Harajuku Station & Takeshita View w/ Crepes

hello everybody welcome to harajuku station we are now in one of the most famous neighborhoods in the city of tokyo definitely one of the most well known for international tourists this is the news station right here and we're going to be taking a walk around the harajuku neighborhood down takeshita avenue but first i think this is a very important place to start off with this is the new station it was built a few years ago um it's really nice a couple of years ago now i actually have another live stream with both of the stations standing next to each other but as you can clearly see that old station is no longer there they've torn it down and they're going to be building a reproduction of the old station there is a piece of paper here that kind of explains it uh from japan rail so i'm going to show you that in a second but it is sad right now not to see that old building i believe built in the 1910s i think 1911 or something like that that's gone but not not to worry the reproduction of it will be built in a couple of years probably following the hey wx turbo's in the house following the uh tokyo olympics all right let's look at this look at this site right now here's the brochure the information from japan rail so that's what it used to look like here's the new station next to it and this was a a very old building it was an iconic building it survived world war ii the the bombings of of that and have been standing strong since then and it due to structural uh integrity it just was too weak if there was a major earthquake and it was too small to accommodate all the people they had to tear it down and they're going to rebuild a new one exactly the same way using just stronger materials and i can show you here the site i can i can raise you up the camera a little bit higher [Music] so you can see what it looks like down there is that interesting did you see anything i couldn't see down there how you doing everybody we're gonna cross the street now and uh i think it's kind of cool kind of actually maybe i'm not gonna cross the street yeah this used to be a much smaller intersection uh crossing it used to be like a snoopy peanuts shop and i don't know what it is now cosme what that shop is it looks brand new and next to it is a shop that that's been opened now for for a little bit of time this is an ikea said in japanese ikea it's quite big i think it goes down to the basement and a massive uniqlo also going down underneath subterranean level and i don't know what these are here but it looks like apartments and probably not cheap so in this live stream again we're going to be taking a neighborhood walk taking a look at how this area has changed i intend to go to akihabara really soon too so click that subscribe button a couple of businesses were lost while we were at home over the last couple of months since the last akihabara update again a little bit is left from the old harajuku station this is a walkway that led into the old building but this is more made out of bricks and and uh despite the cracks in it a newer structure for those that haven't been in japan uh for over a year because of the pandemic welcome back to japan through the live streams love to hear from you in the live chat there's the yamanote line stopping at harajuku station on its way to shibuya love is in the air at least it's above me right now and uh takes the streets not too far away i wanted i was thinking about taking you to an another neighborhood on the other side so in the live stream before here dg22 welcome new insider beyond that gray building right there in the back there there's a lot of celebrities that live in this area um i have a small story that i'm going to tell you which is interesting and one day i will take you back there but i think it's pretty interesting to look at takeshita [Music] again because the olympics are coming and so many people want to be here for it this is a huge tourist attraction and worthy of taking a quick look at it so the the the changes here noticeable what is this so this is like a smoking area that's interesting that wasn't here before and there's some sort of construction going over there you see the dolphin jumping out of the fake plastic water that's a a hole in the ground so i'm going to show you a hole in the ground at harajuku very exciting as my friend dan dropped one of his uh ice creams there i think made a big mess it's fun to tease him about that i don't know if he's watching and then down here you can see a massive hole in the ground that's pretty cool there's a member of the of the emperor with the lightsaber right there to keep us all safe all right this station is still here this is an old part of harajuku but this is more showa era nataisho all right check it out this is the famous view from up above from the station looking down on takeshita you can see there's still quite a bit of people but it's not it's not as crowded as it looks there's still some ways the social distance but almost everybody has a mask there's some there are anti-masters and anti-vaxxers all over the place that's that's that's fine you live with it but we're outdoors on a sunny day it should be okay to explore today um this this area hasn't we're going to take a look and see what has changed down tuckiest street so join me for the next uh 15-20 minutes it's probably 30 as we walk around if you see something interesting let me know in the live chat try to stop me and i will take a look around air to the run is here can't wait to visit harajuku you are right now my friend yeah let's see we can find on this uh live stream all right masks stylish masks our thing that's interesting more masks so you're already taking a look that it's more stylish coffee this is a yoshi soba that wasn't here before interesting it's actually gotten cleaner a lot the facade of this mcdonald's looks pretty clean too well mango smoothie yes please right now mcdonald's has a uh uh oyako teriyaki burger going on here which is a chicken and egg or yakudon that's kind of interesting chicken burger and uh some spicy burgers and there's a uh teriyaki burger that looks really good i'm not a big fan of mickey d's so i haven't eaten it since i think i ate one in kichijoji a while back all right in this area pink reigns supreme again this used to be i don't know if it is anymore but this definitely used to be like the old um wow there's a big camera here what this used to be the daiso hey do you guys seeing this this used to be just a daiso but it seems like there's like a big camera and i'm sure that they were doing that to appeal appeal to the tourists and the other half is daiso which is still here so that's a big change i don't remember there being i don't remember there being a um a big camera there but it is there now the electronics industry has been decimated because uh tourists visiting from china accounted for a huge percentage of the sales now it's a big hole right now and everybody's in the in the red oh check it out i can smell it we got sweet crepes here and the purikura is still is still here which is good that is no men allowed i remember i tried to go down in there and they said nope you must be accompanied with a girl because a lot of a lot of dudes go there to try to pick up uh ladies but if you just take a look at me you know like those days are gone for me i'm like off the market dudes okay nice well let's go hutch goes rocking right here check these bags out samurai hot to go cherry blossom hachiko mount fuji hachiko and hachiko crepe hachiko those are pretty cool bags we i don't know if that's actually hachiko that could be just an akita inu which is the akita version of the dog i'm going to look back right now just to take a look at harajuku station over the last 10 years 20 is for sure the changes are remarkable although you can still see remnants of that old era this building looks like it was here uh back in the day as well shayrakshishi closest i can get to japan at the moment thanks john in your humble opinion what's the likelihood japan will be open again in november mahalo ah that's a good question my gut says it's look i'm very optimistic now because of the vaccine rollout is going much better so i think there's a good chance october seems to be the target but i think it's still going to have asterisk marks and depend on on the country that you're at this looks like it's closed up there's the uh baird's beer a uh baird's uh beer that's a a craft beer place at the end with the red flags there it's pretty good choices although i've heard that the service is suspect sometimes they can be a little bit curt so i'm not i'm not i can't say i can't say for sure but i know uh contest airlines in australia was was going to re renew the international route to japan in october but they moved that back to december apparently in a press release so it's hard for me to know exactly but november seems like right on the fringe i love these um these t-shirts with really cool um i don't know what do you call them like patched in there that's pretty cool and there's some dragon demon slayer uh t-shirts which seem to be all the big thing right now of course goth is still big here um but it's not as big as it used to be let me get some distance and i can show you there's the thank you mar that was the focus of my my harajuku transformation back in 2013. so this shop has been here for ages you can see the building is quite old but it's uh as you just see this is the first goth shop after walking for over a hundred meters so that's kind of unique i don't know if the goth scene is still as it doesn't seem as vibrant or as big as it was before i wonder where they went these place these things just move to different locations quite often you see some uh street food on the side here chicken interesting look at this pop-up oh look at that street food no i'm not gonna get it because this this is super unhealthy um look at that rainbow cheese this is pretty nasty but i'm curious too and there's some bubble tea so they're still doing pretty good business here people are still here despite the state of emergency things are open people are just taking precautions giving you a quick look around here um i did see back here my friend's shop is still looks like it's still okay sort of but i'm i'm looking to see where it is sit on the second floor that's acdc rag which is an institution here right there i'm gonna have to talk to my friends and see how how they've been handling the changes on hat takeshita i'm thinking of doing a takeshita street history episode for the main channel and i know the right people to get that done but like this used to be um a different shop this this cat one i think that was the ac dc rag i'm sure they used to have four or five different shops down here selling um like youth fashion it was like an experimental shop for youth fashion check this out this is a strawberry they call this what strawberry fetish what strawberry speciality sauce shop do you think i should get something like this [Music] i miss the delicious crepes there so thinking more pessimistically do you think international travel will be back by next april zanna dude writes in here i think yes would be the answer to that and i look like i'm not the type to eat a stick of strawberries do you think i would fit in no it's this looks like it i feel i feel uncomfortable see if i can find a crepe there's a lot of things on the street that are making me feel a little bit uncomfortable it's like headless people looking at me let's keep moving looks like another some weird food here oh this is that cotton candy that eric was telling me to get we tried to film here once but they wouldn't let us film with cameras and the line was too long wow this is closed down here this spot this used to be a cafe i believe it's closed down now uh here's the disney vacation of takista street let me let me move a little bit further to the other side get a different perspective a fan of their building they tore down an old fashioned shop and they're putting in another taller building that looks more like disney all right here's a map of takeshita it's pretty nice map so let's go take a quick look at this but the changes are are still going on pretty strong here and i'm against change because i i like the history of takeshita i want to protect that so we started here at the jr shop and we walked down here this is pretty fun to watch it in a one of these fun colorful there's the mcdonald's upside down the big camera and the daiso is listed on the map as well interesting there's a wendy's i didn't see that some of this stuff might have been gone out of business between now and then so things are the changes is happening fast this is now a a blank spot which is why they drew a map on here to keep you interested and then there's more name brand shops calbee which makes potato chips matsumoto kyoshi this street had zero name brand shops so it's changed quite a bit let's get moving this marion crepes has been updated so they're not moving but this white building also is an institution uh the body line they don't allow filming in there i tried i tried so hard to be able to film in there to take a look at some of the fashions but they were very protective of of their designs so they didn't want any filming at all but that shop still here selling goth and other kind of uh fashion i'm gonna take a look at that marion crepes there's a crepe place at the end of the street too i might i might jump in and get something to eat look at this mask vending machine that's pretty sweet too so some pretty interesting designs boom all right i found it all right so this here's the main shop for uh ac dc rag i'm glad to see that uh i know the manager and also the owner i filmed in there many years ago one of the innovators of this street got to pay respect to those that were here first not forget the history it's so important all right let's keep moving um so there you go a little bit of little philadelphia south street action looking going on here a little zipper head hey just a shout out to eric's surf six check this out eric this is available for rent we're looking for an office here this would be interesting imagine having an only in japan office right here on takeshita we'd have loads of people buying our stuff what do you think i i wonder what the rent is probably astronomical but wade arnold is getting us there a little bit closer thank you wade never got to say congrats for you for being a father for my from my wife mai and i your work is so appreciated you and your wife both are so positive and that is an inspiration blessings to your family from florida keep going and never quit thank you very much for that i will never quit you will see me making episodes from japan for years and years to come because now that i have a family here i'm not going anywhere thank you for that this is new this is a taiwan shop this is so interesting i'm seeing more and more um shops from neighboring countries korea taiwan selling street food and and things like that that's super interesting the international okay internationalization of this street is incredible here is a crunchy cream stick thing and again like i think i could do a really interesting harajuku street food episode here there's just so much of it but i would want to get permission from all these shops so let's let's let's call this also a kind of scouting excuse me sir do you have any grey poupon i like how the pigeons walk with the humans like that it's kinda kind of cute so these buildings here let me get to the side these buildings here look like they're getting a little bit cleaned up but they're still in business although that they're closed down here i don't know if that's because the pandemic or what but some of them were um again this is a satellite shop for and you see there's a little uh dog cafe here that's that's also new i didn't see that before this is a new building yeah a lot of new buildings but this was where the satellite chops for a lot of youth fashion they were right here and uh that has changed i guess just the the internationalization of this area and the price of real estate a lot of companies started to buy it out and the only ones that could afford it were chains and they would have now changed shops here look at ac dc rags right there has another shop and uh that's closed down they only have one shop open could be because of the pandemic or they sold it i'm not sure i'm really interested to talk with them to see how they hey how you doing pretty good hey bob joe greetings from oregon on my terrible internet sorry about that let's see if toby makes an appearance not in the downtown area check out these masks they've been pretty popular in korea the style but it's nice to see them on the street here for a dollar prime pro visual never never quite quit quit i enjoy it a lot of history here in japan food buildings etc absolutely i'm tracking down a bunch of stories that have really interesting history about historical backgrounds to it i think with only in japan if you can take something away from it that other youtubers aren't doing like history or or you know where it comes from it really gives it a lot more meaning when you go to visit it and i think that's something that i try to put into every episode i bought glasses here so many times let's see what they got here some good glasses what these are nice i got a small head so it's hard to find glasses that fit my head properly like these terminator two glasses these police officer glasses it makes me look like a bug they're so big although my my um pandemic belly is helping to balance that out a little bit all right quick couple of quick stories here um my a friend of mine i if i walk down here i think i could i think i could take my mask off a little bit and talk all right all right just just for a second here how you doing so a buddy of mine had a wine bar here he opened it up uh sunk a bunch of money uh this was in 2000 and in 2007 or eight i made a wine bar here and he was and he was an importer of wines from the us especially but from all over he was also one of the one of the companies importing zubaroka so i got sometimes when i helped him out i was paid in vodka i had a case of zabroka i made me very popular at parties but he told me that a lot of the adult adult movie industry av industry shoots in studios back here let's point that out to the adults here but i i thought that that was interesting and the alleys if you look back in this area it's quite interesting because it gets so quiet really fast down here and you see a lot of you can get lost and it's it's quite interesting between here and a montesando but if you do walk there in on the afternoon on weekdays when there's nobody around there's a very good chance you're going to see some really beautiful ladies walking around and you might understand why everybody's making everybody's making a living um like a lot of underwear shops what's up with that that one looks like you could eat it you ever seen those colors before creepy thing to say i move here to the side some more shops these are i've never seen these these shops are all brand new or they were behind walls and now it's starting to open up florida is what it's called so floridians you are represented here in lights on harajuku more of a miami looking thing right jedi mac it does look like cotton candy right it's not just me right and this one looks this one looks too commercial all right that's just not that's not my um cup of tea i liked it when it was real retro sorry the wind is getting picking up here we come to the we come to the exit well they finished this whoa this was all for ages was boarded up and i see that they finished this building so let's take a look at the end and look back at takeshita street it's interesting they have a lot of security here right has increasing security there were a lot of suspicious people um most of them um selling hip-hop stuff and they would drag in people to their shops that's how persuasive they were they would physically drag them in and a lot of complaints came in and as a result the businesses are still there but it's a lot stricter so people don't bother you like they used to um roppongi was like that at night too really there's only there's not that many scary places in tokyo but this could be one of them just because of some people just way too um aggressive so panning back towards jr station which is almost a kilometer back there something like that feels like a long way off beautiful day here uh slightly overcast i'm gonna get a mask tan i'm gonna have i'm gonna have like suntan from the eyes up but we're still very much in a pandemic here in [Music] you know it's better to be safe than it's already and it's it sort of makes everybody around you feel comfortable because everybody's doing the same thing look at there's some goth fashion so it's interesting to see that that's still here and then there's a gelato place on the corner i thought that was crepes wow and the wind really picked up and then here this intersection which will take you back to the side the back streets of amontesando which is a fascinating place a lot of the satellite shops moved over there and here's a santa monica crepe which should be a good way to end this live stream chris christoph writes in no more masks in the us indeed every place is different we still have very few people vaccinated and some some people and some birds are not wearing masks so obviously that birch could be doing a better job get the program here's a live view of harajuku from these the entrance of takeshita the intersection um has changed a little bit the buildings did they cut down some trees or something it just looks a little bit more uh more wider than before [Music] jeff khan writes in important things it's voluntary in the u.s it's not a it's not a new mask i don't want to get too political into this i'll just tell you this in japan we're still expected to wear them it's not voluntary the signs pretty much make it please do it to make make people feel comfortable all right let's show you take a look and see at these crepes here there's some weird ones that is way way way chocolaty this bombard looks really good too that's like um sweet chestnuts all mushed up into some sort of icing that looks great but then crepes and harajuku take on another meaning they have like bacon tuna fish sausages just avocado shrimp look at that there's like a whole pudding just dumped on there with mango what yeah i don't don't think i'm up for that but one of these with like one of these with ice cream might be good what do you think anybody maybe the fruit might be better this one has a strawberry banana double chocolate whip and uh these there's a matcha one right here look at the big pieces of brownies jutting out of them that is insane all right this mango one looks pretty good but i have mango at home from from costco so that's not that doesn't work for me this one looks like it's got like an all-star right there well they have these um matcha milk whipped matcha ice cream i could try that this is something that nausea broads into these boba teas i could try that what do you think matcha should we go into the matcha milk whipped cream a17 what size um ramsay certainly goes strawberry oh okay there you go all right our buddy ramsay says strawberry so let's get that strawberry double whip i'm into it strawberry double whip all right b uh strawberry ah check it out they do have a matcha tiramisu though ramsay's they had matcha tiramisu i gotta go with that [Music] uh [Music] hey [Music] all right so we gotta wait here for a little bit sorry i kind of went with the matcha because i i need it's the best of both worlds i get coffee and i get matcha so hello hi 82 on disagree says i should have gone with the strawberries maybe you're right impulse buy that's right there's too many choices they literally have a hundred different crepe choices all right the flow would go way faster if they had just one choice crepe all right even the boba tea is like what that's ridiculous okay i can't pick it all right i gotta sanitize my hands i have these um alcohol wipes [Music] whoa check it out done that looks pretty good look at that matcha's syrup in there what this is gonna be interesting i gotta find a place to eat this let's go to the side here stand away from the people street food time who's in for this ramses if you if you close your eyes and look real hard you'll see red sakura thank you this could be strawberry one of the first things the colors to go when you're scuba diving to lose is um red okay so when i was about 10 meters under on a wall dive in in koh samui near there i cut my finger blood started to come out and it was green and i started freaking out and then i remembered in my scuba diver training red is the first color to go under water so if you if you were 10 meters under this would be red maybe the question is how do i eat this all right i'm gonna come over here to the side last scuba divers don't know that if you're not a scuba diver you would not know that underwater you lose colors you won't see red fish because very rarely because at that depth it's not red anymore i'm putting the tripod on here so i can eat this with you or you can eat this with me i need two hands what do you want okay you can look this way this is better that's a good shot all right welcome they give you a little spoon check it out this is matcha cream that's matcha cream with matcha syrup the crows are going crazy for it if you come here you have to judy is very jealous if you come to harajuku you've got to get now you're vulcan you have to get a crepe when you come here it's it's almost a prerequisite which means you'd have to do it before you actually come here it's a prerequisite to know that um i'm gonna take you to the intersection uh where amonte sando is next take a look just a quick look to see what businesses are still here and what businesses are gone it's quite interesting but there's still there's still a very large international population that is that is here [Music] i thought i was alien when i cut my finger under water i was like did i touch something that was alien that caused me my blood to change color that's a lot of cream [Music] this can't be healthy there's no way that one has tiramisu in it here we go i'm gonna save this for later it's not good for um lactose intolerant people who cares if it's healthy famous quote from noah right there [Music] look walking and eating food probably not not a good thing but i'm watching people doing it right now all right they've got they're walking with their cheese they're japanese do people do it yeah if it's a place where there's street food yeah people are walking and eating not everyone is trying to to stop and eat okay but if you're in a crowded place and you're hindering other people don't do it the rules are there right but you don't have to follow it down to a t unless you're like you know unless you're um you know one of those people you don't have to do it social rules social norms they've been changing very quickly especially with internationalization but street food has been on the rise street food wasn't something that was really i don't know you didn't see it a lot in japan but what are you supposed to do if they don't have a table out you have to stand and eat or walk and eat and that's okay no one's gonna no one's going to tell you not to do it so there are rules and then there are rules that's not one of the super strict rules you'll have some grandma looking at you funny this street looks like they cut down trees or something right i guess they tore down and put on this new line building line is the whatsapp of japan i think it's a japanese owned korean company or something weird like that but line is uh we use line not whatsapp here so all of our indian viewers are like john can i talk to you on whatsapp i'm like no i don't have that downloaded and never will oh check out those tires some thick tires yeah lines i don't know i haven't bought line sticker in like 10 years so although um my friend paulo other youtubers got his his son has a line sticker collection which is really cute different poses of of wolfie that was very creative check out those graffiti vending machines awesome oh this is the um if you go down here this is where you'll find a lot of uh av studios just watch yourself somebody said they also talent scout for that at the intersection too no one's ever approached me so i think i think you won't be you'll see me just on youtube thankfully this is um this australian taco chain which i am surprised still has this location i know it's pricey i usually these locations uh move real quickly but this guzman e gomez is i believe it's like an uh australian surfer burrito place and uh gyg yeah we don't have this in the us i don't think but this such a premium real estate place it's also a little bit from what i heard from people it's a little bit smaller but um and more expensive than australia but it's still very good it's a lot better than taco bell mark n writes in may look when your options are limited you'll take it it is it is pricey though jake raw house got it right i got nothing against taco bell but the japanese menu is awful all right expats go in there and they complain it's like six times the price and there's no dollar menu no bean burrito in there oh condominium's gone what that is a major announcement right here you heard it here first condomania which was a staple as well as that shop called chicago a used clothing store was right there that's gone too chicago is gone and condominia's gone the intersection has been decimated on this side ryan k is in shock slightly i know that's a huge loss i've gotten a lot of unique shirts at that in chicago too i i think that there's still one down the street there's another branch of it right there but it's it's a shame this building was unique because it was just a little sliver and they had these alleys that's what made harajuku unique but i guess there's they're making it into a square pattern that's more easy to navigate i would much prefer to have the old way back the jonathan's is out of business is it still there it used to be a jonathan's over a ufj spank the bank is gone but the jonathans might still be there just the property prices are really high so it didn't make a lot of sense for the bank to be there the tokyo plaza is still here of course with a very beautiful secret starbucks up here don't tell anybody because uh locals get angry like it gets more crowded but where those trees are it's a garden with a starbucks up there that is so beautiful and offers i think a sort of a view but you can't look down from there the best view of the intersection chicago is gone the best view of the intersection is right there above that tommy pull my finger you see that you can go there and get uh right above it you can get uh pictures from right there the intersection that's a pretty good spot thanks for that talent are you much appreciated keep that between us so that's about it this has been a really great image this is a really great um live stream let's come here to the side uh if you have any questions you can leave them in the comments below i'm going to be doing some more live streams over the weekend uh peter is introducing me to somebody who's going to be in an episode of only in japan very interesting story it's not food related either it's a very interesting cultural story uh that's co-produced by peter so i'm pretty happy about that i'm meeting meeting uh this person on saturday so uh some pretty good episodes coming on only in japan main channel if you haven't seen the train one please go and watch that and support it because if we can get more views i think we can get more jobs on trains which would be awesome put my heart and soul into that bento video and i think you could see with really cool new uh aerials from google earth's new um studio which allows me to do like drone-like pans into buildings and stuff so i went the distance with that one ryan k appreciated and i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news with that chicago shop gone so there you go i hope you enjoy it let's cross the street here and i'll cut off as i take you and look up well green hair grass man as from this point on we would do another live stream in the future connecting these that right there is ando they shouldn't expect this many people if you have a long lens you get an amazing shot of of the people walking through tokyo and media usually gets a five second clip of this for b-roll yeah and that's for another another live stream to connect the city of tokyo in this area i'm gonna be coming back here for shibuya for sure tommy k welcome new traveler i'll be coming here to do some live streams on on shibuya in june as well i do have a plan because of the state of emergency extension i had plans to travel up to tohoku they're kind of on hold right now but i'll be back up there as well as uh some interesting jobs up in yamagata and aomori so i'll be back up at tohoku taking you with me on this channel definitely subscribe don't forget to because that's interesting new album those masks are famous from where is that totori i've seen this in one of the confections in tottori interesting everything's interesting to me i'll see you in the next live stream uh i'll take you around more areas of tokyo this weekend till then stay safe everybody see you soon you

Channel: ONLY in JAPAN * GO

Views: 21,512

Keywords: Only in Japan, Japan, John Daub, Japanese, Tokyo, Harajuku, Takeshita, shopping, fashion, shop, changes, station, View

Id: nC_z0iID-q0

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021