00:00:00 John Daub: The last piece of real estate in central Tokyo that is undeveloped. It's the last prime real estate development project probably in a very long time that's going to take place in central Tokyo. It's fascinating because do you know what they're going to be building on that spot that used to be the old Tsukiji fish market? Something. And it's pretty big. So I went over there on the other side. The redevelopment of it has taken place over the last few years. It's supposed to be finished in 2032.

00:00:30 John Daub: Let me show you here on the map exactly where we are as we get into this episode. In the frigid area of Tsukiji in January, I probably should have stayed inside, but here we go. The city of Tokyo, you can see there's Tokyo Bay and then along the Sumida River, which is the main artery waterway through the heart of central Tokyo along with the Kanda River, which goes around there. That is Tsukiji. This is Kachidoki Bridge here and you can see that open area which is being developed. It's the size of four Tokyo Domes. It's pretty big. Tokyo Dome being a massive stadium in central Tokyo.

00:01:00 John Daub: This area is now being redeveloped. The old fish market was put in there in the 1920s after the Great Kanto Earthquake devastated the Nihonbashi market. They moved the fish market to Tsukiji. Now they've completely destroyed that. The outer market still exists. It's now a street food tourist trap where you can get takoyaki (octopus balls) for like a thousand yen or something. It's really expensive there. But you can see it is a pretty big patch of land here in central Tokyo and real estate is money.

00:01:30 John Daub: This neighborhood called Tsukiji is the market. This neighborhood is not named after the fish market. The fish market was named after Tsukiji, the neighborhood. Tsukiji historically was where a lot of the embassies were, at least the foreign representatives during the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration. When they allowed foreigners in here finally, they lived in this area. The first U.S. embassy was in Tsukiji and there's a marker. We might go near there. Just, I don't know, about 500 meters from here that is dedicated to where the first U.S. embassy was located. Now they moved it over towards Akasaka.

00:02:00 John Daub: But yeah, let's take a look here at what they're going to be putting in this place. Here's a model for you. This is what it's supposed to look like. One town, one city. One park, one town. A massive stadium here that can be redone into different sports, whether it's sumo, basketball, soccer, events like this. That's what this new quote-unquote stadium is going to be. Around the stadium, lots of shopping. It's supposed to look sustainable. So there's lots of green here. A park, basically. That's supposed to be. Look at Space Boat there. I like that. It's supposed to be a place where we can go and hang out. It feels like the future. That's what this is going to be. And I don't know if Tokyo really needed this. Let's be honest.

00:03:12 John Daub: I did a live stream just over there about five years ago when we were talking about the Olympic Stadium. They eventually put the Olympic Stadium where the old Olympic Stadium was in 1964, which is kind of a good idea. They just needed to renovate that stadium. I don't think they needed the billion-dollar stadium that they built there. They're sitting there doing not much of anything. But the stadium that was planned was supposed to be built at the end of Tokyo Bay there, at the end of Chuo Ward on the edge there, where the Olympic Village is now. But that's where the stadium was supposed to be. And when they decided not to put the stadium there at this pinnacle spot on the bay, everyone would be able to see that stadium. It would be really beautiful because it's sort of like a little peninsula jutting into the mass of Tokyo Bay, where the rainbow bridge is. And it's kind of like a little bridge. Instead, they're going to be putting a stadium here. I don't know for what sports team. Perhaps the Swallows. I don't know who's going to be playing inside there. But this is going to be skyscrapers and a big development.

00:04:15 John Daub: So in 2032, looking back at 2026, this is what you're going to see. In about six years' time, it's going to be completely different. You have the shrine over there. That's the old fish shrine. That green building, I believe. That's going to stick around there, that shrine. This is where the fishermen used to go to pray back in the day. But that fish market has now moved to Toyosu, which is just a few kilometers down the road over the Kachidoki Bridge there. You can see the construction is moving. Let me show you what the spot looks like now. Here's a news article from last month. You can see it's just a big open space here. So the stadium and all the construction is going on right now. Again, the newspaper called it the last major development, Central Tokyo Development Spot. That's what the news is calling it.

00:05:12 John Daub: I was there about five minutes ago. This is what it looked like from Kachidoki Bridge on the other side. It takes forever to cross the street, so I just pre-filmed this. Not a lot of movement. I think it was lunchtime. But they're definitely doing something. And you can start to see the outline of what's going to be a massive stadium there. There's Tokyo Tower on a very... Hey, Nightshade Giggles, how you doing? I'm trying to stay warm here. I've done some warmth. This is going to be an exciting project. I really hope that some of the attractions open before 2032, because I'm going to be ancient by then. If you think I look old now, wait until what I look like in 2032. I'm hoping AI can maybe make me younger as well. Do something good for humanity here. Make yours truly 10 years younger. I feel pretty young, but hey, every now and then we get some comments on my wrinkles. I'll take that. I'll take it.

00:06:13 John Daub: I want to walk around this neighborhood. I haven't done it in a long time, maybe about four years. This is the Nichirei building. We're going to start here. Nichirei used to make frozen foods here in Japan. They had the frozen vending machines, the microwavable ones. And they actually have, inside the skyscraper, they actually have a store where you could buy frozen foods, I think. I know because I was just in there trying to warm up. This is the Sumida River and Chuo Ward. You can walk along the river. It's really nice. You can see the bricks here. You can get a bento (boxed meal), eat it on the steps and watch the boats go by. I kind of like to do that in different spots around the city. Oh, it's so cold. Why did I pick today to go out and do a street episode, street view episode?

00:07:07 John Daub: Well, this episode is tied down to a lot of history. As I said to you, the foreign settlement, I can't, it's so windy, I got to take my hat off. I got to take my hat off. So the foreign settlement was here in Tsukiji. This is where the Meiji government put all the embassies and all the foreigners. Japan liked to herd the foreigners into like one or two areas. So this is it. And there's some history here that you can still see. A lot of it in the buildings as we walk around here. Some of those buildings have already been torn down. When I was last here about three, four years ago, some of those old buildings are gone. I was surprised walking through here. There's the Nichirei store inside of there. You can go check it out if you want to look at some of their interesting frozen foods. But they stopped making those microwavable vending machines that were on ferries. They stopped making the food for them. So a lot of those machines disappeared, which is a shame because Eric Sur6 and I really like to show you those vending machines.

00:08:19 John Daub: Speaking of vending machines, you might be able to get a hot drink across the street. This neighborhood is really neat because you don't see a lot of skyscrapers around here, as I showed you in the Google Maps. A lot of low buildings, a lot of old buildings. So there's some local businesses that have moved in here. Restaurants, some trendy foods on Instagram. They come up with some original ideas. This is a dashi (fish soup stock), which is fish soup stock. You can get some hot fish soup stock, which looks interesting. 760 yen for this soup. That's kind of pricey. I'm almost curious. Don't drink this stuff though. It's not exactly what you think it is. This, on the other hand, looks really good. Corn potage. I might get that. And there's some coffee here. I'm going to get this. What do you guys think? Should I get some corn soup to warm me up?

00:09:23 John Daub: Oh! I need a down jacket or something. I seriously underestimated the power of this wind. Alright, let's do it. Ha! It says, Atatakai! Corn soup! Okay, thank you, Vending Machine. This is somewhat wind-resistant, this jacket, but it's... Oh, I just wanted to say, this is the personality of a brick wall. It's so good. Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. I'm going to hide behind this wall here. I think the wind is coming from... The wind is coming from all directions. I'm hiding against this wall. Alright. Oh! Oh, so nice! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. It's about survival now. Cobra Bebop! This can of soup is getting cold, man. Hug the wall. I forgot to shake it. Oh that's good. Oh my god this is manzoku. I'm so satisfied right now. Real bits of corn. I approve.

00:10:57 John Daub: See this is what I love about this neighborhood because of these low buildings here you'll find these restaurants tucked in here a lot of them are local places. Hold on a second. This one wow it looks really good very local it's a Korean restaurant. You wouldn't expect this neighborhood in central Tokyo. This is why I know everyone is really attracted to the Tsukiji market where all this tourists are. Just look around there's not a tourist in sight. Well there's me but I'm not a tourist I live here but there's not a tourist in sight and it's all tourists just across the street. This is what's so crazy about this neighborhood. This neighborhood is really a gem. It's not gonna last here. In 2032 when this redevelopment is finished this neighborhood is starting it is gonna get chopped up into pieces. They're gonna start to sell because it's just too much like all the shopping and stuff over there. This isn't gonna last and these videos here this is like one of the last enclaves of Showa era buildings and it's now a mishmash of other generations but you gonna see some Showa stuff.

00:12:28 John Daub: Mr. Super Crazy Man if you think that's cold come to Michigan it's seven degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah it was like zero or minus 10 in Vermont a few weeks ago when I was there. Look at this restaurant Hotel Suzumeya Kitchen. The menu is not out here but that looks like a really nice cafe. It just doesn't fit in. Nice Showa era building. Kissaten (traditional coffee house) which are the traditional Japanese coffee houses. It sounds really nice traditional Japanese coffee house. It sounds nice but doesn't smell nice because they still allow smoking like they did in the 1960s. So it's like an episode of Mad Men going in there. It's a mishmash of old buildings. This is why I love this. Look at the rust on this old food and liquor store. Right? It's closed down but the vending machine is still selling. Well it used to still sell booze. Look at this old vending machine. Old Coca-Cola vending machine used to be I think you can almost see in there. It's all rusted and look these bottles here probably been sitting here for weeks. They're all dusty and stuff. Look at this an old Suntory beer vending machine out of business. Oh so you could only buy the alcohol from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock.

00:14:12 John Daub: That's in the olden days so instead of checking your ID they had limited times. The reason why in the daytime hours all of the and I'm not joking. Hey. Hey. Ponkotsu Ben get something good to eat for Kanae and Leo. You got it brother. Thank you. I gotta get back. I gotta use that also to take them to Nagasaki and buy them something there. I'm thinking about doing that too. Thank you guys. And personality of brick wall you look better than me then again I'm a sick person it'd be a miracle for me to reach 50 years old you're gonna get there brother you got to think positive I hit my head last week oh maybe not my sense of smell came back though well I'm happy to hear that let's keep it positive and have it the best year possible cheers to that thank you so much old vending machine for sure very interesting I wonder what they sold inside of this not anymore I was probably sake (Japanese rice wine) sake in here two friends having some sake they don't you don't see vending machines like this too much in Tokyo but looks like this isn't almost an abandoned building to be honest with you this is like a Monday afternoon so you would think that they'd be open for business but again a lot of this neighborhood is changing quickly a lot of these lower older buildings the tenants are in their you know 80s or 90s they don't have a successor to the business their younger generation has moved away I'm enjoying this corn soup and by the way it's ice cold now I totally underestimated how cold it is today.

00:16:17 John Daub: We're gonna wrap around make a left at the next left and walk through here but you get a chance to see the neighborhood unfiltered which I think is important here's a booze shop you serve it almost looks like a convenience store locally run family run another reason why I loved Tsukiji market as I said it's a lot of this is family run stuff on this side no chains there's a couple of ramen shops but feels really local and it's just what is it five minutes from Ginza right look at this restaurant Tsukiji Taki gucci family restaurant family-run restaurant another one.

00:17:29 John Daub: Personality of a brick wall I just talked to Eric I said let's talk on a phone call we were chatting on Instagram to do another collaboration the last one was a long time ago so I think we're both in a good spot now so I think that's gonna happen I got a I have a lot of respect for Eric Sur6 he's one of the originals he keeps that same energy. I think we share that. He keeps that same good energy and positive vibe being a surfer and a magician. He's a jack of all trades. And they're great, great YouTubers going back to like the origins of YouTube. Eric is a treasure. What's that vending machine over there? Oh, this might have to be the next one. These hot Uncle Bean drinks. They're sweet, sweet. But on a day like this, that might be a good idea.

00:18:45 John Daub: Hey, and Ben, I hope you're getting all the daimyo (feudal lord) packages. I believe I'm sending you the daimyo packages, right? I hope that they're making it to you. It's just a machine with their marketing on it. But you can see a lot of the old, these new buildings took over where there were old buildings from the 1930s. And I could tell because during the Kanto earthquake of 1923, that earthquake knocked out so many of the buildings in central Tokyo, not just knocked out, it was the fires that happened after the earthquake. There's another local restaurant right there. After an earthquake, back then, the buildings were made of wood and the fires from cooking would often start to burn down city blocks. And that's why Tokyo was very strict with fires, open fires. And even to this day, you can't just barbecue on the side of the river side here, there's no open fires in Tokyo unless it's permitted to do that in that space.

00:20:00 John Daub: There's a 7-11. Coin laundry! That wasn't there before. So this is a new building. These are all new buildings on this corner. I want to take you in this direction. But right there is St. Luke's Hospital. St. Luke's Hospital, one of the first. There's an APA Hotel! What? Recommend this APA Hotel over the other ones in the city. This one is just in such a beautiful location. It's so close to Tsukiji subway station as well, which is on the Hibiya line, which is very convenient to Akihabara. I'd recommend this location. It's just quiet. It's quaint. There's a park here. If you've got kids to play, you might see Leo and I playing there. St. Luke's Hospital is there. This is where the first embassy was too, right over there where the brown building is. First U.S. embassy. Look, there's a panini restaurant here. There's another restaurant here. A lot of good local restaurants. I don't see a lot of tourists going in there. It's mostly locals.

00:21:12 John Daub: Gold. Have you guys noticed these? I don't see them too much in Tokyo, but the Lawson 100, everything is 100 yen, and they sell produce and stuff outside. That ambulance sounds dumb. That ambulance sounds different than wee woo wee woo. There's a local bento shop right there. All of the bentos there were 500 yen. They were all 500 yen. That's $3.50 for a bento. All handmade, homemade right there. Is this it? Kanae told me there is a supermarket that sells all organic vegetables. I don't know if that's it, but it might be one of these. There's a lot of food stores around here. All organic vegetables. Look at this old restaurant. Looks like it's been here for quite a long time, too. Local places like this you'll find in Tsukiji. It's izakaya (Japanese pub). You see the highball (whisky soda) sign right there.

00:22:51 John Daub: Please explain the 11 to 5 thing, John. Oh, you mean for the vending machines? I'm sorry. You might have gotten a little bit distracted with all this stuff going on trying to stay warm. It's a little bit warmer between the buildings here. The vending machines, the alcohol vending machines, now they take ID so... It's okay to cross here. They take ID so you can use your driver's license to scan it, and then it'll allow you to buy alcohol. But we've seen alcohol vending machines go down. But back in the day, back in the day, like in the 1980s and 90s, when traditional Japanese family structure was normal and there was a population of people that were living here in these areas, there'd be like these grannies or there'd be people all around that were hawks. So you couldn't really do anything bad. One of the reasons why Japan is such an honest culture, because someone's always watching you. So you feel this heat. Society is watching you. And if the vending machines are open during the daytime from 11 to 5, someone is watching you. So even though no one's actively watching, people are kind of seeing you. So people would not take the risk of being seen by buying the alcohol between 11 and five.

00:24:03 John Daub: This is a good place to walk across the street here. Go check it out. Society policed itself, which is why it worked out real good. But I think it was around the end of the 90s when I first came to Japan, society started to change a little bit. Maybe also the population decline has had something to do with that. People are on the internet. People are on their smartphones. They don't look around as much as they used to back in the day. People would be looking around like hawkeyes. The scariest thing, the police were not the police. You know who were the police? The old bachan (old lady/grandma), the old ladies. They'd be watching them, the old guys. They're all like hawkishly looking and making sure that society stays in focus. And if you didn't stay, if you did buy alcohol and you were underage, they knew you. Everybody knew everybody in the community. They'd tell your mom and dad. And your mom and dad would be very embarrassed by that. And that's not good.

00:25:06 John Daub: All right, you see over here on the corner, there's an old building. It's green. I've been told that the green is from copper. And the copper, these buildings were protected with copper or metal after 1923 because of the fires that resulted from it. So there were a couple of reasons. One was for insurance purposes. The insurance was lower on the house if you had protected your house from the fire. And the other reason was for the fire to be a little bit more violent. So they were following the earthquake. And people just wanted to protect their houses in general. So they ended up using metal like this. So this metal here could be going all the way back to the 1930s. I don't know for sure. You have to talk to someone who's a local here. But a lot of the buildings that did survive from the 1930s, they also fought. If they did, then they survived the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo. And not a lot of buildings in this area survived that firebombing of Tokyo in 1945.

00:26:14 John Daub: March 9th and March 10th of 1945, America dropped, war is an awful thing, dropped like napalm gel that were in these bombs. And the bombs, they would be released from the planes. And then the gels would, these canisters of gels inside of the bomb came out. A lot of those canisters hit many of the areas around the country. So if you see the original walkways from 1945, you can still see the indentation of those canisters that hit. And then some of the bridges in particular, Nihonbashi and Eitaibashi, you can still see some fire damage from 1945. But that fire and that gel just ignited this, along with the winds that you probably heard from the microphone, pushing that flames around. This city was just devastated. Because everything was made of wood back then. Not a lot survived. But after the 1923 earthquake, some buildings were protected. But I don't even think a lot of those could withstand the fires from 1945, depending on what area you were in.

00:27:24 John Daub: Here's a 7-Eleven. Let's walk around real quickly. Here's the APA Hotel. And look at that bakery. Oh, okay. This is a chain bakery, the Orleans Bakers. They got some good stuff in there. The problem with this bakery, though, is that they don't have a chain. The only thing I know is that everything is like, I'd say 30% more than the other bakeries. But it's really good. They got one in Kachidoki as well. They make like a melon pan (sweet bun) in the shape of a teddy bear or something. The Tsukiji Ekimae APA Hotel, that's a really good location, I think. This is a great location for a hotel.

00:28:23 John Daub: Thanks, Jody. I'm glad you're getting some information from this. My eyes are somewhat frozen. So it's hard to see the screen. I'll put the black box there so we have a record of everybody chatting in. All right, let me show you a little bit of the St. Luke's Hospital before we wrap this up. You see that skyscraper there? That skyscraper, of course, a new building, but built on the site of the St. Luke's Hospital area. That's their administrative buildings, I believe. And there's the playground. Really expensive real estate here. When we get closer to this side of Tsukiji, there's more newer apartment complexes and some of the rent is really, we're talking in the millions of dollars to buy these apartments. The embassies were here as well. So there's a foreign community. Not a lot of the originals are here because so much stuff has happened over the decades. But there are memorial stones, rocks. You'll find all sorts of stuff here.

00:29:52 John Daub: You guys want to go see the embassy really quickly? We can see the marker for what used to be the old U.S. embassy really quickly. I think I highlighted this in a live stream about five or six years ago. So it's nice sometimes to redo some of this stuff. We're now in a historical part of the city. So you'll find markers. Here's a book. This is a place where Japanese doctors would learn from foreign doctors in this area. So St. Luke's Hospital is a very rare place. It's a reputable, very well-known hospital with a lot of history. This is a place where Japanese doctors and Western doctors would exchange information and techniques and practices back in the 19th century. So there's a lot of enlightenment in this area of Tokyo. Not to mention this is one of the closer hospitals to me. So I have been here many times. Leo may or may not have been born here.

00:31:08 John Daub: And of course the signal is getting kind of weak in between all of the buildings. St. Luke's is a hospital based on, well, the backbone of it is Christianity. And you can see up there the cross and the church up here. This is where the administrator lived in this building. And it's preserved for people to come and see. And here's the memorial. I'm hoping that the signal is going to be good. Maybe you can hear me. But this star here, you can see it represents what was the United States Legation.

00:31:47 John Daub: The American Legation was first opened by Townsend Harris in 1859 at the Zenpuku-ji Temple. In December 1875 it was moved to the foreign settlement here in Tsukiji, where the building was formally established as the Legation of the United States. In March 1890 it was moved again to Akasaka where the present embassy is. Okay, I didn't know that was going back to 1890. Wow. So the new embassy where it is now has been there since 1890. On the last move, eight stones made of Komatsu-ishi were left to commemorate the site. Komatsu I believe is down in Shikoku, isn't it? Not sure. Were left to commemorate the site. On the tablet are carved bald eagle, American national flag. And stars. The eagle is the American national bird. Of course it is. And there are 13 stars on the flag representing the original 13 states. The colonies. In 1984, three stones were presented to the American embassy in Akasaka as a symbol of the U.S.-Japan friendship. And they are now in front of the garden at the embassy. The remaining five stones are registered as Chuo-ku cultural assets to commemorate the Tsukiji settlement period for history. They're placed here at St. Luke's Garden, 1998. This is just before I came to Japan. I've been here that long. So these rocks here are very significant.

00:33:28 John Daub: That's the kids' hospital. Over there you can see Leo might have gotten his vaccine shots in there. And the great Rudolf Bolling Teusler. Teusler? Sounds German. Hold on a second. This hospital is a living organism designed to demonstrate its incontrovertibility. In convincing terms, the transmuting power of Christian love when applied in relief of human suffering. And I think this is one of the first Western hospitals, right? There was Dejima down in Nagasaki, of course, where the Dutch were. But in 1876, can you imagine the Meiji government coming in 1868? So this is eight years after the Meiji government was formed. And here comes Dr. Rudolf Bolling Teusler founding St. Luke's Hospital on this site. It's crazy. And this is his house. Teusler. Thank you, Jotty. Thank you. Get the pronunciation right.

00:34:43 John Daub: All right, let's walk back towards the river, shall we? Tomorrow's live stream is going to be eventful. Tomorrow's live stream, we're getting back to nature. All right, this house was built in 1933 for the administrators here. So it looks it, too. A lot of space. I'm glad that this hospital exists. And I'm glad that this hospital maintains a garden here in central Tokyo. Because we need more green open spaces like this, for sure. Actually, you know what? Hold on a second. Tomorrow, we're going to be talking about those cherry blossoms. So you're not going to want to miss tomorrow's live stream. It'll be earlier than today. Tomorrow's live stream, we're going to talk about the cherry blossoms. It should be an interesting one. You know why? Because there are some varieties. You know, cherry blossoms that are blooming right now. Unbelievably blooming right now in the frigid January. It's not ume (plum). It's not ume plum blossoms. These are sakura (cherry blossom) cherry blossoms blooming in Tokyo in January. So if you're in Japan, I'm going to show you a spot tomorrow that I've been going to for the last couple of years to see these January blooming sakura on Tokyo Bay. And it's beautiful.

00:36:23 John Daub: I'm so ready for winter to be over, even though it seems like it just started. Hey, guess who's here? Brandania is in the house. Nice to see you, Brandania. Look at that playground. There's a couple of nice playgrounds around here. All right, we're going to make a left and start to go back towards the river and where we started the live stream. But I wanted to give you the impression of the Tsukiji neighborhood. Tsukiji to me is not that market, that outer market that's now a tourist trap. Tsukiji to me is this. It's a place of like a quiet solitude where locals live and it's so close to Ginza and other places. It seems almost like a surreal location considering where we are. And the funny thing is there's the APA Hotel over there, the entrance. But the APA Hotel down the street right there. But the funny thing is I don't see one foreigner in sight. Everybody goes to these attraction spots. But walking around Tsukiji, I think, is really worth it. You get a look at it. See some of those older copper-plated buildings before they tear them down.

00:37:50 John Daub: But as I said in the start of this live stream, this, I just clicked the like button. Well, thank you, Back in the Clay. That always helps. By the way, as we're walking over here, because I see something interesting. This is the postcard that's coming out for this month. And I wanted to thank two of our supporters here. I've got your postcard with me. Benjamin and Alexander. Alexander's in Maine. And Benjamin's in Columbus, Ohio. I have your postcards right here. It's a frozen day, so it seems very fitting. I'm going to put this into the mailbox as soon as I see one here. So thanks for joining the postcard. And Gondam Wolf, thank you for, I see you just signed up for Patreon as well. I appreciate that very much. It's so cold.

00:39:10 John Daub: Mizudako. See that at the end of the street there? What is that? Suudaki. Jared! I haven't seen you in ages, Jared. Nice to see you. Aloha, my friend. Happy New Year to everybody. I wanted to make eye contact before I crossed the street. We'll be back in Japan in March. Awesome! Looking forward to seeing you. And Aiken is here. Yes, I am streaming. What did I do? I'm glad, despite it being really chilly, I'm glad that I'm outside today. This Ichigo milk looks really good. This is one of the rare Mountain Dew finds. I thought I would just show you. And Pepsi, which is funny because this is like a Pepsi machine. They don't actually sell Pepsi. They sell some sort of Pepsi energy drink next to the Red Bull. And then this is one of the last places. This is a drink that's just come out recently and Starbucks' first vending machine drink. It's the Caramel Macchiato in a bottle. It's hot and it's Starbucks' first venture in a vending machine drink. It seems like they've had it before, but they hadn't. They were selling drinks at convenience stores but not inside the vending machines.

00:40:47 John Daub: Red 1900 for some hot tea and chap sticks. I'm almost tempted. You know what? I'm tempted now to go get that Caramel Macchiato. What do you guys think? I haven't tried it yet. I'm looking for a post box. I haven't tried it yet, the hot Caramel Macchiato. Convenience store boss coffee sounds good too. I haven't seen Tommy Lee Jones on any of the advertisements recently. Tommy Lee is forever young. But alright, let's just do it. Let's try it because... Oh, Hojicha (roasted green tea) is so good. Roasted green tea. I kind of prefer that but... I don't know. Should I go for the Hojicha? What do you think? Starbucks or Hojicha? Roasted green tea. Which one? Uh... What do you guys think? You guys tell me in the chat. Starbucks. Okay, Joy. Joy speaks, I listen.

00:42:36 John Daub: Joy, by the way, I found the Demon Slayer's gachapon (capsule toy machine). Oh, it's nice and warm, Joy. I found the Demon Slayer. Leo hid it. Oh, it's so warm. This is Starbucks' first vending machine drink. The Caramel Macchiato of Japan, I guess that's what we would call it. Or just Caramel Macchiato. I'm trying to hype it up. But all I care about is that it is hot and Joy asked for it. So it's time to give Joy some joy as I try to open it. It's childproof. What the heck, man? Okay, I got it. All right. Itadakimasu (phrase said before eating). Oh my God, that smells like caramel. Delicious. It's sweet. It's not overly sweet. I think because there's no real caramel. But you can taste this caramel. Oh, I love this. And Joy? I like that it came with a cap on it because I can do this now. Oh, so warm. Is it too sugary? It's kind of too sugary for me. It's kind of sugary. If you don't like sugar drinks, get the Hojicha.

00:44:22 John Daub: Hojicha also has, when the green tea is roasted, it gets rid of the caffeine and it gives it this really nice roasting. It's got a roasted taste to it because it's roasted. So it has a roasted taste. Roasted green tea hojicha (roasted green tea) is so good. Hojicha is like the brown colored green tea. It's so good. It also has that very acidic smell. You'll smell roasting at the green tea shops. You don't see as many as you did 25 years ago. But if you go around Japan, there are usually family-run green tea shops that are selling it and roasting it on street corners. And you can smell this acidic green tea. Beautiful smell. And sometimes they'll sell you a cup too. You can get a cup of this.

00:45:13 John Daub: Just a note. You guys know this. I'm sure you know this. But, because everybody knows this who watches the show. If you make green tea, first of all, try to use loose tea and not those tea bags because the plastic microplastics are in those plastic tea bags I've heard. So be careful with that. But regulate the water temperature. If you want green tea that's not bitter, because some people complain that green tea is bitter, don't use 100 degree or 212 degree boiling water. Use 70 to 80 degree Celsius water. And that reduces the caffeine but also increases the sweetness. And you might not have known that. There they are, guys. It is off from here in Tsukiji. Yeah. Itoen has these food grade plastic tea bags now. I mean, I'm sure it's fine if you drink it occasionally. But if you're drinking green tea every day, you probably want to try to minimize the plastics that you're taking in. And that's probably a good idea. I'm just saying. It's probably not going to hurt that much. But who knows, you know. I use loose tea now. And I use metal grate and loose tea. Or you can get a teapot. They're usually pretty cheap. You can get them at the 100 yen store. But you can use the water temperature of 80 degrees Celsius. That's what I do. That gives you enough caffeine, a little bit of bitterness, but there's more sweetness to it. If you use 100 degrees Celsius water, which is 212 Fahrenheit, it's a lot more bitter because there's more caffeine coming out. So 70 to 80 degrees is the perfect temperature. And I make green tea every morning now. I drink the green tea from 7 to 9 and then I'll have a cup of coffee around 9:30 to 10. That's my routine now. I like fukamushi sencha (deeply steamed green tea). Fukamushi means deeply steamed green tea. Ever since I did the episode on green tea, I've been more interested in it. I like my fukamushi sencha in the morning. Nice and naturally sweet.

00:48:05 John Daub: Alright, this is the last undeveloped spot in Tokyo. It's Tsukiji. I'm back in the wind zone here. Tsukiji is going to look like this. There's Kachidoki Bridge where we are right now on the bottom right. Not the first bridge but the second one. But this area which is being redeveloped is going to look like that in six years. But until then, we've got a construction site and we've got what is known as the last spot in Tokyo of prime real estate. The size of four Tokyo Domes being redeveloped right now. The city of Tokyo is always evolving. Every couple of years it changes. And the last time I was here was probably a couple of years ago. So we'll be back here in 2028 maybe to take a look and see the progress of Tsukiji Market. But it's going to be something nice. And just a note, I highly think that this neighborhood is going to be gone or at least starting to break up. And that outer market which is kind of the tourist trap of like stuff that tourists want to eat, food. It's not even that great. Like overpriced stuff. That's all going to be gone I believe. I just don't think that they're going to be able to maintain that as this kind of like a B-graded tourist attraction. It's not really that great. I don't know why the tourists go there. I guess the tourists want to hang out with other tourists I guess. Which is kind of cool. Get to meet people from all over the world. But it's definitely not worth your time unless you're just staying here. I prefer walking around the neighborhood of Tsukiji. Which is these low buildings here from the Showa era. There's still some of them. Some of the really amazing architecture from the 1920s still remains even today.

00:49:50 John Daub: Alright guys, take care. I'll see you tomorrow as we talk about cherry blossoms. Leave me any questions in the comments below. Thanks for staying and keeping me warm and keeping me hydrated. Thanks Joy. And I'll see you guys tomorrow on another live stream. I'm going to go home and get warmed up. I think I deserve that. Alright, mata ne (see you later). It's so windy.