it's seven o'clock in the morning and i'm in central tokyo running around the park
around the emperor's house i don't know why i thought this would be a good idea
if someone looks out of their office window sometime in the next half hour you might be lucky
enough to catch a glimpse of a 29 year old british guy having a heart attack in the middle of a park
a lot of people often ask me for ideas on things to do around the tokyo station area known as
marunochi because odds are if you're traveling through tokyo it's a district you'll find yourself
passing through at some point or another in this video we're going to eat drink and shop
our way around in search of 10 things to do and to assist me in my exploration i've enlisted the help
of a good friend and a former tokyo resident who claims to be an expert on the local area
here he comes tokyo expert slowly but surely sometime today good morning
good morning how you doing why are we jogging ryotaro why is this a thing what are you what
about this is number one place for jogging tokyo the number one jogging spot in tokyo yes i do i
look like someone that needs to go jogging well yeah definitely i mean clearly the uh your belly
look at that and the cycle didn't work out at all cheers man i must admit though there
are quite a lot of joggers around here why is it so popular why is this the place to
job well i mean obviously this is one of the nicest parks in tokyo and also there's so many
offices around here so before they go to work they jog first and then they go to the office
fair enough i mean usually when i come to tokyo business i never do any exercise because i think
where can i job where can i get where can i jog where can i go as a result that's what we've got
there but now i've got no excuse there's actually a part where you can jog and work out discovery
discovery yes discovery i deal with a pretty good excuse though why i wouldn't work out
here and that is getting sweaty and not being able to shower anywhere there is
there's a place to get shallow oh my god is it the place where we got the shirts from
that's right thanks to the miracle of japanese convenience there's a gym next to the park with
lockers bikes running gear and showers so you needn't return to your hotel or office
drenched in sweat after your early morning run the madden orchid bike can run place
in between tokyo station and the park you can actually not only rent shoes and t-shirts but also
have a shower much needed after running around the park it's like 27 degrees celsius today
outside so what's going on what was that i'm pleasantly seductive walking brilliant
whilst marunochi may look like a futuristic district of gleaming skyscrapers underneath it all
places still firmly rooted in tradition with old red brick buildings dying around and even a horse
and carriage transporting people of importance around town this is pretty cool this is the
this is an ambassador of some country when the ambassador of a country arrives in japan
they get to go and meet the emperor and kind of sit down and chat and they get to choose
whether they go by car or by carriage and today this ambassador has chosen to come by
carriage as he would be fair what would you rather do car or carriage obviously carried
i feel really bad for like you know have chris running from seven o'clock in the morning so i've
got some prison for him and here they are ice creams so this is white chocolate ice cream and
there's a bay leaves in it and here's you know chris is half alcoholic anyway so he'll love
this and there's a corn ice cream which actually this is my favorite and these are actually best
ice cream shops in tokyo area tokyo station area and uh here they are christmas love it
so here he comes there you go wow look at this i'll give you this one it's got bailey's in it
bailey's yeah bailey's that that bailey's all right it could work so is this actually
alcoholic it is actually what happens actually you know he said no under 20. no under 20s
oh what have you got what the hell was that oh that was nice why would you get corn ice
cream when you're gonna bail these ice cream what's wrong with it looks good
so they've stuck these statues all around tokyo station here's the rugby world cup coming
in a few months i suppose that's exactly what people want to see
as amazing as bailey's ice cream is unfortunately it's no substitute for
a real lunch and for that we head to sapporo tarzan the sushi restaurant
specializing in fresh fish from hokkaido how fresh is it though well they quite
literally flew it into tokyo from sapporo this morning it doesn't get much fresher than that
nice
wow look at that look at this beautiful it's a masterpiece
so obviously if you're coming around tokyo station there's probably more restaurants around the tokyo
station area than just about anywhere else in the world true especially even japan has got i think
tokyo's got more restaurants than any city in the world given the density of this area you pretty
much would love to spoil it for choice i think one of my biggest criticisms of people coming
to japan is they always go to the conveyor belt sushi right and they do that they tick
sushi off their list and it's job done that is not real sushi i can assure you the fish here is
so fresh it was literally flown in my plane this morning caught at like 5 a.m shipped to sapporo
flown to tokyo and just arrived brought right now no wonder this is this was so good it's chris what
happened to your hair mine what happened to my hair it's like everywhere it's taking off this
part this part is explained unbelievable he's made fun of my way the cameraman told me that
uh you referred to me as an alcoholic area and now my hair i was looking through some comments
on a previous video with ryotaro and everyone was like oh leave off to her alone you're such a bully
to him he's the real bully he's getting away with murder hillary and nobody's calling him out on it
i'm just saying why is it always me i'm the bad guy he's the bad guy look at him he looks like a
low-class bomb villain we're having fantastic sushi here with a destroyed hair like what
fantastic sushi with a destroyed hair yeah exactly this is the fashion this is the fashion of london
i didn't know that never seen that in london in london recently
so in a couple of weeks i'm going back home to the uk for the first time in about a year whenever i
go home my friends and family always hate me because i never have any souvenirs or gifts
because i assume i just don't have time i usually run through narrative airport i don't have time
so this time i want to do it right i want to actually get them something good so they
appreciate having me as a as a friend and family member so i'm going to hand
over to you i want three to four things in this shot i'm happy that you trust on me
but let's see what you come up with three to four things i i know
definitely this is gonna be the first one let's go to sabah this shoe it should be in sake japanese
socket right and saba means mackerel right so i mean you need to drink this when you are eating
macro and that's the only occasion you have to drink it seems awfully specific
um i don't know how many times my friend and family think yes what about you let's have
some mackerel feels a little bit too elaborate so interesting good if you're having mackerel but no
next thing look at this what is it this is dumb uh this is a cream cheese right but with miso this
is my favorite actually cream cheese ever in my life the whole cream cheese tastes like miso a bit
mix of flavor that's going in the no pile haven't you got something that's a bit more just japanese
not cream cheese miso not mackerel sake actually something okay let me okay let me introduce this
one all right all right this one okay would you like a cup of tea that's the word all the british
people use you know when you're actually going to someone's house exactly what we say exactly
is a cup of tea anyway so um uh look at this it's a it's a teapot so you put some you know tea grass
in here yeah tea leaf tea grass yeah in there and uh you just put hot water in and wait for
a few minutes that's it it's really i'm pleased to announce you finally found something real thorough
that actually would go on my list so yes yes yes all right you're on thin ice ryotaro this is your
last chance there you go guess what this is box of wood no it's not like you do when you drink sake
and then japanese people often drink with this one right it's a square wooden uh actually sake so you
put the sake in it yep and drink it and this is for me but for you this is it whoa this is
wrestlers and the whistlers or like these are for the people with billy's that is a hefty size yes
all right done yeah tell them okay this is for you cheers i'm not buying
though
so people always ask me for hidden spots places that people don't know about uh
in tokyo this is one of them this is why i always come for a drink because i do good craft beer and
you can sit outside which is quite rare in japan yeah it is quite for some reason sitting outside
hasn't really been invented in japan yet but this is called pub cardinal madanochi it's a
three minute walk just three minutes from tokyo station hidden a few blocks away i'm impressed
because ryotaro doesn't drink alcohol but he's actually drinking beer that's not non-alcoholic
beer that's real beer but i've got an american belgian style pale ale made in the world yeah but
craft beer's becoming big in japan recently it's taken a while to get here i think japan's lagged
behind europe in america on this one but they're finally caught up and it's finally kicking off
so it's an exciting time to be here in japan since when did you start drinking beer today now
some people may be tired of japanese food after traveling you know from osaka kyoto hiroshima all
these places then come back to tokyo before flying away back to wherever you're from um i guess you
know this kind of place with a western food a beer and it might be a it helps her western food yeah
so i don't really know my way around tokyo station that well but what i do know is i always seem to
stumble across this little garden this is the mitsubishi museum garden square i never know
how i get here i just tend to be lost amongst the skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of
tokyo then i stumble across it and it is honestly like some sort of oasis in the middle of the city
tokyo can often feel like a concrete jungle which makes finding parks and
gardens feel like stumbling across some sort of hidden treasure the mitsubishi ichigo car
museum courtyard is nestled off of one of mananochi's busiest shopping streets
it's here you can find restaurants coffee shops bakeries and more importantly and above all beer
peace and choir definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the madden orchard area
really nice place to sit relax and escape the trafficking chaos of tokyo
like lunch like kaisen the seafood bowl for lunch and fugu for dinner how luxury we are
how luxury we are yeah how lucky we are another t-shirt design right there
after a long day rioto and i decided to take advantage of madanochi's towering skyscrapers
to enjoy our dinner of fugu blowfish fugu is a delicate fish requiring preparation by
highly skilled chefs and with over 100 years of experience you're in good hands at utsugi
yamadaya the restaurant has its origins in oita prefecture in kyushu which is one of
the homes of blowfish in japan ryotaro and i recently took a trip to nearby yamaguchi
prefecture to try the dish first hand but if you can't get down to south japan or you're
looking to try the dish in tokyo usuki yamadaya know how to do the delicious
dish justice whether it's served up as raw sashimi and presented like a work of art
crystally battered and tempura or boiled in a hot pot you're pretty spoiled for choice
so um we got like deep fried deer fried fugu and the sashimi fugu and we are actually waiting for
the hot pot fugu so figure itself is relatively flavourless it's more about the texture it's kind
of got this kind of chewy texture to it it all comes to a head once it's dipped into the soy
sauce vinegar ponzu uh that is what unlocks its brilliance because it's just loads of nice vinegar
i kind of see figures a bit of an art form the way it's prepared the way it's
sliced up and presented one thing i haven't tried though is the parryage buggy
wow nice crispy carriage what do you think compared to if you're not into raw fish
get it battered it's like they like fish and chips actually it's your favorite it's my
favorite because i'm from the uk it's all we eat isn't it that's the only thing you've got now good
walking through the streets of the tokyo station area at first may seem like there's an absence
of restaurants and bars however you'll quickly discover they're all concealed away
in the towers surrounding the area perhaps the trendiest of them all was the building
immediately in front of the station the towering shinmaru building which at 197 metres is one
of the tallest buildings in marunochi whether you're looking to grab a meal a drink or a good
view from the expansive terrace on the seventh floor it's an excellent place to watch the sun
go down over the city and the station's skyline again isn't this luxury to have a piece of pizza
look at that yeah put that view behind me it's good but maybe just just cut the pizza
pizza a special job special job for a special boy i must admit what i've learned today is all the
best bits of uh the tokyo station area are hidden away in these skyscrapers surrounding the station
each skyscraper is like its own city but i understand you've got one last trick up your
sleeve one last place on our list today what is it the ultimate dating spot and success
100 guaranteed i think that's the most awkward sentence i've heard you say all week
so there you have it guys our list of things to do around the tokyo station area hopefully the
next time you find yourself around here you'll have some ideas on things to do eat up drink
shop buy do everything anything you'd like to add any closing
comments we are trying well i mean this is i mean ultimate dating spot the ultimate dating
yeah if you're in like in tokyo and if you like proposed your girlfriend here 100 it was success
guaranteed i guess you heard it here first 100 i know someone's going to watch this actually
attempt it and then they're going to say no it's going to be all your fault anyway but for now no
matter where you might be watching from out there in the big wide world as always guys thanks for
watching we'll see you next time to do it to do it all over again to do it all over again
a cup of tea that's the word all the british people use