00:00:01 John Daub: Welcome to Ueno Station. You can hear in the background they've changed the melodies inside the stations around the Yamanote Line, which is really disappointing for those that loved it because there's a sort of connection, especially to tourists that have been here more than once. I can't even recognize it myself. In this episode we're leaving from here at Ueno—it's actually pronounced Ueno, but in English they do Ueno.

00:00:32 John Daub: Ueno Station, Ueno. And we're going to Uguisudani, which is a mouthful. You see that on the left side? Uguisudani. We're going the other way on the Yamanote Line. I'm going to be exploring what many people in Tokyo consider the armpit of Ueno. And I didn't say that—other people say it because there's not a lot of people who actually go there.

00:01:03 John Daub: I'm going to actually go to... I don't know what the difference is between Ueno and Ueno. If you say it fast enough you really can't tell. But there are people that have visited Japan two or three times that are very sensitive on how you pronounce the words. Alright, we're going to get on the Yamanote Line. It's like 30 seconds—that's a close distance. I don't even know why Uguisudani exists as a station.

00:01:33 John Daub: But I remember when the Yamanote Line was before it expanded at the Takanawa Gateway Station near Shinagawa—there was I think 27 stations and there was a game that you would play. I used to teach English. Try to name all 27—or 28, I can't even remember. It's confusing. But here comes the Yamanote Line. We're going to jump up in the front car for this one-minute ride, depending if we can even see out the front window. Oh, here it comes. It's always kind of cool.

00:02:14 John Daub: I don't know these melodies anymore. We're going to say goodbye to Ueno and look out the window from this side because one of the great things about this area is the things you see outside the window. This is a great reason to turn.

00:04:01 John Daub: So I was thinking we might go over to that side and then to the cemetery. I always like to start these live streams on the train if possible because this is how a lot of people get here. But you can walk here from Ueno—it's only like a 10-minute walk. And you're going to see this. Brandy said she might be here—she sent me the image with the thumbnail, so maybe we see Brandy on the way there.

00:04:42 John Daub: So the Yamanote Line as she pulls away... you now are exposed to Uguisudani. There's nothing here. There's not a real reason to be here unless you have a very cheap hotel, which looks like a love hotel. I don't know—you guys tell me. It's like a lot of rust, but that's what makes this place so cool because nobody would be here. You don't see one tourist. You just see a lost foreigner walking around the station right now. I live here, so I'm a lost foreign resident. There's a Uniqlo down there.

00:05:27 John Daub: All right, this is the Keihin-Tohoku Line, and both the Keihin-Tohoku Line and the Yamanote Line go through Uguisudani. But this one doesn't stop, and the Yamanote Line does. One of the reasons why the Keihin-Tohoku Line might be a better choice is because it's an express. It doesn't stop at places like Okachimachi—I think it goes right by there, maybe Kanda as well. So there's reasons to take it.

00:05:54 John Daub: Let me show you before we get involved too deeply in Uguisudani so you know what you're investing your time in. Let me show you a satellite picture of the area so you get an idea and how to spell it. And that's Yanaka. A lot of you who've been looking at the guidebooks, doing your research on coming to Tokyo, probably heard of Yanaka—Y-A-N-A-K-A. It's an old area of Tokyo that has a ton of attractions. You get to feel the old Tokyo. It should be high on your list—not going to places like Shibuya and Shinjuku, but looking at the older side.

00:06:33 John Daub: And you can see there's Yanaka Ginza (famous shopping street). That's going to be a nice contrast to Ameyoko. It does feel a lot older—the buildings more like Kyoto in a way. Less in your face, more local. You can see the lower, smaller buildings. It's not high-rise Tokyo—it's local Tokyo. And the locals are friendlier, more down to earth—shitamachi (downtown) kind of a feeling. There's the street. So this walk here will be something like 20 minutes, but I think we're going to walk in the other direction for a little ways. I might have to refer to this chart. All right, let's get out of here.

00:07:36 John Daub: Whoa. All right, I'm getting out of here before all the people get off the next train. Brandy, if you're watching this, I really don't know which way I'm going. Don't walk with your smartphone—technically that's what I'm doing, but I'm not looking at the smartphone. Oh, I like this map. This is the kind of map you only see in the countryside, but there's a lot of temples and shrines in this area, which is why you have a cemetery in front of it here. But it's a quieter place, an older place that hasn't changed in a long time.

00:08:33 John Daub: And this sign here, very retro-looking sign, certainly sums it up. That sign was made at the best time to be in Uguisudani, which was like 50 years ago maybe. You even have retro toilets—look at that. This feels so much like a throwback. This is the north exit. Welcome to Uguisudani, the entertainment district of people over age 90. Maybe—I'm just making light of it. Let's get a quick look around the station area. This is the retro side of it.

00:09:19 John Daub: I have walked around the Yamanote Line once about 20 years ago—before it was a thing, the Yamathon and all this stuff. Me and a buddy walked around the entire Yamanote Line in 12 hours, which is not a great time—we weren't doing it to make a speed record. Actually, I think it was 43 or 44 kilometers, which is the same as a marathon. That is definitely a love hotel. Oh, slammed—you can tell. As much privacy as possible. There's a lot of love hotels.

00:10:11 John Daub: Here you can kind of see it has a rest and a stay. There's free services, a big screen TV up to 60 inches, DVD, video on demand, sauna, microwave oven. And it looks real nice for a love hotel. These are actually quite nice. 10 a.m.—oh, hold on, it's right here. If you stay, you could check in at 7 a.m. and check out 10 a.m. That's really good—so you get a lot of time in that room for less than like 60 bucks. So I have to say love hotels sometimes is the way to go.

00:11:01 John Daub: My side has a better view of the train tracks—I bet it does. I'm going to make my way to that other side somehow—I just don't know how yet. We're getting the lay of the land, literally, as we could have laid in one of those beds for 5,300 yen for a couple of hours. But you could see getting an idea of the feel of it. It really does feel like a throwback—this area hasn't changed since when that ivy was a seedling. This looks like an old standing izakaya (pub). Old chūka ryōri (Chinese restaurant), looks like. Even the station looks quite dated—look at the roof there, 1960s looks like. But I wouldn't want it to change.

00:12:12 John Daub: When things stay the same, it's just comfortable. Here's the main street going into central Uguisudani. Alright, let's go take a look. Alright, Brandy, if you want to hang loose, we're going to be there in a couple minutes. But we're going to go check out downtown Uguisudani, which is basically Ueno. Oh, Hakata Ramen—wow, that looks pretty good. But you don't get a lot of tourists on this side—that's what makes this maybe a real find. You do feel like you're more in Tokyo. You're literally in the center of Tokyo, right on the Yamanote Line, but it doesn't feel like it—it feels like another world.

00:12:52 John Daub: There's a Matsuya, which is like Yoshinoya—gyūdon (beef bowl). My wife and I think Matsuya is better than Yoshinoya, just to put it straight. McDonald's is McDonald's. And there's a brand new Don Quixote—I think it opened just recently. Interesting. And this street, yeah, this is the street that'll take you all the way to Ueno and Akihabara if you just go straight this way. There's a Life supermarket—I used to live right next to one of those. They have a point card for Life, but now where I live there's no Life supermarket—they're usually on the outskirts of Tokyo.

00:13:50 John Daub: And I saw this when I came on the Shinkansen yesterday—they were pronouncing Tokyo like To-kyo. Like I always say To-kyo. Some people say it's not To-kyo—it is To-kyo. Look at the long O and the long O—they're both long. Everybody makes fun of me—keep doing it, you know I'm right. There's a McDonald's truck going by. Alright, we can cross the street now. So I'm just gonna wrap back around to the station and try to get to the other side. After I look at this—what is that, a melon? This confection shop looks really interesting. Ibaraki melon—not sure what that is. It's like a melon manjū (steamed bun), I think.

00:15:17 John Daub: Can you please remind me if tax-free shops are directly refunded on payments when you bring your passport? If I had tax-free, I would know—I don't know how it's changed. Maybe somebody can comment. When we catch up with Brandy, I'll ask her. How did the chicken cross the road? We're ready to get to the other side. There's a nice vending machine bank, and if you look down this alley you're exposed to even more love hotels. Wow. How do I get to the other side? There's only one way to find out—look at the map right here.

00:16:02 John Daub: Okay, so I can technically go to this overpass, but how do I get in? Oh, the Tokugawa Family Graveyard—that looks very interesting. Alright, let's do it. We're going to try to get to this overpass, get a nice view of the trains, and then go down to the other side. I'd get a drink from the vending machine, but I actually have some right here—I made my own water with lime juice. I like this place called Live Dam—or Live Dam, I'm not sure. It looks like a karaoke bar or a love hotel—I can't quite figure it out.

00:17:11 John Daub: Oh my gosh! Look at these diamonds! This is pretty cool—I feel like I'm in a James Bond movie. It's fairly clean. There's a lot of rates! That's so cheap—from 10 p.m. to 12 the next day, 5,500 yen. Oh my goodness, that is a deal—I would say steal, but I wonder how many roaches are underneath the bed. Maybe none—you're gonna have to go there and find out. This place is even cheaper, and they take Discover Card. Interesting. Some of these places, according to a friend of a friend, were money laundering for certain groups, which I won't say because I'm out here.

00:18:52 John Daub: We're gonna go up this bridge here, find our way to the top, make it over to the other side, which apparently is a lot nicer. It is a hot day—it got over 30 degrees Celsius yesterday, and I think it's gonna get closer to 31 today. Little breeze which is nice, but the saving grace is May—low humidity. You don't have really high humidity yet, but the sun is as strong as it is in summer—at least it feels that way.

00:20:29 John Daub: Welcome to Uguisudani. All right, we're on the other side. Does anybody know the next station, which is actually right there? I'll give you a hint—it starts with an N, ends with an I. Nippori? Well done. All the temples are on this side, so I'm guessing the love hotels are gonna stay on the other side. So this side is definitely gonna be cleaner, and it sure feels that way right away. This is literally the other side of the tracks—things are better on the other side of the tracks.

00:22:03 John Daub: It also kind of worries me when you see houses with cameras and walls like this—I guess of who might be living in such massive residences. It's a nice neighborhood. This is the north of Ueno, which is a very famous, popular place. I like that house with the gardens and the greenery—it's really nice. All right, making our way to the cemetery park where the Tokugawa grave is.

00:22:52 John Daub: Interesting—I might not be able to even get in there. It's closed. Brandy, help. Looks like somebody's house—I can't go that way. Alright, we're gonna have to find another way. Actually, I stopped wearing my hat so much, but everything starts to burn. There's a reason why the sun is just brutal in Japan. This is really beautiful—you're just walking around and you see this. This is a temple. That's just so beautiful—look at it. It looks like it's been redone recently. The symmetry of everything, the wood—I love the wood, the connection with nature. Even in a city like Tokyo, you can still find places like that.

00:24:19 John Daub: All right, Brandy—we're trying our best to get in there. Hey, that's Koike—Yuriko Koike. If I could vote, I might vote for you, but no, I can't vote in Japan. And Kanae wouldn't tell me who she voted for, so I don't tell her who I vote for—it's probably better that way. It's nobody's business. Alright, we're like sort of in your neighborhood here. Hold on—you're going the wrong direction, you're walking away from me. I gotta walk away from you so I can enter into the park, right?

00:25:22 John Daub: Still getting over a mild cold that I caught on the airplane in Guam—actually going to Guam, I think, and it got bad when I got back from Guam. I think this is the wrong right way—I just passed a 7-Eleven. Oh, is this... this looks like an entrance to something. Well, I can't stop the stream. It looks inviting, but... okay, no cars—I don't think this is the right way. This is a temple—wow, this is a beautiful temple. This looks like it could be it—this looks like Tokugawa's symbol, right? Doesn't that look like Tokugawa's symbol? Is that the kanji for Tokugawa?

00:26:55 John Daub: You're heading to Ueno Park eventually. Thanks for the livestream at this hour and in this heat—Nicolette, you're very welcome. I cannot feel the heat—I'm actually very grateful for the heat. It could be worse—it could be cold out here. Lost only in Japan—could be appropriate here. I'm guessing this is the way, but it doesn't feel like it. I gotta find a way around—I never been this way. That's a dead end—I gotta keep going around. Something says I gotta make a left here. Does anybody have a drone? I need eyes in the sky.

00:27:46 John Daub: There's a 7-Eleven—I crossed the bridge and there's a 7-Eleven. There's a map over there—it's hard to see unless I go over there. Alright, I gotta go over there—it's the only map I see in the area. Green means go! I'm gonna go over there. This is what you get in Uguisudani. And where's the Uguisudani station? This is the tracks—I'm guessing this is Uguisudani. And we cross the tracks? Or is this Ueno? I can't tell. Oh, here's Ueno Park—ah, here's Uguisudani. Okay, got it—I crossed here. You are here—so next left.

00:29:10 John Daub: Roger—next left. Gary's here! Hi John, it's been a while—so how about lunch with me? Oh, Gary, that's awesome! Thank you, Gary—it has been a while. Let's see if we can find some food. If it's not live, I'll share the lunch on the Instagram stories or something. Thanks, Gary. Alright, let's cross the street again. But what we are seeing is that this area is really pretty—look at this. This is a cemetery, but we have some of the sites that you just see randomly walking through.

00:30:01 John Daub: Yeah, next left—Ueno Park, 130 meters. Okay—follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road! Follow, follow, follow. We just watched that recently—Leo likes the Tin Man. Beautifully restored color 4K version of it—I don't know how they do that. Everything that was made on film can be put into 4K—all that stuff filmed in the '80s on VHS does not restore well. Goodness gracious, it's hot—I'm telling you right now, it's May. I got sweat dripping. I got a shirt on because I thought it's May, I don't want to go full-on summer—but maybe you got to.

00:31:26 John Daub: Japanese don't wear shorts either—most Japanese don't wear short pants, so they are basically very hot. I think you would have been easier to go back inside the station—probably. But we would have missed so much, like this sign—I wouldn't have known about this sign. And Pinocchio is not allowed—only real boys, not wooden ones. Does that look like Pinocchio? I think we're getting closer—I can sense the Hawaiian spirit growing stronger in this direction. No puppets allowed—who made that drawing? Who made that sign? I think they need a new job.

00:32:27 John Daub: It's funny though, in the land that makes manga and anime and has amazing artists, you have unusual signage—which is the duality of life in Japan. Nothing is done in between—it's either really great or really like, what? Alright, look at this—an official sign from the city. Thank you, thank you. Oh yeah, you guys are all right—I'm completely off. Oh wow. Okay, well, well, well—so I think we can enter in through here. And then... oh, there's the station right here. So as long as I enter in here and veer to the left, I should be okay.

00:33:20 John Daub: I kind of wanted to go see this, but I was blind—I was locked here, remember? Dead end. So I walked up—oh, so now I know what happened. I crossed the bridge. Let's do a play-by-play: I walked this way, dead end; went back to this street; went up to the end where I tried to go into this temple; and then I zoomed back around. This is where the 7-Eleven was, I believe—and then I took a left here. And now we're gonna go... I mean, I could enter into Ueno Park's museum, or I could go back down into Uguisudani and the cemetery. I really wanted to see the family graveyard.

00:34:04 John Daub: Hey, Brandy, where are you again now? These days? These minutes? Whew—feeling the heat. I'm also smelling the beautiful... look at the street—it's very tranquil. Look at the green—I better get out of the middle of the road. There's no traffic, but really nice here. I'm gonna go back down—so if I go this way, I think it takes me to the Tokugawa Graves, which everybody wants to see, right? You probably could still go to the Tokugawa Family Museum. You guys might not believe me, but... is this the way to get into the park?

00:35:10 John Daub: Alright, now—I'm just gonna go to the park. Yes, we want to go—you wanna go to the grave site? Hanging out by the south entrance of the station—you making bank on my super chat? No, I don't. Okay, alright, we're going this way—Brandy called me out. Alright, we gotta go this way. I tried to take a mental picture, but I can't remember what I just saw—I have to go back to that sign.

00:35:54 John Daub: I thought you were going back to Ueno. Hey, dude—it's not in one of those scooter bikes. I'm actually teasing you—wait, you're not even there? What? You're not even there? How bad is the teasing? How deep does this deception run? Brandy just commented in the livestream—for those watching in the playback, I'm just teasing you. Alright, there's a school to the left—I can't directly look in there. This is no videoing, so I respect that. But if it's in my peripheral vision, nothing I could do about that.

00:37:17 John Daub: Wake up to reality here—because I'm really hot and I feel like I could have... there's a way I could have gotten around here a lot faster, like five or ten minutes ago. Alright, you know what? Somehow I'll find my way in there. Look, one thing that's for sure, there's the Skytree—so I'm not completely lost now. There's a marker. But whatever they're protecting inside here is really strong—and on second thought, I'm glad these aren't electrified. It looks like a prison—look at the spikes on the top to keep the crows out. But I don't think the crows would sit there—they would just fly over it, right?

00:38:42 John Daub: I can tell that there's a cemetery—so we're really close. And apparently the cemetery connects with the station. Oh, I see the station—it's gotta be over there where the love hotels are. I could just glance it over the wall. Alright, we're minutes away. This keeps the crows away—only the stupid crows would go sit directly on a spike. I think there's enough space between them—the crows would just avoid the spike. I don't know what the spikes are—I guess this is for humans, to keep the humans out.

00:39:25 John Daub: Okay, wait—here, we can go in here, I believe. Well, we gotta be respectful—alright, I respect that. So how do I get to you, Brandy? Again? I'm sort of a person that's concerned—but mildly concerned. Yes, pass the National Museum completely, then take a look at the museum. I'm going to take a left. Okay, just keep at it—it's a big cemetery. I think the station is over there, like directly over there, right?

00:40:36 John Daub: Holy macaroni—I'm going to have to go to Ueno Station, or as my critics like to call it, Ueno. And then take a left and wrap all the way around. So what I've learned here—it's definitive: if you get off on the wrong side of Uguisudani Station, don't try to be a hero and try to find your own way around. No—stay in the station and go out the right entrance or exit at the moment you arrive. Now this is an important lesson to tourists coming here to visit.

00:41:14 John Daub: Before you get on the train, quite often there is a sign that tells you all of the car numbers and where the exits are located. And sometimes the closest exit in stations—stations are quite big—so you have to go out the right exit, or else you can sometimes be totally lost. So make sure you take a look—if you've got a couple minutes, look at the guide. Find Shinjuku or whatever station and see, oh okay, I'm getting out of Odakyu—make sure car number two is the closest to that exit. So it makes it really easy to get there.

00:42:07 John Daub: I'm going to go see the Tokugawa gravesite, but I'm not a member of the family. Okay—so what I was saying earlier, I know the Tokugawa family—the Mito clan of the Tokugawa, the 15th generation removed from the Shogun. I've had lunch... in fact, he was on a livestream, I believe—way back in the day, like 2018. I think Jennifer and I got invited to go take a look at the Mito Museum for the Tokugawa family, and they had some really big heirlooms inside of there. That's also where there's a lot of gravesites—it's beautiful in the autumn. And Mr. Tokugawa invited me to come back there in the autumn because it's just really beautiful. So I might do that—I haven't been in touch in a while. I got some very interesting friends.

00:43:15 John Daub: The longer you stay here, the more you talk to people, the more you do this job, the more you make some interesting friends in this business. I don't know if he's in the business, but he does a lot of cultural stuff promoting Japan—a lot of important diplomatic stuff, I guess. Of course he's chairman of a lot of boards of companies in Japan—does a lot of good stuff. But he speaks Californian English—I guess he did some surfing. Actually I do know—I just don't want to say it in public, which I might have already done. But you'll have to decipher my hieroglyphics.

00:44:00 John Daub: Alright, look—I think we're here. South Park? This one? If I keep doing it, it's going to look like that sign we saw before. Alright, Brandy, you come find me—look for the man who's dripping sweat. Should I shout her name? But the great thing about this, getting lost, is now we get to see another entrance of this very small Yamanote Line stop. Check it out—is that how the YouTubers do it? Check it out. Aloha—mahalo. Where? I was lost. Oh, the park is over there? So you were here the whole time?

00:45:15 Brandy: Yeah, I've been standing here watching them. So you're watching me get lost, like going the wrong direction? You could have at least shouted.

00:45:26 John Daub: Well, you're not supposed to shout. Was there anything interesting in this station of note? Other than this beautiful building—it's just a view. But you can see—oh yeah, it sure looks like... this does not look like a Tokyo station. Not only is it not busy, it's just so old and retro—it's actually really cool, right? Yeah—you wouldn't expect it because Ueno is so crowded with tourists. This is like the exact opposite. Yeah, like I was here just watching trains.

00:45:59 John Daub: Oh, I love your tattoos—can I take some pictures of your tattoos? I'm talking about how all the Japanese are taking, like, what do you call them? Stealth pictures? Well, the younger people—oh yeah, the younger people take illegal stealth photos, I think. My wife and I love staying near Uguisudani—Edo Sakura. This is a really nice area—I mean, except for the love hotels. I think this is the side maybe you... did you stay on this side? Because this side is like... there must be a hundred love hotels, all of them most under 7,000 yen, which is a pretty good deal.

00:47:16 Brandy: That's a nice hotel.

00:47:16 John Daub: This ballpark, thankfully, is mostly dead at my age. To the right—over here. Okay, more towards... you went this way? I think so. Alright—so somebody had a question earlier about duty free—do you know anything about that?

00:47:40 Brandy: No—not really. The last time I bought something, they still didn't have it in the bag, and they said I couldn't open it until I got fucked old, so I haven't been...

00:47:49 John Daub: Oh, so wait—if you open the duty free... do we go up here? Maybe just go on—no, stay on this side. So if you open it up and you use it here, you can't claim the money on duty free?

00:48:01 Brandy: I don't know because I'm not sure how it works.

00:48:04 John Daub: Yeah. But the first item I bought that was duty free was like KitKat because I wanted to eat it, and the lady put it in the bag—she goes, don't open until airport home. I was like, what? We're not paying for that—don't open until airport home. Oh my gosh. So I've just been paying the taxes—so you just pay the taxes. I think it's like 10%—yeah, support the Japanese economy. I mean, everything I've been buying is cheap anyway, so it's not that big a deal.

00:48:31 John Daub: So you don't mind being on the streams anymore?

00:48:35 Brandy: Yes and no.

00:48:36 John Daub: Alright, we'll minimize it as much as possible. No, it's fine—we might be going somewhere sometime soon, right? We shouldn't say the destination—we can say what day. Friday—okay, Friday. I'm not allowed to stream from there—that's right. I might have said too much—no, there's no problem. There's a lot of places you can't stream. But yeah, I'll go for this—but this is actually a really nice area. You mean the cemetery to the right? Just all of this area because I've been exploring this side of the tracks.

00:49:10 Brandy: Oh yeah—because it was from the park and I'm staying...

00:49:13 John Daub: No, I actually really liked walking through that love hotel area—now I'm kicking myself. We should have been on the other side—now we got to walk all the way around. The one thing I won't do is hop this fence and be a jerk. Yeah, I don't think you can—first of all, I'm too old for that, and second, I know someone's going to see me and report me and then I'll be shamed on Japanese Twitter. So always do the right thing—and you do it not just because it's the right thing, do it because probably some person's watching you and will report you.

00:50:02 John Daub: Yeah, I'll make sure. There's a lot more to do than I think people realize. And Yanaka Ginza, Yanaka area is not that far away—have you been there?

00:50:13 Brandy: Yes.

00:50:15 John Daub: Oh good—yeah, that's... I was there last time I was there. Alright—the signal is not too super strong in this area. It could be for a couple reasons: one, we're getting into an area where there are a lot more tourists and people in general; and two, because it looks like we're next to that prison again, National Tokyo Museum, where they really make it look like a prison—I guess it's to secure the goods inside. There must be some real valuable goods—there's a lot of stuff in there.

00:50:46 Brandy: You think so? Yeah—there's like a museum. They can take you all day—all day. Like if you want to see every single thing and actually take in...

00:50:59 John Daub: That makes a lot of sense—it does take a long time. It's like the British Museum but for Japan. And they have a lot of special exhibits—so I was going to maybe try and do that today, but I don't have time before I go to my bougie hotel. Oh, do you want to tell people about that or are we keeping it off the record for now?

00:51:15 Brandy: I'll tell you what...

00:51:18 John Daub: Okay—one thing I know about it, right now is also the season for the fireflies called hotaru (fireflies). These are flies—I don't know if other countries have it, they probably do. At nighttime when the sun goes down, just as it comes down, these fireflies come out and they light up with their butts like butt rockets, and they start to light up—it's the most beautiful thing. We had it when I was growing up as a kid, and as development and more buildings came into the area they kind of went away, which is a sad thing. There's periods for things—and they need clean water, they also need that as well. So there's a hotel in Tokyo that's famous for this—it's got clean water and a massive garden, and Brandy somehow snagged it. It was in a port, somewhat a port right in Hawaii—it's a very important port. For what it is, yeah—it's a great place. I think Kanae's sister tried to get her wedding there but she couldn't because it's so popular.

00:52:11 John Daub: Is that a monkey? He's got a monkey—can I do a video? Oh yeah—video? Okay. Oh my God—cute. Are they friends? Oh—oh yeah. Oh my gosh—hi. He kisses—hi. Konnichiwa—is that a dog? His pet? What are you doing? He wants to say hi to the camera? Oh sorry—oh my God, he's very curious. Oh wow—wow, he's taking me. He's taking me—okay, okay, okay—bye-bye, bye-bye. He's pulling me.

00:53:00 John Daub: That's how Kanae was on our first date—just like that. From his pet? Yeah—I was like, yeah I got to go Kanae, and he goes no you're not, you're coming with me—you stay till I'm finished with you. And then her chaperone took her away because that's how we rolled back there. Oh my God—I hope she will never get 55 minutes into the episode to ever watch that.

00:53:32 Brandy: It's mating.

00:53:33 John Daub: A famous Dutch artist, the one who painted that thing—I can't remember, there's so many Dutch artists, it's hard to remember. It wasn't Rembrandt—it was the other one. A lot of tour buses—they dump people off right before the park to get into. It's hard for buses to get into Ameyoko, for example—so this would be the place around the museums where buses would pull in. This way? This would take us back to the station. Alright, we better cross over.

00:54:25 John Daub: Nasty—brick buildings. I think this goes back to like before World War II. Some of the brick architecture they were starting to do that back in the 1920s and '30s after the Great Kanto Earthquake in the 1920s—a lot of the buildings started to go to brick so they wouldn't burn in fires. Alright, now we're in the heart of Ueno—Ueno Park. And you can see how close it is to Uguisudani Station. There's some food festival—oh, there's some food festival, that wasn't here yesterday. There was a Cubano food festival here not too long ago and it smelled and looked so good—I didn't get anything, I was on my way home at 6 o'clock.

00:55:29 John Daub: My God, it's so hot. Alright, we can end this livestream—we've been going for an hour. And I don't know, the signal is just not that good in the park—I think had this poor satellite, poor cell phone service coupled with a lot more people and trees and whatnot. But you would think in the middle of the park you get a decent signal—they're getting ready for the weekend probably. Yeah, I have no idea—I'm just making some guesses that sound like I'm smart. Sometimes it doesn't work out to my advantage.

00:56:08 John Daub: So we're now in the middle of Ueno Park—so you can see how quick it is to get here from Uguisudani Station if you take the right exit. That's right—but that was not part of this learning experience. And sometimes these live streams can be fun—there's a lot of hidden treasure in a live stream. And I say that as a point, which is why you should watch to the end—you never know. You never know because it's live. Remember me and Kevin Riley back in the day we were doing a live... oh, you can see under the skirt—look, the skirt as the wind blows. It's like a Marilyn Monroe thing—they're like trying to prevent you from seeing what's underneath there until the wind does the job for you.

00:56:57 John Daub: I'll tell you, there's a Pokemon manhole cover? Oh yeah—is it one of those illuminated ones? No, it's just a colorful one. Oh my God, the sun is burning—I'm okay, I just got my glasses. I'm going incognito so nobody can find me, even though I'm livestreaming here so anybody can find me. Discord is on—so they're planning a festival here, which is... oh, something Zenkoku (nationwide) something festival. Zenkoku meaning the whole country of Japan—so it's something significant, maybe. Well, I mean it's not like you can't come tomorrow. Oh, we got the front of it here—wow, that's a big food and market festival. You can see they're selling some goods here—very cool.

00:58:07 John Daub: Yeah, well they always have festivals here—this is the infamous Starbucks. This is one of the... oh yeah, I think the one in the city—not in the city, Starbucks was in the city. But they put it in the park—and there's been a trend recently in Japanese parks to put these cafes. Blue Bottle opened up in Toyosu Park near Lalaport, which is weird—it's like one day it wasn't there and the next day it took Leo to go play there and there's a freaking Blue Bottle there, and it had ten times more people. It's just a cafe. Why is he shouting at me? He shouts "hello" at the top of his lungs—he would never do that in Japanese, but "konnichiwa" really loudly? No, but hello is okay because people like me are loud.

00:59:01 John Daub: Alright, even though the signal says it's not working, these are sakura trees—about three months ago, two months ago you missed it. And to your right... you went there yesterday, right?

00:59:08 Brandy: Yes—to Ueno Zoo. Yeah, you can only go in that way these days.

00:59:16 John Daub: Oh okay—I'm not even getting a signal here. Our Blue Bottle has ten times better coffee—it could be Ramsay's, I'm not really... I can't confirm nor deny. I think Starbucks coffee tastes too burned—overly roasted beans sometimes. I think coffee if you over-roast the beans it might lose some of the health benefits—if you overcook anything.

00:59:55 John Daub: So we've taken you from one side to the other—Uguisudani. Alright, so I think we found the signal here. Uguisudani is a very interesting area that you can go and explore. I think if you're at Ueno, if you've got an hour or so, taking a look up there especially the love hotel area—it's pretty interesting, a site of Tokyo where everything is very touristy, things have touristed out, right? It's sort of a place where you'll have most of it to yourself with locals—you'll have a more local Tokyo experience I think at Uguisudani than you would in Tokyo.

01:00:37 John Daub: Which is a reason you might stay there if you could find a hotel that's not a love hotel—but if you can't, love hotels are not a bad place to stay if you're somebody on a budget, if you're a couple. I think they might not let you stay there by yourself—you can't say you're staying with Rosie Palm and her five sisters. Although I think you can stay with more than one person. Peter taught me that—Rosie Palm and her five sisters. I didn't even know what it meant for the longest time and I probably to this day still don't know exactly what he means. But he's the one who taught me. And why is Rosie so Rosie? Why Rosie? Mine's kind of white—I guess this is red. Wonder why? You don't know anything when you talk about it.

01:01:26 John Daub: Alright everybody, take care. It's a great way to end the livestream—if you come here at the end of March this would be all white cherry blossoms. But today it's a beautiful green and it is a park—so that's what you would expect. Thank you Brandy for hanging out the last 10, 15, 20 minutes or so—hide and seek. Yeah, hide and seek. Yeah, Uguisudani—put it on your list perhaps of places that have very few tourists that you want to unwind to, and see a side of Tokyo that is not in your face like Shibuya. And this place Ueno. See you.