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  • 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 somean 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 thinghaven'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