00:00:00 John Daub: Welcome to Ginza. It's a chilly February 3rd, 2026. What was most concerning to me about this was that there's no plan for the design. You see there is right there Wako, the very famous department store with the bell that goes on every single hour. And then over to the left, you have what used to be a circular building. This is the Ricoh Sanai Dream Center. Owned by Ricoh company. They are an imaging company very similar to Canon in many ways. They make cameras, actually a really good one. This is what it used to be. And now many of you maybe remember this a little bit better when you see the images of it. The Ricoh circular building right in the corner of one of the most expensive intersections in the entire world is now gone. It's been gone for a couple of years now. I've been waiting a very long time for plans on what it's going to look like and there's none. It's supposed to be done next year, which is crazy.

01:14:00 John Daub: So what is this place here? Let's take a quick look. The Sanai Dream Center is an iconic cylindrical glass-walled building located in the heart of Ginza district in Tokyo, specifically at the Ginza-Yonchome intersection. It was completed in 1969 and has served as a landmark often referred to as the core of Ginza. Ginza's got no core! Ginza's got no core! Let's walk across the street and see what they do have there. When it's early, before 11 o'clock, a lot of the stores are still closed. So there's actually a really good signal here to do a live stream. So we're at the base of it. There used to be a cafe right here as well, I think. But if you look here, we'll start on this side. They have images of the old building.

02:10:00 John Daub: Now it's 1960s architecture. This is during the Japanese Miracle. This is a great piece of history because after World War II, the occupation finished. I think it was 1954, the American troops left. And the Japanese Miracle started, a lot of people started to invest in Japan because the Olympics were coming in 1964. So if this building was completed in 1963, it was right before the Olympics. And now it's gone. Look at the design of it. You can see this building... I don't think this building was here when they filmed You Only Live Twice, the James Bond movie. A lot of scenes from Ginza in the 1960s in that. This is the lounge up at the top. You can see the circular design of it. Very futuristic at the time. There weren't a lot of buildings like that. It wasn't a massive skyscraper, but it was absolutely iconic. In fact, if it was a skyscraper, it wouldn't be as iconic, I think. It just would be too tall. The fact that you could see the top of it, the advertising usually of Ricoh, sometimes of Mitsubishi.

03:15:00 John Daub: Here are the plans for the construction. They always write it in here. Again, it's supposed to be completed in 2027, but believe it or not, I've checked the Ricoh website. There's nothing on what is supposed to be here. Here's what it looked like, the Sanai Dream Center, 1962. This is when they were going to build it. They're putting it up here. It's kind of neat to see the old cars right there. They even had the sign here, Sanai Building. They didn't call it the Dream Center yet. And there's the core. The fact that Ginza lost its core makes me kind of laugh right now. I have to be honest with you. There's some more pictures here. Here's the Sanai Dream Center, 48 meters high upon completion, time-lapse photograph. There's no signage yet. So I guess it's not quite finished. But it had Ricoh here, as well as Mitsubishi. And one time when I came to Japan, it even said Vodafone. So they have given away the advertisements there in the past. You can see there's where it says Sanai right there. I think it means like three loves. Asan-i, right? But you can see in Ginza, this was the tallest building. When you look down the avenue back then, there weren't any tall buildings really.

04:52:00 John Daub: There was this one here. I think this is still standing. The Shiseido building, which is a makeup company, would be in this direction. This is where the Uniqlo would be, I think. We'll walk down there in a second. And then here's a good shot of the buzz of it, 1963, January 13th. So about, I don't know, almost, yeah, it was in the winter. You can see they had a band playing to open up the Sanai building back then. Look at all those people jamming to the boom in Japan at the time. This light is still here, I believe. And this is Wako department store, you can see. Which is just, I bet you this light is still here. Let's go take a look around. That would be right on the corner. Alright, maybe it's not here. I think it would be like right around here. Alright, so they did change out the lights a little bit. But there's a lot of things in Ginza that haven't changed at all. There's Wako right up there.

06:06:00 John Daub: And in a couple of years, this is going to be filled with a building. This is the police box here. And they're very useful if you ever get lost, giving directions, big map in there. But I call this, Ginza has changed. And there's a reason for it, it absolutely has, because if we walk in this direction, you can see there's nothing up there. It's just crazy. They kind of mock up what it used to look like. But there's nothing up there. It's still weird to me because I'm very used to it. This side of it hasn't changed much. Yeah, the energy to power the buildings and stuff back in the 1960s would have been incredible. The Nissan building here was redone, I think about four or five years ago. Mitsukoshi is due for a renovation, I think. Multi-year renovation. Wako, I think, will never change. The exterior of this department store is just so iconic. This is now, I guess you could call this the core of Ginza. And then we go around the intersection, there's like nothing here. It just doesn't feel like Ginza to me, at the time, right now.

07:22:00 John Daub: So I want to walk around and show you a little bit how Ginza's changed. If you did walk in this direction, the new Apple building has been erected. I like the old one better, I gotta be honest with you. But the new one, I guess, is good for the practical purposes of whatever Apple's thinking. I don't know. I find myself... I used to always just pop into this Starbucks for coffee, and I find myself not wanting Starbucks coffee anymore. I just go to 7-Eleven. Am I the only one? It seems weird. Starbucks has really lost a lot of favor, not just in the US, but in Japan too. I don't know why. I guess the food offerings. But there's another chain that's just taking over from Nagoya. There's a coffee chain that's taking over called Komeda. You guys know Komeda Coffee? They are really blowing up here in Japan, a Japanese coffee shop. The food is better. They have those fluffy pancakes, I think. The coffee's pretty good. It has more of a sit-down feel to it. Starbucks has a like, drink your drink and kind of leave vibe. It's sort of comfortable, but it's not. The food is kind of okay, but it's not. It's all like pre-packaged stuff. Komeda cooks it all right there. I think Starbucks looks like they're not doing too well in Japan right now. The tourists still get it, but Komeda Coffee, it's a pretty chill place to go in and get a cup of coffee. They're putting them all over Tokyo. It's crazy. I see them everywhere.

09:29:00 John Daub: It's basically turning into like the Tim Hortons, I guess. That was a good reference there. That's a Canadian brand. They moved into the US a little bit. They had one here in Japan for a while, but it didn't last very long. It's just such a different street. You can see this is a new building here. This is the Ginza 6. This came in around 10 years ago. It's crazy. This used to be the old Matsuya department store? I think this is the old Matsuya department store. But Ginza does not look like the 1960s anymore. It really has changed. There are some buildings that do remind you of it, like the Mitsukoshi right over there. It's got the lights on the exterior. Mitsukoshi just smells of really traditional Japanese food. Traditional shopping culture. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I just know that they do service so well inside Mitsukoshi. I've always been so impressed with it. You can see, looking down Ginza Avenue. The Matsuya, Ginza in the center. That's been redone as well, at least the renovations on the exterior of it. And it looks pretty nice inside. But they really didn't have much of a choice. I think that was Matsuya, right? The department store. They redid it and it's like Omotesando Hills to me. It's a shopping area of things that I normally would never buy.

11:23:00 John Daub: However, with that said, Carrie... Is Carrie watching? We love Carrie. Jason. There's a Starbucks up there that's really nice. Although I feel like I could walk right by it now. Even if I need a coffee, I would just walk by the Starbucks. I don't know why. I found myself just... These days, I don't even ask myself that. I just kind of walk by. How did that happen? It's like a switch flipped. With that said, there's a nice one up there. And if you go up to the corner, you get maybe the best view of Ginza right up there on the corner. There's a park on the roof. They made it really sustainable. And you can hang out in it. It's nice. I want to walk this way. I want to show you a couple of other things that have changed here in Ginza.

12:05:00 John Daub: While we're walking, I can read this article to you. Landmark Sanai Dream Center scheduled for demolition. This is in 2023. And I was really sad about this. It's a cylindrical glass-walled building in Tokyo's Ginza district. For the last six decades, it's been the core of this area. Demolished from March 2023. So this was during the pandemic. A lot of you weren't here when you saw it. Tourism was just coming back. So many who do come here, you feel like something's missing. You don't quite know. It's this. The successor of the commercial complex will be completed in 2027 by Ricoh. They said that they would have a design out years ago. But I guess they just can't decide on it yet. Ricoh's founder, Kiyoshi Ichimura, built the factory facility in 1963 at the prestigious site. It really is prestigious. Such expensive real estate. He expected it to become a symbol of the group company called Sanai that sold women's clothes. That did not last long. Comprising nine stories above ground and three basement levels. The Sanai Dream Center initially housed a showroom for Mitsubishi Electric Company and later an art gallery for Ricoh. Yeah, does anybody know the Sanai fashion brand? I didn't even know what that was until I read the article. Not everything succeeds just because it's from Japan. Just put it like that. A cafe and other facilities within the complex are vacated by January 30, 2023. Ricoh plans to release images of the building scanned with 3D image processing technology on its website. The new building outline will be released in summer, Ricoh said. That was summer of 2023. Ricoh, it is now winter of 2026. Where are the designs and the mock-ups? I don't know.

13:57:00 John Daub: The back alleys of Ginza are quite extraordinary. I'll just let this car go. It's a cake car. So cute, these little teeny vans and trucks that go around the city. A lot of these alleys, you'll see, you won't see geisha in Tokyo like that. Maybe you will in Asakusa every now and then, maiko. But you will see hostess girls dressed up in these luxurious nightgowns. Just make sure you don't really grab your photo and take pictures because they don't want their picture taken. I say this as someone who used to work with a big Japanese publishing company, old money. And one of the executives would take me out to the hostess clubs in the alley. I'll use Ginza here with his expense account. He said, use it or lose it. So whatever he had left over at the end of the month, we would go out and we would use it. Because he had an expense account for entertainment. And I got to go to some of the most prestigious hostess clubs. Not that I wanted to, but why would you turn down that experience? Of sipping watered-down whiskey with really dolled-up girls. Yeah, they just don't want their picture taken. I don't think anybody wants their picture taken and then they publish it on a magazine or something. There's the privacy in Japan is really strict. So like this right now, there's people around. This is fine to be filming, but if you zoom in on somebody's face and then you publish it, even if it's a live stream, you can get in trouble, you can get in some deep trouble. That's why if somebody does ask you to shut it down, you take it seriously. You don't say, I have rights in this. You're not in America anymore, okay? Outdoors does not mean you have free reign to film like you would in the western countries. It's just different.

16:02:00 John Daub: That on the right side, you can see there's some scaffolding on it. That's the Sony building. And I came here last year and I took you inside there, walked around a little bit. I don't like it. And instead of adding windows and stuff, they made it a concrete wall. A block. And I just... I guess they were supposed to add in like a hanging garden or something on the side there. But I just don't like the new Sony building. I have my likes and dislikes. I'm pretty upfront with it. I'm not inspired, Sony, by this. I thought it was a huge miss. Opportunity. Just like a slab of cement. I'm still not sure what they were thinking. This is supposed to be prime Ginza real estate. I can understand why they didn't make it as tall. But it's just forgettable. It's so forgettable. And when you're a brand, you don't want to be forgettable. Nobody's even going in there. There's no reason to go in there. You don't know what's in there. You don't know what the point is. You'd think it was closed. It looks like the promised land, though. There is a nice garden up on the top where they had some cars they were showing off. But it's not really much of anything. It is tragic. This is really, really sad. And this has changed. If you see across the street, Lotteria is gone! The chain Lotteria, which as long as I've been living in Japan has been huge. It's now Zeppeli [?]. I guess the company Lotteria Group disbanded. But Lotteria in Korea is a really big group. They still kind of... Another group within the group bought the group. And then this group became that. And this is what is over there. Zeppeli [?]. So Lotteria gone. Zeppeli [?] here. That's odd.

18:40:00 John Daub: I'm walking across the street now. This is Tsukiji-bashi. Yeah. This is also underground home to Sukiyabashi Jiro, the sushi shop owner that everybody knows because he was in a documentary which ruined his business. Because then all these tourists started to go there. Some of the tourists even asked him why is the sushi raw? You gotta cook the sushi. Jiro got really angry and said, why did I do that documentary? I think he's still working. His son usually is in there though. Across the street, there's another police station. You can see police are really good at giving directions because there's not that much crime. They're really good. This has been here for quite a long time too. I'd say about 10 years now. This is the Tokyo Plaza. I don't even remember what was here before to be honest with you. That's a new hotel over there. That's the Gate Hotel which I recommend. I really liked it. One of my Patreon supporters used to stay there from UAE. Haven't heard from him in a while. That's a Shinkansen. This is an above-ground highway which is now a walkway. They're trying to get rid of the cars here and they're going to be turning this into a walkway. You see people walking up there. These are stuff that tourists don't know about. They're going to make this a walkway for pedestrians now. The traffic's out of there, which makes a lot of sense. I think for the Tokyo Marathon, the day before the marathon, you can run on it. I might be invited to that. I might take part in a one kilometer run or something up there on the pedestrian walkway. I think New York has something similar to that. It's a really good thing. They're going to put some trees, which is going to look nice. The Shinkansen goes on the other side, maybe about 150 meters. For Americans, they're like, what's a meter? Like a football field away.

20:58:00 John Daub: Zeppeli [?]. I have to say though that it does look new and refreshing. The gyusuki-yaki burger. This does look really good. I have to say, I don't know. See, sukiyaki is a dip. You dip that in the raw egg. Of course, they have to have some raw egg. Look, there's the sukiyaki right... Oh my gosh. That looks so darn good. All right, Zeppeli [?]. You look better than Lotteria. I'm not even that sad that you left. The Zeppeli [?] burger. I never even heard of it. Now I have. That's looking pretty good too. I like that little pickle relish on there. Well done. Nice recovery. If you do go... And their pies look pretty good too. If you do go to Sukiyabashi Jiro and you're like a fan of the documentary and you're like, oh, I want to go there and take pictures. I'm just going to tell you don't do it. You're going to get in trouble. Because Mr. Jiro, who seems like kind of a grumpy man, he really doesn't want his picture taken. I can understand though, but I'm just saying, it's down here in the basement. And there are signs. There are signs everywhere saying no photos. Yeah. I'm not even going to try. Just let it be. I like that old Ginza sign right there. That feels very 1960s. That looks really retro. I can show you the door, but there's pictures, there's signs on the door saying no pictures. So... He didn't even know. He did not hold back. I think after President Obama came here and ate with Prime Minister Abe. All the attention, it just was too much. They didn't need it. He didn't need it. I mean, it's good sushi, but I don't think he elevates it to any place different than a lot of the other high-end sushi shops around Tokyo, to be honest with you.

24:19:00 John Daub: There's a point where it's just made by a celebrity now. And after the documentary, the man became a celebrity. It's good sushi, but it's just sushi. I have an episode on this coming soon. It's good sushi, but it's more than just sushi? Or is it just sushi? What is good sushi? Do Americans even know what good sushi is? Because a lot of Americans are eating sushi, but is what they're eating actually even sushi at all? If you put avocado on it, does that make that sushi? Does sushi need to evolve like everything else in the world? Or should it stay traditional, like the way it was? But was it ever really like that? Because edo-mae zushi doesn't look like the nigiri sushi of today, because sushi has evolved over time. So you can have a really robust discussion about the history of sushi, where it came from, and where it's going. Because sushi is not the same as it was 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 150 years ago. Good sushi means good rice to me. Rice is quite important. That's sort of like a blank sheet. The fish can be finessed. It can be prepared. Even the knife in which it cuts the fish has an impact on the flavor of the fish, in my opinion. It really does.

25:37:00 John Daub: I remember going to a place in Osaka. What was it called? Tower Knives or something. There's a place in Shinsekai. He's a Danish guy who sells knives. He's an incredible person. I filmed him before. I think for NHK once. And maybe I did a live show. I can't remember. But he did this demonstration. He cut a tomato with a good knife and cut a tomato with a 100 yen shop knife. And the tomato with the good knife tasted a lot better. It was remarkable. And I never even realized how much a knife actually can change the flavor of the food and the way it cuts it. So with that said, I think that Kura Sushi here is one of the biggest in the world. In this building. And it's fun to go there but the sushi's not good. I mean, it's not great. Probably better than in the US. But it's like food. It's like the difference between instant ramen and ramen that changes your life. And I've had that ramen. Who else has had that? Sushi is one of those dishes where if you don't eat the high-end ones and you've never tried it you'll never have that kind of an experience. Ramen is a cheap food. It should be. Where you can have like a life-changing food experience. I'm serious. There's so much flavor. Once you've eaten it you're like you can't go back from this that chashu and the broth and the flavor. The broth and the noodles. The texture of the noodles. It just hits you in every single dimension. It's a multi-dimensional food. It's deep. And then after you've had that you can't go... same with high-end sushi. I've had it a few times. Maybe more than that. And it can blow you away. It could be the rice. It could be like the tamagoyaki. The egg. You just... what is that? Like subtle sweetness. There's a little bit of saltiness there. The texture. That you put your teeth on there. And the little tension until you get into it. And then it just breaks apart in a certain way. Each place you can tell the quality of the sushi shop by the tamagoyaki.

28:32:00 John Daub: [inaudible] No sound but I see mouth moving. Should be of sound. You mean the whole time? For the last 30 minutes? Was there no sound for the last 30 minutes? Are you kidding me? Goodness gracious me. Sound is good. I can hear though. Sometimes you just need Q-tips. I wish there was a way to... the technology is always changing. It's always going to get better. This used to be called Printemps. Which is I guess some kind of a French department store. Printemps went out of business but the building stayed the same. There's a little hamster tube between the two on the second floor. It's kind of cool. But they had to evolve. Because nobody was going in there. I don't go in the department stores anymore. In fact it's really hard. I go in a department store. There's nothing really that I need. But I went into Mitsukoshi and I filmed a scene in there this morning. That's why I'm here. Kanae and I are filming one on Japanese daycare for tourists. And there's a place where you can leave your kids for a few hours. And you can go shopping and go eating and do adult stuff. It's really cool. So we're filming the shopping scene today at Mitsukoshi. I got a permit to film inside there with one of their PR reps. Which is so nice. She's very savvy with filming too. So I'm like, what would be a good angle here? And she's helping me with the direction. She goes, okay this is a good angle right here. From here this direction. You and Kanae walk this way. And we'll have the guide doing this and this. And I said okay.

30:15:00 John Daub: Walter Walters. The one chain I became hooked on while I visited Japan was Gyukaku. Really good yakiniku. That does sound good right now. Japanese chains do have a pretty good job of being pretty consistent. And getting the food price down to get families to go there more often. Yeah that sounds like a good one. I have an episode that's got to drop soon. One that I filmed in Hawaii. About a pancake chain here. Which isn't fully honest. I don't know. It's an interesting story. But I don't know if I can even tell that story to be honest with you. But if you love Japanese pancakes. The fluffiness of it. I got a good story to tell you. And I've been sitting on it for way too long. Brandy I gotta get on that. I don't know what's going on. Yeah good gyoza. I don't know. Ramen can be life changing. I don't know if gyoza dumplings can be. If you want to you can leave it in the comments below. What Japanese food is the most life changing? You just ate it and you're blown away by it. Ramen is just one of those dishes. It does that. Maybe even tsukemen. It's the dipping noodles. That broth in there. That really thick meaty broth. But if it comes to ramen. I don't know. I think the tonkotsu might be the deepest of the flavors. But I do think I prefer like a karamiso negi ramen. It's my favorite. I like a good katsudon. It can be a life changing dish. Katsudon is breaded pork cutlet in a couple of eggs. Dashi fish stock soup in there. You take that. A little bit sloppy. Still a little bit crispy. Dump that on a bowl of steaming hot rice. The juices. The egg and the dashi kind of soaks into the rice. You finish the katsudon. The breaded pork cutlet. Again just a little bit. Some of it is crunchy. That bread part has absorbed that egg and dashi fish soup stock. Which is just so umami. Right? And then you get down to the rice and you can eat that. Then you have a little bit of shichimi. Some of the spice on there you can put if you want. It's a fantastic dish. I don't know if you eat pork. If you don't eat pork then you have other options. You can do chicken katsu. But it's not quite the same.

32:58:00 John Daub: Alright I'll walk down this alley here as long as we have a signal. I do have to get back. Walk down this side street. Now maybe I'll stick to the main road. It's about 11am right now. They do check the bus. They do check the parking meters. There's the two parking meter guys. Oh they take coins still. This is the intersection. Ginza Nichome. Louis Vuitton. Bulgari. Cartier. And Chanel. It's kind of funny right? A little bit funny. Very fancy. That's Ginza. There's a Montbell which is the Patagonia of Japan down the street. I'm saying that right now. Because Montbell the Patagonia of Japan is down the street. The North Face of Japan is down the street. And across the street from the Montbell is a Patagonia now. I cannot make this stuff up. It's hilarious. Montbell is making a killing selling stuff to tourists. In particular from China, Taiwan, Singapore. I don't know if Americans know the brand much. Montbell makes some pretty good stuff. Really lightweight stuff that does last pretty good. But they're doing a roaring amount of business. Patagonia opened up across the street in a small shop for about three months. Close it down. And then they bought a massive spot on the corner when that property became available. And now they're directly competing with Montbell across the street. It's hilarious to me. It's all on purpose. Because that Montbell has been here for years. It's such an established place. Now becoming a heart of outdoor shopping. Outdoor apparel. So they opened it up here at Kyobashi. Which is at the next intersection. It's fascinating to me to see how this neighborhood from Kyobashi to Shimbashi is just changing so much. It's fun.

36:01:00 John Daub: This is Ginza Ichome. And that is an empty construction spot. The pace of change that's happening is incredible. So when you do come to Japan this spring or next year, you're going to see a lot of changes. It's all for the good. These buildings are going to last a lot better if the big one does come. But it could come at any time. It's not a reason to stop traveling here. All right. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I'm really glad that you guys joined me for this episode walking around Ginza. BK Travelog 1242. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. I'm working on the postcards right now as well. All of this stuff. The Daimyo packages went out for January. So we've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, editing videos. I got main channel stuff almost ready to go. So it's going to be a great year. And yeah, stay warm, especially if you're in the US. I think it's going to be about 50 degrees today, Fahrenheit. But yeah, looking forward to the next episode tomorrow. Matane. Matane.