00:01:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the Yamanote line. We are entering Takanawa Gateway Station. I was here first about seven years ago when this was under construction, and I came back two years later to see the progress. And today we're going to take a closer look at what they've built and completed as we pull into the station right now. The newest of Tokyo stations on the oldest train line. They've also changed the jingles at a lot of the JR stations, which is disappointing to a lot of people, including me. Takinawa Gateway.

01:02:00 John Daub: Alright, we're here! Welcome! Do you hear the music? It's kind of disappointing. I miss the old jingles. We've got a very good live stream for you. We're starting off from Takanawa Gateway Station. This is the end of the platform. It's a brand new station. It's been around for a bit, but the stuff that's been completed here is new.

01:29:00 John Daub: These are the pillars. I'm going to show you more about this in a second. I believe you can go into one of them, and the other one is opening next year. And then there's a museum, which looks really interesting as we say goodbye to the Yamanote line. What's really striking right away, there's like nobody here! This is a station where not a lot of people come to yet. Because just down the road, like a 10-minute walk or so, is Shinagawa Station. You're going to see the Yamanote line stopping in like 5 seconds. That's Shinagawa Station literally right there. So it doesn't make a lot of sense.

02:10:00 John Daub: Let's figure out what's here. Are there hotels here? Are there things to do here? Last time I was here, I think it was 5 years ago. I've been taking a look at this station for quite a long time following its progress. You can see this one's from 7 years ago, the construction site of Takanawa Gateway Station. This is the history of Tokyo here. And the one above that is the Yamanote line. Inside, I went inside the station, they had a convenience store with robots, which is pretty cool. So you can take a look at these videos on the old channel and see that I've aged quite a bit. Or not at all, it just depends on how good your eyes are.

02:53:00 John Daub: Here's a map of where we are exactly in the city of Tokyo. It's a big city. You need to know where we are. Shinagawa is more in the southern part of the city. It's one of the 52 Tōkaidō (historic post road) stations, I believe. Takanawa has its own history though. There's Shinagawa Station, literally right next to Takanawa Gateway Station. Does this station need to exist? They had a lot of space that they weren't doing constructive stuff with. And the city decided, let's add to it. Because the population of Tokyo is increasing compared to the rest of the country. Shinagawa is already a well-established, kind of getting old station. This adds a little bit of vibrancy to it all. Shinagawa could use a little turbo boost and Takanawa offers that.

04:05:00 John Daub: You can see it's not that far. Maybe we'll walk it. Go to Shinagawa Station, which is still incredibly busy. So many people working there. Here's the sign. It's a long name: Takanawa Gateway. We used to play this game called the Yamanote Line Game with my students when I taught English. You had to memorize all the stations. If you missed the station, the game would start over. Now you got one more to worry about. The jingles stink. I'm just not into it. Takanawa. I never come here except to livestream, which is in itself kind of funny. Thanks for the correction, guys. Takanawa Gateway Station.

05:03:00 John Daub: The 47 Ronin Temple is down the street from here. Takanawa. I want to be honest with you. The traffic yesterday driving back from Mount Fuji was horrendous. Even though Obon is finished, a lot of people came back late. And the highway was just one big traffic jam. It took me five and a half hours to get back. It's normally an hour and a half drive. I'm still recovering. I forgot how beautiful the station is. And there's still nobody here. Oh, there's more things outside over there. Wow. I forgot how nice this station is. The wood floor is really giving a modern... Well, it's fake wood. Yeah, it's certainly not real wood.

06:02:00 John Daub: We're going to have a walk around here. Last time I was here, there were robots. This is kind of how Tokyo, the city of Tokyo, sees its society. Through the new projects that they have, this is what they saw. Oh, this is a cafe on this side. There's a cafe right here. Looks really nice. On the second floor, it looks like there's a restaurant. A salon. This is interesting. They have chairs that look like grass. Or like bushes. Do you see that up there? We're going to have a seat on these bush-like... I guess this is for kids to play? Or for people like me to sit on? This is cool. What is this? This feels like grass. It's certainly soft. It's kind of sticky. Maybe somebody ate a doughnut on here.

07:24:00 John Daub: A lot of the stations are also doing stuff like this. Putting in pianos anybody can play. It's open from nine to eight. And I bet the acoustics are really good inside here. There's a Shinkansen going by over there. Alright, so there's a Starbucks. Up there. It looks like a really nice one too. I'm just so impressed with the city. When you see new places like this, it just impresses you with downtown Tokyo. I don't get out very much. I don't get out enough.

08:33:00 John Daub: The two lines that go through here, the Keihin-Tōhoku line, which will take you to Ōmiya. It kind of connects with the Yamanote line for a third of it or so. There it is right there. I like the way you can kind of look down into the station. Oh, they do have the Avatar info center. Hello, mate. Good day. A language switch. No, that was English. Do they have Australian? Korean? English? This is English. Hello. I'm a tourist. Oh, I'm a tourist. Help me. I don't understand. I'm not very intelligent. I think it's broken. It doesn't speak Australian.

09:55:00 John Daub: There you go. There's the cafe up there. Apparently there's people waiting up there. There is a stamp rally going on. I met one of my viewers from the Philippines. She met me once before. She caught me after a stream in Ginza. She's doing the stamp rally as well. So you can get these gifts and stuff like this. But you travel around Japan, the whole country, and you can get stamps for the stamp rally and get goods. Just kind of cool. They have signs for the Takanawa beer. Every time I come here, it's different. This is still the Touch and Go futuristic convenience store.

10:40:00 John Daub: Again, one of the things with this station is they wanted to present to you what the future would look like for society. And you just get your stuff and leave. You touch your card. So you just take what you want. And there's like a bazillion cameras in there. And all these cameras see what you want. And then you just take what you took. It takes the price. And then you just touch and go. So you can see here the Touch and Go. They have here the register, which you would touch right here and you would go just like a train station. That's interesting. They got really nice air conditioning. There's even a microwave in there to microwave your bento and stuff.

11:39:00 John Daub: They're also revamping the recycle stations around to add more stuff. This is paper, wood, plastic, plastic bottles. I saw this in Tokyo Station, but I'm seeing these colored ones a lot more for more international tourists who might not understand how Japan separates the garbage. Science told them that if you colorize it, people were more likely to hit the right bin. This is the exit. So we're going to exit the North Gate and have a look around. So this is the station. I do like these umbrella rentals. So you can always get an umbrella if it's raining. It's 280 yen per month. But apparently you can rent these. And everybody knows it's the rental ones from the color.

12:46:00 John Daub: This is where we are on the map. Takanawa Gateway Station in Shinagawa. It's a 10-minute walk. Maybe we'll do that if you guys are interested. Let's go out and see what's new. They have that background music of like the futuristic background music. Whoa! This is like a big construction site last time I was here. Now look at it. Boom! We got buildings! And they're playing that futuristic like the background chimes like the watery. This is gonna be a fun stream. Literally.

13:39:00 John Daub: Alright, let's go do this. The things I do. It's like a bazillion degrees outside. All the parents are over there. Only the smart ones purify themselves. Sometimes kids are smarter than adults. Sometimes. Alright, let's go over here. Leo loves this. I'm sweating profusely. So we're gonna fix that here. That's so nice. Another reason why I love these Eva Birkenstocks. They dry so fast. Perfect for today. Oh man, that feels great. Takanawa, I'm already loving you. I'm gonna remember the name now. Even here they don't write the kanji for Takanawa. That's why I keep making mistakes with it. Taka means high. So it's easy to remember when you see the kanji.

15:16:00 John Daub: Alright, let's take a quick look around now as we are refreshed today. I made a promise to some viewers that we will not be talking about the news or anything that might be negative in any way except for the heat. Which is oppressive. But that's why I just dunked my head in water. Oh, it feels like air conditioning. Awesome. So these buildings are called the Links. And they seem to be coming soon. But this one is open. So we can go take a quick look and see. Over this way is also the museum. Which I think is coming soon. So not everything is quite open yet.

16:01:00 John Daub: The area, they put together this really interesting video. I can show it to you to give you an idea. Alright, here it is. It flies past Tokyo Tower of course. One of the symbols of the city. Brings you in. And there it is. On the right side you see that museum which looks really cool. The way that they do these 3D renders are pretty amazing these days. Now you can see over there. The museum which is coming. Kind of reminds me of the World Trade Center in Tokyo in a way. The construction of it. The look. So there's two pillars. I guess these are office buildings with some businesses. This one I believe is a residence. This is the Museum of Narratives. I don't even know what that means. It sounds kind of not exciting.

17:01:00 John Daub: Oh here's the residence building here. Anyone who has a million and a half dollars can live here. Right on top of the Yamanote Line. And look at that. Oh! That's all the water. I was just there. The cherry blossoms. That looks nice. That museum area. I bet they got some good cafes. Looks like a pleasant enough place, right? So it was built as part of a larger urban development project called Takanawa Gateway City. Aiming to transform the area into a global gateway and testing grounds for future urban living. So that's why this theme. The touch and go convenience store and stuff like that is here. You'll see robots cleaning the station as well. The station serves as a symbolic gateway connecting Tokyo to the world. And also links to the past, present and the future.

17:53:00 John Daub: Yeah, it's a pretty interesting project. I've been following it for a long time and it's really amazing to see that it's come to fruition. I said fruitition or fruition. I like fruit, so I wanna say fruitition. There's steam coming out of here. That's the future. I think all the future's gotta have these showers for people. So you come back from work, take your shower before you even get home, that way your home stays clean. That makes a lot of sense. Look at that, they got tables over there and food trucks. That is pretty cool. Mochiko Chicken.

18:57:00 John Daub: So it's kinda interesting to take a quick look. It really does look like the future, doesn't it? This looks like the Tokyo (Toke?), the Osaka Expo in a way. Because it's all brand new, groomed. It's very nice. Look at the lines, the architectural lines. Very modern looking. This is all brand new. KDDI, which is one of the telephone providers. I guess it looks like they have some stores in here. There's not a lot. It doesn't look like they've really opened. Oh, there's a cafe out here. Toppan, which is one of the publishers.

20:03:00 John Daub: I don't know too much about Toppan, except for the fact that I did meet with them in the Weblishe eras. And when I had an entertainment program on iTunes in 2006 called Weblishe, it was actually number one in Japan for quite a while. And I met with Toppan to try to expand the business, they weren't very open to foreign run anything at the time. It was really a struggle, but Toppan was one of them. And one of the things my friend told me about them was that they make most of their money through digital porn. So in a way I'm