00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Kanda. That station right there is our topic for today. We're going to be walking around this neighborhood. You can see underneath this kind of newer bridge, there's an old retro bridge made of steel built in the German design of the old S-Bahn around Berlin and all that. But Japan's railway took a lot of inspiration from Germany back in the day. This is one of the retro areas of Tokyo and it's just like right next to Tokyo Station. We're just one stop away. Let me show you on the Google Maps here where exactly we are.

00:00:42 John Daub: So if we zoom in here, first of all I wanted to zoom out. I see Ramsey Islands here. Just take a look. Osaka is west of Tokyo. So when we say West Japan, that's what we mean. West of Tokyo. There's the Imperial Palace in the center. There's Tokyo Station. All the Shinkansen lines going through there, originating there. The old ones pass through Kanda, which is not a big station. It's hard to see from space, I suppose. But if you come down, it's just about a 15-minute walk from Tokyo Station. Around here you have the Yamanote Line, the Keihin-Tohoku Line. I think a subway line probably stops through here as well.

00:01:16 John Daub: So the neighborhood around though is what is really fascinating. It's all low buildings. Do you see that? You see the high rises to the left? It's all the way up to Tokyo Station. And then Akihabara, the next station over, there's the Kanda Myojin Shrine, which is over a millennium old. And this neighborhood Kanda in between Akihabara and Tokyo Station is often overlooked. It has some of the most interesting izakaya (Japanese pubs), eating, drinking places in all of Tokyo. It's one of the oldest stations too. It goes all the way back to 1919. Which is crazy, because the Yamanote Line, a lot of them are the oldest. But I guess Shimbashi was the first station before even Tokyo Station.

00:02:10 John Daub: I saw some old photos of the Kanda Station. It really hasn't changed that much over time. Look at the platform. You can see people from the roof looking down on everybody. I guess this is the opening of Kanda Station. It looked kind of plain. But the station, you're going to be able to see some of the things that are still there. The structure of it really hasn't changed much at all. There's the steel beams going across above ground with the trolleys going underneath there. Tokyo doesn't have those anymore in this area, but the trolleys do exist. Alright, let's go take a walk around. I see Ramsey Silent was here. Ramsey Silent, thank you. I'm going to get myself a hot drink because it is pretty cool outside.

00:03:01 John Daub: So underneath the station, this is where a lot of things happen. Things that haven't changed much over the years. You see, because they use the space underneath the tracks here, there's a lot of izakaya, which are like Japanese bars, pubs. Of course they're closed now because it's like 10 in the morning, but it gets really lively around 5 p.m. The fascinating thing, I think, for me is the steel that's used underneath here. Now, I was told by a historian there was a treaty with the U.S. and Japan with the Western powers after Japan beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 [?]. And then after this treaty, they said that they wouldn't build battleships and war machines. So they used the steel to make a lot of the infrastructure of Tokyo, a lot of the bridges going across the Sumida River are made from that steel from the 1920s. And it's still holding up pretty good. It's been painted over. You can see the texture of it. But definitely this steel going back, I'm not sure what's new, what's old, but certainly looks very 1930s, right?

00:04:20 John Daub: But around it you have aluminum and lots of changes to the station over the years. Do you think renewal will come to this area soon? I think so. I think it's inevitable. We're going to walk this side and then walk back around Kanda Station. This is the south entrance here. I think it's inevitable that the station is going to be updated, renovated because of the earthquake. And a lot of the businesses, this was something else. This wasn't a Starbucks coffee, but you can see the Starbucks coffee is so new inside right now. It's gotten very modernized. They are, by the way, just so you know, they have the cherry blossom, I guess it's cherry blossom. It says Momo Sakura, white peach and sakura frappuccino. And strawberry soy lattes. So we're starting to see spring in the products there. And by the way, they also have the sakura donuts there. It's good to see.

00:05:33 John Daub: So here's the south entrance or exit of Kanda Station. Let's see what the drinks that they got here. You know, not too much. You can see they're starting to use Wanda and some of the other makers are starting to use manga images more to try to appeal to people. I saw that in the news recently. Go Go Curry is really good. It's a Kanazawa black curry. They're pretty good. All right, let's get moving, folks. Let me know if the signal goes bad or you're having any audio troubles. But so far, so good. It's kind of narrow the way that the streets are made. They're quite old streets, so they're narrow around the station, making some really interesting alleys. But it also feels quite confined. Just make sure you remember that cars can go through here. So you got to look behind you with electric cars these days. You don't even know.

00:06:43 John Daub: What is this? The Rump Cap. I like the name. Wow. The King of Beef. Hey, now, this looks pretty good. The Butcher's sirloin steak, 160 grams for 1980 yen. So that's about $15. That's pretty good. You can upgrade it to one pound, 450 grams for that much. That's pretty cheap. I have to keep Rump Cap in my mind. Speaking of food and content, you don't see a lot of Burger Kings in Tokyo. This is one of them. They have the big King Yeti right now, which is basically four patties and one. That's really expensive. But I guess it's four burgers in one. So it's like four Whoppers, right? Or something like that. It's 2090 yen. So about 15 bucks for that. Big Mama. That's pretty big.

00:07:44 John Daub: They're being like Burger King has to be inventive with their burgers. There's the menu 2025 right now. You can compare it with the US. Where's the normal Whopper? Is there one? They have avocado Whopper. What? I didn't know that. The regular Whopper is 690 yen, which is about $4 for one. Walter. Walter L. Walters. John, glad to catch you in another live stream. Greta, hot lemon tea. All right, we're getting there. I'm going to work my way around the station here. The restaurants are fascinating. This one's got English. I'm not a fan of Wagyu sushi. I know that they have it. It's beef sushi. I guess you eat beef rare, so it makes a lot of sense. But as sushi just doesn't have flavor. You have to cook it to get the flavor. It doesn't release the fat. You have to melt the fat. So you at least have to blowtorch it. But you know, you can try it once. It just doesn't have the same flavor as fish. Beef should be cooked with a little bit of salt and use kosho (Japanese pepper). I like the use of kosho.

00:08:52 John Daub: Bunch of sushi restaurants here. Stephen L. writes in. I would destroy that burger. Like, what do you mean with a hammer? That would take you a lot of bites to eat for four burgers in one like that. Most people. They're eating at the Yoshinoya. Here, check this out. So they've got interesting Yoshinoya donburi (beef bowls). That one looks so good. I can smell the garlic out of the beef and garlic outside. This is only from 8PM, but you get a 100 yen discount. That one looks really good, too. The gyusuki sukiyaki. Oh, my goodness. Yoshinoya is killing it. You'll find a lot of these places, a lot of cheap eats because a lot of business people come out of work from around 11 they start coming out to about 1:30 just full of people for lunch and then from 6 to 8 a lot of people go out drinking, a lot of cheap eats, a lot of single guys who don't cook at home they go and eat their gyudon or hey it's not just guys okay but you'll see a lot of people they eat they go.

00:10:23 John Daub: Mansei is an important brand here because the Mansei Bashi (Manseibashi bridge) is a bridge that was nearby that was one of the biggest stations in Tokyo in fact one of the most historic stations that no longer exists but they also you'll see Mansei burgers. They actually have a restaurant the Mansei has a vending machine on Mansei Bashi in Akihabara. Akihabara is not very far away but they're famous for their sandwiches again you can see right there look at how beautiful it is. Look at the way it's just cut it's pretty but they're famous for their beef as well and you got a restaurant here for trying it out this is historic place folks so if you want to try a Hamburg this is a good place to do it I have had it as well is this the mixed lunch with the big sausage on there and then there's some karaage (fried chicken) there's a tartar sauce with pork cutlet so it's got like a chicken nanban but with pork and then there's a chicken cutlet.

00:11:29 John Daub: So they got some pretty good items there but Kanda is a really great place for eating because there's so many varieties of it you get a kebab right there that but you know a lot of people complain that the restaurants in the tourist areas are overcrowded most of the time these restaurants are not crowded at all and that's what makes it really interesting so Akihabara is not that far away we're gonna go underneath the station here but all you gotta do is walk this way for about 10 minutes you're in Akihabara. Here's the main street. Here's a chicken restaurant let's go take a quick look by the way you know where to stand you see where the pigeons did their duty don't stand there that's where they have like houses and stuff oh my goodness curry is very popular in Kanda this is curry town Jimbocho Kanda this region I can smell it out the door it smells so good look at that that's a pork sauteed pork steak on top of an omelet.

00:12:39 John Daub: Wow look at this curry demi-glace om rice 2,100 yen that looks like they just changed the price recently and you can see there's a window with the chef that's cooking there very cool so again you could walk to Akihabara in about 10-15 minutes just keep on keep there's actually a secret bridge I don't know can you see it from here Peter and I walked it a couple of times in a live stream but I'm making joy hungry in the Philippines. Right now there's a bridge that crosses over the canal from Akihabara station but you have to be along the tracks to find it it's kind of unique you can see the shinkansen going by over there too you can see like the new and the old the cement up there mixed in with the steel definitely left over from the 1930s and probably the original beams I don't know but sure is fascinating what is this is this some sort of dish? It's like om rice and they add in I thought that was a piece of fish it looks like there's a big meatball or tomato it's a tomato and then they put some kind of crispy rusk or something around there I'm gonna have to eat here it's been a year since I ate at this shop oh my goodness the demi-glace stuff and you can see there's the chef in there it's a really narrow shop oh my god that looks good here's a shop with some bentos.

00:14:32 John Daub: I didn't want to disturb her come out here so you can grab a bento a lot of business people are here 450 yen for a bento is dirt cheap probably they make she makes her money on volume so this new walkway you can see it's been redone Kanda always had kind of this sketchy feel to it I'm gonna be honest with you it always felt a little sketchy to me but it's really cleaning up so to go back to what Aiken said I do think there's gonna be some renovation coming but probably not until they finished a lot of the renovations that they've done in other places this is Chiyoda and you can see the Chiyoda the city put in these toilets here so it's maintained by the city but they look relatively clean you or should I just say usable because I don't know of many cities where you could use unless you really got to go Japan Japan the toilets here is so clean so Chiyoda is one of the 23 wards within the Tokyo metropolitan area it's not a it's actually not the city technically.

00:16:13 John Daub: So I'm holding up the gimbal to about seven feet up and you get a pretty good view here you can see the train taking off in the reflection in the glass Chiyoda is the big one that's where a lot of the parliamentary buildings are the government's mostly in Chiyoda the city government is in Shinjuku on this side the restaurants aren't quite as authentic a lot of it is well that's not really true so karaoke place is a lot of nightlife look at this really thin tobacco shop some people have been asking me about the tobacco they had this TASPO this kind of ID that you need in order to get tobacco but the shops are pretty I know it's kind of like a throwback kind of a retro tobacco shops which could conveyor belt sushi is the best I did they're all kind of not that great actually I don't know I'd say Kura and Sushiro are pretty much the same quality I can't tell the difference Kura seems to be bigger used to be Genki sushi was the big one right I don't know it all changes I don't eat that sushi as much.

00:17:37 John Daub: Look at this niku udon (meat udon) shop these are real like throwbacks from the Showa era these standing bars and of course they've got curry is free what rice all you can eat rice and curry is free I'm liking this place how do they make money I guess it's volume and turnover by the way if you do go to places like this standing bars you're going in there oh this is a nice shot if you're going to the bars and cafes in Tokyo you're going in there to eat and get out it's not like a Starbucks or cafe where you sit there all day get in get out they make their money on volume but if it came down to vibes joy I think that Kanda wins on a lot of fronts and a lot of people are staying in Akihabara maybe there's just not a lot of accommodations but what make this is like a step up in my opinion to this is a step up this is like maybe a step up in my opinion to Okachimachi which is kind of run down in a way kind of sketchy because that's near Tokyo Station and Akihabara I don't know maybe feels a little more downtown but the renovations have been nice.

00:19:08 John Daub: You don't get a lot of the renovations I don't know if you did stay here it'd be pretty nice is a kaias are good and cheap and plentiful there's a ton of them Peter and I often go hang out you know they at the place for all the expats the guy Coco Jean go check out the shoot there's a Chicago pizza place here called Devil's Craft I think Peter knows the owner so we've been every I don't a couple times a year we'll go and have a pizza and beer there not as much as in the past I don't pizza beer but we used to maybe we'll get you have to get one here the yakiniku (grilled meat) lunch is 800 and holy crud really how did it get those prices look at all you can eat rice on the right side says tabihodai (all-you-can-eat) I all you can eat and then it's a costpa (cost performance) which is cost performance yakiniku lunch 890 yen with all you can eat rice you are not gonna leave here on an empty stomach how do they make money is it like yesterday's rice yakiniku lunch I guess you want to upgrade it.

00:20:32 John Daub: This is turning into like a street like a window shopping for lunch episode here's one with booze oh look at this this is that restaurant worth with the solo you could eat sorry about the reflection in the glass but this is a booth that you get with your own little private grill you see that and you sit there with your private grill and there's a menu a digital menu to order your lunch on yes that is real meat it looks real anyways you don't get a lot of it for 850 and I'd upgrade to I probably upgrade to the this one but that's just me they do have wagyu here that's pretty cheap it doesn't say where the wagyu is from but these chains are making a killing here this is okay this is sukiyaki men meet the same enjoy say men judges a noodle place and you can see they have some interesting red snapper and salt suki men that sounds so good rich broth suki men is like I know the noodles are like the rough it's different than udon but it's not it doesn't seem like ramen and the noodles are separated from the soup and you take the noodles and you dip them in the soup.

00:22:01 John Daub: That's what suki men is. So the soup is usually thicker and it's so good. But again, you're like carbo loading for the marathon if you eat it. Miso suki men. That looks really nice. All right, let's keep walking through the back alleys of Kanda. Look at this alley. Is it an alley dog? Whose doggy is that? Okay, dude. He's somebody's dog. That dog, he's an alley dog. What? That dog's got freedom. Is that the owner? Is that the owner or is it an alley dog? It's an alley dog. That's an alley dog. Did someone just like, he's a homeless dog? I feel really bad. I think he has an owner. I think there's an owner. Sorry, I saw, maybe not. He's marking his territory. Look at this bento here. You can get bento from this window. They're not quite open yet. 800 yen. Look at that gyoza (dumplings) bento. It looks pretty good.

00:24:07 John Daub: All right, we're going to have to go get a drink, but the alley dog has gone. He's not an alley dog. There's the owner. The owner in the fur coat. All right, so the lady with the fur coat is the alley dog's owner. She doesn't have quite a handle on him. Welcome to Kanda. It's a little rough here. I love that. It's an alley man, but it is an alley dog. Let's walk around here. Aloha, Brandania's in the house catching a live stream. Finally, you did. You made it. It's a great thing to wake up after working all night. Thank you, Brandania. Let's go get ourselves a drink. Let's look at this. Is that unagi (eel) here? Oh my god, the smells that are just coming down here. Everyday kao man gai. I guess that's Vietnamese. Kanae and I used to go to a Thai restaurant up there on the second floor, but it looks like they're out of business. They used to have a shop underneath the Yamanote line. Then they had to move, and oh my god, that looks so good. What is that? Pork belly. Slow-cooked pork belly ramen. Holy macaroni. Bookmark. And look at the ninja dudes there. Whoa. Probably chopped it up with a katana.

00:26:07 John Daub: There's a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) shop. It's very nondescript and no pictures, it would be intimidating to go in there, I think, for a lot of foreigners. And it's junbi-chuu (preparing), so they're getting ready for lunch, but tonkatsu looks really good when there's a shop that looks like that. You know it's going to be pretty good. This one has a vending machine outside and it's a lot brighter. That's a ramen shop. Again, ramen is very, very popular in Japan. So you're going to find a ton of shops. I'm getting some vibes, some old memories. This is where, oh my gosh. So there's a competitive eater named Randy Santel, friend of mine. He's a big YouTuber. He's a professional eater. And he ate, I think it was five bowls of this, five or six bowls of this mega-sized ramen. It's aburi soba (flame-seared noodles). And he got his picture on the wall, I believe. I was here for that. It's in there. I believe he got his picture on the wall of shame or fame. I don't know. Look at that. It goes even higher than this. You can pick the amount of noodles that you want. It's omori (extra large) is 500 grams. What? It goes all the way up to like one kilogram. He ate it all, man. I don't know how he did it.

00:27:39 John Daub: And then you know what? We went out after that. This is before he had his girlfriend before then. We went out for drinks and apple pie or something. It's like, how could you eat after eating all that you ate? He still wanted to eat more. It's insanity. Tari is an Indian teishoku (set meal), which is like, it's an Indian restaurant. It's a chain that's in a lot of places. I used to have a point card. Then they stopped taking my point card. I don't know what happened. But the great thing about this place is that it is all you can eat naan. It's naan tabihodai (all-you-can-eat naan). And you have to pick two or three curries out of it. But if you get the one with the naan, if you want two naan or three naan, you get more naan here. This looks like a famous ramen shop that's lining up. Oh yeah, there's a big line there. 2.2 pounds. Let's do it, writes in Trevor. Trevor, yeah.

00:28:46 John Daub: I'm going to pan around here. This is an unagi restaurant and a steak restaurant. And I think you're starting to get the vibe. A lot of small local shops, they keep the exterior pretty humble, but the prices are humble too. You notice that it's a lot of people lining up right now because lunch is just about starting. This steak bowl looks incredible. For the small size, it's 880 yen. And then I would probably get the middle size, which is 1180 yen. I might get the omori. But the steak bowl looks good. You can get a bento to take out as well. And then here's unagi. So how do they price unagi here? Unadon (eel rice bowl) double. That is cheap. Oh look, they put unagi in the tamagoyaki (rolled omelet) there. There's unagi in there. They always give the heart soup with the unagi. And here's the unaju tokujo (premium eel rice box), 2500 yen. That is so cheap. I wonder if it's domestic unagi. Or if it's... That's the reason that they can do unagi cheaply is sometimes it's coming from China. And in that case, I wouldn't ever buy it because I got sick off of unagi coming from China.

00:30:10 John Daub: You can see we've reached the end of the station area. Trevor's like, I'll take the tater salad. What? They have the potato salad there. It looks pretty good. There's more izakaya going back in there. This place is popping around 6pm. But a lot of the businesses do business at lunchtime just because there's so much foot traffic from the offices all around here. And it's a reason to maybe even stay in this area. But if you are staying in Akihabara, I would walk. I would not eat in Akihabara. There's just too many foreigners there. Honestly. It doesn't feel authentic to me eating in Akihabara. Not anymore. I think it did in the past. That ramen shop is killing it. There's a lot of legs there. It's kind of interesting the mix of the old and the new. I walked right by it. There's a little shrine here. These are leftovers from like the 1930s. It certainly looks it.

00:31:42 John Daub: This is interesting. So there's a tourist information center and a bike rental. So I guess they have an office here. Interesting. Namibiru 299. Alright, let's go get ourselves a beer. Let's go get ourselves a drink. Everybody's out right now getting lunch. Foot traffic has increased like three times since we started the live stream. There's another unagi place. Unagi don, 1300 yen. The unadon double, 2200 yen. And the unaju, that's 1700 yen. I would get that double, man. That looks good. But again, I don't know where the unagi is coming from. So it's hard to tell. The Nishi-ya unagi is good. That's where I went a couple of months ago. I filmed that December 7th. I've got an episode coming out tomorrow night, I believe. It's gonna be dropping. Just gonna plug a little bit. But it's not sure this is the final thumbnail. But it's about the Tama region. The west side of Tokyo where only 1% of tourists that visit Tokyo actually make it out to the western extremities. The Tama region.

00:33:28 John Daub: So my family and I got in a car. This is a 20 minute edited video. Looking for something there. That looks like a happy Wanda coffee right there. So this video will probably drop tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I was working with Tokyo, the government of Tokyo on this one. It was a lot of work. So I'm happy to finally release this thing. I'm very happy. I filmed it like in November. So it's been a long time coming. Kanda's very colorful, isn't it? That's underneath the Yamanote line right here. Very colorful. I see some vending machines up there. And there's still a couple of days left to join the postcard club for February's postcard. I heard that they arrived already in California. I got a lot of feedback from our Discord server members at the postcard club. Postcards have arrived! Alright, let's see what we can get here. From the vending machine.

00:34:46 John Daub: So this is a Kirin vending machine. The Namacha caramel tea latte. These are like vitamin power. Tully's barista espresso. I usually just go with the hot hojicha (roasted green tea). You know why? Hojicha, if you don't know, is roasted green tea. And it's got that nice roasted, like, it's got this really nice roasted taste to it. The only thing is, you hear all this stuff on the internet. You can't ruin it all the time with reading stuff off of the internet. But these are like plastic bottles that have been heated for hours and hours. And I don't know how much microplastics are in there. Right? Somewhat sensitive. But the hojicha, very low in caffeine too. But green tea reminds me of the taste of Japan. Hojicha reminds me of the taste of Japan. Like the smell of the green tea roasting. Have you ever been past a green tea shop? And they're roasting it out on the street. And you have this really sweet, acidic smell in the air. They're making hojicha. So for me, hojicha is like the smell of Japan. It really, it takes me back to my first days here. Because I remember that pungent, strong, acidic, sweet smell of roasting green tea. Hojicha is so nice. Probably better not to drink too much from plastic bottles. Yeah. You can't overthink it when you're traveling. But yeah. My pet bottle consumption has gone way down. Just based on microplastics. They scare you if you read the internet. You get scared.

00:37:16 John Daub: What do you guys think of Kanda? What do you think of the vibe here? There's that all-you-can-eat yakiniku place. Is this a place that you think would be stayable? Is this a place that you think we'd like to see more of? Perhaps I would come back here at night with Peter and go out. Maybe we'll do an izakaya run or something like that. Bar hopping. I think Kanda's got a lot of potential. It's not something that a lot of tourists will come here. As you can see, we're walking around. Good morning, Carol. If you call people up, that's how you know you're live. The live stream. The other channel's not live. I get two channels for anyone who's watching for the first time. This is all the live streaming ones. It's a little bit longer format. The thing I love about Kanda is that it's a lot more authentic. You look around. There's no tourists. We're between Tokyo Station and Akihabara Station. Sandwiched between there, and there's no tourists here. I don't know why. Maybe there's not a lot of hotels here. Kanda is situated on the Yamanote Line, so it's very convenient. It's just a really authentic place, I think. I don't know how long it's going to stay like that, but it's certainly one of my recommendations if you're staying in Akihabara or Tokyo Station. Come here for dinner or lunch.

00:38:37 John Daub: Next station, Akihabara. We're right there. There's Tokyo Station, Kanda Station, Akihabara Station. It's right in between there. I think it's worth it. Come here for dinner. If you're looking for Chicago pizza, you can head to Devil's Craft. You might find Peter or me sitting there. It might be good to call ahead or get there early because it's not that big and it does get crowded. Usually, it's dudes like me sitting there who live here in Japan trying to get away. Maybe that's why. A lot of expats know about places like that. All right, everybody. The Yamanote Line is up overhead. I'm going to get back home. I just got my driver's license renewed. It's a gold driver's license, so finally I joined the ranks of the people who have never been in an accident. They were pulled over for speeding. Yeah. I will buy it. I'm not going home empty-handed. Can I already say, get me some coconut water? Leo's sick. Leo's sick, so I got to go get some coconut water. He can't. His tummy hurts, Mama said. So he's staying home. So I'll probably go buy the family some lunch with that. Brandania, everybody, thank you so much for the super chats. I'm not going home empty-handed. We'll see you in another livestream tomorrow. I have some livestreams that have been brought to you by a sponsor, a company that I've worked with before. Wanted to do this, and I thought it was great because I think it's a win-win. You're going to start to see them coming up over the next week. Just a one-minute memory of some tours that I took with another company. I think it's a win-win type of a thing and kind of fun to see the videos on that. But anyways, I'll see you in another episode tomorrow. See you. Yeah, and don't forget to comment. Let me know what you guys think about Kanda Station. And don't forget to go check out this festival. And trust me, nobody's naked. It's just, it's Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival). It's a literal translation on this. Trust me, it's a really funny video. See you.