00:00:01 John Daub: That's right, that tree right in the center of your screen next to the crane was planted by President Ulysses S. Grant post-presidency on a world tour in 1879. We're going to talk about this. It's kind of an amazing thing, a little piece of history for people visiting Tokyo that walk past this tree all the time. This is an AI rendering of Ulysses Grant planting the tree back then. This is actually not a real photo, but I want to give you an idea that it started off as a little sapling. It was planted by him right there. I think it's a Hinoki tree [?], I believe. I'm not sure. We'll take a look about it. Now it's grown from that into that. It's a massive tree.

00:00:38 John Daub: Right now, the gate in front of Zojoji Temple is being renovated for the next 10 years. It's going to be looking like this until 2035, which is crazy. This poor tree is going to have to endure all the noise. It's going to be in construction. It started in April just last month, and it's going to be going on for 10 years. That's kind of crazy. So I can't even get over there to the tree. I haven't passed live streams showing you the base of it. There's a sign that talks about it as well. I'll put a link in the description. You can get a closer look at this tree. It's such a beautiful thing. But from the steps of where I am at Zojoji Temple, just next to Tokyo Tower, you get a pretty good view of the tree.

00:01:29 John Daub: How you doing, everybody? Welcome to a warm, cloudy overcast. It's rainy season here in Japan. You just see Tokyo Tower right above me right there. This is a place that a lot of tourists will walk through to get here, but not today because, again, the gate is closed. I didn't know about it until I walked here. There's a couple of other really concerning issues around this area with things that are going on with this park. They took away—there's a Commodore Perry statue in the Memorial Park across the street from here. That's gone. So they're doing a lot of stuff here. I hope they're not building high-rise buildings.

00:02:04 John Daub: But let's take a look at this history here, which is a fascinating part of American history, too. Those that have studied it know this is the map. President Grant, post-presidency, I guess in his retirement, he was broke. He didn't have any money. He turned down a lot of jobs during his presidency that could have made him a lot of money. Instead, he decided to go on, I guess, something of a vacation, a quote-unquote soft power tour around the world. For two and a half years, President Grant did the first of his kind of a trip in different ships. It wasn't one particular ship going across to the Atlantic, to England, France, Russia, Italy. We'll take a look at this whole thing. Egypt, India, Java, which is Indonesia, I believe, Singapore, and China and Japan as well. And Japan was his favorite place according to historical records. And we're going to talk about the reason why, like going all the way back to the 1870s.

00:03:04 John Daub: And then you can see he took this ship across the Pacific back to the U.S. where he was lauded as a hero. He had a hero's welcome. Now, after the Civil War, this goes back to the age of Abraham Lincoln. He, like she says, Grant, was fighting for the Union side. It was a horrible period in United States history. Too many lives were lost. He definitely had post-traumatic stress disorder. He had all sorts. It's not an easy thing because some of the battles, when you look at the historical read some of the history. It's just a nasty, awful war, right? So he had a lot of stuff going on here. And he drank quite a bit when he was general from what I heard. But during his presidency, there's no records of him being in this. I studied this because I wanted to know if he had tried Japanese sake. We'll talk about that in a second here.

00:03:54 John Daub: Ulysses S. Grant was a fascinating president. His legacy, interesting enough, he was ranked at the bottom of presidents all the way until the 90s. And over the last 30, 40 years, his rankings have been surging up. And we'll talk about that as well. So after he became general, he was drafted in to run for office. I'm not sure if he wanted to, but he didn't really have any political background. He ran for two terms in the Reconstruction era, rebuilding the United States. There's a lot of corruption during his time in his presidency. And that really hurt his legacy. He also didn't make much money. It was a really hard era when you had the South and the North bringing back the Union. It was not an easy thing. And President Andrew Johnson, who took over for Abraham Lincoln after his assassination, if you look at historical records, he was not such a great president, which is why Grant won overwhelmingly in the next election.

00:05:02 John Daub: So he had two terms as a president, and following that, he left with not a great reputation. It's a tough job. Nobody really leaves the presidency with an unblemished reputation. You just take too many hits. And one of the things that he did, he went on vacation. Think about it. The guy fought in the Civil War, and then he ascended to the presidency, and he spent decades probably with this stress disorder, of all the stuff that was on his shoulders, just wanted to go off on a world tour, on a vacation. He didn't have the money to do it. So it was like a soft power tour that was paid for by his hosts in many respects.

00:05:44 John Daub: Let's take a look at it. It's a fascinating trip. There's an entire Wikipedia on it. I also took a look at some of the other history of it. So I showed you the map earlier. It says it here. Yeah, let's take a look at his world tour here, which ended in Japan. So it was approximately two years and four months. He departed in 1877 from Philadelphia on the SS Baltic. He left the US, Indiana, sailed across to Liverpool. He met with the Queen and the Prime Minister there. Went to Manchester, Liverpool. This is the height of the Industrial Revolution. Very interesting. France, he went there, visited Napoleon's tomb. He's basically doing some of the stuff that we would do in retirement, right? Seeing the world. This was hard to do back then.

00:06:25 John Daub: He met with the Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in Germany. They talked about war and peace, which is interesting. This is like pre-World War I, all right? So there's a US president there talking about this stuff. His memoirs are probably pretty interesting to read. I have yet to do that. He went to Italy. He saw Mount Vesuvius. There's an illustration of his ship sailing in with Mount Vesuvius with smoke coming from that active volcano, which is pretty interesting. He went to Switzerland and enjoyed the Swiss neutrality. He met with the Tsar in Russia. It's interesting that he went up there. Russia was becoming a much more powerful country at that time. They also went to Egypt, where he got to see the pyramids and the Suez Canal, which was being built. This is amazing, all the stuff that he got to see at a pivotal time in history.

00:07:19 John Daub: Then he went to India for two months. The time period is also significant. In 1878, he toured Mumbai, Bombay, Calcutta, Agra, which is the Taj Mahal, Delhi. He went on tiger hunts, which is what they did back then. Singapore and Java. Java is now Indonesia in April. He wasn't there for very long, short visit. Then to China for May and June, two months. He got to visit with the statesman, Li Hongzhang, who is very famous, promoted U.S. trade and diplomacy. China was modernizing. This is all part of the history that's going to come back and become more significant pre-World War II. Then Japan, June to September. June, July, August, September. He was here for quite a while.

00:08:06 John Daub: Hey, get back here. I'm not done with you. Get back here to Japan. He was welcomed by the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji was a pretty pivotal person because this is the end of the Edo period, start of the Meiji period, where the Shogun era and the age of samurai was over. Japan was an open country. To have a U.S. president come to Japan, it was the first time that a U.S. president has really come. I don't think a U.S. president had ever been to Asia, if I remember correctly. Grant was the first one to come in this era. He was part of the world, which is incredible. He got an incredible welcome here. There are records of it. In fact, I think one of the famous photographers, his last name is Ueno, he took the pictures of the samurai back then. There apparently exist some pictures of Grant's visit here. I don't know where they are. They could be in Nagasaki. I'm not sure. There's nothing on the Internet with Grant's pictures on it. The Internet is still kind of young when you go back to pictures from the 19th century. It's still hard to find. It's probably in a museum or collection somewhere. But apparently, there are photos of Grant's visit in Japan, or at least a portrait of him.

00:09:10 John Daub: So I'm curious about that. But it says here he planted trees in Nagasaki and Tokyo, the one in Shiba Park, which is right there. It's amazing. Get it right in the center of your screen. Right there. That tree right there. And the one in Ueno Park, I don't know if that exists anymore. I think his wife had done it, planted that one. And he planted one in Nagasaki as well. And then he sailed from Yokohama to San Francisco. So many Japanese were wishing him off. A safe trip across the Pacific. And he came back to a hero's welcome. Went to San Francisco and took the train across to Philadelphia. And his reputation was much improved. He saw so much. It was just an incredible trip back then.

00:10:00 John Daub: I got some images of the ships here. It's not the best image. But it gives you an idea. So this is mostly steamships. Different ships. He always got a big welcome. Because this is an age where things didn't move so fast. It wasn't so easy to get from one place to the other. And when a U.S. president, a U.S. wasn't the powerhouse that it is today, any diplomat would come in here and made some big news at the time. So this is all a really fascinating part of American history.

00:10:35 John Daub: I want to look at some other stuff here. Let's look at the map here while I'm looking for that. This is looking down at Tokyo Tower. So where is this tree? It's not that far from Tokyo Tower. It's at Zojoji Temple. Right there in front of the gate. It's literally right in front of the gate. And that gate was here when Grant was here. And they're just renovating it for the first time since like the 17th century apparently. And it's mostly the earthquake-proof like Japan. Tokyo is doing with just about every building here at the moment. But that tree exists today. And here's a look at it from a closer angle. I'm guessing that the renovation, the borders and stuff will probably go away and you'll be able to get closer to the tree in a year or so. But the major stuff, I guess they're going to be doing that right now. But it's a shame that you can't get close to the tree. Had I known that, I would have come and done this a lot earlier.

00:11:52 John Daub: I don't want to get too far ahead of myself with this story here. But basically he did this world trip because I think he just wanted a vacation. And when he left China, he came in via Nagasaki and then he traveled around there. I guess it was the USS Richmond into Yokohama port to a huge welcome. The Emperor Meiji and President Grant met several times. I think there's four or five times that are on the record. To lavish dinners, massive dinners. And we know that he had a reputation of drinking. Although historians say in particular his wife was very important with this point. They knew that his reputation. They really did a good job to protect his reputation. And there's no real records of him having binges and benders when he was President of the United States. So I think that that reputation of being a mega drinker is not really accurate.

00:12:55 John Daub: So I asked ChatGPT. I said, would Grant have drunk sake? He's knowing what I just told you. It says maybe a symbolic sip. Now, if these banquets that he had, he probably had sake. Because at these banquets, they give it as a ceremonial like kanpai. So he probably had it to respect Japanese culture. Refusing to could have been awkward. He's unlikely to have drunk heavily because he, Grant was extremely cautious due to the public perception and health. So he knew what, you know, getting drunk and doing this would do to his reputation. He was a very smart man. He was careful. He's likely substituted with tea. That's, to me, that's a fascinating thing because he has a reputation of being like this whiskey big drinker. Alcoholic whiskey drinker. But that was very far from the case.

00:13:45 John Daub: So the more you dig into the presidency of Grant and the history behind it, the more you kind of learn that some of the misconceptions, I had a lot of misconceptions of President Grant. You know, there's a reason why. And I couldn't understand it because I know that he had, he was in a lot of scandals. So I couldn't quite understand why Grant is on the $50 bill here. Right? Hey, Brondownia, nice to see you. Like, I couldn't understand why Grant and why we don't change the presidents. I don't really know. We should probably do that. But Grant's on the $50 bill. And there's a reason for it. I mean, he did a lot of really good things. He kept the union together. He was a significant president, two-term president. But I think that the world tour is the reason why he's on the $50 bill. I think what that did with his reputation in the end, he was lauded as a hero. Somebody who united the United States in the Reconstruction era by doing this world trip.

00:14:48 John Daub: People, that's why U.S. presidents often make trips abroad. Recently, President Trump going to the Middle East. You really see the respect and the unity. And such a trip where countries are giving the U.S. so much respect can do so much good for the reputation of a president. To make these international trips. Every president does these to get out of the pressure chamber that is Washington. And Grant was no exception back then. So I think for sure, one of the reasons why he left was because he was thinking about his legacy and he just wanted to get away. It's like a way to kill so many birds with one stone.

00:15:32 John Daub: Why did he go on this tour? Number one was rebuilding his reputation. He had a really bad scandal-plagued presidency from 1869 to 1877. Shout out to Brandani and Walter. Walter is welcome. Did you hear about the new Yokozuna? I did. The first Japanese Yokozuna since 2017. It is a pretty big deal here. He's on the news all the time. Maybe we'll cover that later on. Thanks, Walter. The tour gave him a chance to recast himself as a respected statesman. He was a smart guy. He knew what a trip abroad would do. And I think he was just curious about it. Abroad, he was widely hailed as the Union General who preserved the U.S. So that's the perception that presidents have, not just today but in the past, abroad is different than the perception that the media will cast on the presidents domestically. It's just different, right?

00:16:33 John Daub: I'm somebody who's been on Japanese TV a couple of times talking about politics. Because I'm American, they bring me in a couple of times. And the perception that they have is completely different from the perception that Americans have. So there's always a lot of respect for sitting presidents and those that even after they leave the job. Financial Security. Grant left the White House with little money, which tells you a lot about him and his morality. He turned down lucrative business deals while in office. The tour provided free hospitality for world leaders and many of his hosts covered his travel expenses. He hoped the publicity might later help him with speaking engagements, memoirs, and business ventures. And it sort of did. Promoting American diplomacy though unofficial, this was not an official trip. His presence served as soft diplomacy during a time when the U.S. government was in a state of crisis. A time when the U.S. was expanding its influence abroad. He met with Queen Victoria, Bismarck, Pope Leo, the older Pope Leo, Emperor Meiji, and Li Hongzhang. His visit to Japan in particular had a lasting diplomatic value, symbolizing growing U.S.-Asia ties, curiosity, and cultural interests.

00:17:58 John Daub: Grant never traveled outside of North America. Imagine the U.S. president back then. It was just impossible to do and to protect his security detail. It would have been impossible to do. So presidents didn't really travel abroad. That's why they had Secretaries of State do that. After decades of war and politics, he was genuinely interested in learning about other civilizations. He's been two and a half years circling the globe. This is such a cool trip. I gotta pick up a copy of his memoirs. Political Comeback. This is unspoken, according to ChatGPT here. Some speculated that Grant was testing the waters for a third presidential term. I don't really think that that's true. Upon returning in 1879, he was urged by some Republicans to run in 1880, but he lost the nomination to James A. Garfield. But that's an interesting historical footnote that we don't talk about too much. Grant's tour was a blend of diplomatic goodwill, personal healing, and reputation building all during a time when America was stepping into the world stage more confidently.

00:18:42 John Daub: So that's a little bit of background. I think it's just so fascinating. I loved doing this episode right there in the shadow of his tree right there. I can just imagine him standing there with a small group of people from the Meiji era watching him in their western suits while he planted the tree. He was an avid lover of nature and he planted trees all over the world on this trip. But this one in Japan still stands. It's just so cool, right? And if you do walk through Tokyo, if you go to Tokyo Tower, if you're American, you gotta go past this. Even stand on the steps and just marvel at it, how big it is. And it'll be here for another hundred years, I'm sure.

00:19:31 John Daub: So let's look at his stay, which was, he had so much respect for Japan after he had come here, learned about the culture. During his stay, President Grant immersed himself in Japanese culture. He attended kabuki and noh performances and visited notable sites, including a paper manufacturer in Oji, where he was hosted by industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa. The Japanese public admired Grant's humility and respect for their traditions, contrasting with the typical Western demeanor of the era. So he did so much in his curiosity. You get an idea that, you know, as a general, as a military man, you would think, oh, he's not a very cultured and civilized person like the politicians would be, but that's not the case at all. Grant was very cultured, very respectful, very, as you say, so much humility and that was received very well in a society like Japan, where humility is certainly one of the key elements here. So I can imagine this was a huge success and maybe this is why he stayed four months. The longest place that he stayed on his world tour was right here in Japan, which is, I'm kind of proud of that fact, you know.

00:20:43 John Daub: But back then, Japan didn't have so many connections with the outside world. The U.S. with Commodore Perry was the first one and the strongest one. So, you know, when Grant came here, it really strengthened the ties. What gets really interesting and I think this kind of an episode really brings, I'm going to take some questions in a second. When you watch this kind of an episode, it really gets your juices flowing about learning more of the history behind this. And this is such a key moment for those that studied Japanese history. The ancient period, I think it's interesting to look at. A lot of stuff didn't change that much during the ancient periods of Japan. The Edo period, there were some really interesting milestones. You can go over the basis of that in a few hours of reading. It's when the Meiji era comes in and massive changes start. The war where we got to the Meiji Restoration.

00:21:41 John Daub: And then this era leading up, I like to say from, I break it down into two groups, the Meiji era. The first is after Commodore Perry comes and John Manjiro, the other is after Manjiro. A story you can see on my main channel, which will blow you away. He was the only Japanese guy who could speak English at the time because he was shipwrecked on an island and rescued by Massachusetts whalers. Taken back and living with the captain. Was the first Japanese to go to school there. And he wanted to come back to see his mama. His mother. So somehow he got back into Japan via Hawaii and the gold rush, San Francisco making enough money to buy a ship and getting from Okinawa, which was more open than the rest of the country, to Nagasaki and eventually getting a chance to see his mom when he would have been executed because once you leave Japan you couldn't return. Tough policies back then. He was the one who helped to open up Japan. It's an amazing story.

00:22:41 John Daub: So there's that period from Manjiro to Grant's visit. A lot of stuff happening behind the scenes. Grant visits about 10 to 12 years later, roughly. And then the most fascinating part of the history is after Grant's visit, which is the peak of the diplomacy, I think the US and Japan's diplomatic ties were so strong, probably stronger than any other country, Japan and the United States, in the 1880s. And how did that spiral out of control from 1880 to the 1930s, where Japan became a lot the precursor to World War II? That history. The war of 1905 with Russia. And then you take a look at the annexation, colonization in 1910 of Korea. That's some nasty stuff. But it was all started with a lot of misunderstanding and breakdowns and lack of respect. But when you read about when Grant was here and the humility he had, I just am curious what happened to this. I think he had a ton of respect for Japanese culture. And a ton of respect for Japan. And a ton of respect for their arts, for their food, for everything, which is why he stayed here so long. How that spiraled into where we got into the part of World War II.

00:24:04 John Daub: I'm an amateur historian, all right? This is why I'm encouraging you to read more into this and learn about it, because it's so interesting. It really makes your trip to Japan more worthwhile if you study the history. The West was breaking up China and colonizing. And Japan saw this and said, well, we don't want to be colonized, so we want to be a strong country and we want to be ourselves. So that's one of the reasons they did this stuff, which is so misguided in many ways. But how did the breakdown of communication get to this point where then the US, I think in the 1920s, no immigration from Japanese into the United States anymore, which they took it as a slap in the face. Things just really spiraled out of control. They really needed more diplomats to come to Japan. I think Babe Ruth did come. Babe Ruth did come in the 1930s, where things were really hard. And that's another episode I might do. There's a famous picture of Babe Ruth in the 1930s. I think it was 1933. This is when things were really getting pretty bad. Where he's in the back of a convertible car outside of Tokyo Station with this big, big Babe Ruth smile. I think he was retired. He was retired by then and making the tour and promoting baseball in Japan at the time.

00:25:21 John Daub: So there's a lot of soft diplomacy going on here, but the spiraling out of control after Grant to the 1930s. I think the 1930s is fascinating reading for any amateur historian learning about it. The bridges that they built because of treaties with the US following the war. And that war with Russia in 1905, it's a fascinating one because Japan won. It was the first time an Asian power beat a European power. Japan beat Russia. And that was like a slap in the face to Russia, but it really emboldened Japan. Like, oh, yeah. We can take on the Western powers. We're going to invest in this. So it really did spiral. And then we got into World War II. So many embargoes against Japan. They couldn't get the oil. So they said, we're going to go get our oil. And then the bombing of Pearl Harbor. So that history is fascinating to look at.

00:26:11 John Daub: But rewind to that time. Rewind to this AI image where President Grant is planting a tree right there in front of the gate at Zojoji Temple. How we got from this to World War II, to me, it's mind blowing as someone who's been here for more than half my life. So just something that maybe part of history you might want to go and take a look at here. It's not that far from Daimon Station. You can walk here in about five minutes from Hamamatsucho Station. There's the other side where the gate is under construction for the next 10 years. They're going to have this renovation going on. Not ideal. I don't like it. But you can also see there's a Commodore Perry building is also. Hold on a second. The map here. I saw the Commodore Perry statue is whited off, which is crazy. This is the Memorial Park. Number 10. You see right there. I was getting pretty concerned. So I got out there and I took some video here and you can see they've marked off the trees. Are they going to be cutting those trees down or fixing them up? I'm just kind of concerned when I saw that. This is across the street from the gate. This is Tokyo Marathon would run past this gate too. So I would always, I was on that street maybe five times running the Tokyo Marathon. But I'm a little bit concerned that they're going to be cutting down some of those trees across there. But I don't think that's the case. I think they're just going to renovate it because, you know, we'd be all up in arms.

00:28:04 John Daub: But it's just fascinating to look back at that history. I'll take some questions here. Now I'm looking at the chat more. So my 241, thank you for that. I appreciate that very much. The AI was there. It's just a representation. There's not a lot of art. There's no photographers. If you did have a question, you can rewrite it here. And I can kind of turn the camera around and look at the signals. Signal's not that great, which is why I'm standing in one area. I'll turn it around so you can get a look at Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple here. This is where a lot of people come for New Year's to celebrate because Tokyo Tower has this Happy New Year digital sign and they ring the bell.

00:29:00 John Daub: See here. How many people on the streets there are familiar with that tree? Frank, I would say like nobody. I don't see anybody stopping. People have been walking by it for years. They don't realize the significance of that tree. I think that there's a marker for the one in Ueno Park and there's also one in Nagasaki for Ulysses S. Grant's visit to Japan. But it's just amazing that there's a living tree still alive that was planted by President Ulysses S. Grant in Tokyo on a visit to me. I walked by that tree. They started the construction in April. The last time I was here was in the winter, but I would often walk underneath the gate and go past that tree and just marvel at it. Because it's such a beautiful tree. The temple is pretty big, but it's not massive. There is a cemetery to children that were lost. I guess if you have a child that dies, you can respect them here. And there's a really, it's kind of sad to go by there, but you'll see pinwheels and you'll see little statues. They represent kids that have died. And that's the walk that would take you to Tokyo Tower.

00:30:20 John Daub: Back before Shibuya was one of the places and Asakusa and all this, Zojoji Temple was the place that a lot of the media would cover. Happy New Year in Tokyo. They celebrated 13 hours ago. You know that? They would do this here because on the side of Tokyo Tower, I got to be careful because the signal gets a little weak. They'd have a sign there saying 2025, 2026. So you'd have that view of the old and the new, right? Zojoji Temple and the new Tokyo Tower. But these days, Zojoji Temple is not as popular with the New Year's as it was back then. Now you have the Azabudai Hills Building, I believe that's it over there. So the skyline of Tokyo is getting much, much bigger. It's still worth the trip to go up to the top there. You can see quite a bit of the city as well as hear Peter von Gomm's audio tour. I just chatted with him online the other day. He's doing good. There's a Toby up there. There, everybody. They're everywhere. No respect.

00:31:43 John Daub: Jay is watching from Philippines. Jay, thank you. It was nice to chat with you on Instagram a little bit there. Hey, John, do you find yourself in or around Yokohama at all? Not really, Walter. I'm not there too often. It's like if you live in Osaka, you don't go to Kobe that often. Same with Tokyo. You don't really go to Yokohama unless you have a reason to. It's a beautiful city. I like to go on Kanae's birthday. We usually will stay at a hotel there and we'll walk around. So you got some pretty good restaurants there. All right, I'll take one last question as we look at the Grant's tree planted in 1879, I'm sorry, I keep getting the dates wrong. 1879, so long ago. And you can see a live shot of the construction going on around it. They're gonna do everything to protect that tree. But my nightmare scenario would be the scaffolding falling down on the tree and destroying it, because I'd be so upset. I'd come here and, I'm not an activist kind of a person, but I'd be really pissed off if they do anything to hurt that tree. Grant's ghost would come and destroy them.

00:33:12 John Daub: All right, looks like that's about it for the questions here. It's a deep topic when you talk about the presidency. It's just fascinating though, because if you look at Grant, and my son Leo loves the presidents. He has a picture of them all and he's memorized them. He asks me about Polk and John Tyler, Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and I'm really looking over American presidential politics as well these days, because of Leo. But you can see his, this is his ranking. 1900 to 1950s, Grant was in the bottom five or 10. Weak leader, corrupt administration. 1980s and 90s, he started going up. Reputation improving, and today, he's in the middle, man. He's like ranked up here between 18th and 20th. He's in the middle tier.

00:34:00 John Daub: When I look at that, I think because we reexamine some of the stuff that he did on that world tour, we reexamine some of the stuff that he did. I think the 15th amendment, I think some of the things that he did do that were quite good. Some of, looking back at his life, probably reexamining how back then people had PTSD. People were suffering all of these problems and still, he was just surrounded by really bad people, I think. He was surrounded by really weak people. In his administration, I don't think that's a testament of you as a leader. You know, who you surround yourself with, I suppose, but back then, I think he really did the best that he could do in that era following the Civil War. These were really tough times, right? And if you look, the most fascinating thing learning about the Presidents now with Leo, is that if you look after like Andrew Jackson, almost all the presidents were one-term presidents. Almost all the presidents were not good presidents. And if you compare the presidents of the 19th century to the presidents of the 20th century, we've had some pretty darn good presidents comparatively.

00:35:31 John Daub: The history of the US, we had some really bad, weak presidents in our history that were elected for awful reasons or that should never have been in power. So, when we talk about how divisive politics are today, it was even worse back then. And we didn't have social media and stuff. You couldn't really kick the tires on a politician back then. It was mostly on reputation, on something that they did or the party leaders at the time. Trust me, what we have is a lot better than what we had back then. A lot of you might not believe me, but I think Ulysses S. Grant, you can see his ranking is starting to go up. And this is the most amazing thing to me on how history is not written until like 20, 30, 40 years after a president leaves office. And it doesn't stop. Because the impact of a presidency, a strong one, at a pivotal time in history like post-Civil War, will have repercussions and ripple effects that probably go on for even longer from today.

00:36:27 John Daub: So, I don't want to get too much into the politics of today. But it's really refreshing to look at the politics of 1860s, 70s, and 80s and how that plays out today. And how I'm connected right now at this spot to 1879 and a former president that walked this path to me is really cool. It's just really cool. As the construction workers are the only ones that have the privilege to walk around the tree. Yeah, I think he was a pretty good president. And I think he had a lot to deal with. I think that's why he drank. And I think he had some people who made sure that he didn't do it and kept them away from alcohol in his later years is what I'm reading. And when you start to look at the details of his life away from the scandals, and that's one reason why I think his reputation is going up. And also that he made this trip, this two and a half year trip around that ended here in Japan.

00:37:39 John Daub: So, go take a look at the history of this. It's so fascinating. And as you travel around Japan. It's kind of open up to some of the little tidbit of history, the footnotes that you probably had never heard about. And you're going to see more on this channel, which is why a lot of people are subscribed. Like those that read the book Shogun. Maybe before the series was on TV, I read the book maybe like 25 years ago. And I went to the spot where I get the characters confused. Where his house was in Nihonbashi. There's actually a real house there. There's a real marker there to represent where his house was in Nihonbashi. I take you to some of the sites around that are historical. It's just fascinating because it makes your trip here more interesting, right? When you learn all of that. It's nice to see Gil is here. Welcome Gil. Maybe this tree deserves a main channel episode. We'll see. But the construction for the gate here in front of Zojoji Temple is going to be going on for 10 years. Oh man. 2035 Tokyo is going to be so beautiful. If it survives the earthquake that's coming on July 5th. More on that in a live stream that I did last week.

00:39:01 John Daub: There's a quote here. Whatever he is drinking, give that to all the other generals. Abe Lincoln. Did he say that? Did Honest Abe say that? I would not be surprised. Gil, long time no speak. Glad to catch you on a live stream. I visited the temple in the US Grant Memorial. Cool places in the shadow of Tokyo Tower. I believe Grant's memorial has a Ginkgo tree there. He really had a fondness for trees. And it's, as I do, and I would love to go around the world planting trees. I think there's a law against that now. But it's just crazy that his ceremonial tree, it could have been struck by lightning. It could have been damaged in World War II. Right? There was a massive fire in World War II March 9th and 10th 1945. Most of Tokyo burned down. How this tree survived. There's a story behind it. All right? To me, it's just fascinating that the gate and this tree, and this is, I think, the oldest wooden structure in the center city of Tokyo right there that's being renovated. How did this tree survive that? There were a lot of trees that survived up in Asakusa. Trees are pretty resilient. But the fact that this one survived the bombing raids of World War II is incredible in itself. As well as lightning strikes, fires that happened, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. You know, this tree has seen a lot. Tree, please talk to us. I need some kind of a psychic or something to give us the information.

00:40:32 John Daub: Yeah, Gil, and I have a main channel episode that I'm working on that's coming out this year on the fire bombing with survivors that were there. One of the men was 16 years old when he saw the B-29 bombers come into Tokyo that day and describing the aftermath and that day in detail. Oh, man. That's going to be a massive main channel release. Thank you. I interviewed him two years ago. This is a long time. It's a detailed episode that's coming this year as well as a Nagasaki episode. All right, guys. Thanks for the support. Thank you, Gil. It's nice to see you. I'll get in touch with you soon. Take care of yourself. I'll see you in another live stream probably tomorrow. It's a very strong tree, Yoda Jedi Knight 01. I'll see you in another episode tomorrow. We'll talk a little bit more about this. I'm editing right now quite hard before we leave to the United States in the middle of this month. So I'm not sure I'm going to get out of Tokyo too much to take you traveling. All right. But in the next 10 days, I'll take you around Tokyo. But we're going to do a lot more history and some street walks and take it back to the good old DNA of this channel where this is what Only in Japan Go is all about. And I'm looking forward to doing that. All right, guys. Take care. Bye from Zojoji Temple. And the Grant tree right there which survives to this day, planted in 1879. It has grown. Wow. And truly big and strong. And just like President Grant's legacy, where now he's a middle tier president and still on the $50 note. Mata ne.