00:02:34 John Daub: Pink and cute. It's basically Tokyo, right? Look at that. Oh my goodness, are these donuts? Gotta give them credit. Little hanging fruit. I'm not gonna eat something at the station. All right, let's get moving here.

00:02:58 John Daub: So there's a map on the station. I know the signal's a little laggy right here, so we're gonna move around a bit. So we are here. We wanna go to the other side. So we're gonna walk, take a left, and then another left. This is a really nice shopping street. It's clean. Wow, there's a TWG tea shop. I know that must be something pretty popular. Desserts are huge here. Because all you gotta do is go on Instagram and just take a look at Jiyugaoka (freedom hill). And it's pretty crazy, the amount of sweets that you will see.

00:03:57 John Daub: Here, let me put it up here. I can enlarge it. Just let this roll for a little bit as we walk down the street, so you can get an idea. I'm gonna pull up a map and show you exactly where this is in the city of Tokyo. Look at that. When people say Jiyugaoka, this is sort of what you think about—like all sorts of trendy types of foods and snacks and sweets and desserts. And the price may be a little bit higher than normal. Actually, I found this street. This is called Kurinoki Dori (chestnut tree street). Sounds like Tree Street.

00:04:51 John Daub: A lot of the buildings here are low-lying. Vintage clothing has also been a thing—you'll see a lot of that in Tokyo. This is really nice. I haven't been on this street before. Look at all these benches. This could be Paris. What do you guys think? It's just all these benches in the middle with some trees in the center. It's a lovely little street here.

00:05:37 John Daub: Hello everybody. It is really hot. There's the train station right up there. So we started the live stream up there, and we're looking down on the street level. And you can find Jiyugaoka. It's a very pleasant place to be. The prices are a little bit high, but it's cheaper than some other neighborhoods in the area. What makes this place just so great is that it's so convenient. As I said, between Yokohama and Tokyo, right on the Tokyu Toyoko Line.

00:06:20 John Daub: When I lived in Futako-Tamagawa, I had friends that lived here. They were always a little bit hana ga takai (nose in the air)—a little bit snobby. Not that there's anything wrong with that. People are who they are. But there are people who are very proud of where they live, and people who lived here were very proud of it. And they should be. It's a beautiful town. But it made me feel like my hometown of Futako-Tamagawa at the time wasn't chopped liver. And it's no chopped liver.

00:07:06 John Daub: A lot of chains in this area here. There's a Tokyu Store. Signal might be going in and out—I'll probably have to upload this later. But I'm glad you guys are joining me live. Take a look at it. This I believe cuts across to go to the other side of the tracks, where we can go to the La Vita. Let me show you where we are in the city of Tokyo. I got a map here.

00:07:37 John Daub: As we wait for the train to go by—like you might want to see the train go by. Hold on. Sometimes that's more interesting than the map. Oh, there's a Danish bakery. Must be Andersen Bakery. Yep. All right, let's wait for the train to go by. The Toyoko Line. A slice of the suburbs of Tokyo, where you got to stop for a lot of trains to cross. That Andersen Bakery is really smelling good. You can smell it right here.

00:08:27 John Daub: More than one train coming by. Oh, I'm baking too in the sun. One more train is coming in, and then they'll open up the gates. Hello train. Bye train. As more people make their way into Jiyugaoka for shopping, for lunch, for all sorts of things. It's a really nice slice of suburban Tokyo life right here. You got to stop for the train crossing if you're driving here. Even if there's not a train coming, you're supposed to stop at the line for three seconds. Always count to three. There's always a copper—well, sometimes a copper—just waiting for you not to wait three seconds. And your window has to be open, even in the dead of winter. Just an old law that's on the books. But hey, if it stops accidents from happening, why not.

00:09:26 John Daub: Here's another train. Wow, so there's a lot of trains going by here. This is a long light. I guess this is a Tokyu or an express train. If there was ever an emergency, there are buttons here that you can push. In Kyoto a few months ago, there were so many tourists crowding into a train crossing that tourists were pushed into it with the gate arm. And they had to stop the train from coming or something. I don't know exactly the story, but it looked extremely scary as people were screaming. I think that was near Fushimi Inari.

00:10:24 John Daub: Alright, there goes the train. I think this is the last of it—fingers crossed. I'm baking. The sun is just pounding down on me. Open sesame. Does that work? It does. Well now. We have successfully crossed to the other side of town—if that's one way to put it. We're on the other side of the town.

00:10:56 John Daub: I wanted to start off by showing you that street that we just walked on. It's really nice. I'll probably cut this video off to make it a little bit briefer. Personality of a brick wall is here. I am bacon in the sun. And if you smell me, I might smell very much like bacon. Looks like another hot day in Tokyo. Stay hydrated, John. Alright, let's use that and put it towards a vending machine, because I certainly need a drink. Venturing around for a Pocari Sweat or a really cold drink. I think you all want me to stay hydrated, and I do too.

00:11:45 John Daub: So here's a machine. Isn't this interesting though? Like they have these little bottles of Lawson's water. The same one—this is 200 yen, and double the size. More than double the size. That's weird. Why would you get the smaller one? This Schweppes Melon Soda is really good, really nice. But I'm just going to stick with the mugi cha (barley tea), because you get more for less.

00:12:18 John Daub: Thanks guys for getting me the drink here. A little jingle. I took Leo to Matsuya the other day. Why you may ask? Because of this—they have a Paw Patrol campaign, and he got a Zuma towel, which he cherishes. So totally worth it for 400 yen. That's how much it costs for the kids meal.

00:13:02 John Daub: So this is where we're going to be going. Let me show you the map that I didn't show before. Kanae is not feeling too good today, so I got to get back, bring lunch home for her. Jiyugaoka is about 10 minutes away from Shibuya Station. It's pretty convenient if you're living in the area because of the two train lines that go by here: Jiyugaoka Station, crossing two different lines—the Toyoko Line as I said, going to Yokohama. So it's so convenient to Motomachi, to Chinatown. You can go directly. If you live in this neighborhood, you got like the best of both worlds. Famous for being a really trendy place. A lot of low buildings. This is La Vita Jiyugaoka. This is where we're going to try to hit today, in about 10 minutes perhaps. It looks like Little Venice.

00:14:08 John Daub: We're somewhere down there. We just crossed the train line. I have a map—kind of—to help us guide our way there. I can always stop and ask the people. And probably we're going to see some bakeries and restaurants along the way that might get you drooling just a little bit. But there's Jiyugaoka Station where we started about 10 minutes ago. Boom. The walk is supposed to be like this. It never is, because I'm always perpetually lost—even when I'm in my house. But we've kind of started on the other side of the street. We crossed the train line, and I don't want to cross back over again. So I'm going to be sticking on the path going to the left here. It says 8 minutes. I can't guarantee anything—10 minutes. This stream could be 2 hours. But I'm going to be there. In fact, I might end up walking home because I don't know where I am. But I'm guessing I should walk away from the train tracks. So that's what I'm going to do.

00:15:16 John Daub: There's a Lawson's. Rumbling of the trains behind me. We're on our way. Put my drink in the pouch. Take a sip in a second. Okay, 100 yen shop. Seems out of place here. You can see the Halloween stuff is out—that comes out like around August 15th, which is hilarious. So I think nobody has Halloween on the mind, but sometimes this is the best time to buy the stuff. Because once they sell out, they sell out. They don't bring back—they don't keep ordering new stock. So sometimes getting in early pays dividends, so to speak.

00:16:12 John Daub: I'm not sure where I am. Does anybody know where I am? There's no signs. People are walking this way, so maybe go this way. I don't know. I went to Ohio State University. There's a way to find Ann Arbor: you go north until you smell it, then you go west until you step in it. That's what we used to say. It's a rival school, so it's not going to be pleasant. But this little Venice—I don't think you can smell it, unless it has an old water smell. You'll discover when you walk around, like these alleys. And you never know what's down these alleys unless you have Google Maps, which everybody does. But that's not the point. It's about exploring and finding places that are off the beaten path. And I don't see any tourists here. It's a good thing.

00:17:29 John Daub: That's interesting. Look at this—Greg's International School, with all these trees in there. I wonder how much that would be for a semester. Okay, now it says I'm crossing a train line again. Really? I'm not sure if I'm going—I think I'm going the wrong way. Alright, it's time not to ask people. There's something about getting lost in places in Tokyo where you get to experience what others normally don't. I'm guessing if I have to cross a train line again, I'm going in the wrong direction. Which is all part of it. See, I think Jiyugaoka is not easy to get in and out.

00:18:28 John Daub: As the train now closes the gate and another train goes by. Knowing which train it is will help me decide where exactly I am on this map because I can't access Google Maps right now because I'm doing the live stream. I need another phone. I used to have two. It didn't make a lot of sense—except on days like this. Oh, this is nice in the shadow. Like a dog. Dog fashion. Whoa, that's a stylish train. Soetsu—that's the one going down to Enoshima, isn't it? A lot of trains. Alright, that's the Tokyu Corporation. The Toyoko Line.

00:20:01 John Daub: That's the freaking station. This looks familiar. Hikari Dori (light street). Anyone know where the Hikari Dori is? I prefer the directions to Ann Arbor to be honest with you. You are here—not listed. Looks like a local map. Polish pottery—really? There's a lot of embassies in the area, so you might find some interesting things walking around. The Black Magic Express—that's a cool term. Soetsu is a pretty cool line. They have good ads on the subway trains in the area.

00:21:18 John Daub: So there's an 800-year-old shrine. I think it's either 800 years old or it goes back—I don't know—800 years. Either way, it's freaking old. And this looks like it here. It's funny though—you find your way to a temple or a shrine. This is a shrine here because you can see from the torii gates across the street. You just walk in from the station. So I have a pretty good idea of where we are now. I know where we are—we're close. So let's just have a quick look through here. One of the things is you don't want to walk down the middle. When you're going to a Japanese shrine, you want to kind of walk to the left or the right of it. Here are the cicadas. I love that. Do you hear it? That's the sound of summer. That's Tokyo summer right there.

00:22:51 John Daub: And I think I know where I am on the map because there's this really big green area on the Google Maps rendering I did here. Do you see it by the station? On the north part of the station there's this green area. I think that's where I am. So if that's the case then we don't have far to go. I'm just going to take a look and see if this is a shortcut. It is not. It's not a shortcut. Alright, let's get out of here. It's so tranquil, so calming here. I believe we go to the right. Follow that truck.

00:24:35 John Daub: Look at this. It's really nice. We have gardens, flowers. These are older buildings that have been renovated to look quite nice. This is a cafe and furniture shop. I love this. It's called Ai-ven-rin. Wow. And they have a lunch set for 1800 yen. A little pricey but it looks really freaking good. Nice. They have tiramisu, cake sets. It's like a little town in here, a little alley. There's a pastry shop that's closed. Look at that. There's a brick—it's a brick walkway. This pastry shop looks delicious. I think I saw some of the desserts on Instagram came from this shop.

00:26:21 John Daub: Where are the people? That's a good question. I think it's a Monday. My gut says they're working. Where are the tourists? This is not a place a lot of tourists come to. That's what makes it so perfect. Everybody, oh look at the little doggies. This isn't a place where, oh look at that guy. Look at him—he's looking at me. Who are you looking at? How you doing? Say hi to the world. That's what Leo does when I put a camera on him. Say hi to the world, little guy.

00:27:20 John Daub: Alright, this is a pretty cool street here. I'm guessing this is the way. So we're back on target. Yeah, I see it now. This is a trendy street. You can tell—it just looks trendy because it's got like wagyu and stuff. Up we go, past Henry's Burger. Anyone here named Henry? Kuroge wagyu (black-haired Japanese cattle) burger. Let me just tell you right now, wagyu does not make a good burger. It makes an expensive burger. It's too much fat. I know wagyu pretty good. I've been to the processing plants, to the farms. I've eaten a lot of it. It's a steak—it's not a burger. If you're eating a wagyu burger, you're eating like A2 or A3 grade wagyu that's being charged at a premium because you're a tourist and you have no idea. Red meat is the best for the burger with a little bit of fat. It's such a waste because all that fat, if it were A4 wagyu meat, it would just melt away. It's almost like it doesn't make sense to get a wagyu burger. All that fat's going to go into the grill, burn off.

00:28:42 John Daub: I'm guessing this is it or this is something because this looks freaky, but it has a Sweden look to it. Am I here? Pupille Hills? Did I read that wrong? Pupilly—sorry. Pupille Hills. Is this it? It says it's Sweden. Yeah, this is it, guys. We did it. We're here. This is the little Venice. This is where Indiana Jones comes up through the manhole from the library after discovering the tomb of the third guardian guy. Looks like they're doing okay with business. Not a lot of businesses in here, but wow. Welcome to the number one attraction in Jiyugaoka, which is Little Venice, which is completely deserted. Are you kidding me? Why are there not more people here? You think people who live in Venice might come here? What are they doing, faking our city?

00:30:24 John Daub: It looks like a deserted place. That's why it's hard to find. It's deserted. Feels so abandoned, doesn't it? Maybe it's closed because it's Monday. It's just bizarre. It needs something. You know what it needs? It needs kids swimming in there. But places like this, they don't like kids because they make too much noise. They don't like kids for a generation and then the kids come back. One thing I liked about Venice, in the streets you'll see kids still playing if you get off of the tourist areas. Walking around and getting lost in Venice is one of the greatest experiences. You need three days—two days to get lost, one day to find your way back.

00:31:37 John Daub: This place looks like they got not just flowers, but ice cream. The blueberry and yogurt looks good. The rose and raspberry. Wow, they got some good ice creams here. Should I get something? Roasted caramel—isn't caramel naturally roasted? Oh, it's not really like homemade stuff. It comes out of a cup. No thanks. It's not bad, but it doesn't—it comes out of a cup. There's a machine that pushes it out of the cup into the soft ice cream thing. That's kind of cool. La Vita—430 yen is too cheap. It makes you question, is this real?

00:32:51 John Daub: Check this out. Right next door to me, whoever lives here has a Tesla, a Porsche, and I believe that's a Rolls Royce. That's a Rolls Royce, right? Oof. Alright, let's get back to the station. I'm baking. Maybe we'll find some pastries or ice cream here, but I think it was just kind of interesting to take a quick look. Yeah, we're in the little Venice of La Vita Jiyugaoka. So now you don't have to come here, because I just brought you here. But you get coffee and take out. Royce also is a really popular chocolate here in Hokkaido, in Japan. One of my favorites. I started eating more dark chocolate, 80%. I found it at a store. I have three or four of them as a dessert after dinner now. They said it's good for you. Anybody who says that chocolate's good for you, that's my new best friend.

00:34:20 John Daub: So there you go. I mean, it's sort of bizarrely cool, but it also does not fit well, because there's no people here. And it doesn't make sense, because this is Japan, but it's not supposed to. The great thing, the thing I love about Japan is it's quirky like this. Like, you'll have that architecture next to this architecture, which is an old, old, old wooden building. Looks like it's an original from the 1920s, or Meiji era. And it is. It's a tea shop that's open. Interesting. Oh, there's a line of people. This is a tea shop with a line of people waiting. Here's the menu. Last order's at 5:30 p.m. Yeah, green tea. And they have iced coffee, cafe au lait, so drinks, and then some light snacks. It's just a tea house.

00:35:39 John Daub: Look at that—Aston Martin, Range Rover. My goodness. I'm liking Pupille Hills. I'm guessing these residences all in here are all very much in the Den'en Chofu style, which is, you know, like million dollar homes that aren't very big. You don't get what you would pay for if you were in, let's say, Idaho, West Virginia—places I'd like to go out and live out in the country. You certainly can get here. I guess Nagano would be a little bit cheaper, perhaps. Toyama would be a lovely place to live on the other side. Alright, we're passing Henry's Burger, going down to the station. I know where I am. I came out the wrong way. Oof, hit the camera. Sorry. It is really hot, guys. I'm melting. Yeah, you can tell that it's a tourist place because they have matcha shakes. Matcha shakes and wagyu burgers—that is very much a tourist place. Sorry, Henry.

00:37:01 John Daub: Tricks are for kids. The street looks interesting, but that looks interesting over in that direction, too. Maybe we're going to make a right here, do a little roundabout. Alpha Beta Coffee Club. Yeah, that reminds me of Revenge of the Nerds. Ooh, ah, alpha, beta—ooh, ah, alpha, beta. Anyone seen that one? Lambda, lambda, lambda. Sorry, I should say Tri-Lam. That's the right way to say it. It's funny though. You have the alpha, beta—we need the Tri-Lams here. Everybody remember that, right? No? Nobody remembers Revenge of the Nerds—1984, I think. One of the actors went on to be one of the top guys in ER, right? Which is wonderful because I like to see the success of the actors that started off in these funny roles. Tom Hanks is one of them as well. He started off in Bosom Buddies. I remember that as a kid. That's how old I am.

00:38:30 John Daub: Look at this little street here. This is going in the wrong direction, but we can kind of get a look here. Whenever you see a cow, you're going to assume ice cream. So danger, danger, danger. There is a place—they said that they had chocolate kakigori (shaved ice). These are premium kakigoris. These kakigoris are going to set you back over 1,000 yen. It's just shaved ice, but it's not. Look at this—Hokkaido milk and cheese dishes. Hokkaido ice cream. Oh, hello. It's also probably a very touristy thing here.

00:39:41 John Daub: That's really cheap for an ice cream cone. This is going to be real milk. Oh, this is from very close to where you guys, some of you guys saw the documentary. I actually put this up on the internet. It was 99.9% of tourists never go here—East Hokkaido adventure. Me and Peter von Gomm milked a cow very close to Shintoku. We milked it. What was the name of the cow? Anybody remember? The cow that we milked had a name. Oh, the line is too long. Anybody remember the name? It's closed on Wednesday. The line's too long. Bessie—no, you didn't see it yet. Are you serious? You guys did not see that? That episode's got like half a million views. What? How can people be here and not have seen my main channel episode on me and Peter von Gomm renting an RV and traveling to East Hokkaido? The cow's name is Honey. Honey! Oh, now you got to go and watch it. Peter and I put a lot of work into that 45-minute episode.

00:41:04 John Daub: Actually, the other street's better. Gosh, I wish the line was small. It'd be a lot more fun walking around with an ice cream or an iced coffee. Ooh, the smell of essential oils wafting into the street. Alright, let's keep going this way. Sometimes it becomes just too obvious what's a tourist restaurant and what's a local restaurant. It just gets really obvious. Although Hokkaido and Tokyo, I can see that's something everybody loves. Hokkaido is much beloved. And if you've been to Japan before and you didn't go to Hokkaido, that's one of the places you must go. Summer is great. Winter is very—maybe not so interesting for those from Canada. But Hokkaido winter is very interesting to people, especially those that don't see a lot of snow. Because you're going to see a lot of snow.

00:42:38 John Daub: Alright, they're building something new here. The station's right there. So it's true—we didn't really have to go very far. Let's walk down what they call Maple Street. This is Suzukake Dori (broom tree street). And we're going to walk down Katoriya Dori [?]. Katoriya—sorry. My eyes are burning. All the sweat's in it. Maple Street, right there. Let's walk down Maple Street, get an idea. Maybe go see this statue. Do you think she has clothes on in the statue? Just curious. What's the percentage that she doesn't? It's only one way to find out. We must now go and see this statue. It's what anybody would do. Because I was born in the 1970s. And that's what we do.

00:43:42 John Daub: Look at this place. It's got frozen cake for animals—vending machine for frozen cake. I'd like to see EricServe6 try one of those. Now that would be deep. One of the great vending machine YouTubers in the entire world. Personality of brick walls—I'm very bad with names. Sorry, I can't even remember my sister's cat's name. Honey. Oh, by the way, there is a Peter Rabbit cafe. I'm guessing that's why this bank has Peter Rabbit in the window. Jiyugaoka is famous for Peter Rabbit for some reason. Is it because the restaurant's here or what? I don't know. But we're starting to get a theme here. The alleys here are very much dark, like Daikanyama in a way. Very trendy, very stylish. Lots of money—which means lots of good, nice things here.

00:44:58 John Daub: Yeah, Den'en Chofu. I think this town really is rewarded being so close to Den'en Chofu, which is maybe the richest neighborhood in Japan. It's the next area over. They even got a Starbucks—not any Starbucks, but a tropical mango Starbucks. Whoa, look at this building. That's interesting. Is this Maple Street? I feel like I'm in the US. This is Maple Street. Oh, this is a famous store with French type of stuff—French furniture. This is a very famous store—E.D. Shop or something. I was reading about it on the way, on the train trip. I feel like I'm in America because it's called Maple Street. Do they even sell coffee anymore? Not really. They're trying to upsell you on these super sugary drinks with whipped cream.

00:46:12 John Daub: Here's a place that might serve coffee with an ice cream outside—Royal Crystal Coffee. Sounds very luxurious. In fact, I would feel underdressed going in there with my Birkenstocks. These are becoming harder and harder to find, these little tobacco shops, right? These windows where you would jump in and grab a cigarette. A little person hanging out in that little window—usually old lady. There's a couple of places where they have like dogs hanging out there. So there's an Aeon Mall here. And it does not look like an Aeon Mall. What is this? It says Aeon Mall. They're very famous in this part of the world, right?

00:47:16 John Daub: Alright, I'm going to have to cross the street. This is a very nice place to live. Digital signage—that's a step up. Ichikaku (squid?) [?]. Sweat's in my eyes, guys. It's really burning a little bit. Really. A little bit burning. You always have to travel with a little towel. I forgot mine today. We have these little square towels that you use to wipe your forehead. But it feels hot. These Peacock stores are always in the outskirts, affluent neighborhoods. The bakery here looks affluent. Hold on a second. Grandeur—that looks affluent. Wow, that looks nice in there. It feels nice—air conditioning. Slice of everyday life. You can smell it. A lot of pastries. Oh, there's one of those orange juice machines. David loves those. Every time I see them, I think of David. If you don't know David, he rented a monthly mansion in Omiya. Wayne-o. For an amazingly low price, I think. Three minutes from Omiya Station if you walk fast. Got to shout out to David and Alice—brothers from another mother.

00:49:20 John Daub: Freshness Burger. I think you don't need to spend like the wagyu burger. I think Freshness Burger beats them. Somebody was talking about Shogun Burger the other day. I've got to be honest with you—all these wagyu burgers, they're not that good. It's highly overrated. I think it's something I guess you just want to try because you're curious, but wagyu is not a good meat for burgers. If they're using it, they're just using the name wagyu because you got to use a low-fat meat to make a good burger. Or else it just melts away. Oh, that smelled like India—I don't know why that's smelling like India to me. Not in a good way. All sorts of smells. Kope Tajima. Looks like a chain, but all these kind of baguettes, sandwiches. Look at this ham katsu (cutlet). Looks quite nice. They have a ebi (shrimp) and avocado potato. There's some nice ones.

00:50:36 John Daub: Little blurry. You guys are all gonna get an upgrade. This new iPhone is coming out soon. So I'm still using the 14 Pro. So we're gonna get better eyes in a couple of weeks maybe. Kuroge wagyu—that's what I'm talking about. Kuroge wagyu. If you don't know, I've never seen kuroge wagyu corned beef. That's fascinating to me. And it looks also very cheap—1800 yen for 280 grams is very cheap. But wagyu should be in steak form or meat form. So the oils, you don't want it to burn away. You want to eat it. Because the oils are very much like a very unique consistency. It's so much lighter than an Angus beef or different kind of beefs. Beef vines—beefs? Is it B-E-E-F-S? Beefs? Because knife would be knives, right? Does anybody know?

00:51:38 John Daub: That is so out of place. Alright, we're very close back to the station here. I'm going up this alley. The signal is not so good, so we probably aren't seeing much of anything right now. But if you look up, there's a Burger King. That looks really highly out of place. This Burger King—it just doesn't feel like it fits in this neighborhood. Because across here we have a kuroge wagyu roast beef. Looks delicious. Yeah, wagyu beef is supposed to be more like steak. But let's be honest—a lot of tourists want burgers. So the best beef for burger is probably like Angus. It's more of a red meat. Best beef for steak—I don't know. Wagyu is good. But I would say whatever the arget—I think the best steaks in the world are the Argentinian steaks. Holy macaroni—that Argentina beef is just so good. Tenedor libre (all-you-can-eat)—two dollars for all you can eat because the exchange rate was in my favor. Going around Mendoza and that part of Argentina and Chile. Wow. Some good eating there.

00:53:20 John Daub: Alright, guys, this is the station. I'm going to cross the street over to see what's cooking. You can see there's a lot going on here. Let's go to the front of the station. Shout out to Mr. Soul Eater—I recommend U.S. Burger if you visit Fukuoka City. Thank you. If I do, I might check it out because I do like a good burger. Anything with America and burger, I must support. Wow, it's hot. This would be the front of Jiyugaoka Station right here. And I'm glad I came this way. I almost went the other way here. But there's a bit of an opening. Real estate is definitely very expensive here. So instead of having a big opening, they kind of just have this.

00:54:27 John Daub: Here's the statue. I was right—she doesn't have clothing. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's a statue. It's art. I appreciate it. Oh boy, signal is not great. And this phone is going to overheat for sure because I know I am. Holy smokes, I'm melting. That is so hot. Let's see if I can get a clean signal out of here. It's a Jiyugaoka Tokyo building. Let me show you the map. Give you an idea where we are. You can see that Jiyugaoka crosses between the two train lines. It's a very convenient place. Shibuya up there—Daikanyama. And then this red one goes to Yokohama. Very convenient—180 yen or a dollar twenty-five to get to Shibuya from here.

00:56:18 John Daub: Nice and cool under the tracks here. This is a pretty good overview of Jiyugaoka. In an hour, you got a chance to see a lot of the neighborhood. There's a lot to fill in. Most of the oshiroi (hidden?), very expensive restaurants—they're kind of hidden and for a reason. Sometimes they're on the second floor. Sometimes they're underground and sometimes they're not clearly marked or sometimes you can't see—they obscure the windows so people can't look in there. You can't see the magic going on with the chefs. But I hope this is a really good overview. Hey, Illuminat, thank you for the walking stream. Have a good day and hopefully cooler indoors.

00:56:58 John Daub: Yeah, I'll be editing for the rest of the day. But this is a pretty good look here at Jiyugaoka for an hour—going all the way to Little Venice and beyond. And if you are thinking of walking around here, it's a pretty good hour. All you need is an hour to walk around and hit the five most visited sites including that shrine I took you to—is very famous. But it's a slice of—it's like a Shimokitazawa, like a Daikanyama mix here. A lot of pastry shops I found. For some reason, they're closed on Monday, on a guinea shop despite the rice shortage. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. I say thank you. The signal kind of cut out a little bit in there, but I'm going to have to cut this up a little bit, reupload this perhaps. But it was a lot of fun. Again, I'll be probably live streaming tomorrow. Try to live stream until the end of the month.

00:58:00 John Daub: This channel was overtaken by my main channel in terms of subscribers this month. I'm very proud of that. So the main channel is going to be getting a lot more releases, lot more love because there's more to come. There's more interest in the other channel than here. However, I love live streaming. I love taking you guys and just interacting and be able to be here live, see everybody. It's like you've got a bunch of friends around you. I started this live streaming channel when I was hitchhiking seven, eight years ago—2017—because I didn't want to be alone out there. And I wasn't when I was live streaming. One day you didn't do live streams for money. You lost money when you did live streams because the bandwidth was so expensive for your cell phone plan. I had to get the luxury plan at the time. And even then, it wasn't always working so good. Now, a lot of people live streaming. And one day during the hitchhiking, a Super Chat came up. And I was like, what the heck is that? I didn't really figure it out until I got back home. I was like, okay, this is the thing. Thank you, YouTube. And it made it a lot more incentivized to do more live streaming.

00:59:12 John Daub: But I love telling stories and editing. And I'm going to be doing a lot of that coming up. And for the Patreon supporters, you're going to see more content over there as well because I'll be doing more uploading videos for sure. I'm getting some strong FOMO—really wanting to be in Japan at the moment. Oh, Aiken, you're always here with me, buddy. But you're not because you know you're not here. But it's—gyoza (dumplings) and beer. Aiken—what a combination. You'll be back here soon. In fact, I'll see if I can get a bicycle ride. I think it's been outlawed. But that holder, I want to attach it to the bicycle and give it a try. I tried a couple of times. I wasn't able to get it stable. I think I need some new tools or something. Alright, I'm out of here, guys. Stay cool. I'm going to go get something cold to drink. Take back Kanae some lunch and go back to Tokyo on the Hibiya Line. I think. Nakameguro, it turns into the Hibiya Line, which is very convenient. Mata ne! See you!