00:00 John Daub: And here we are in the center of Tokyo. This is Akihabara. It's a very vibrant place. It's changed a lot over the years. I've been here for 27 years, 28. I don't know. It's a long time. And we're gonna walk around in this about 30 minutes guide of showing you. Is it still worth it in 2025? I mean, is it still that fun place that you look to when you come to Akihabara? Because I have to be honest with you, it has not. The otaku side of it has sort of gone away and that touristy side of it has come in where the authenticity is kind of gone. But we're going to see how much. Maybe it's still there. A lot can be said because the SEGA World is gone and the Namco is right there. So there the game centers have switched up because SEGA World is now gone. Sega's got now gone out of this area. But heck, it still might be pretty good. So I'm really excited to to see all guys here. Let me show you quickly on the map. So Akihabara is station is the center here. This is on the Hibiya Line. You can also get here with the JR Yamanote Line and the Keihin Tohoku Line which is a light blue one. It's pretty easy to get here. You get on on the Shinjuku Line. Iwamotocho is a 5 minute walk from here. And you can see the the skyscraper buildup is more towards Tokyo Station. And then once you hit Kanda, it kind of evens out. And then there's a little bit of a buildup in front of Akihabara, but not a lot. That's the station. You can see it's crossing over this Sobu line right there. You're gonna see a little bit of that as well. But yeah, it's okay. How about a station? We've seen it like a thousand times here.

00:02 John Daub: This street here is very nice. This is the alley. This is called the Dinky Town right there. And yeah, if the signal's not good, I'm going to re upload this. Don't worry guys, you're going to get this in full hd. It's saving a copy. And this is the Soba line right there with the Giga which used to be the SEGA World. Very red building, very nice. And this is Chuo Avenue. The alleys off of Chu Avenue are very nice. We're going to walk around there as well and see what we have. All right. The signal, I know might be a little bit choppy, but we're gonna do our best. I'm saving a copy of this and it's going up online afterwards. This is the Denki Town exit of Akihabara station. So this is the one I probably would recommend you all coming out from because it has that vibe to it. I think the Showa era buildings, a lot of signage, the colors they put on the main lens here. When you look at it, this is the Akihabara experience. It's pretty much outside this exit at the Denki town exit. Denki means electric. And you have the neon signs in Japanese. Radio Kaikan right there. One of the really big attractions. Now, I don't know so much that one of the part things that they did when they renovated it about 15 years ago is Radio Kaikon used to be right on the street pretty much. And they moved it back and created an entire new building. But what I do like about it is that they kept that original color and signage from the 1950s, 60s, 70s. It was like a Showa era type of a sign. And it's still very much a very pretty sign. I think it says Radio Kaikan Akihabara Seikai no. Which means the world's Radio Kaikan. It's very cool.

00:04 John Daub: Thank you. Elume1ads. We will see if we can get the signal a little bit better now. I thought that they were going to close down this Softmapp, but I guess they kept it. What was so iconic about this building are the hamster tubes here and back in the I guess it was like five years ago. There was a lot of talk that they were going to close this building down, but they just shut it down and I guess they renovated it and they ended up not tearing it down, but rather fixing it up. It is so iconic with the tubes. Those tubes are escalators that go up. You can ride in the hamster tube. You can even have your friends like film you as you ride up. I think that'd be pretty iconic shot for any kind of a video. We're not gonna do that today. I will walk around, see if the 5G looks. I was hoping that that 5G was gonna keep strong here for a live stream, but sometimes you get what you get inside the Radio Kaikan. There's a lot of figures, a lot of things like Otaku Kingdom, I guess you could call it inside there. Manga, anime, figures, games, video games, hobbies all inside there. So it's worth exploring. But I haven't gone in there much over the years. Not really my cup of tea.

00:05 John Daub: Now this Electro or the Musang guy, he closed up a shop that was underneath the tracks about five years ago during the pandemic. But he still maintains some presence here in Akihabara. That is the Akihabara guy. Glasses, kind of geeky. Open arms to the world. Welcome. Fire. Fire stuff. Keep in mind that the roads here are actual roads. So if you do decide you want to walk into the middle street, watch your back because you could get nailed by a car. But a lot of people are walking around and kind of looking up. Sometimes you got to look in front and behind. Just keep that in mind. This is also a famous place for the maid cafes. So I want to just quickly go through here as we do have some signal issues.

00:06 John Daub: As I right before I show you Showa Avenue, let me list to you the top 10 attractions they say of Akihabara. I love the oversaturated pictures. It's like almost a must. When you do an Akihabara thumbnail Radio Kaikan, which I just showed you. Super Potato, which is a vintage video game and cartridge store where you could buy vintage nostalgic games. It's kind of cool in there. Maid cafes, of course. We'll talk about that. Don Quijote and Akihabara. It's a mishmash of all sorts of stuff. The AKB48 theater. I don't even know if it's still there. Mandarake, which is a secondhand manga shop, which is very popular. Gamer stores. The 2K540 Kanda Myojin Shrine. Arcades and game centers. We'll walk by some of those. And then the Electric Town where we are right now. That's sort of it.

00:07 John Daub: So basically Akihabara. You know, I don't think it's the same type of place as it was 15, 20 years ago or even five years ago. It has evolved over the generations and over the decades. This was actually a place where I believe it was at the gate. It's right off of the Kanda river, which was the Yamanote Line back in the days before they had trains that went around. They would get merchandise and commerce on the Kanda river, which is a circle around the center of Tokyo. You can still see the Kanda River. There's a couple of bridges that go over it. It's kind of neat. But now we have the trains.

00:08 John Daub: The other thing that's in the evolution was after World War II, Akihabara turned into. Well, it was a second. It was like a black market in a way. Then it turned to electronics. And this is when we had vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, home appliances for daily life back in the 1950s and 60s. And then in the 70s, we started to get that computer boom. And then from the late 70s and the 80s, it became the computer center of Japan. We could get computer parts put together, your own computer. In the 90s when I got here, it was still like that. Video games were really becoming big, but it wasn't the anime and manga cultural hub when I first got here, really, it was more electronics and video games. In the 2000s, the noughties. That's when the manga and anime started to really pound. And we got maid cafes coming in. There were maid cafes in the 1990s, I believe, but it was really, really niche. It was in the 2000s, it started to boom. I remember coming here with my friend Patrick Galbraith, and we did a couple of NHK episodes, walking up and down, going into his favorite ones. And there were hundreds of them. No chains. All kind of independent, independently owned. Nowadays we have chains. It's more of a touristy thing. And I think that that niche has gone away. The prime of maid cafes is over. It's more of a tourist attraction, less of a thing now. I think the maid cafes now are more spread apart. You'll find some good ones in Osaka. It's not just an Akihabara anymore. But yeah, you're right. And now the video games are such a big deal. But I think in the 2020s, after the pandemic, it's turned into a tourist center, which has diluted a lot of the stuff that I just said. And we're gonna get a feel for it as we walk around. It's still. To me though, Jason, you're right. To me, this will always be the electronics capital of Tokyo. You got electronic sounds, electronic feeling to me. The shops that I see in my mind, they stopped in like 1998 as being like an older generation electronics shop. And you can still get that.

00:11 John Daub: Hello. Oh, where are you guys from? Oh, very cool. How long did it come for? Just a few days. Oh, wonderful. You want to say hi to everybody? Sure. Okay. They're from California. Welcome. Hi, everybody. Yeah. Did you like the Akihabara? Yeah. Did it meet your expectations? I've been here a few times. Okay. Oh, if you've been here before, then it won't blow you away, but it's changing, isn't it? Every time I come, I feel a different vibe. Well, thanks. Nice to see you. That was nice.

00:12 John Daub: I'm not really giving out that you found me cards too much right now. I just kind of let's relax on that here. I don't know. Yeah. Fujisoba has also evolved quite a bit. The menu is classic Fujisoba but they've cleaned it up a lot. They're starting to use the electronic menus. I used to have to. They had more like analog vending machines. Now everything is digital and I think they might even take credit cards now, which is really cool. But Fujisoba is like a go to to get Japanese cuisine. Like to me, this is Japanese fast food food. The Katsudon and soba set. Look at that. Wow. They really raised the price on this. This used to be one. All this stuff used to be one coin. You still kind of get it down there. They really raised the price. Everything was. I used to be able to get a Katsadon for 450 yen. Now it's 1200 yen. That can't be right. That's still looks good. I'm guaranteeing you that this is probably made for tourists. Now there's more tourists in there. So the price reflects it. Luxury beef cutlet on rice. That is so not Fujisoba. This is definitely. They I'm sure they don't have that at other menus at other places around Japan. Now this is the Fujisoba Deluxe. Okay. Yeah, this is different. But I used to eat there when I was an English teacher all the time. I get a quick lunch. Very salty though.

00:14 John Daub: Up there is the Sobu line. This is such an iconic part of Akihabara. But this is the thing that's really breaking my heart. You can see across the street that red Sega building is now covered. I don't know what they're doing. I think it might be gone. Can you imagine not having that red iconic building underneath the Sobaline Bridge? This shot right here, that is kind of pretty. Are you seeing this? Look at the scaffolding around it. That's kind of. It's really heartbreaking to see this. I just love that bright red. You know what with this one gone, some of the best shots are at the.

00:16 John Daub: Oh, hello. Hi. I'm live streaming. Is that okay? Yeah. Hi. Hi, Chuck. Where are you visiting from? Uk. Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Nearly 15 hour flight. Wow. I guess because you can't go over Russia. Yeah, yeah. All around. You go over, like the North Pole. Now we go over China and go over Mongolia, then go over, like all the Middle east and then over Europe. Holy smokes. That's why it's longer than New York now. Yeah. Enjoyed it last week and a half anyway. Been great. That's not enough time. I know. Next time two weeks or longer, do it a month. Nice to meet you, too. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. Have a good last day, guys.

00:17 John Daub: That was nice. They're from the UK there. My granny's from the uk. Well, she passed along a while ago, but originally from England. So these kinds of shops here. This is the throwback from the old Akihabara. You can see the electronic shops, the mishmash, the parts. You can make your own computer, make your own electronics. And I think that DIY spirit is part of what made Akihabara so fascinating. I don't think that this part, this building is going to be here much longer. You can walk down the alleys, you can go up, by the way, you can go up the stairs to the second floor. And they have more stuff there. But it just seems like tourists don't need to buy these knickknacks. A lot of people aren't doing DIY stuff anyways. So these knickknacks, these things inside of here, it's more just for look. I don't see a lot of people buying stuff.

00:18 John Daub: They had like this before LED lights came in here. One of the shops on the side here had. Yeah, they still have it. This is the building of flashing lights. But a lot of it has been replaced. Here's these stores here. Replaced by vending machines. I only see a couple of flashing lights. It's just not the same without a thousand LED flashing lights or just normal lights. There's a classic Akihabara shot right there. Sobu line going up above. Just a constant motion with these, like, gif, like digital signages in the background, too. Right. I hope the signals stick it strong for everybody. But it is heartbreaking to see the GIGO, even though it doesn't say Sega covered up here. They do have another one, but there's supposed to be more than one. That one's still there. We'll walk by there in a second.

00:19 John Daub: On this side, there's another. See, this looks really like it's made for tourists. And what they've done is they've taken out the game centers, the arcade games on the first floor, and replaced it with like UFO catchers, and they're making more money off of that. Game consoles really killed the arcade spirit. And I don't know, people need to get out more and interact with actual human beings. It's just kind of sad that this is Chuo Avenue. Just kind of sad that we're losing some of the game centers. But there are enough of them. You can still find the old vintage arcade games made by Sega. I believe in some of these buildings. All right, we're gonna walk in this direction. You're gonna see right there inside that shop was a was a maid. So I'm gonna let's just go around this building really quickly. And I want to show you the maid cafe alley, which is right behind here. We'll see if that's changed. But to be honest with you, maid cafes are now more of a touristy thing around Akihabara. And there are a couple of the originals I think at home might still be here. But it's really changed to become more of a tourist destination than an otaku destination. I think maybe Nakano Broadway might be a better experience, if you're into that. But I'm not gonna knock Akihabara too much because I do think that as a tourist, this is still a vibrant, interesting place to be, and it's a great hub. You can't get more convenient than being on the Yamanote line and the Hibiya line, which is Akihabara. But from a nostalgic point of view, it's changed a lot. It's cleaner. That's not a bad thing. But it feels. Maybe it's starting to get too sanitized. And even the game consoles are killing the game shops here because you can buy everything online. You don't really need to come to a physical store to buy games, do you? But they still sell them here. They have card games, prize games, which are UFO catchers, crane games, I guess you could say. But you can see there's a feeling of more like tourist stuff here. So it's really changed over the last 20, 20 some years that I've lived here. The evolution is extraordinary.

00:21 John Daub: Now when you look up here, you've got that red facade. The brighter the better. They should make this more of a shu-iro. Like the bright orange that they have at the. Let me see if we can pan out a bit. The bright orange at the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto would be really interesting. I love that. It's called shu-iro. Remember, the shrines and temples told me about it. But they've opened up the entrance. They've taken out the video games and added in UFO Crane game catchers. And you I believe there are some retro games. Okay, there we go. So they do have retro games up on the sixth floor. You gotta play some retro games when you're here. Next door is Moolah, which is that's been here for a while. It's kind of like games and stuff that Go Go Curry is real popular too.

00:22 John Daub: All right, let's go down the alley and go check out this maid cafe alley and see if if it's changed at all. I wonder if this is the SEGA world still at Odaiba. I wonder if the SEGA World's still at Odaiba. There used to be a big one at DECKS, which is a shopping mall there right off of the Tokyo Bay. Gosh. I came. I have a live stream on this channel with Scotty from Strange Parts, friend of mine. And we walked around here, and I think that was like the end of an era. And the start of it was after the pandemic because so many things shut down.

00:23 John Daub: All right. The maids typically don't like to be filmed, so I try to edge the camera away. Okay. But it's so wide. It's hard to avoid as long as you don't focus in on them. Maid Dreamin is a maid cafe chain here. You'll find them. It's like the McDonald's of maid cafes. You'll find them all over the place. Honestly, if you just want to go to a maid cafe, you're gonna get a pretty good experience. Like, you're gonna understand what it is. Look at this. They brought the entire family to the maid cafe. So they basically made this into, like, a McDonald's type of thing. How would you compare it to pre Covid? I think Akihabara, if I compare it, has lost its fun. It's more as I show a maid cafe, but that's the way they are inside. Akihabara has lost its authenticity. That authentic fun buzz. It's hard as the Soboland is going above me. You feel it, but you don't. It's not the same feeling. Just like the two people, nice people from California that we met. It just feels different if you've been here before. It's not better or worse. It's just different. And I think it's more geared towards the foreign tourists now because there's more money to be made there than the otaku. It's just different, you know.

00:24 John Daub: This you don't see so often right here on the right side. When I lived in in Ibaraki and Fukushima, Max coffee was the thing they used to like, have a Max train. It's a sweet sugar milk coffee. All right. And I used to drink this all. I don't drink put sugar in my coffee anymore. But this is a this is quite an interesting drink. If you like sweet coffee, the Max is your thing. Try it out. It's made by the Coca Cola Company here. It's funny to see an entire vending machine dedicated to it though.

00:25 John Daub: All right, we're gonna walk around and you know, the funny thing is usually you have. Hold on a second. Usually you'll have a dozen maids hanging out, I'd say in front of here. But now we don't have any real. We don't have many maids at all. This is quite interesting here. There's one like we're underneath with the with the umbrella there underneath the sign. She's giving out flyers, but I don't see a lot. Maybe they're full or they're gone away. I don't really know. But you'll see at this intersection, usually there's about a half dozen of them giving out flyers to try to get people in there. Other. There's one on the side there. Or at least she's trying to attract people to go somewhere. Here's some lined up on the left side. So it's certainly not as much as before. But I think the experience has changed quite a bit. You can just feel that it's not the same. There's an at home right here. This is the first maid cafe. One of the first, I should say. I think the first one was inside the Don Quijote building. But this at home gives a pretty good experience. And it's not it's kind of a chain because they have more than one. But it's not the same kind of experience as maid Dreaming. All right, let's cross the street to what used to be. This used to be the ramen in a can. And we'll we'll make our way back in this direction. I love just walking around Akihabara, seeing what has changed over the years. Every time I come, it's it's different. And I you can tell I'm gonna bump into a lot of viewers here because it's just such a well known area.

00:27 John Daub: All right. The Aburi Soba all right. So they don't have the ramen in a can anymore, but they have the oden in a can. And they've raised the price. I believe they did. They still have it hot, though. It's all right. I mean, it's not oh, it's not really oden. It doesn't really taste the same, but it's it's funny that this. They do have it. This one has a daikon. This is a ganmo daikon, and this is gyusuji daikon. That's kind of different one. But they also have the what do you call it? What's that stinky fruit from Singapore? Durian. They have the durian cider. Hydrated or sick. I'm not gonna I've already tried that durian cider like a dozen times, and every time I ended up just dumping it out.

00:28 John Daub: Do you want to know what I really get? If I'm not doing a live stream, do you want to know what I really, really get? No sugar. I go for the tan san sui, which is just sparkling water. That's what I that's what I really get. So if you're saying stay hydrated, I usually just get that. Or I'll go for the green tea. Take what makes you feel healthy. Mugi chai is a very good option. It's barley tea. It's got a lot of minerals in there. And green tea, of course, has a lot of vitamin C. That those are two good ones here. A lot of this stuff has has sugar drinks, but compared to the west, there's really not as many sugar drinks. Because there's options here. I do I do like itoen. And this is this is also a very good green tea. I've had this one by Suntory, the boss coffee vending machine.

00:29 John Daub: It's funny. Who would buy a little teeny bottle of water when for 10 yen more? No, this is funny. Look. This is a small Puchi 280 milliliter bottle of water. 110 yen. It's 110 yen for a full 500 milliliters, double the size. To my American brain, it just doesn't make sense. This is kind of a flavor sweetened water. It's a salty ume, but I think maybe just mugi chai is fine. It's a tough one. This one doesn't have the suica. I'll just get this green tea here. Kyoto is written on it. So, you know, it's got to be good. Thank you. Illum1ads. And our friend Peter from Vienna is coming here next week. So I'm excited to see Peter. I hope, I hope our schedules meet up for that there.

00:30 John Daub: The Buddhi Soba, they don't put a sauce in there, right? This is also a very popular chain. I don't think they put too much soup in there. But Randy Santel, my buddy ate I think six mega bowls of them and got on the wall of fame. So quite impressive. Randy's just built different. He can really put away a lot of food now. These kinds of shops, Akibao Co JP they're not going to be around much longer. So this is kind of like history right here. To see the items the all this stuff made probably in Shenzhen now but back in the day. All sorts of electronic products at all sorts of prices. Right? Usually you could do a lot better buying the stuff from the street in Akihabara but the prices. A lot of the stuff here are a lot of the stuff here are older generation stuff like there's nobody buying it because it might not be USBC or it might have a lower battery life or something like that or it's just the old. They have a new version and it's they're just trying to get rid of it. You'll find them at discounts and stores like that these days.

00:32 John Daub: This street used to be a lot of, I don't know like on the weekends in particular a lot of electronic parts sold on the streets. I think the city's gotten rid of them. It seemed like a garage sale of computer parts. But I've been here a couple of times and I always wondered what's on the second floor. This is a brand new building. They this was an old building maybe a year ago. It's brand new. And on the second and the third floors I always wondered probably in the boxes you're gonna find like original Walkmans, things like that, old Japanese computer parts, the original famicon from the 1980s. You probably would find stuff like that up like lost in these old Showa era buildings. I wonder what's up there. Hey Cammy. Welcome.

00:33 John Daub: All right, let's cross the street here. I thought that was real. I thought that was real. Right? Just like okay, look kind of real. The alleys have a lot of hidden restaurants. You'll you would do well if you went on Google Maps and tried to find something in the alleys. There's a very famous Tonkatsu place which is breaded pork cutlet by the shrine on the other side used to be near the Panasonic Lumix store was. I'd take my GH4 and 5 in there for repairs whenever I dropped it. All right. We're getting married to the infamous Chuo Avenue here once again. I know, right? Saya, it's like, what the heck? Right in the middle of AI Habara they put a gorilla.

00:34 John Daub: Alex is here. Hi, Alex. Yeah, you know, it's, it's, it's not that I'm. I am looking at it from more than one prism when I look at Akihabara. I do like walking around the streets, but it's just when you put a what do you call tapioca tea place, the Gong Cha right in. You know, it's a touristy thing. There's the Don Quijote. We're gonna go there next. If I pan around to the street here, they shut this down sometimes on the weekends, but not today. That's a new skyscraper that came in about six years ago, I think. Gosh, this place has changed so much. I think this Gongcha used to be the Mr. Donuts, right? More tourists come from neighboring Taiwan than the United States. I believe so. That might make a lot of sense. Yeah, that's the old Mr. Donuts. Have some fun memories inside there. Peter and I ate at a Moss Burger around here too. Yeah, the Carl's Jr is up the street there. A lot of these chains came in. Like this is why you know that this is a tourist center because right at the entrance, all the stuff at the entrance of the Matsumoto Kyoshi is for tourists. Like this is all, all for tourists here. So I think that's what has changed. If you, if you look at Akihabara, tax free. That's always been around computers. You could buy tax free stuff. It was kind of neat. But now everything's like it's too, too touristy. It's too clean. Is it Could. Is that a problem? See, that's not a problem. It's just too clean. It's too clean.

00:36 John Daub: Behind me there is I think the AKB48 theater is gone. I'm pretty sure it's gone. Maybe you guys in the chat know a little bit more, but maybe about four years ago there was a just the sort of news. 24 broke the story. I believe one of them that the sign was gone and that they lost their lease or something. But that second floor there, now it's a hot spot. Sune Cafe or something. Official shop. I don't see the AK48. I I. In fact, I don't even see them much at all. The idol groups, they kind of change quite a bit.

00:37 John Daub: You can get some street food underneath the store here. That black van is kind of in the way. But just be wary. It says here, you know Wagyu stick. It's not Kobe beef. They might write Kobe. I I don't know. Just be, just be wary. Ask questions. What kind of beef? Wagyu beef. Where's the wagyu beef from? What's the 10 digit Wagyu beef number? If you're paying more than 2,000 yen for a stick of beef, better, better get that number.

00:38 John Daub: The Tsukumo. Oh that's interesting. Across the the street you see the Tsukumo. This is all black now. Oh my gosh. When Prime Minister A.B. not Abe but Prime Minister Taro Taro Aso became Prime Minister there was a big cartoon of him up here because he loved anime and manga and they. This used to be a manga. A maid cafe on the second floor. It's Sunday Cafe but now it's just it's changed hands so many times.

00:39 John Daub: At Black Building across the street is the alley that takes you into the shrine. The alley shrine. And we still got some old PC used PC shops here where you can get used computers. Pretty good prices. Japanese take really good care of their electronics so there's a good second hand market for us. Secondhand mobile phones. They gave me Apple gave me 60,000 yen for my used iPhone 14 Pro. So they came and picked it up yesterday. So I'm officially on this this thing. I don't know what they're doing. Here's a Japanese dishwasher. You see they're small because he doesn't have a lot of counter space. These. Does anyone have those steam irons? They're so useful. But this one I guess inflates so you iron your shirt out by inflating it. Interesting, interesting electronics here. The thing is most of it is is made in Shenzhen. Japan used to be a really big manufacturer of electronics but the manufacturing all moved across to China decades ago.

00:40 John Daub: Now here's a figure store. I really don't know much about figures so need to get Danny Chu in here or something often. But shop around, you can find some good prices. Somebody said that they actually will haggle at some of the shops but it's not a Japanese cultural thing. So I would say unless it's Osaka, most people don't haggle in Japan. But in Osaka you might be able to get the get to knock down the price a little bit. Especially if it's a touristy area and you know what the price is? You can say oh come on. Oh come on. That. But in Japan that's not the culture. The price is the price is the price. So I don't recommend that you haggle. But I've heard that there's some wiggle room. Maybe because there's a sale or something. I don't know.

00:41 John Daub: This one is might be new. I don't remember the Appa Hotel being here. This is the Sue Hirocho. Or maybe it's just the new new entrance to it. There's the Carl's Jr. Across the street. Ah, hey, bus blocking the view there. Tomorrow Leo Kanai and myself are going to Akita and we're taking you with us to the Great north in Tohoku. And I'll do a few live streams up there as I'm filming for a main channel episode.

00:42 John Daub: Look at that. The old Minolta cameras and Gotcha phone. It's kind of cool. They don't actually work. That's kind of cool. Who here had a Minolta camera? Back in the 90s or 80s? I knew a lot of people. I had a Nikon or Nikon camera.

00:43 John Daub: So the last attraction that I wanted to show you. Not this ramen place which is kind of new. It's a Tonkotsu ramen which is. I never really like the smell of tonkotsu. It's kind of stinky, but it's filling. It does taste good. And wow. What is this? So yeah, you can do an oka wadi with your noodles two times for free. So that's a lot of carbs. Look at the tree up there.

00:44 John Daub: So this is the last spot here. And this is a sort of a must. I'm friends with the owner. I haven't seen him in a while. He hasn't been here. I hope his health is okay. I filmed here so many times with with permission from him. He's given me interviews which he doesn't do with a lot of other media. But this is Gachapong Kaikan. It's been around here since as long as I can remember. At least 30 years, maybe longer. They they stack them up four high and they have everything. And you could go into the back and sell your stuff. So there's a lot of people who who collect the gachapon. So in the back are glass cases that's worth going inside and checking it out to see what's on sale here. They also have the Minolt. Kind of. This used to be a lot older machines here. Let's go to the front. What is that? Retro chord. Retro record players. Interesting. Scotty would like this. It's like motherboards. What is this made with Ikura. Is that That looks like Keanu Reeves. The. The dangerous mushrooms are always fun. Don't. Don't see too much. It's always fascinating to give a look anyways. It's basically like just getting rid of your

00:46 John Daub: Anything else you guys want me to see? We have another five minutes or so. Wanted to keep this 45 minutes or less. Sue. Hirocho is the end of Akihabara. This starts into the Ueno region. I would say. So you can do a really good walk all the way down this street. If you keep on going straight you'll get the Ginza. It's about an hour I would say. Or you could just ride the Yamanote line which is over there and go three stops to Yurakucho. But it's a pretty cool experience. As we start the I guess people are coming here for lunch. You'll see. There are some maid cafes. Saint Universe. Okay. So you'll find some. They change hands quite a bit. But that's certainly not on the tourist radar. It's sort of hidden in a building up there. You might get some real hardcore otaku still going to some of these places. But a lot of them have gotten older. Some of them might even have gotten married. They could find somebody to marry. They're so focused on the 2D world. I'll try to come back here with my friend Patrick. I haven't seen him in a while. I got to give him a call. Patrick Galbraith is a good friend of mine. I believe Matt Alt was working on a book and very deep into that. Maybe show the hidden secret shrine. We can try.

00:47 John Daub: Let's see. You know why Illuminades? Because we love. And I just happen to be right here. So we're gonna do a little diversion. We're not going to that cat cafe. Which wasn't here before that. I remember. We're gonna go this way. This seems to be the only way that you can go into the. I think they blocked the street off from the other side. Just maybe from. Which is weird because it's an actual street. It's grandfathered in as being a public road.

00:48 John Daub: This where the shrine is. Max Campbell's in the house. I've been watching you for a while now. I could not find if you were retired in Japan or full time youtuber. Would you mind sharing this info with me? I'm. Of course I do more than just YouTube. Okay. I do stuff behind the scenes consult and with inbound tourism and TV appearances every now and then on Japanese tv, which you don't see, and the channel, I guess, as full time as you can be.

00:49 John Daub: This is interesting because this. When I was doing the NHK show on it, this was an actual road. And maybe they're renovating it or something. But it says you can no longer go through here. Maybe because it's dangerous to me. That's interesting. They did a good job here because this was. This was so nasty. Look how clean it is here. I I didn't know that somebody was there. I'm gonna give them some respect here. Give them some respect. This is still. Although you might see this as a tourist attraction. It's a shrine. You have to give people respect and be quiet. All right, she's left. Let's go in there. It says it's private property. Yeah, I I don't agree with that. I don't know. But maybe it is now. So rather than tear down the shrine, they left it here and now it's safer. There's a light right there. You can see turned on on the right side. It really is between the. And you can come here and give a prayer before you have a good meal. You put the money in that box there. But this is a shrine. It is not a tourist attraction. Just be really, really respectful of the people that are here.

00:50 John Daub: Here you go, Saya. Take a look. I know that the business doesn't like people going in here because it was dirty and it was a place of maybe some kind of crime took place here, but maybe the law has changed, I don't know. But this was grandfathered in as a public road when I filmed it in 2008 with NHK. That's not that long ago. Well, 17 years ago. But nowadays it says it's not open. It's a lot cleaner. It might be just because all the tourists here have kind of ruined that experience, you know. But now it's off limits. And respect that. Please don't try to be a hero in the wrong way. That tree does not get a lot of light, obviously. I don't know how it. It's still here. To be honest with you. I I don't know. It's kind of dead. But this is a real fascinating secret. It's not secret anymore. I think I I. The first live stream viral on this channel was that one. It was the Secret Shrine of Akihabara Live stream back in 2017 before live streaming was a thing. Fascinating. Thank you. Elumon ads for that. I appreciate it.

00:52 John Daub: I come down this street every now and then to see what's changed. And this is. What is it called? Sdx. Is that what that building is? There's a sukiya and a guitar store up there. But if you pan up you'll find some more suspicious stores like the ones where they. There's a cuddling cafe in this area. There's a foot massage up there. Let's see if the cuddling cafes here. I gotta be honest with you. If I was a I would not want to work at a cuddling cafe. Just not my. I I don't know. I don't know who would do that.

00:53 John Daub: This looks really good. This ramen. Look at the chashu steak on that. Oh my goodness. Wow. They they char grill the chashu steak. I guess these are maid cafes. It's off of the main street. But they don't have to advertise too much. This looks like a vampire maid cafe with dudes. Soft skin dudes. Yeah. Just different. This is an idol maid cafe. Nijigen Kanojo. I guess maybe they just kind of moved in there. And 22 people. So only 22 people can go inside there. You have to take this ticket. So then you know how many spaces are left. That's kind of genius. So if you take this in here. Whatever's left. So there's. How many people are in there? So I'd say there's about. There's about 13 people in there. That's fascinating. I don't know which one is your style. This looks like the Golf. The dirty nurse one. Or is that the Swiss flag Illuminati. Is that a Swiss flag in reverse? Like underground Swiss? I don't know. This is the classy Princess Cafe and the Mermaids. That might be my style. Aquaman would like to go here. I think Aquaman would be here. Don't know if Aquaman goes to maid cafe.

00:54 John Daub: This is 60 minutes of Nomi Hodai with these guys for 2000 yen. This one 40 minutes of all you can drink for 3000 yen. This one has a 40 minute all you can drink for 3000 yen. That's interesting that they're putting in the floor. And that was the mermaid ones. 40 minutes in the basement with these girls here. So they do a pretty good job of advertising. But that looks less touristy, more local. Nothing in English. That's how you can kind of guess. No English there. So the otaku are staying away from the Chuo Avenue where the where everybody can see them. They like to they like, kind of like what to hide in the shadows. And they have all that disposable income because they're living with their moms and dads at age 40.

00:55 John Daub: That was also where the was it down here where the ear cleaning and what was the other thing? The air cleaning and the cuddle cafe, which seemed borderline illegal to me. I don't know. Like, I guess cuddling. I don't know. What are the laws? I'm not even sure if that was a real thing. Can I be honest with you? There's a story on Japan rent girl. Japanese rent girlfriends to Japanese rent families. That's kind of bull. It kind of made a media sensation. And I had a buddy of mine who did that story for YouTube. One of the greatest YouTube channels. By the way. He has it dubbed in English. I don't know if you could go take a look at Joe Hattab's channel. He's from. He's from the Middle East. He's the biggest YouTuber in the Arab world. The quality and the production quality of his YouTube videos is just off the charts. Because he's from the Middle east, he does some content that Americans will never see. He went and like lived with the Taliban. He went to Yemen, like places that Americans just can't go. And it's a fascinating look at a side of the Middle east that you just don't go. Right. But the production quality. I can't think of another YouTuber that's even close. And he's like. He outdoes that Johnny Harris guy. Who I'm not. I think it's not. I don't know. Sometimes he feels he's kind of one sided. He has his take. It's not really a journalistic take, but it's his take. And you have to remember that. It's like this is sort of my take, Jake. But trying to stay away from politics. Not a political. Not a political show. This is a place of happiness. That's what Akihabara is.

00:57 John Daub: The Dragon Star. So there's more businesses on this side. Oh, Pokemon Card. There used to be. That's what I want to get in touch with. With. There's some concept cafes and maid cafes up there. That's what I want to get in touch with Patrick about. There was at least There was about 10 years ago. And we were going to do this episode, this underground robot fighting scene in Akihabara. And you got to meet people that know it in order to film it. You can't just give a media permit. You have to know people. And I know people. So Patrick. And Patrick knows people. And so.

00:58 John Daub: Wow. Hold on a second. I'm gonna go across the street here. Like. There you go. You can get that for your honeymoon. Are these wedding dresses? I think if you want to get more people to attend the wedding, you would wear one of those. I'm talking about the bride. Just so it's clear. Maui Moon. Original costumes, well done. Piqued my interest. That looks good. Spicy hot pots. That one is $6 and 50 cents for that. It's a pretty good deal. Those for the maids, I guess. Hope so. It's a manga artist cafe, so I guess you can get get yourself on there. There's a maid cafe in there too.

00:59 John Daub: So the main cafes are here. I think that it's peaked already. But these girls do make a pretty good living doing this. And I know that some of them, when they can be stalked as well. That was something that was talked about. So the stalking, the police are very active with any kind of. If somebody gropes you on a train or you touched her, that's like the most aggressive I've seen. When police really crack down on that. If somebody does, like stalks you and they're right there or they touched you or the chican, the police, that's the that's the one time where they like arrest you on the spot. Everything else, like Johnny Somali, they kind of let you just roam free and do this stuff until they have a solid case. But if if Johnny Somali had groped somebody, that that would be game over. Right? But it's okay for you. For you to do everything else, which is not okay. But I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around how he got off of Japan.

01:00 John Daub: I'm coming this way because I got to anyways to take take the train back to the station. I'm going to Akita and I'm gonna take maybe take some gifts with me. We're leaving on an early train. It's four hours to take to Shinkansen from Tokyo to Akita. So we're gonna have to get an ekiben tomorrow morning, that's for sure. All right. On the other side there, you see what used to be the AKB48 Cafe. But it's no longer that. It's now the Tamashi Nation store, which I believe is like figures and collectibles and stuff. On the right. Sorry. On the left side here underneath the tracks is that two 2K540 shopping mall which is really. Oh, is it this way? Underneath the the Yamanote line. There are some like a interesting stores here. And I believe this used to be where the first Mario Karts was. But they've since left the business. I believe. Black turnover in that industry. This is. Yeah. There's a store across the street. Was that Chabara? It's like a tea store. Yeah. And underneath the tracks there is that 2k5 which is an interesting walk through a lot of local artisans and stuff. UDX is what it was called here. Udx. That's interesting.

01:02 John Daub: And there you go. We are back at Akihabara station over there. That's a pretty good zoom. What do you think? That's pretty good too. Any last questions before we end this? Tie this up here at one hour. Walking around. Interesting to find out where the signal might not be the best Bicycle parking free for two hours. It's not too bad.

01:03 John Daub: Well, if you if you don't have any questions now, you can leave them in the comment section below. We only have a few Blu ray left from the hitchhiking trip. I take you from the very north of Hokkaido, very south of Hokkaido, Kyushu to the very north of Hokkaido for a I think it was about five weeks hitchhiking trip. You're gonna like it. It's a Blu ray that you can buy. And the link was just on the it's I guess it's only in Japan TV store. Or is it store onlyinJapan TV. You can get it there. Just a few left. If you're thinking about getting it for Christmas present. It's sent from the United States. So there's no issues. You can get that today. Still working on the merch. We'll see what we can do with the I'd like that only in Japan coffee mug. And I would like a T shirt asap. Every woman ask it for a long time. We'll work on it.

01:04 John Daub: And here's the square. No performances. There's a lot that has changed around here. Cobra Bebops in the house. Thank you. And thank you to the Patreon supporters we had. Listen to this. Okay. I don't know what's going on with usps, but it's taking like three weeks for the postcards to arrive. Postcards are sent on the day that you signed up for them. Unless you were grandfathered in so if you signed up for the postcard Club on the 20th, your postcard is sent every day on every month on the 20th after you've been built. Except for certain situations like when I go to Mount Fuji once because I can't go there a dozen times, right. So I will, I will take it, take a chance that you might cancel and send it to you early. With that said, the postcards arrived in August in like a month and a half for some places in the United States. So a lot of people, not a lot, but several people quit and then re signed up when the postcards came. So we had, I had this weird dip with the Patreon and then it went whoop right back up. So I thought that was interesting. But I'm gonna try to send the postcards as early as possible. But it's hard to do because you want to get everybody together by the 10th. I have quite a large pile of them that I can send out. So I'll probably send it around the 10th or 15th of each month and it might not make it by the end of the month. But rest assured, if you don't get your postcard, I will send you another one. I have extras so it's not a big deal if it doesn't come within a month and a half of like okay I would put in the mail or if the next month postcard arrives and the last month didn't, I will just put it in the mail. All you gotta do is direct message me on Patreon. It's like better than AppleCare. That postcard just goes right in the mail and everybody I resent it to two weeks ago it came and for some people two cards end up ended up coming. It's the risk that we take. So you might, you can give one to your mom or give one to your cousin. I appreciate that.

01:06 John Daub: And we do have a couple of page of. If you're gonna sign up for the Daimyo boxes, do so soon because I'm picking up stuff when I go to aomori on the 6th so that would be helpful. So I'm gonna get some. It's gonna be like fall Halloween themed with some really good confections this month if you like. They have these chestnut autofadl. They were really hard to find. So I'm giving a full bag of these chestnuts flavored Arafado chocolate cookies. They're the best that's going in the in this month's box and as well as some stuff from Almori. I believe it's going to be some good stuff, so. But sign up before the 6th if you can, because that's when I'm going to be picking up a lot of it in Almori. I bring it from the region if I can, and then this a cool chance to do it.

01:07 John Daub: All right, guys, take care. Thank you again, Cobra Bebop. And I'll see you in another live stream really soon. I take you to Akita tomorrow. Well, at least I'll be on the Shinkansen for half the day, but probably do a couple of live streams in the city Matane.