.

00:17:09 John Daub: A these alleys here full of small bars and restaurants and shops and the price is super cheap. Here's the place that's selling some hot soup and bentos on the left for 600 yen. That's so cheap. 600 yen. That's really cheap. Some road work. You know what I love these little bulldozers and excavators. They fit in the Japanese side streets. Because Japan is such a tight, small, compact country. In most places they have these like miniature bulldozers.

00:17:39 John Daub: Here's another Ningyo— a doll shop. Nakashima. Ningyo. No, Nakashima. Looks like it's a family run business that's been around for a while. So they got— got that. There's a shrine back here somewhat hidden from all the— the hustle and bustle. You're going into another world when you cross underneath that Torii gate. And across the street there's a really big doll shop.

00:18:10 John Daub: I believe you see that with the cho chins. There's a lot of— yeah, that's a doll shop over on the other side. It's worth chopping around trying to price them out. But most of the shops are going to be pretty competitive with the prices. You're not going to see too much of a difference because they've all— they're all competitors of one another. You don't typically bargain in Tokyo.

00:18:43 John Daub: You can do a little bit in Osaka. But in Japan in general, there's no bargaining like in other Asian countries. It's just not part of the culture. The price is the price. And it is for a reason. And if the price is too much, then it's going to hurt their reputation. So you don't often get too ripped off. It does happen. I have eaten here and the chicken was really good.

00:19:15 John Daub: It's only open for dinner, but you can get takeaway bentos. And you can see the karaage deep fried chicken. Oh, my goodness, that looks spicy. Some good stuff in there. It's a beer and chicken. There's another restaurant here. This one looks like a little— a wine bistro. Back in the— this is a dull town. It's very close to Ningyocho, which is called Doll Town, but Asakusabashi is more—

00:19:49 John Daub: It's closer to Bakuro Yokoyama, which is the textile town. So it's sort of— I think there's more— the family businesses that made the dolls did better here than in Ningyocho, which has sort of moved away from it. So I think that there's other— this is a motsu yaki, which is like parts of the— parts of the meat, I guess. Yakiniku place. Poromon. Oh, here's a gyoza shop.

00:20:20 John Daub: It's juicy because it says so. Yeah. If I was gonna buy a Japanese doll, I would buy it probably in Asakusabashi. You're gonna get a better deal than in anywhere else, except if you buy it online. But if you buy it online, I was going to be honest with you— if you buy a Japanese doll online, the chance of it being made and not in Japan, China or Vietnam, there's nothing wrong with that.

00:20:53 John Daub: It's just not made here is a lot greater than if you were to buy it, like right here. However, with that said, a lot of these businesses are trying to make a business out of it. And if you're an unsuspecting tourist, you might want to ask certain questions, like where was it made? Is it handmade or is it machine made? Was it made in Japan? Things like that.

00:21:24 John Daub: Probably going to be really important. You've got again, underneath the Yamanote, the Sobu line, this one going all the way to Akihabara in this direction. In about 15 minutes, you're at Akihabara station with the Yoda Bash camera underneath the tracks here. Wow. So they have a video camera. This is interesting. They have a video camera and they post the pictures of the offenders who threw their cigarettes on the ground.

00:22:00 John Daub: So these are bad dudes who smoked and then threw their cigarettes and the camera picked them up. Wow. So they— they made these people infamous. And there's a no smoking sign. And I guess it's underneath here. And you know, as a result the streets are pretty darn clean. It's not what you would expect underneath a train track in any other country. And you can see they have the cameras right there.

00:22:33 John Daub: Boy, they posted more pictures of the bad— with the offenders over there. A lot of these places won't open up until later on at night. 6pm. Again, this is a really big Izakaya town too. Like very cheap family run places. I— I believe there was a restaurant here with like 300 yen dishes which is crazy. That's $2. Not down there. And there's a couple of craft beer houses or like craft beer pubs down there going towards Akih—

00:23:09 John Daub: And I think there's a couple of APA hotels between Asakusabashi and Akihabara where it's pretty reasonably priced. So that's why a lot of tourists will stay there. And it's also conveniently located. Edo style Sushi closes at 2pm but not today. So there you go. I think it's— it's— there's some guest houses as well into the back there. A lot of little bridges but I think in general—

00:23:43 John Daub: And Saya, if you're watching, I hope I can catch up with you before you go back to Japan, back to the U.S. Saya is here. David is here. I want to say thank you to David. Have you guys seen this episode where the great David rented a monthly mansion and I'm so impressed. He actually did this all on his own. Here's a screenshot from it. Look at that big smile.

00:24:14 John Daub: He looks real happy. He did this all on his own, was able to research this on his first trip to Japan and discovered a monthly mansion and had the courage to go in and like move into a Japanese apartment and then got a chance to tour it. He's better on camera than I am. He's so calm and cool. If you didn't see that yesterday, I only— I have a lot of regret because the audio was not so good in that for some reason our pin mics weren't working and it's working today.

00:24:53 John Daub: It's weird. I wish I had better audio but we're gonna see David for dinner as a way to say thank you for his time as well as you guys enjoyed that video and Iken, I want to say thank you for the super. Thanks. I'll use that to pay off our dinner tonight with David. Unless David tries to pay. We won't let him. Ellis, we're not going to let him. Or maybe we will.

00:25:25 John Daub: I don't know how insistent he is. It depends on David. But after a few weeks in Japan, David is— I guess he's picked up a lot of Japanese, including the culture, so we will see how it goes. Ellis is here. He's been an insider for 52 months. Oh my goodness. Well, thank you for that, Ellis. Have a good time. Let him pay. Okay. Ellis and David— David are way too kind.

00:25:56 John Daub: Thanks, guys. We— we took David to Tokyo Disneyland. That's probably why that Taiyaki looks so darn good again. And this is cheaper than the Whopper. I don't know— why would you ever get a Whopper here? It's a Kyoto Whopper. Maybe that's why. I'm just gonna go underneath the railroad tracks for a couple of minutes here because as long as I keep walking, I stay warm.

00:26:28 John Daub: I had— another YouTuber who was visiting Japan. He was riding a trike like this three wheeled bicycle around the world. And he had stayed in a guest house. I think it was like six years ago. And I think he's moved away from— He was based in China, but he was a real nice guy. He was staying at a guest house here that had a— a craft beer pub on the— on the ground floor.

00:26:59 John Daub: But you can see the alleys here. A lot of really interesting stuff that you can find in there. So I— again, I love staying in this area. I think, you know, from Ningyocho to Asakusa, there's this area along the Sumida river near Hakozaki, which is the big highway off— turn a lot of— there's a bus station. It'll take you to Haneda Airport or to Narita Airport.

00:27:30 John Daub: A lot faster than Tokyo station because it goes straight onto the highway from Hakozaki. But this area is starting to become quote unquote cool. I mean, it's just starting to be a lot cooler because the— the businesses that are moving in are like old cafe, like new cafes run by young people that have a good idea of the vibes and the kind of neighborhood that they want to make it.

00:28:02 John Daub: There's some new apartment buildings coming in, so that means there's more customers. So there's more of an economy than there were— Oh, here we go. Here's another doll shop. Check it out. And if you're in Tokyo, there's one more day for the Tori no Ichi festival taking place. There's one in Shinjuku and there's one near Asakusa, just north of Asakusa.

00:28:32 John Daub: And I recommend going look at the doll. I would recommend the one in Asakusa. I think it's the 27th or 28th. Go to tokyocheapo.com and search Tori no Ichi— T R I N O I C H I. We got a main lens. This thing. Look at the details. That's got to be made in Japan. Aro's found the emoji for that. Thank you. Ario. Very regal. Royal looking face there.

00:29:03 John Daub: Here's the dude. Wow, that is a lot of work to make these dolls. I'm sure there's a lot of pleasure in it too. Making something come alive, come to life like this. Oh, that's so— that's so nice. The craftsmanship indeed. That's got to be made in Japan, right? Hina Ningyo. So this store has again, in the alley here has the Hina Matsuri dolls here as well as the Kabuto, the helmets for the boys day.

00:29:37 John Daub: So we got to get Leo one of these. You could see there's some— some helmets here. They make pretty good gifts to take back home as well. I think the Ningyo— the Hinamatsuri Ningyo's dolls are quite nice. And there's some dolls in glass cases as well that they're selling here. Looks like a family business. Makes a good gift to take back home. Water van vanden worm.

00:30:08 John Daub: Thank you. And you can see the fabric shops. I was telling you this is very close to the textiles area of Tokyo. So you see— you do see that. And again, the— the dolls are made with fabric. So that's why there's a lot of doll shops in Asakusabashi. You're very welcome Beyond Travels and I always appreciate all the comments and you joining for each of these live streams here.

00:30:39 John Daub: Bet those dolls cost as much as the armor could be. I'm still— I'm still in awe of that— that Darth Vader, that Darth Vader doll. That was just badass. That's so cool. And again, the alleys go— go quite deep. So you can go around this area just walking and get lost and you'll find a bunch of stuff. Seriously. You'll find these in cafes and like that little Yammy egg restaurant that I really adore.

00:31:13 John Daub: It's such good eggs. I think he sources them from a local farmer. Like it's all in the details, right? I think it's all in the details. So when you— when you do go out into local places, local neighborhoods like this, the local restaurants, they go a little bit further in the steps. And when they prepare the food, it's— it's all in the details and about keeping the customers and finding new customers.

00:31:47 John Daub: So when somebody goes and eats there, they're going to want to come back. And I like that. You know, they really pay attention to that. In particular in this place we see the great Shohei Ohtani is now has been for I guess a couple of years the spokesman for Mitsubishi UFJ Bank. You can see he's got— did something for MasterCard. No wonder he can defer his entire salary for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

00:32:22 John Daub: He's making so much money in endorsements here in Japan. It's incredible. Off the charts. You see his face on vending machines now. Sides of banks, billboards all across the entire city and country. It's kind of neat to see the success that he's had. You know, another big— another big thing that's here in Asakusabashi is Christmas. And across the street you see a Christmas store.

00:32:54 John Daub: The reason why again the textiles and all of the goods come through here so the ornaments and things like that. You can see one of those gyoza— gin rickshaw drivers from Asakusa making her way back. So if you look in the market for a Christmas tree, you can look here. Although they don't have what I want. I'm looking for like a pencil tree which will fit in nice in our apartment.

00:33:26 John Daub: But how's it going to evening again? You can see there's a new business starting to come here on the ground level of the road. If you just go straight on this road, it'll take you to Asakusa after about 20 minutes— walk or so. I'm gonna walk. I'll walk with you. What do you guys think? Hit the like button. Let's see if we can get to thousand likes and yeah, I appreciate it.

00:33:58 John Daub: If we can do that then I'll walk with you all the way to through Kuramae. Speak of the devil. We have a Christmas tree store. And you can see Japanese homes are not very big. So the Christmas trees are not very big here. But the— you know, the ornaments are very Japanese— ish. Interesting. Pencil thin Christmas trees are a thing. Joy— In the US there's a couple of Christmas trees.

00:34:30 John Daub: They're just not as wide but they're— they're just thinner which fit really good in our— in a house. So they have slim and they have pencil thin. I'm not sure but I ordered something on Amazon.com unfortunately because the businesses wouldn't send directly but Amazon through their warehouses in the US will send them abroad. You can't get many choices in Japan though for Christmas trees unless you custom build one, which is not—

00:35:07 John Daub: Whatever I can— I can't afford that. A lot of hotels here. We're passing the Toyoko Inn which is really popular for business travelers. It's not flashy. You can see the sign. Looks kind of boring. But it's a good hotel. I would say it's on par with APA or maybe a little bit better for business travelers. I like Toyoko because they don't put a lot of advertisement in the rooms and the rooms seem to be just a little bit bigger.

00:35:43 John Daub: At least they feel that way again because APA puts in a ton of advertisements in the room. You get all these laminated sheets of ads which I— I put behind the bed. Look at that, look at this— a like a local family run cafe and they have bentos and— and coffee shops on the side here. That's really nice here. The owner's waving at me now. How you doing?

00:36:13 John Daub: It is really cold. My hand's starting to feel the chill. I haven't felt like this since like March or earlier this year. There's one APA Hotel. Which one is it? Asakusabashi, Ekikita North. So it's a North APA Hotel. People ask me about it. Where's the best place to stay? I don't know. But if you're gonna stay in an APA Hotel, this one might be a little bit better.

00:36:45 John Daub: There's— there's not a lot between here. If you go in between here and your Kuramae, there's not too much on this side. But if you're walking by— you, you end up— you end up passing things like this shrine over here hidden in between all the buildings. You see that? So when you walk around this area, it's a very old area. But during World War II, this place, this area got bombed quite heavily.

00:37:19 John Daub: So a lot of the old buildings don't exist. Not just here, but in most of Tokyo. You do see some scars from the bombing still from World War II. I'm making an episode on that where you can see— still see the remnants of World War II bombings throughout the city. It's quite a fascinating historical footnote to see that. Look at this. There's another Christmas tree store that's just way too elaborate.

00:37:53 John Daub: Looks like it's custom built. But very nice tree. Look at the details. Nice frosting on those branches. I guess a lot of these places, the flower shops, they do— they do a quite good business with the plastic trees. Is this real? This isn't real. This looks like it's real. Look at the details. It's made from a fabric, not plastic. This is incredible. That's made from a fabric.

00:38:25 John Daub: What? A lot of these have those. The— the plastic green branches on there. From a distance it looks sort of real, but when you get up close, you know it's not. That one looks real from way up close. This was a— this is a brand new building. And this is also right here. Has anybody seen the— Has anybody seen the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice? Of course you have.

00:38:56 John Daub: It's one of my favorites. That's where the sumo stadium was that Sean Connery walked into where he saw the sumo match. That stadium was here in Kuramae. We're now on the border of Kuramae and Asakusabashi. And they tore that down in the 1970s or 80s and moved it across the river to Ryogoku. But it was this town right here where we're standing was full of people going out to watch the sumo wrestling matches.

00:39:31 John Daub: Nowadays, of course, it's all— In, Ryogoku, which I showed you at the beginning of this episode— in the map. In the map there. But the sumo— yeah, stadium used to be right there. I believe there's a marker, but I have yet to find it. It's somewhere in the alleys. There are some really good burger places in this neighborhood as well. There's a new apartment building.

00:40:02 John Daub: And behind there is my wife's friend's coffee shop. She has a chain of coffee shops called Souls Coffee. You might want to stop in there, get a hot cup. They hand groom the beans like they take out the bad ones and hand roast them themselves inside of the store, which is pretty incredible. Talk about again, like as I said, the details are quite important, but we've gone across town now— for those joining us here, we've gone across town.

00:40:42 John Daub: We started off way down here. I'll pull this up again. There's Tokyo Station, and that's on the northeast side is Asakusabashi. And we've walked up that road that I'm on right there across from the canal, through these alleys. And I'll pull out and show you Akihabara and Ryogoku again. Lion. They make like the soap and stuff. That's the building I'm passing right now.

00:41:13 John Daub: Yeah, there you go. There's Akihabara Station. So you see, we're really close to there. Staying in Akihabara, I know that you guys know that name so well. But I'm telling you, Asakusabashi and Ryogoku and Kuramae are better stays than in— than in Akihabara. Michael Susano's in the house finally caught your live stream. Long time no see. Live. Gloomy day in Japan.

00:41:44 John Daub: 2pm snack. You got it, brother. Thank you. Using Google Maps Street View to follow your steps. Seeing the changes since Street View has images from 2018. Oh, I bet this looks brand new. This Lions headquarters building. That's where the stadium used to be. That's his historical spot over there. Oh, look at this. This store has— This is a shakudama shell.

00:42:14 John Daub: That's a fireworks shell. Are you seeing this? So they have a replica fireworks shells in there. I'm gonna stop in there and see how much they cost. Look, here's another one. Shakudama. Yeah, shakudama is this— Can you buy that? No, you can't buy that. He's— There's— there are some fireworks here and some retro. Interesting. I've been seeing more and more of the—

00:42:46 John Daub: The carpenters and the workmen actually— are actually ladies doing hard work around the city, keeping it all fixed up. Thank you. Joy got her shakudama postcard yesterday. I just sent out the Kyoto Kiyomizu-dera postcards. These went out? Yes, two days ago. So they're on the way. They might take a little bit. Yeah, take— take a couple of weeks to get to.

00:43:16 John Daub: You can order one on the M on patreon.com slash only in Japan. Here's the entrance to one of the many for Kuramae stations. So you see, we're on the Asakusa line, so we've walked up one station just to kind of give you a feel. We're halfway also to Asakusa or Asakusa as I sometimes get corrected. Hey, I'm just saying in English, the train announcement says Asakusa.

00:43:47 John Daub: So for all of you that get angry at me for mispronouncing words, why don't you say it like locals? Well, this is the way they pronounce it in English now. They call this the quote unquote Brooklyn of— of Tokyo. And you— if you walk around, you can kind of see why. It's got a lot of cafes, a lot of craft type of places, and it's only getting— getting more popular with tourists.

00:44:19 John Daub: So I think that this is a place that's become quite— especially with backpackers. But you're gonna— you're gonna find like really nice cafes and restaurants and bars and things like that in this area. Again, this is sort of still a hidden off of the beaten track kind of a place to stay. Even though they have an APA hotel here now too. It's crazy how many APA hotels are all around.

00:44:52 John Daub: This is the Asakusa Kuramae Ekimae branch. And I see another APA hotel down the street. That's insane. How do they do it? They've got so many properties here. Certainly laid back. There's a San Francisco chocolate company that's moved in here a few years ago called Dandelion and they have a branch where they make the chocolate, I believe here inside of their factory in Tokyo.

00:45:24 John Daub: And it's always got a line. It's kind of like a warehouse type of a— of a store. Dandelion. I don't know. It's a US California chocolate factory place. It is— It was raining when I started the live stream, but it looks like we're doing okay. Look at this one. Here's a cafe that's all glass, which kind of looks pretty cool. See if I could zoom in. Ten years ago we didn't have this kind of a vibe, but now it's starting to show off a little bit.

00:46:02 John Daub: We're seeing that in the new buildings that are going up. A lot of them are young business owners that see the potential in this area and are trying to take advantage of the cheaper prices. But it's not going to be long before all the prices go up. And they've already invested into this neighborhood so they're doing quite well. Smart. A lot of warehouse spaces in the back there that are really affordable.

00:46:36 John Daub: A lot of abandoned houses still, but maybe not as many as there were 10 years ago. But there's still a couple of abandoned houses like— oh, check this out here. Like these— these used to be really nothing. No businesses in there. And now they've got tons of businesses. And there's a pink building there. They used to be empty, but there's so much— so much opportunity here.

00:47:08 John Daub: Pretty good hot dog for— A$50. That's cheaper than Costco. Maybe you don't get a drink though. I've come a long way. Taito Ko— Taito— Wait. How far is it? So you could walk to Asakusa? It's one kilometer or about 15 minute walk from here. And Senso-ji temple— 1,300 meters. So just go straight. You get the Asakusa. That's what I'm saying. Asakusabashi is about a 30 minute walk.

00:47:40 John Daub: Here's an old family toy store. No sign. I wonder— I wonder what kind of business they do. A lot of stuff has just gone online so it's really hard to keep a physical store like that selling stuff that people can buy. Look at this building. I guarantee you it's not good. This building is not going to be here in five years. I don't even know. This must have been built right after the firebombing of the— of 1943.

00:48:15 John Daub: I gotta come back and ask the owners some of the history of the building. I said there's a sign that says no pictures. Didn't say anything about video. Technically I'm just walking on this— I'm walking on the side of the street. That bill is not going to be there in five years. This is a really nice looking shop. It looks like they've taken the textiles to another height.

00:48:47 John Daub: These— these waving cats have become quite popular. So much so with the tourists that they're sold out at the shrine that made them popular. It's hard to get them. They're not even made in Japan. I believe the shrine has a deal with manufacturers in China. I'm pretty sure that they do. So there's importing them made from abroad. Aryo and Abby found it Undo Kai and he had the green grass skirt and everything and he did a pretty good job with the dance.

00:49:25 John Daub: We'll send you the video later on on Discord. 7:11. That's a big one. There's a lot of— of hostels like guest house hostels where it's 4,000 yen a night stay, community type of living. So you'll see a lot of backpackers— backpacker-ish type of people. In some buildings. I'm going to try to find a way out of here. The signal might be getting a little bit better.

00:49:56 John Daub: We're in a refresher browser. We're back. I was in an area with a lot of construction and a lot of metal— something that might have been blocking the signal. That's another thing here because you're seeing a ton of construction. You're seeing a ton of new buildings coming up. More residents moving into this area. So there seems to be like an economic revival in Kuramae which is—

00:50:28 John Daub: It's really good to see there's another new building going up and behind it you can see an old building— a real low building that was built I think in the 1950s, probably post World War II building now that is certainly not going to be there much longer as we've got a ton of like coffee shops— cafes, little boutique shops here. There's a couple of coffee shops over there on the right side— a little clothing store and that's the vibe here.

00:51:06 John Daub: I was here with my friend Greg Lam a couple of months ago, like six months ago, walking around the streets of Kuramae. So I'm not gonna do that again. But it's a good way. That street over there will take you to Kappabashi, which is the kitchenware center of Tokyo and about 20 minute walk in that direction. So yeah, you know, I think that this neighborhood, the Asakusabashi Kuramae— this— this side of Tokyo, maybe one of the top places to stay.

00:51:44 John Daub: Instead of going to Shibuya, Shinjuku, where all the bustle is, stay where people live and you can go and visit the bustling places. But you want to be where— where the locals are because you could see their everyday life type of stuff and that's kind of cool. And I think that the prices are way more affordable here. It's super safe and it's quiet. You're going to get a lot better sleep here.

00:52:18 John Daub: So that's my recommendation as I get to Kuramae Station and then take the subway to go back home to start to edit. But if you have any questions about this, leave them in the comments below. I love hearing from you. Again, special thank to David for yesterday's livestream. If you didn't already, go check that out. His insights and the tour of his monthly mansion.

00:52:49 John Daub: Again, he paid $1,200 a month for this apartment four minutes away from the Yamanote line in Ueno. He lives right next to Ueno Station, which is awesome. The location, he's got a mailbox, he's got a washing machine, a bathtub, a kitchen. I mean he's basically living like a Japanese resident. And go check out that from yesterday if you haven't already. And leave me a comment if you have some questions.

00:53:23 John Daub: Well, I'll ask David for some links. Maybe that'll help out people. Add them in the comment section tonight on that video. All right, everybody take care. I gotta get back home. I'll see you in another episode probably tomorrow as I take you another area. There's been some vandalism at Meiji Shrine, so I might head towards that direction tomorrow. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

00:53:55 John Daub: Depends a lot on the weather too. Because it's looking pretty gray. It seems like winter is— is on its way. I can see it— [inaudible]