00:00:00 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Daikanyama, Tokyo. This is Shibuya Ward, that there is the station, and Ebisu is down the hill. How you doing? And we're going to take a walk, probably get lost because I always do in this neighborhood. This is the luxury neighborhood. This is the neighborhood when you say Daikanyama, you think of those rich people up on the hill. Well, it's open to all of us, including me and you. We can walk through here. You look at some of the houses here, the homes. They look incredible. Look at the one up there in the corner.

00:31:00 John Daub: I used to live in a place called Futako-Tamagawa, not too far away in Setagaya, and there were a lot of celebrities in this area between here and Futako-Tamagawa. So, I don't know, maybe we'll see something really interesting here. But this area is very well known for a lot of cafes and bakeries and very high-end food and clothing and shops and everything. And we're going to see that as we walk around here. This truck's been here for ages. I don't even know if you can move it. It seems to be here permanently. I guess they pay rent for this parking spot, but they have, I guess, a coffee shop or cafe inside.

01:02:00 John Daub: The weather's a lot warmer than it was a couple of days ago, so I'm kind of happy about that. Ebisu is to the left, but we're going to go a little bit to the right and check out the intersection and the area. Just a bit before we go down and walk towards Ebisu Station. So, for the next five minutes or so, let's loop-de-loop around here. Belgian chocolates. Does anybody know this brand? Smells good. Again, you're going to, like, to live here is just ridiculous.

01:32:00 John Daub: Look at this, look at this cake shop. What? That looks like, it looks like something out of a movie, doesn't it? What are those bonbons all around it? Is that even cake? I don't know, but it's so expensive. People can't afford to sit in there, apparently. Well, it is lunchtime. Daikanyama seems more like a residential neighborhood with shops, you know? It's a really convenient place to live if you've got the cash for it. I came here for an event, usually a bōnenkai (year-end party) or some sort of company party.

02:25:00 John Daub: That is a really nice-looking Muji-rushi across the street. It's kind of smaller, but certainly looks stylish. The building looks fantastic. Everything looks pretty new. Basically, everything here is, like, upscale. Now, this intersection here, if I recall, if you take a right, you get to some of the best cafes, maybe in the city. One of them, I can't remember what it was, but, I don't know, like, 25 years ago, I remember going in there on something like a date and had a pretty good time. And then when I got the bill, my mouth was open because I wasn't making that much money. I was like, wait a second, how much for a cup of coffee?

03:13:00 John Daub: But it was really nice inside, and I don't even know if it's around there. But if you loop down here, you'll eventually get to Ebisu, but that's no fun. We would be able to make it back way too quickly. So just a look down the street here at this intersection before we head back. I guess it's a little bit further down there. I can't really remember. But the neighborhood is very much on the high end of rent, and it shows. It's a really convenient place to be. Let's look on the map. This walk is supposed to take, according to this here, it's supposed to take 11 minutes. And I doubt that very seriously.

03:59:00 John Daub: But one step we're going to try to do and find on the way is one of the most unique shrines. This thing is kind of like hidden, and a lot of people, not a lot of people catch this one when they're here. This is Ebisu Shrine, Ebisu Jinja. And it's like a little island in the middle of the street. It's something that would be a park. It's so unique, and we're going to try to find this and walk around it. It's on the way from Daikanyama Station.

04:32:00 John Daub: It could be just you. I'm not sure if the signal is choppy. I checked it out, and we were getting about 15 megabits per second, which is enough for a 1080p stream. So hopefully it hangs in there. Looked like the signal was strong going through, but there might be some rough patches here. All right. Now we're heading back to the station, Daikanyama. We're going to be going down the mountain. Daikanyama. Yama (mountain) meaning mountain, meaning we're sort of up there passing that cake shop.

04:54:00 John Daub: The one thing, the reason why I continuously get lost when I'm up here is because the streets are not on any kind of a grid pattern. This is like samurai era Edo Jidai (Edo Period) chaotic streets here. And it's really hard to navigate unless you have, unless you live here or you walk these streets quite frequently. It's like part of the fun of getting lost. There's Daikanyama Station on the left. Daikanyama Station, and there's like a Miffy store here in front of us, a Miffy cafe actually, which is kind of cool. But it seems like it's closed right now. If you want to, we can take a look at the menu. Simple. This is as simple as it gets.

05:45:00 John Daub: They do takeaways. I guess, oh, you can go in, but from the other side. They have these like, little bars. They have like Miffy desserts in the window. That's so cute. This Family Mart might be the most stylish looking Family Mart. And there's a little Family Mart cafe with a round window that you can take a look at people. Again, it's like, it almost feels like a Parisian cafe kind of a place. Including across the street, there's a stylish coffee shop with pastries and a window here called It. They have a takeaway window right there. That is actually really good. 500 yen for a takeaway coffee. Paper drip in a paper cup. That's pretty average. Some pretty nice looking sandwiches here as well.

06:52:00 John Daub: I see Gil Asakawa is in the house. Hey Gil, I just sent you a message online. See if we can hook up before the end of the year. Gil is an author and a journalist. Always enjoy the street view walks. Right, it's in Gil. And it seems like Ebisu and Daikanyama are both areas that aren't often explored on YouTube. That's right. Love seeing areas that aren't crowded, filled with foreigners, tourists. That would be this area. The only people that are here are usually people who actually live here. And you do find some hidden places like this vegan cafe that's hidden away. And then the secret side entrance of Daikanyama station surrounded by trees. Which is very nice.

07:46:00 John Daub: Alright, let's make my way. I think I can find my way back to Ebisu. And that's part of the fun here. There's one of those stylish toilets that they have in front of Ebisu station. And in Japan, the toilets are sometimes an attraction. Everybody knows about that glass toilet. The ones with the glass walls where you can see inside when you lock the door. The glass, the see-through glass becomes no longer see-through. The signal is going to go in and out, I think, during this live stream. So, if only you can hear me, the video is going to be coming back on. I don't know why it's so spotty.

08:22:00 John Daub: Wow, look at that shop. If you can. 4298 Shizuka Komuro. It's like a very high-class designer. Dr. Willard Waters. You know, there is a lot of businesses here that are very popular abroad that want to have offices. If they have a Japanese-based business, this is one of the neighborhoods where if you write Daikanyama, it's kind of a big deal. It's like Ginza, of course. You want to have a branch in Ginza and Daikanyama. Jiyugaoka is another place. There's really certain neighborhoods that are above and beyond in reputation.

09:12:00 John Daub: You can see we're on a hill. Over there in the distance, if you can catch it, is Shibuya. You see the Shibuya Stream building over there. See, Chan is here in the trunk. The signal will pick up for sure. I did some spot checks and didn't have any problems, but there's always sometimes issues along the way. The streets are narrow here and they wind. You can see we're already going around. It's very easy to get disoriented and not find your way around.

09:50:00 John Daub: On the first floor of a lot of these apartment buildings, you'll find little boutique shops or cafes. This boutique shop looks pretty nice. These are all independently run clothing shops that have interesting stuff. Sometimes by partners or people that they know. They bring in the clothes. Other designers. Independent designers. You can find some really unique things that are certainly only in Japan made by Japanese designers. This apartment building, I've got a couple of friends that live in here from Google Maps, Google Earth. It's pretty interesting to look at it. In fact, let's do that right now. Just get a quick look. See where we are on the map.

10:36:00 John Daub: You can see there's Ebisu Station, our goal for this livestream. If we can find it. If the signal holds in, holds out enough. It's down here. You can see it. You can see Hachiko Scramble up there right above. You can walk here from Hachiko Scramble. If you're looking at Ebisu Station, it is really packed in there. There's a lot of buildings around it. It's not an open station front. They've really packed it in there pretty good. A lot of business. A lot of cafes. A lot of restaurants. A lot of fun inside of Ebisu.

11:06:00 John Daub: There's a couple of night clubs in here that I used to go to 25 years ago. I don't even know if they're still there. Then here's Daikanyama. You can see no skyscrapers really in this area. Kind of low. That's what makes it good. But most of these lower buildings are all kind of new and stylish. There's a lot of designer glass houses and things like that. Big windows. It feels like another country down there if you compare it. Definitely you can feel the money in Daikanyama. The style of it right there. There's near the station.

11:41:00 John Daub: You can see Daikanyama on the left side of the screen. That's how far we got to walk through that. See that circle? That kind of egg-shaped thing in the middle between Daikanyama and Ebisu Station? That's how you get lost in the egg. I guess that's one way to look at it. I'm already kind of lost. I remember seeing some construction. I remember that I have to take a right in order to... Or take a left. Sorry, a right. Uh-oh. This is going to be some trouble here.

12:13:00 John Daub: But there's some offices inside this apartment building. And some people that I know who live inside here. So that's always kind of cool. Across the street is this city bakery. I've had coffee in here a couple of times. They've got some nice baked stuff in there. Christmas. What? They've got a Christmas dinner? What? At the bakery? That's interesting. A lot of expats live here. That's maybe one of the reasons why. A lot of expats in the area.

12:48:00 John Daub: Alright, we can go down the hill. I'm going to get in trouble. But I remember this bulldozer, excavator-looking thing. So we're going to take a right here. But I'm leaving Daikanyama. We're in Daikanyama now. But you can see already, there's just like a lot of angles and shapes. It's a really scenic place because of these hills. These little switchbacks here going around. And the chaos makes it kind of fun. Because everything is usually so orderly in Tokyo. A little chaos goes a long way.

13:15:00 John Daub: But you have a lot of these cemented glass-like buildings. They're very high-style looking places. Gil, I just got your notification. I'll check it out and contact you after the stream. And Steve got his postcard a couple of days ago. That's awesome, Steve. I'm glad that it made it before the holidays. I know there's the holiday rush right now. It's this postcard for anybody who wants one on Patreon. I send these out. I think most of the samurai members on Patreon that gave me their address, I put one in the mail with a holiday stamp on it and a message. And there's always information for a new site that you could visit.

14:01:00 John Daub: Thanks, guys, for the support. I appreciate it. And I got... We have three more daimyo boxes here. So if you guys want, you can support in the daimyo. I'll send you the package today if you join. It'll go right out in the mail as soon as I get home. It's Friday, so the post office opens until 5. Loads and loads of buildings, but it's so quiet. One of the vending machines, it's called Sun Vending. They have ramen in a can again. So just a note, I'm going to try to find it this weekend.

14:32:00 John Daub: But the Sun Vending machines are the only one. It's a Tohoku company, and they have ramen in a can. And they didn't have this for the longest time. They had Oden in a can. You can find that everywhere. But the ramen in a can made a comeback this month. And here you can see the hill. It just goes down. Do you see that? From here. It just goes down. So it's a long... If you go the wrong way, sometimes you got to walk up the hill again to go back down the hill again. So this is certainly a chaotic, crazy place.

15:08:00 John Daub: Joy, I am not... I'm not joking. Ramen in a can is a thing here. I ate it about 12 years ago in the vending machine... 10 years ago in the... What is it? More like... Yeah, 12 years ago in the first vending machine episode that I made. And they had ramen in a can in Akihabara. And now they've brought it back. So I'm happy about... Happy to report about that. Look at the extent that they go to keep the pigeons and crows off of the... That's pretty hardcore. I would not want to be a pigeon.

15:45:00 John Daub: Toby (crow) would not... Gojira... Toby (crow) would not like that at all. I don't think any creature would like that sitting on some knives. But imagine if you had to open up like a bottle of beer or something. You could go, Where should I... Oh, look at that right there. You could probably open up a bottle of beer or something. Even the front door. Oh my gosh. You can see it behind me. I don't want to zoom in on it. But the front gate has spikes on it. That's medieval, man. That's some like Dracula. Dracula type protection there.

16:46:00 John Daub: Autumn colors are still lingering. It's past the middle of December. I can't believe Christmas is five days away. And we still have the ginkgo leaves. Very yellow. They're still... They're hanging on there about 70, 70% still hanging onto the branches. You're starting to see the leaves fall down to the ground. And a lot of places, especially the parks, they all have this yellow carpet of ginkgo leaves all around them. And sometimes you get the ginkgo berry smell, which kind of... It's a little bit raunchy, but take the good with the bad, you know. You're not going to be jumping in those leaves. Get some ginkgo berries on you.

17:29:00 John Daub: There's a local Family Mart. All right, we want to cross the street here. So let's wait for the train. There's a traffic light. I love these garbage trucks. You won't hear that very often, but they have them as Tomica cars, like matchbox cars. And they're so small, the garbage trucks. They look like they'd be really fun to drive, right? Leo's got a matchbox car, or Tomica car for the garbage truck. And that's one of his favorites. Yeah, this is from the Family Mart.

18:11:00 John Daub: I don't see... The Famichiki is starting to make it into the street. I'm going to go to Japanese schools. I'm not sure if that's the healthiest option, considering, but we're going to go through this alley, and I think we'll be able to find Ebisu Shrine, which is a real gem if you come across it, especially when the sun goes down, the lights are around. It looks really mysterious. It's a small loss in Saeya. They don't really look like they put a lot of advertisements on the windows. Look at that old... Look at some kind of an old izakaya (Japanese pub). Ebisu's famous for its izakaya (Japanese pub). There are some really unique izakaya (Japanese pub) on... on the... I guess it's on the west side of the station. And this one looks really unique. That sign looks like it's gone through a war. Maybe it has.

19:14:00 John Daub: Oh, there it is. There's Ebisu Shrine. By the way, if you do join up for the daimyo, which is a volunteer on my Patreon, you do get a Tomica car, which is a truck with the... which... with the packaging of the box of the Tomica car. So it's like a picture inside of a picture inside of a picture type of a thing. That is included in the package for this month. So everybody who's getting their December daimyo package, you're getting a little Tomica car present in there. I love those things. All right, let's walk around the shrine here.

19:46:00 John Daub: This reminds me very much of France. You know, there'd be these plazas. You walk in... or Rome, for that matter. You'd be walking around the streets kind of lost, and you'll just stumble upon an opening with something significant in the middle of the street, in the middle of the plaza. And that's like what it is right here. You could see right... the torii gate (shrine entrance) in the front. And a lot of people miss this Ebisu Shrine, including me, because I have before. Speaking of France, France is represented quite heavily in this Daikanyama Ebisu region. I think the... Is the embassy around here or something? But there's a lot of French restaurants.

20:23:00 John Daub: Look at this one place. They've got the... They're rocking the... the strawberry sandwiches and the strawberry... Right now it's strawberry season, so... It's strawberry season, so you're gonna get a lot... Oh my goodness me, look at that. You can see the fruit sandwiches in the window. Is that... It's like a full mango? Why even wrap it in bread? Right? Oh my goodness. That looks very appetizing. But I'm not sure... You know, I'm never satisfied. These fruit sandwiches never satisfy me. Because white bread is just flavorless. And I guess I'd rather just want the... I'd just rather have the fruit. Maybe that's just me. Everybody's different.

21:08:00 John Daub: You can see the way that they've done the walls on Ebisu Shrine is so unique. It just wraps around. You can go around it. But it... It is definitely the gem of Ebisu. Again, famous for the Ebisu beer. It's the same place. I think that's... I don't know how you pronounce it. Yebisu? Or the Y is silent. But you don't want to stand right in the middle of a shrine. You always want to walk left or right of the torii gate (shrine entrance). Never right down the middle. That's reserved for Kami-sama (god/spirit). It's pretty awesome, right? Kind of just goes around there.

21:50:00 John Daub: After this, we're getting closer to the station. I just uploaded a video. This one is fascinating. There's a city... I'm always encouraging cities around Japan to take on their history and promote that more. And the city right across the river from Tokyo, Kawaguchi, in Saitama. Amazing place with a very long history. Found a diary with a menu that the Shogun Tokugawa ate in the year 1728, 300 years ago. And they recreated the bento that you can go there and try. So I went there and I tried the 300-year-old Shogun bento, which is awesome. It's actually 296 years. I'll put a link in the description.

22:32:00 John Daub: But if you're in Tokyo, they have two more dates open. It's booked up real fast. They have two more days open that you could take the tour. And they prepare the bento. They have the same bento for you. And you get a chance to eat it inside of a tatami room, which is so cool. Saya already saw the video. It's on this channel. Saya saw the video. Here's a little preview. Here, what the Shogun ate. It's fascinating because it doesn't taste like the food from... It doesn't taste like the food from now because we put so much salt and sugar and additives and flavor enhancers in the food.

23:09:00 John Daub: Like what they ate from back then is so much more. You can taste the natural ingredients and the flavors. And Japanese cuisine doesn't have, in kaiseki ryōri (traditional multi-course cuisine), a lot of enhancers. But the best part of this episode was getting to know the five routes of ancient Japan from Nihonbashi. Nikko Kaido was this one. And Kawaguchi is on a sub-route called the Nikko Narita Kaido [?]. And you can see the marker inside of Nihonbashi where all of these highways started. But getting in touch with the history. Of Edo and the Shogun and eating what he ate. I felt it was a pretty special experience. And it's only like a half day. You don't have to spend a lot of time there. Kawaguchi might be a good place to stay for your hotel. But this was a very quick half day visit right from Tokyo. Just a hop away.

24:03:00 John Daub: You can see the yellow ginkgo leaves. Thanks for checking that out too, guys. And leave me a comment there. I uploaded that yesterday. The ginkgo trees are still hanging on there. Look at the color of Ebisu. It's just beautiful. That's one reason why I like this part of the city. Because you got a really good mix of nature. They do a good job of keeping the trees in there. I think it's because it is such a rich neighborhood.

24:36:00 John Daub: Mystic Edge is in the house. I've already done a collab with Mr. Broad about seven years ago. On his channel, actually. I made an appearance in one of his videos. A buddy of mine asked me if I would help out. And I said, sure, why not? I saw he just dropped a video on a topic that I'm also covering in a different way. You can see here they've got a vegan bowl. So you do have a lot of options in Tokyo, right? The Good Fortune Bowl. That looks pretty healthy. But when it comes to special foods and people on unique diets and things like this, Ebisu is a place where you can find a ton of stuff.

25:26:00 John Daub: The station is just right over there. You can already see it. So we'll walk around a little bit. I want to take you and show you where the izakaya (Japanese pub) are. So if you do come to Ebisu, you can quickly, from the west exit there, cross the street and make a right. And you can get in where all the izakaya (Japanese pub) are. So before we get into Ebisu Station, let's hang a left and take a look at some of the izakaya (Japanese pub) on the side streets here.

25:54:00 John Daub: National Azabu Supermarket in Hiroo, which is the next stop on the Hibiya Line from Ebisu, is a place where you can get a lot of foreign foods and a lot of things you can't find. Even on Amazon, they don't got it. But somehow they get it. The Christmas KFC is coming. It's not really a thing. I think the media hypes it up too much. But they got other stuff. Look at that. KFC is killing it. Look at that. The demi-glace chicken burger. Holy smokes. 580 yen. That's about $3.80 US. Pretty oishisou (looks delicious).

26:39:00 John Daub: Ebisu is on the Yamanote Line, which you see leaving the station right there. Next stop, Shibuya, in that direction. Yeah, and you can see they've got the holiday meal on the menu up there. 160 yen menu? That's a dollar for all that stuff. I didn't know KFC had a dollar menu. Superb. Japan is just so cheap. Alright, so from the west side of the station there, we have here, these streets, a lot of bars. You saw the Hub Pub, which is where all the English teachers go to waste their salary. I know, because I was one of them.

27:32:00 John Daub: The last time I was there, I think I was an English teacher. I don't go there anymore. I probably will never go into a Hub ever again. I had a point card. I started it in 2006. I'd been saving up to get the 20,000 points. When I went in there, it had expired one day before, and they wouldn't honor it. So I said, I'm never going to come into your pub. It's a personal preference. I'm not going to protest. Nothing against them. I mean, you can go if you want to. Boy, that looks really good. Original Foods. I like that. Look at that. That is wall-to-wall pepperoni. In fact, it's all over the wall. It's a nice little looking bistro in there.

28:17:00 John Daub: Again, I think if you have a restaurant in Ebisu, it has to be special. It has to stick out. So it looks like they have homemade gelato on the menu there. There's the shrine. So you can get to Ebisu Shrine right there, too. Fujimon. Oh, I've eaten here before. Looks like they've changed it up a little bit. It's a really nice restaurant in there. You can get super cheap lunch bentos. Look at that. Lunch teishoku (set meal) set for 1,700 yen. Look at that kaisendon (seafood rice bowl). That's just 980 yen for that? What? See the chef in there preparing all the stuff for the dinner rush. Toriyaki soba.

29:11:00 John Daub: Look at that building right there. That looks like a lot of fun. E equals MC Soba. E equals MC Soba. Now does it? Interesting. Got the French flag there. So, you know, they've got something going on here. Again, a lot of French restaurants. There's some kind of a connection, I think, with Japan and France when it comes to cuisine. There's like a respect for the ingredients and quality of the food, and it shows. I mean, this is the What the Dickens. It's a bar. It's got a real interesting-looking facade to it, doesn't it? So you'll find some bakeries. You can find some restaurants. Pastries and things like that. You'll probably get a pretty good croissant around here, too.

30:05:00 John Daub: But if you're looking for a place for a date or to come to a high-end restaurant, you don't need to go to where everybody else goes. You can come here. I would recommend making reservations to any really good restaurant in Tokyo. As you can tell, like, I don't know if, like, to be honest, I don't like to eat out in America anymore. It's just, it's uncomfortable. I don't like the service. I don't. I used to be a waiter, and I did quite good with the tips. But I just, after living here, the waiters don't come in there, tell them your name, try to make a connection to get a tip. It looks like they're working for the tip. It sometimes takes away from it. How you guys doing? Like, I just want to eat my food.

30:49:00 John Daub: Nothing against waiters. I think it's, you know, go ahead and make. But I think for me, after living here, the experience of going back to the U.S. to eat, it's just so much better here, and you don't have to tip at all. And the food is, comparatively, after you tip out, and I almost always tip 20%. I mean, now people are telling me that's not enough. Down the alley, you'll find some restaurants as well. But eating out here, no tipping. Don't tip. It's almost, it's almost like an insult. It's just not part of the culture here. But the food is priced very good, especially with the exchange rate. It's almost up to 160 to the dollar.

31:34:00 John Daub: That's tomorrow's livestream. When I talk about the exchange rate and what the heck is happening, it's pretty amazing. It's gotten up to 156 again to the dollar. It's so hard to see which way the wind's going to blow when it comes to the yen and the dollar. But Japan won't raise the interest rates. They refuse to because that would stop inflation, and they want inflation. But that weak yen is really hurting. I believe this way would eventually take you to, this way would eventually take you to, Shibuya, wrap around towards the tracks. And there's a takeaway pizza place by the slice, which is really good. Yeah, this street is quite famous. There's an ambulance behind me, sorry. That's loud.

32:29:00 John Daub: Look at this ramen place. I think it's shut down. What is that, Torita? Toritaya? Oh no, it's open. Looks like a nice bowl of ramen. What? Kiri Cafe. That's the French cream cheese company. That's the most, Philadelphia cream cheese is on the market here. But the Kiri is much more popular with Japanese, the cream cheese at the supermarket. Oh, there you are. Hey, there's Ebisu. I guess if you're here, you're probably going to want to get an Ebisu beer. It's like named after this area. They still have a brewery. You can walk there. It's, yeah, it's in the, it's to the left. You could walk there from JR Station, just go up to the second or the third floor.

33:16:00 John Daub: And there's a walkway that'll take you to the garden place, which is where the, they still do brewery tours, I believe. But you can get a nice ice cold Ebisu beer and drink it in Ebisu, which is kind of cool. Jotty writes in here, I probably could gain a lot of weight when I visit Japan. No doubt. The thing is like, if you live here, you probably don't gain so much weight because you're eating pretty healthy and I'm cooking a lot. We cook a lot at home. So, but if you're a tourist, it's hard to say no because you're eating. I can agree to that statement.

33:56:00 John Daub: They got a lot of gyoza (dumplings) on the menu. Check this out. I guess if you have a sign that says no gyoza (dumplings), no life, you're probably gonna have ramen in there. But gyoza (dumplings) is the main dish at this restaurant. Some good looking gyoza (dumplings). All right, we're back at Ebisu Station. I want to show you this toilet before we end the live stream. It's funny to say that. But again, whatever, Japan is like the opposite of the US. You wouldn't want to show a public toilet in the US because it's just probably nasty. But you would here. This is, I feel like everything is like the opposite.

34:34:00 John Daub: Hey, Brondani's in the house. That makes my day. Aloha, just dropping in real quick to say hi. I saw your super chat on the Shinjuku stream a couple of days ago. Thanks for that. All right, this is the, I'm bringing it up for more of effect. This is the public toilet. This white box. It actually used to be a public toilet here that looked like a regular public toilet. But now they put a white wall around it. But the thing is with this restroom, like I tried to use it and I don't know how to use it. And it's funny to say, but here's the wall and you enter and you just walk around. And then if they're all filled, you never get in there. Like it's all either out of order or like I'm trapped inside the restroom.

35:44:00 John Daub: You see what I mean? It's like, and they're all like in use. I guess somebody is living in there. So it's, I'd rather have it just like, you know, I don't know. Urinal in and out. Keep it simple. But it looks good. It's a maze, a toilet maze. There's some weird stuff here. But that's what makes this place so awesome. Right? Like I'm always amazed at the bizarreness of it all. But also the amazing things that you find just walking around.

36:31:00 John Daub: Here's Ebisu right there with this fish underneath the Ebisu station sign. I'm going to show you right before we end this live stream. This will only take a minute. I want to take you upstairs and show you the passageway. Because I think if you do come to Ebisu, one of the things that you have to do is go up that escalator. And here's the entrance into the Hibiya Line, the subway. You might want to go up the escalator here. And then from this, you can catch the walkway that I'll take you over to the garden place, which is where the Ebisu beer was historically brewed. And now it's more like a museum. But you can get some good gifts there. I think they have some Christmas illuminations and a big Christmas tree over there.

37:32:00 John Daub: And it's certainly a lot more open and relaxed at that plaza. But Ebisu beer is also, I guess, Sapporo beer. The two are partners in crime. Ebisu being like the high-quality brand of Sapporo. Alright, here we are. And from here, up here, there's a lot of shops at Ebisu Station. But you can also get to the walkway that'll take you to, well, where you want to go. Oh, it smells real good. Something's baking. Oh, there it is, the Kobe Bakery here. So you can see here, just follow the signs here. It says this way to the Ebisu Garden Place. Take a left. So that's that way. And then you would take a left here this way. You would get there.

38:39:00 John Daub: Alright, that's all I got for you. I can't believe we're almost at Christmas time. Alright, if you haven't already, thanks guys so much for watching. Go check out this episode, the 300-year-old Shogun Bento that's on this channel. I just uploaded it. I'll put a link in the description as well. If you're in Tokyo, you can go and check that out. And definitely, if you are in this area, I think it's pretty cool to check out Ebisu Shrine. You can walk around the area where the izakaya (Japanese pub) are and walk to Daikanyama.

39:09:00 John Daub: In fact, you can walk from Shibuya Station to Ebisu and then walk to Daikanyama. And you're going to find like a ton of stuff along the way. The streets are just packed with independent-owned bakeries, cafes, boutique shops with fashions from independent designers. And we all like to support small business owners here. So I think it's kind of a worthwhile place to get away from the tourist center of Shibuya Hachiko Scramble, which we all like to go because it's like a sensory overload. But this area, it takes it down a notch and you get to see some unique architectures get lost in the streets. Make sure your GPS is working because you're going to need that because you're definitely going to get lost. Or maybe that's what you were hoping for. All right, everybody. Merry Christmas. I'll see you again in a live stream probably tomorrow as we talk about the currency, what's going on here. 2025 is going to be another cheap year to visit Japan and that's kind of exciting for you. Maybe not so much for me. All right, guys. Matane (see you later).