00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the 2024 edition of the Tokyo Christmas Market. There you go, there's the entrance to it. And it's kind of weird here because we don't have snow, we have this brown cattle-looking grass. Looks like it's been grazed over. I have to be honest with you, it's a little bit odd here. Nevertheless, it's time to start a walk around the Christmas Market.

00:00:26 John Daub: I've been coming here for years over the course of the last several years. Now over the last few years there weren't a lot of people out because of you know what, you weren't allowed to come into Japan during that era. So this Christmas Market still kind of went on. And there's some stands here. I thought I would introduce you, just walk around here, just get a feel for it before the Christmas time starts the 25th. We're about 10 days away from it here in Tokyo. This is a new location too. They haven't had it here ever. They usually had it at Hibiya Park and before that they had this event at Shiba Park which is right in front of Tokyo Tower.

00:01:18 John Daub: And that makes it kind of unique. I actually think this is a really nice spot except for the fact that this is so warm today. It is, I'm actually sweating. I was, I would have to take this hat off. It's just not practical considering the weather. It's really hot right now. It feels like it's like May. I don't know what it, maybe it could be the hat. It's just like putting in all the heat.

00:01:45 John Daub: I wanted to show you, it's much bigger than it was in years past. At least it feels like that because it's just wider. It's such a large area to hold this event. More like a Christmas Market. But instead of having old German buildings surrounding us, we have the Meiji Memorial Museum over there.

00:02:10 John Daub: I do like the fact that they have these kind of VIP bubbles as well at the Christmas Market this year. You've got sofas and you have bottles of champagne on the top here and a roaring fireplace. And they can keep the heat on inside a little bit longer. Up in Tohoku in the north of Japan, they have these igloos that they make. And they're able to, they have like VIPs come in and you can eat, drink hot wine in an igloo. And they do the same thing back in Tokyo. They have these, I don't know, like bubble domes. Which are kind of cool. Adds a little bit of like the futuristic into the German market here. This is based on the German market style in Germany and the other countries around. There's Switzerland, Austria might be quite similar.

00:02:57 John Daub: We have the, you won't find the Coca-Cola Santa Claus here, unfortunately, but this is a lot of stuff that they've had around the other areas, markets over the past years. Now I was here in 2019 with Kanae Daub and we walked around and you could see like maybe I like this location for me because I live on the other side of the city than in Hibiya market and I think after this year they put it back into Hibiya Park and there's my wife Kanae Daub and little Leo who down there who's celebrating he wasn't even one year old back then and we had a chance to during the time when you guys couldn't come here visit this Christmas market so it's kind of nice that they have it here this year and it's open up again.

00:03:49 John Daub: I'm not even gonna try to eat the foods here I'm just gonna kind of show you some of the stuff that they have including the ornaments the foods let's go to the ornaments real quickly before we move over there they're playing the 1950s Christmas songs from the United States it's a little bit bizarre doesn't Germany have any Christmas songs? Have they considering the fact that the embassy of Germany is one of the co-sponsors of this I just a little odd to be playing American Christmas songs but hey I am not going to knock it as an American because it is Christmasy except for the fact that I told you this is darn hot I'm telling you right now it feels like it's 70 degrees out here and I'm gonna have to change in my cup so let's see if I could find a place to fill this cup out this is this year's mug I like it it's red it's Christmasy it's white so you can see the good goodies inside it's got a lot of lint inside there so you have to blow that out before you can use it but there you go the Tokyo Christmas market it's a thousand yen here it's not free to get into the market unfortunately I thought it might be but every year it's been like that I think for the last I don't know for the last five or six years they've had an entry fee which is sort of good because it got a little bit too crowded in years past.

00:05:09 John Daub: You see Santa climbing the rope over there that's kind of been a popular item the kids have been watching this thing going up and down the rope here that's kind of cool I don't know it's just like too hot like sweating and the fact that they're playing copyright music does not really make me feel too happy of course they have a nativity scene which I think is nice but they've kind of hidden it away I would put that more at the entrance though looks like it's hidden in a part where you know people don't really go go into this area too much there's the food area just to give you an overview a couple of toilets lots of benches in the afternoon there aren't a lot of people here I walked in and it felt like like a cattle herd you like herding cattle I can't imagine what this is like in the evening I guess this fills up with people trying to enter into the grounds but I was walking through here and I saw this little thing that was hanging out here and felt kind of I don't know a little odd especially with like the hay look the grass here that looks like it's it's like hay that's been tossed down on the ground but kind of neat.

00:06:31 John Daub: So these boots here they have ornaments and all sorts of Christmas stuff that is imported from Germany you can see kind of some cute stuff made from wood from the Black Forest or something like that yeah I'm not sure I was looking for Christmas stuff actually I'm not sure oh guess it's from Germany. There's a smoker they have these Santa Clauses you put the incense in there and smoke comes out of his mouth I don't see it this year I see a bunch of other stuff you can get snow globes here that's kind of cool. Guten Tag. Guten Morgen. Still morning. Actually it's noon now so here's some stuffed animals from Germany I guess including this Santa-looking guy that's pretty nice so yeah that's quite a lot there.

00:07:34 John Daub: Gosh, I'm not happy that they're playing copyright music. I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to keep this livestream going on. So if it does tune out, I really apologize in advance. There's not a lot I can do about it. Let's move over and look at some of the food stands now.

00:07:51 John Daub: As I make my way to the other side. I've had this hat for years here, but it's just too darn hot. I think I'm gonna have to go back either hatless to let the air in. You can see it's like matted down with sweat. It's so hot. I can't even wear the Christmas hat. It doesn't feel right.

00:08:18 John Daub: Hey, the, Kanae Daub's biggest fan, the Italian Bombshell's here. How you doing? From Florida. My youngest is to get to go to Japan. Oh really, hey. Boy, Leo would like this. He could ride Thomas for 300 yen, but it looks like right now it's kinda um, off.

00:08:47 John Daub: Let's see what they got, the German Christmas foods here. So, of course we've got beer. Um, hot, hot roast beef looks really good. It's like, this is like winter food, and just feels like summer. And I don't want to eat anything heavy as a result. There's a Weisswurst. Is that custard? Or mustard, okay. The churros with strawberry sauce looks really good. And then, mustard. Marshmallow hot chocolate, I'm gonna have to go for that. That looks really, really good.

00:09:27 John Daub: Marshmallow chocolate, I don't know, let's look around here. I never, I kinda never go for the first place here. Wow, look at this one here. This one's like, got the beef stew. We've got the, Teigwurst Gruenewein, that looks pretty good. The beef stewpan, which is beef stew in bread. I wonder if it looks pretty good. If it's as big as it looks in this picture, it looks massive. Beef stew. A plate of sausages.

00:10:06 John Daub: Now it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas. Do they have any apple strudel? Look at that sauce! What is that? That's cheese. That's so good. Oh wait. It looks like a cinnamon roll. Everything looks like a cinnamon roll to me. Because it's all curled up like one. Oh wow. Alright, now we're starting to get into it. Mashed potatoes and sausage. A cheese sausage and mashed potatoes. Oh my gosh. This looks like a Thanksgiving meal to me. Doesn't it?

00:10:56 John Daub: Oh hey, we have cinnamon rolls. Oh, I like cinnamon rolls. And then we have some hot chocolate. Look at the heart. There's hearts in there. That's wine with heart marshmallows. I've never been, I've never had good hot wine here at this market. And it's always been kind of hit or miss. You can see those pots that are stewing there. That's the hot wine. Ho ho ho. He gave me some Christmas spirit.

00:11:36 John Daub: Look at this one. Oh, this is a hamburger. I thought it was a dessert item. Hamburger and maribo cheese risotto. That's not, that's not too bad. You can see the hot wine over there. Oh, she blocked the shot.

00:12:01 John Daub: Alright, move on over here. What do we got? Signal's a little bit better on this side. The inflatable Santa Claus. That's always a good thing. Oh, now I know why this place is really popular. You've got the inflatable Santa Claus for a reason here. Because they put Santa in the mug? What? Cream cocoa with Santa Claus. Is that like a cookie or something? I don't know. Alright, we're gonna have to go for that, huh? Alright, let's do it. Because Michael Sassana's in the house. And we have to celebrate Michael. Thank you, Michael.

00:12:49 John Daub: They also have Christmas gummy. There's a bunch of stuff here. We have Shuba Tsurumale. Happy, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Went here two weeks ago and missing Tokyo so much. Oh, you were here. Oh, wow. I wonder if it was colder because it doesn't feel like Christmas when I'm getting a sunburn. I'm literally getting a sunburn.

00:13:20 John Daub: Alright, let's see what we can get here food-wise. Is there any other item that looks really good? Paella? Churros tsuki. So I'll get this one. The hot chocolate churros. So let's do that. The hot chocolate churros here. So I need an extra 100 yen. Alright, let's do this. I could go for some churros. That beef stew in a bread pot looks good too for lunch. Okay, just waiting here while I get sunburned. I'm burning. This feels good though. Hot cocoa churros tsuki. Yes. 49. Yes. Thank you.

00:15:05 John Daub: Alright, this looks good. Oh, Hirobi. That's the show I'm on. There's Megumi-san. Hey guys. Hey, Gojira.

00:15:23 John Daub: Let's go find the strudel next. I'm absolutely 100% going to try to find this strudel. I'm not going to back down. If I could find... That's the one thing that we just love. There's a milk strudel that we've had before in the past in Munich, in München, in the market there. It was so good. We've been there maybe three, four times with Kanae Daub and we always get it. So I'm hoping that I can find something similar to it here.

00:15:51 John Daub: Now, Germany is like, you know, it's like a country. Now, Germany is quite a big country, so the markets that they have in the north are probably different than the markets that they have in the south here. Something wrong with the front lens there. So we're... They give you a number after you buy it. We're number 49. Oh, there it is right there. 49. Yes. Thank you. Oh, it's backwards. Look at this. This is freaking awesome. I'm so excited now. I can't hold it and the camera at the same time. Oh my God. How do I manage this here? That's so cute. Look at that. That is really, really cute. Look at Santa Claus and Santa Churros here. So you get to drink and you also to eat. That's nice. Oh, it's hot. Good.

00:17:23 John Daub: Oh, it's something made of chocolate. Can you eat the Santa? Santa, are you edible? One Chill Dude writes in here. What is Santa made of? He's made of love and spirit. All right, kids, don't watch this. That's the best tasting plastic. No, it's not made of plastic. It's like... Hold on a second. It's candy. It's candy. Yeah, I think... I think meringue. That's probably right.

00:18:14 John Daub: We're on a quest for buying some strudel here. I'm going to take this plastic thing out. It is a really pretty cup of hot cocoa. Cream. Oh, this going to turn into a big mess here. Santa, I don't know how I'm going to eat you, but maybe you'll melt in the tea. Maybe. Thanks guys for the super chats. Let's see now if we can put... If we can find that strudel. There's more food on the other side. Churros seems to be the big item here, but I am not going to back down. I've come here to eat some stuff. A lot of it I'm not really interested in. You know what? Oh, wait. I know that's cheesy stuff here. The cinnamon roll would look really good. I'm trying to work my way through the whipped cream.

00:19:28 John Daub: So the other side of the Christmas market, there wasn't really good signal, so I'm kind of digging this area. They do have performances here, and this is sort of an issue because every year, you can see it every year, they have these idols and their staff, and a lot of them ask you, please don't film. Don't film the idols. And I'm like, what? And they have the music in the background. So for live streaming, that's really painful.

00:20:08 John Daub: Now these stands here, they have all sorts of goodies from abroad, and if you're living in Japan, sometimes you just can't find this kind of stuff. Even on Amazon, they don't carry it. So this stuff all looks like it comes from Germany. So if you're watching and you're from Germany, you probably know some of this stuff that's on the shelves. The Deutsch Center. Oh, here's the snow globes. I'm working my way. I found some marshmallows. It's not just hot cocoa. There's like some marshmallows in there. All sorts of stuff here.

00:21:10 John Daub: Let's walk around. There's a wreath exhibition. I think this is the Meiji Memorial Museum from the Meiji era. It looks like the Parliament building. That's in a different location, just the other side of the Imperial Palace. But the Meiji Memorial Museum, quite an old building made of sandstone or something, I think. It's interesting that they put it here. It's right next to the National Stadium. Let me show you exactly where we are. Now, I'm not a big fan of the idols. The signal is not very good on this side. It's easy to find because you just look for the National Stadium, which has a... it's really white and circular on the landscape. So from Google Earth, from space, you can see Tokyo because of the stadium and that white ring. And it's in that building. It's a little bit of a mess. Yeah, the Meiji Memorial Museum. And the Showa Museum is near Kuranzhita. And this is the Meiji Museum each era. I'm sure there's going to be a Heisei Museum soon. There's the Shinjuku Gyoen and Shinjuku the city. So you can probably walk here from Shinjuku. It's not too far away. But, you know, it's probably a good idea to reserve in advance to get the ticket because the QR code that you get after you pay for it, you get in real quick. So this is going to be like serving as a record of the 2024 event.

00:22:45 John Daub: So let's go ahead and get this food over here. Let's see if we can find some strudel. Some ASMR. I took that down. The strudel, it got all mushy. Sorry, the churros got all mushy in there. So I think a lot of these shops have the same stuff. A lot of these shops have the same stuff. So I'm a little bit disappointed. I don't see this anything. Oh, here's something that's unique. Strudel. Strudel. It says right there. It's from Germany with cream cheese. But I don't see any strudel. How dare they? Oh, no. Santa. Dude. Is it going to be okay in there? Maybe it'll soften up. It's a little mochi-mochi. Like a bowl full of jelly. I don't see the strudel. But you can't go wrong when you have bacon on everything. I don't see any. All right, let's go to the other side. It seems like they've got the same stuff all over. There's cinnamon roll over there. Poor Santa is now, he's sunk to the bottom like a, to Davy's locker.

00:25:12 John Daub: All right, this hot chocolate. This has become something of a yearly ritual. I'm not digging the environment though. Like the sandy gray, the sandy brown ground here. Then the AstroTurf over there. I guess it's a big event space. But I don't know. I think there's, it feels like I'm on a farm without snow. I think they should import some snow from the mountains or something. That's a tall order for a Christmas market. Would you pay double the price if they imported snow? I'm not sure because it'd probably melt.

00:26:01 John Daub: The wreaths are nice. You can see the different wreaths. I guess it's from, it's a regional thing in Germany. Let's go take a look-see. Oh yeah, so these are just entries into the like a wreath competition. Beautiful. A lot of creativity here. They're too adult-y. I want one with lots of colors. Because I haven't, because I stopped aging at age 12. Mentally. Physically, I'm in my prime. There's just like dumbbells of beer. I don't see the, they don't have any strudel at this shop here. Yeah, all right, moving on. Although they have this. So it looks like what they've done here, is tried to find a way to be as creative with the cup. So you get a mug with your thousand yen, which is kind of neat. But they put a waffle on the cup. It's like, what? They only sell 200 a day. So they probably still have it. Oh, somebody ordered a pizza. That looks really good.

00:27:19 John Daub: I had to do this to see how bad it was. I don't want to walk around with cream all over my face. That's, sometimes you have to look in the mirror. Because, you know, I was wondering why people were staring at me. Yeah, I would be wearing my Christmas hat. Again, it is, it's getting hotter. My face is burning. Are you supposed to drink and eat that? I don't know how you eat. I think you're supposed to deconstruct it. Reverse engineer the thing. And then eventually you can get it in your mouth. I don't know. But what I'm finding is that a lot of the places look very similar. Like just subtle changes to the menu. Meaning they have catering. I don't know. I'm looking for strudel, which is a staple at, oh they do have eggnog. Is that eggnog? They do have eggnog. Look at that. There you go.

00:28:32 John Daub: So I was able to get eggnog at National Azabu from Oregon. Organic eggnog in a carton. Fresh. It was so good. No corn syrup or anything like that. So we got beer here. And I don't see any, there's some more food stands over here. Okay. I'm not giving up hope. It's Santa Claus. I'm now drunk to the bottom and I found him again. Santa is decomposing at record speed. There's all the mugs they give you when you enter. How much percentage on the eggnog? I don't know. I don't think that they actually put, I didn't know that they put alcohol in the eggnog until just a, I was watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and I think that there was an alcohol eggnog they were drinking, but I never had alcohol in the eggnog before. What booze do you put in the eggnog? Like rum, I guess? Because of the little drummer boy, rum pum pum pum. Sounds like rum.

00:29:50 John Daub: I don't know how you eat the Santa. I need chopsticks. That's not a staple in Germany. How do you get the Santa out without chopsticks? You get a rum and eggnog equals trouble. True words have never been said. I would get in deep, deep trouble. Although, you know, you can't drink a lot of eggnog. So, I mean, you'd have to put a lot of rum in there to make, to get into trouble, no? Now we know how big, how Santa got so big. That eggnog, man, that's like pure cream. Again, I'm not seeing any major differences in the menus. The more I walk around, the more similar this stuff. Santa crepes? A banana crepe? So this is a crepe shop here. And they have smoked turkey leg. That's something new. That was Eric Berg. Great friend, great guy. Great man, great father. I just don't see any, I just see the desserts are kind of weak. I guess there's no place to bake it. The churros looks pre-made. Although it's good, it's just, can't find strudel.

00:31:25 John Daub: You can put rum in with eggs, yeah? No strudel. Let's go take a quick look-see here. What's that? Okay, so we have here teriyaki chicken. What? We have a pretzel dog. That looks interesting, but I don't see any strudels. They have eggnog with rum or with ram. I would actually want my, with rum. That really packs a punch. And the rum's only 200 yen extra. What do you think? Should I get rum? Looks good to me. That Christmas plate looks really good. But I kind of just wanted a strudel. This part of the festival doesn't have really good signal, I found. It's saying here weak signal. Probably not even broadcasting at all. Let's make our way just a little bit more around here. Santa is now, so yeah, it was a meringue. I bit the head off of candy Santa. That's sweet. Sweet, but good. I am now fully sugarized.

00:33:47 John Daub: Okay, they seem to have something over here. Hold on. Oh, this is more donuts. They have a hot rum chocolate plus some of the bread. So it's not a strudel. There's crepes. There's crepes there. So, not quite what I'm looking for.

00:35:01 John Daub: So we've made our way around. We've made our way around the event once. Maybe more than that. So my feeling is that there's some subtleties between the differences in the menus, but a lot of it looks just the same to me. Except that one place has a cinnamon roll. Some of the places have pretzels. Some of them have different kinds of mustards. Like they've added like subtle differences between one menu item and the other. So I'm not sure if it really matters that too much. It looks like the quality of the food is pretty much the same from one place to the other. But there might be one or two signature items from each place. But I just don't see the desserts being very special. So I think it's just a place where you might want to eat lunch or have dinner with your family. And they kind of celebrate Christmas. The smell of the spiced wine is pretty nice. They blasted copyrighted music in the ear. So guess overall this year it feels a little different.

00:36:27 John Daub: Oh, check this out. It feels a little different this year than in years past. Maybe just because of the location, I think. Let's move our way to the front here. Check this out. The signal's very weak right now because of the live performance. Live performances have just started. See, like I can't find the Christmas smoker. I can't find the strudel. I can't find a lot of the stuff that is actually in Germany. And the menu looks like it's catered by the same people just with very subtle differences. So all in all, I mean, is it perfect? No. I don't want to get down on that, you know, on the market. But it's certainly a lot better to get on an airport in Heidelberg or Nuremberg. Or, you know, Zurich or one of the, you know, great places. Bern. One of the great places where Christmas markets are taking place right now. And I hope that Leo, Kanae Daub and I can do that in 2025. And then maybe even meet some of you guys. Which would be like so much fun, which we've done in the past. We did a meet up at Prague. We did a meet up at the Christmas market in Munich and in Nuremberg. And that was so much fun.

00:37:55 John Daub: But now that we have Leo, I want him to experience the splendors of Christmas. Where we are all together. And that's hard to do in Tokyo. Shogatsu is different. And of course it's going to be a lot better at night, I think. Jason, you hit the nail on the head here. It's probably a lot better at night as well.

00:38:18 John Daub: Alright everybody, that's all I got for you. I'm sorry about the signal going in and out a little bit. But yeah, if you're in Tokyo, you have an afternoon. You kind of want to get in the Christmas spirit. You're going to be missing Christmas back home in Europe or in the United States. This kind of makes up a little bit for it. But I'll be honest with you. All the illuminations that go on around the city of Tokyo and these Christmas markets don't make up for the spirit you'd get if you were back home. And that's the touching part of Christmas, I think, that you cannot manufacture. And you can feel that at these Christmas markets. But it's a good attempt. Let's just say I'm very happy that they do this every year. And I'll be back in 2025. Maybe not. I might be on the other side of Asia in Europe. Well everybody, take care. Thanks for sharing your Monday night, Tuesday morning with me. I'll see you tomorrow in another live stream. Mata ne.