00:00:01 John Daub: Wow, what a view this is. I'm actually at the Skytree to send postcards, about 400 of them, to Patreon supporters that I've been supporting throughout the entire year. There's a special mailbox here, but every now and then I love to come up here, admire the view. It's ¥2,400. What is that, about $17, $16 to get up here. It's an amazing panoramic view of the city of Tokyo. And in this episode, I'm not just going to show you this panoramic view.

00:00:32 John Daub: I'm going to send these postcards, show you the highest post box in all of Tokyo. Look at the shadow! It's a sunny day here today, but you can see the shadow of the Skytree falling on the town of Oshiage here in Sumida Ward, one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. That's pretty cool here. These postcards, the ones that are left here, I took this from the airplane going to Hokkaido about last year. And I got this amazing view. The clouds parted and I got a chance to see a bird's eye view of the Skytree, which I thought was so cool. That's the view that I'm kind of showing you right now.

00:01:14 John Daub: I want to say thank you, well of course we're inside the tree, but I wanted to say thank you to all the Patreon supporters over the year. We had a really good 2025 here. So I'm sending them. I'm sending them to a lot of people.

00:01:27 John Daub: Alright, coming here to the Skytree, if you're not sure where exactly this is, it's in central Tokyo of course. A little bit north of Tokyo Station. You can get here on the Hanzomon Line. That's the way I get here. You can also come on the Asakusa Line, Toei Asakusa Line. You can walk here from Asakusa actually. So if you're in Asakusa, it takes about 30 minutes to walk here. There's the Imperial Palace on the left side. That round area. And then the Skytree. It's almost impossible to miss. Dotted on the skyline now. 643 meters up. It's really high. The middle platform is 350 meters. And the upper deck is 450 meters. And I actually have been up to 450 meters outside on the top of the upper deck there.

00:02:16 John Daub: I got an episode that's got to release in 2026. It's going to be about three years old. But I've been editing it for a while. So I'm going to show you the outside of the Skytree in 2026. It's another reason why I'm here. It's just a symbolic place. On the base of the Skytree is a shopping mall and aquarium. That opening right there on the right side, now in the center, has one of my favorite bakeries called Penny Lane, which is from Tochigi Prefecture. They sell like Beatles themed bread. I really like it. The blueberries come from Tochigi, which is so good.

00:02:49 John Daub: But it's impossible to miss the world's largest, highest tower. And the tower is just overlooking the Sumida River right there, which is what I run along every three or four days for marathon training. There's no traffic light. So it's a great run if you're here. I got that episode of them cleaning the windows as well. It takes a little bit of time. I got so many things going on here. Sometimes you miss it. The view coming to the Skytree is impressive. It's just massive. You can see when you're at the base of it, it's hard to even look up because you're straining your neck so much. But I'm like, in 15 minutes, I'm going to be at the top. There was virtually no line. You can save about 300 yen if you buy the tickets online in advance. But if you don't mind too much, you can get it down in the lobby. Most times these days, there's not a lot of people there.

00:03:46 John Daub: Right now, there's a really nice Christmas market here. I don't think it's anything special. I think locals might come for the Christmas market. But I don't think it's anything that tourists should come special just for this Christmas market. You're probably coming for the world's biggest conveyor belt sushi restaurant, which is across the street from here. Or one of the other bigger attractions at the Skytree. But the Christmas market is a nice touch. For me, you can feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit, the music, the smells. It's nice. This is such a wonderful time of year to be here.

00:04:18 John Daub: And then, of course, we've got this, the entry into the Skytree. If you've never been here before, this is the ticket gate. You can get them in advance online. In that case, you just kind of scan your QR code. But I get the ticket, ¥2,400. The deck opens at 10 a.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. on weekends, I believe. The line, this is it. It was really fast. You walk into the special elevator, which is super fast. It blazes to the top. And now we're inside the elevator. This is another reason to come and watch, come to the Tokyo Skytree. Just experience the elevator. It tells you the meters. To get to the highest floor, you need to go into a second elevator, which will take you up to the 450-meter point. It's fast. Your ears will pop. I think Toshiba makes this one. And then you come outside, and boom, you are welcome with these amazing, amazingly large windows, which are so stunning.

00:05:25 John Daub: When they built this, I remember in 2010, I was running along the Edogawa on the Edogawa Maru. I was on the other side of the city. And I saw this stump going up in the distance. I didn't even know the Skytree was coming. And then all of a sudden, this thing was being built in 2012. It was finished.

00:05:45 John Daub: And of course, just over my shoulder there is the post box. Do you see it? After you come in the elevator, you got to go down one deck, down the escalator to get there. I've already sent the cards. Let me see here. Okay, I got a full video on this one. I've already sent the cards because I want to be careful with people's addresses. Make sure I don't get that. So if you do it live, there's always a risk you might show someone's address. So I was pretty careful. But it looks like the Skytree. The Japan Post does a really creative job of making this post box really good. I rubber band the ones with the certain regional codes. There's the high spot in Tokyo in the mailbox. I think that's Canada going there. Alex, your postcard's in there, buddy. Danny as well. And that's Kokonai, all the Japan postcards. And I got a bunch of other ones. Jeffrey in Philadelphia. Yours has gone out as well. It's pretty cool. I did stamp a couple of them. But it's kind of neat to send the postcards from such a high place. If you don't know that this post box exists, you won't use it. So I think that's a good idea to know about this.

00:06:57 John Daub: Yesterday, I was having the worst time doing these postcards. You can see the stamps needed glue. The Japan Post skimped on the stamps. So it took me literally... And this is a lot of postcards I sent out today. It took me about four or five hours to get it right. I had to glue every single stamp with a special glue so it would stick. Because I couldn't use moisture. There was just not enough glue on the stamps this year. This is the special horse stamps for next year. Next year is the Year of the Horse. So it's also symbolic for these stamps. They obviously did not use the horses this year for the glue. Because it's the Year of the Horse. Maybe that's why they don't stick. So I had to go to Tokyu Hands and pick up some glue. Japanese glue. I did a whole episode on this. You can check that out. But Japanese glue is really special. It really is.

00:07:57 John Daub: Alright, let's go take a look at the view. But first, before I do that, I want to send out the postcard. Jeffrey, this is your postcard. In the United Kingdom. And on top here is Ho from Hong Kong. Your card's in here. Who else is in here? Paul from the United Kingdom. Actually, everybody from the United Kingdom. I have all the UK. Luis from the Philippines. And Songthi from Thailand. Your postcard's in this group. As well as Emerson and Jerwan. Actually, one of our moderators. Your postcard's here. Oh, and Jay, your postcard's here too. Joy, your postcard's in here as well. Joy, I stamped your postcard with a... And Satrio, here's your card, Satrio. This one's going out to you.

00:09:08 John Daub: Alright, Satrio, I'm going to stamp yours with this special stamp that they got here. Hold on a second. Alright, Satrio, I'm not going to show your address. But there's a special stamp here. You see this? So I'm going to stamp your card with that. With that showing it. So it looks like this, Satrio. So that's coming to you and your family. Let's see, anybody else I want to stamp? Here, Jay. I'll stamp yours. Jay's in the Philippines. There you go. I just put it in the box. Ah, Joy, I'll stamp yours as well, Joy. Okay, Joy, I gave yours a really good stamp there, Joy. See, there you go. See, anybody else? Ah, Ranjit, I gave yours as a... Ranjit got a nice stamp there. Ah, Gerard. Gerard, I'll stamp yours, brother. He's in the UK. Here you go. I don't have enough time to stamp everybody's card. I stamped maybe a few people. And how about Joseph in the UK? Durham. Joseph, you get a nice stamp there, buddy. I can't do them all. But you all get a... The thing with when you send the postcards here, you get a special cancel mark.

00:11:21 John Daub: Did you have a good time at the Skytree? Why not write and send your family a letter? I did. Skytree post at the world's tallest tower will deliver your message to all over the world. Ah, and you get this special stamp on it. Check it out. You get that special stamp on the Skytree. So your postcards get that. That's really cool, right? That's why I did it. It's all about the little teeny details. I kind of pride myself in that when I do my edited videos. I like the little details. If you haven't already, you can check out this episode, which is on my main channel. It's all about the details. Here's the QR code to get there. All right, let's go back upstairs and take a look at a different side of the Skytree. Get another view, show me.

00:12:22 John Daub: There are a couple of people that are actually visiting Tokyo. Here's the Skytree store. Let's go. Here's the deck. All right, I want to go up and take a look from another side. Here's some stairs. Crazy. I've been up here like 20 times, 30 times. Every time I come, it's so impressive. I did Tokyo Eye episodes from NHK two or three times I came up here. Each time is special because it's just so freaking high.

00:13:32 John Daub: There's a cafe here I could show you. Some gachapon (capsule toys) and this side going out to the sea. Let's keep going around. The mighty Pacific. Is that Brandy over there? The great thing with the Skytree is you really do get a 360 view. You got a Christmas tree here. That's Tokyo's highest Christmas tree. You can get a commemorative photo. You have to say, "Chi-zu." That's a Japanese way. But when you say zu, you kind of lose this smile and the reason why you're saying cheese. I never understood that. It's not Chi-zu. If you say zu, you make like an u face. Chi-zu. Chi-zu. I don't want to break people's hearts so I never correct anybody.

00:15:06 John Daub: The reason why you come in the morning is this. There's a lot of haze. When you come to the Skytree in the afternoon, you get a lot of haze. The best time is when it first opens at 9 a.m. Oh, you can see the Tokyo Dome. Do you see that? There's the Tokyo Dome. And that's Shinjuku. Do you see the double tower there? That's the Metropolitan Government Building. We call it City Hall. Tokyo is like a state, really. One of 47 prefectures of Japan. There's the Docomo Tower on the left side there. I'm going to show you the Sumida River which is just glistening right now with the sun. It's really pretty. I was running there yesterday. I ran 15 kilometers up here past Asakusa.

00:16:08 John Daub: Actually, there's a space boat that leaves from this bridge right here. But do you see that between the Golden Poop right there and that red boat? If you go to that red boat, you get this beautiful view of the Golden Poop and the Skytree in between with that old yakatabune (traditional pleasure boat) there. It's a really nice photo but you have to know that if you're in Asakusa. Walk over there. You get the Skytree, the Golden Poop, and an old boat and the river. It's nice. The weather is perfect for running right now. It's about 10 degrees, 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Not a lot of wind. Today's a little bit sunnier than it was yesterday. It was chilly. But that's the perfect weather to run. Look at the Sumida River right now. Right there. Oh my goodness. It's just glistening. Look at that. Tokyo Bay. That's such a pretty shot. There's Chuo Bridge. That's where I am. I'm there all the time live streaming on that corner. That's so cool. I can see this one up here. And there's Asakusa. Asakusa. There's the pagoda right there and Sensoji Temple.

00:18:03 John Daub: The signal might not be good because we've got... Here's the elevator that goes up again. I'm going to go around really quickly see if we can get the signal back up here. We're at the spot where the elevator is. There's a big group of people so you might not get the best signal. But see in the morning and on the weekdays, zero wait. No lines. Let me see if I can show you Sensoji Temple again. There it is. How good is the zoom on the iPhone? That's pretty good. The zoom is hard to keep stable. They're doing some construction right there so I couldn't run. Right there. I have to leave the path, go around the park. And then I can come back to the path here. But there's no traffic lights. And then once you get up to around here, I was surprised there's a lot more homeless. Homeless people start to pick up. I say hi to a lot of them. They're starting to know me because I'm running by them a lot when I'm doing these long runs.

00:19:38 John Daub: Alright, let's go around here. Here's the elevator that goes to the top. There's the elevator to the upper deck. Oh, here's the Skytree. Skytree's mascots. Do you guys know the mascots of the Skytree? Sora-chan. Sora means sky. So it's like girl from the sky, isn't it? Sora-kara. And finally, last but not least, is the menu for the Skytree Cafe. It's actually not too bad. You can get an ice cream for 600 yen, which is about $4. You can get a beer for 6 bucks. That's really good. This would be a great place. I don't drink alcohol anymore. This would be a great place to get a beer. You can drink a non-alcoholic beer, just watch the sun set, come back here in a couple of hours. And then there's a bunch of other drinks. Pineapple, cocktail. These are all 900 yen. And then soft drinks here. Coffee is $4. That's really cheap. You'd think that they would jack up the price here, but actually you can get a really good drink for a reasonable amount of money at the Skytree Cafe here. Interesting. You can have your drink at a little cafe here. You can sit down at a table and get some work done. Very cool. The staff have beautiful Skytree wear right now. Sorry, Christmas stuff on right now, which is nice. And here we are. We've made a complete circle going around the Skytree. I always get a little bit nervous. I'm not sure if you can see it, but it's just a little bit of a mess up here. This is freaking high. The winter you get a much better view than in the summertime because of the humidity and the haze. I'm going to take you down now to the bottom floor. I believe this is the way to get down. And then I'm going to go to that bakery. If you are in Tokyo right now, you can catch me at that bakery after I leave here. That's Shelby. I got a couple of messages. Hey John, where are you? I'm at the top and heading down soon. There's the post box where I sent the postcards about 10 minutes ago. Hey Catherine, I just see your message here from Patreon. You kind of made it to the top now. You're with me right now. Yeah, I've got an episode of the team that washes the windows. It's a short one, probably coming out in February of 2026. I got a lot over the holiday break. Here's another cafe. This one's got food. They got pancakes. That's really reasonable. That's like 8 dollars for a stack of pancakes. And then you have the curry rice for 8 dollars. I have to be honest with you. It smells very much like IKEA. It smells like the IKEA...

00:24:21 John Daub: Let's go this way. Here's the lower deck. Back 340 meters. Oh, this is where I wanted to take you. This scares the crud out of me. John Lopez, this is gonna scare you too, brother. This is gonna be really creepy. I really don't like this. The glass floor. I think I gotta go down one more. At 340, you can stand here. You can stand with your beer. You come back down here, hold your beer here, and you can just get a nice view. There's the shadow of the Skytree, which is really cool to see. And then, yeah, there's lots of standing room. So you can see on the weekday, almost nobody here. I say almost because there are, yeah, we're here right now. Oh, this is it. Oh, I hate this one. I'm not gonna go on it. It's just too scary. I know if there's like an earthquake or something. Oh, that little boy's crazy. What are you guys doing? Don't do that. I hate this. I love everything except for this floor. You walk it? All right, let's do it. Ah! Give me a hand. Ah! Go on. It's concerning. Leo, walk on that. Think he was jumping on it. Oh, there's a place where you can take a picture here. Uh, no thanks. I've lived my dream.