Japan has always been my ultimate travel
destination when I was young my love for Japanese cars and big futuristic cities led me to falling
in love with Japan before it ever even been there as I got older and became more interested
in travel food and culture of course Japan remained at the top of my list what a cool
experience that's like ultimate bucket list there ultimate over the next 3 weeks we're
going to be exploring Japan we're renting a car and plan to aimlessly head out on the open
road there is no destination because of course the journey is what's most important the trip
is off to a very irresponsible start it's like something out of a zombie movie or something
like that it's a very surreal feeling we had an incredible time exploring Japan there was some
highs have fun so good so good highlights of the trip one of the highlights of the trip for sure
it's just so nice to see them like this there were definitely some lows what is no no no no no
no no we got screwed
over by our hotel basically well Kobe was awesome except I'm not happy I
know a many incredible experiences that I'll remember for the rest of my life so sit back
relax and join us on this exciting Adventure through Japan there are 26 things I'm dying to
do on this trip and I've created the ultimate bucket list for this journey through Japan
so join us as we explore this incredible country how Journey starts in Tokyo joining
me on this trip is one of my closest mates Dan the Man flying in f
rom two different countries we
actually both landed just 5 minutes apart and met at the airport how you doing man you good what's
up man I'm exhausted man how's your fight tiring man long long that's two days of traveling for
us both to land at the same time it meant taking crappy flights my trip from Bangkok had a stop in
Hong Kong and Dan's was an overnight trip heading from LA we both arrived at Tokyo just before
300 p.m. completely exhausted jet lagged and body clock completely out of w
hack the first day
was basically just a ride off we checked into the hotel went out for dinner and crashed out early
the following morning we woke up fully refreshed and ready for action we have to go pick up our
rental car and get everything we need ready in preparation for the next 3 weeks on the road only
in Japan do you come to an underground mall to rent since this is our first time doing anything
like this it will definitely be a learning experience I've never driven an
electric car
before oh that's so weird right so we've got the car this is very exciting it's
a been it's been a learning process I've never driven an electric car or a hybrid car before
but all good we in Toyo in Tokyo yeah we just W now we need to figure out the whole parking
situation so there's little parking stations everywhere but the signs are mostly in Japanese
we went did a bit of a recon mission last night you think we parked at the hotel I think
we parked at the hotel try that and maybe the ho
tel stuff can help us this this this
entire trip is going to be full of challenges like this mostly around language barrier
there's nothing in English not in English which is great as it should be it doesn't help
a tourist no it's going to be a challenge for sure so this car is a Nissen nose it's a hybrid
car which we thought would' be really fun we wanted to get like a little boxy Japanese car to
drive around the country and and since we're doing a whole lot of driving we thought a hybrid
car would be really good it's really weird to drive though but it's nice inside right nice
isn't this a soccer mom car definitely a soccer mom car we got the full insurance package no no
excess smash the thing up giving us a bumper car through Tokyo destruction duby take it back
completely trash thanks for had an awesome time so we think we have figured
it out the car is parked anyway the challenge will be getting it
out tomorrow morning but that's it the car is done we have the rental
ca
r and tomorrow we'll hit the road we spent the rest of the day exploring
Tokyo before getting ready to set off on our road trip we will be returning to
Tokyo at the end of our trip but before we head off on the open road we wanted to
have a couple of relaxed days of fun ready to begin our adventure the first day of the
road trip was here thankfully we were able to figure out the parking station with not
too much hassle and get out on the open road Dan and I both love adventure and hate
pla
nning we enjoy the journey more than the destination however we still need
a destination well just started driving and I realized we have no idea where we're
going [ __ ] we didn't uh endlessly driving towards we just go towards uh so we are
off on the road the trip is off to a very irresponsible start we know where we're going
kind of but we have not to hotel and if past experience told me anything Japan is
not the sort of country that you can just rock up to hotels and find a room but
th
at's exactly what we're going to try and do for us being on the road and catching
up was half the fun I love driving and rarely get to do it anymore and to be
exploring the country with a good mate driving a silly little Japanese
hybrid car was an absolute riot so we have decided to take a little
detour we were kind of near the coastline and I've wanted to check out a
Beach town it's on my list of things to do I don't think this is it but we are at
the beach we at a beach so let's check it
out so Japan does have some beautiful beaches this
is not one of them being in Australian I'm not that impressed but you said it's the best English
Beach to good goodby English standards it's cold here though ni it's warm by English standards
by English stand okay okay well these are some big ways damn we might have to we're got to
go this all right let's get out of here w well we didn't have a hotel booked we
had a general idea of where we wanted to go I'm yet to go up into the mountains
of
Japan having only visited major cities and I couldn't wait to see a new side to the
country as we got closer to our intended destination I was greeted with a nice
surprise don't stop what happen oh yeah it looks sick snow I'm me I'm Australian
we don't see snow very often oh that's amazing looks good look like a postcard yeah it does yes so one of the things that was on
my bucket list I really wanted to do was to come and stay up in the mountains this hotel
is BAS it's a ski resort basi
cally I wasn't sure going into this trip if I'd see snow at all
I know I keep talking about this but you have to understand I've only seen snow about five times
in my whole life and I'm just I'm so happy to be here this is really cool it's freezing here
by the way but ah man I'm just I'm so happy so the position of this hotel is
awesome it's exactly what I wanted we are right up check out that view we
are right up in the mountains medium size Dan's very excited about the
pajamas oh Japanes
e pajamas are the best are they a like a a robe
like a command oh let's see oh yes this place is awesome check
out this hotel room check out this view I am really happy with this room I honestly
I wasn't sure what to expect because I've been using sort of Japanese websites to try and find
all these places and when I was looking at this one there wasn't actual pictures of the room and
all the images were digitally generated images so I wasn't sure what the place was actually going to
look l
ike the next challenge was coming down here could we get a place without booking and I really
didn't know because I've had bad experience with this before here in Japan but we were able to we
just rocked up and we were able to get a room and it was really reasonably priced in the evening
we went into the town for dinner before hitting the games room in the hotel for some fun what I'm
sure you'll realize throughout this trip is Dan and I are very competitive and what started out
as just a fu
n evening in the games room got quite serious well good morning we had an awesome stay
up here in the mountains it's actually really beautiful here this morning it's
a little more clear and I can see there's mountains on the other side of the lake that
I didn't actually know where there yesterday the sunset was so nice but it kind of blocked
that view so we had a little bit of snowfall overnight and this is exactly what I wanted
I wanted to be staying somewhere beautiful like this so I've j
ust been reviewing all the
footage that we've been taking so far and this trip is off to an amazing start this hotel
this experience staying up in the mountains was exactly what I wanted so time to cross
another thing off the list oh this is a fun list cold cold cold cold cold cold ah Mr Daniel
Son your Uber has arrived staying in the mountains and seeing the snow was definitely
something that needed to be on my bucket list however the reason we stayed in these particular
mountains was no
coincidence so this morning we are heading to eisu Circuit which is about
a 45-minute drive up in the mountains from where we stay and I'm so excited I can't
wait to get to this track Abu circuit is one of Japan's most iconic drift circuits
nestled in the Scenic Hills of Nihon Matsu with multiple tracks spanning throughout
the mountains for me being a Japanese car Enthusiast visiting here is not just a bucket
list item for this trip but for my life in general oh yes we have arrived oh it's
freezing oh my God epu circuit is closed over
the winter and there were no major events on during the time we
were in Japan however the track had just reopened for free practice and we
came on the first weekend it was open this is just so awesome I was so excited to finally be in a place that
I'd only seen in videos walking around watching the drifting and checking out the cars I was
completely in my element the local people were all really friendly to us and seemed to be happy to
see a co
uple of foreigners just enjoying watching I was having an amazing time just standing on
the side of the track watching and then this happened what is your name Adam Adam
Adam nice to meet you nice to meet you too oh SLE thank you so much oh my God amazing that was unbelievable thank you so much oh my God that was that was so cool thank
you so much thank you a cool unbelievably fast you get flung all over the car it's so sick I was
just like smiling and laughing the whole time Ah that's like
ultimate bucket list there ultimate
amazing I'm ready to go home I can go back we can leave as much as I wanted to see the cars
and see all the drifting I was also very interested in the famous graveyard
this is an area where some people store their cars While others have left
them basically to rot away and die I can't believe this place even exists
I'm like a kid iny candy store here all my dream cars are in this one place some
of them have been left for dead a lot of I think a lot of the
m are for sale but
it looks like some have been sitting here for years just rotting away there's
a $100,000 RX7 that I would kill for covered in mold it's unbelievable yes
so much fun I need to cross this off my list after an incredible day at eisu circuit
and one I'll remember forever we made our way to Fukushima this is a prefecture I've always
wanted to explore we arrived in the evening checked out some of the local bars had a few
very competitive games of darts and ended up meeting som
e locals that took us out for a night
of fun bouncing from bar to bar in their nighlife District morning morning how you feeling good
good good feel better been worse I've been better in March 2011 Fukushima experienced
a magnitude 99 earthquake just off the coast causing a 15 M High tsunami destroying
coastal areas and causing a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant the
tsunami took nearly 20,000 lives and because of the nuclear meltdown 150,000
people needed to be relocated many
parts of Fukushima remain abandoned and
many areas are still forbidden to enter today we've come to What's Left of the
remains of the Edo Elementary School here in Fukushima this is in the town of Nami and
it's very eerie walking around in here this is one of the few surviving buildings in
the area pretty much everything has been wiped out we're about a couple hundred met
back from the seaw wall and this building was actually hit with a 15 M tall wall of water
basically and it's taken out
everything in this area yet this building remains taking a walk
around here is very eerie it's crazy to see these rooms just completely destroyed the wall
of water water actually went up to above the second floor here so you can see the classrooms
and everything around here is just completely destroyed just behind me here what looks like
an empty field was all one's houses completely wiped out by the tsunami and everywhere
we've been driving along here those little towns and there's no sign
of them anymore
it's basically just abandoned empty us like this an exclusion zone of a 20 km radius around
the power plant was created and while a lot of these areas are now open and deemed safe to
live many of the towns are still completely abandoned so this behind me here is the end of
the line basically this is where the exclusion Zone starts this is as far south as we can
get along the coastline and the nuclear power plant is actually not too far behind us
here so we're just doing so
me driving up and down this Co exploring and we want to head to
some abandoned towns if we can find them too we have come to the seaw wall basically this
is where the tsunami came in 15 M tall it is freezing here by the way loving the weather
far out it's cold but basically this is the end this is a sign on the ground saying don't go
beyond this point basically and you can see this building I think is quite famous I've seen it
in a few videos it's Still Standing but quite destroyed oh my Go
d it's cold
walking down these streets is quite surreal and there's definitely a
very post-apocalyptic feeling in these towns man it is so weird to be in a whole town
that's basically abandoned it feels like feels like something out of a zombie movie or something
like that it's a very surreal feeling this is wild so we've come into what looks like a old
bar or restaurant there's a house behind but this is this area here see there's a bar fridge
and this looks like a bar here so interesting
we both love exploring especially abandoned
places and things like this so super interesting a Titanic Titanic box here and uh Cindy Cindy
Crawford Cindy Crawford shape your body workout on to us the most fascinating thing
about visiting here is that true to Japanese culture people have left
everything completely untouched the homes have not been looted and we could even
still see items of value in the houses we explored so we have found a little
town that is completely abandoned spooky h
uh yeah Nature's Tak it
back over as well yeah really yeah this is wild there are huge Works underway to restore
these coastal towns and as you get further away from the center of the exclusion Zone
Fukushima is a beautiful and exciting prefecture Fukushima is Japan's third largest
prefecture and one of three main Ramen Capitals in Japan you can't come to Japan and not
eat ramen so of course that's on my list today we are in the town of kitakata the
ramen capital of Japan we're going to be
visiting a famous ramen restaurant here
but first this is a Ramen Shrine behind us in kitakata the ramen Shrine we visited
was also famous for selling Ramen flavored ice cream which sounded very strange to us but
we were very intrigued to try so we are starting off with something a little weird this is
ramen ice cream was it Ramen flavor Ramen flavor ice cream it's even got like a little
spring onion on it this looks amazing I love it oh it's nice that's weird it's weird but
it's nice doe
s taste a little bit like R but it does still taste like ice cream so she gave
us black pepper with it to try it's good she nice it's really unusual taste I like it with
the the black pepper almost like brings it like something a little like kick to the it's
good it's good really good I like it good breakfast okay thank you I all right well that was fun now we're off to a proper ramen restaurant that was good
yeah starting with ice cream I like it just behind me is a shop called Ramen IE and
this place is famous for opening up at 7:00 a.m. which is not typical for ramen STS here in
Japan the staff arrive here at 4:00 a.m. to prepare everything for the 7:00 a.m. opening
time in the town there are a lot of factory workers and many of them work overnight shifts
kitakata is one of Japan's most famous Ramen towns with the most ramen shops per capita
in the world and this restaurant was a must visit oh my God good that's amazing so much
flavor that is just amazing the ramen itself
is delicious but the broth is just so packed full
of flavor at this restaurant one of the reasons the ramen is so good is they grind pork fat into
the broth and then add it again individually to each dish so here you are supposed to slurp
your noodles as well it's a sign of respect to the chef showing that it's so delicious
you can't help yourself alloud slurping is a compliment the food on this trip has
been nothing short of spectacular and we are thoroughly enjoying eating our way around
this country a man Fukushima has been awesome from Fukushima we headed north to
the city of Sendai where we spent a couple of days taking a break from the travel okay regular uh full yeah yeah so this
is our first time stopping to fill up the car with fuel we've been driving for
like 3 days right on first tank and it's only a small tank so we just paid 4,900
Yen and we got got 27 l so it's only a 30 odd ler tank so full tank does uh 600 mil
kilm we 600 km out of 27 L that's amazing that's
why we chose this car to drive
around the country and insai we played approximately 13,000 games of darts and tried
to drink every last drop of alcohol in the city got him we even met some more locals
that took us out for a couple of nights of fun on the town currently we are one week
into the trip and having an incredible time exploring the beautiful country of
Japan I'm hammering through my bucket list adding new items to it but also having
fun and creating amazing memories off camera do
ing today is a day that it's it's a freezing
day it's a day that we are on the road doing some exploring and there's a whole bunch of towns
that we wanted to stop off at along the way this is ginzan onet which is a really traditional town
it's a hot spring town and it's so beautiful here all the driving we've been doing through the
snow covered mountains it's just been really Scenic and really incredible to experience
and I love when you come to a place like this seeing the traditional arch
itecture and of
course being covered in snow is a really nice bonus ginan onen the picturesque Hot Spring
Town of Yamagata Prefecture is famous for the historic buildings and of course the natural Hot
Springs which flow from deep underground drawing visitors seeking relaxation and Rejuvenation
in Mineral Rich waters are you me they're so hot oh yeah it's much nicer so visiting hotring
is something I definitely wanted to do on my bucket list something I must do however it's quite
challengin
g cuz Dan is covered in tattoos can't can't go to the Onan can we yes because of the
uh old Yakuza the gangster and it would have been people with tattoos were not welcome because they
wouldn't have been very pleasant so people didn't be like around them they're trying to keep
keep people like you out keep people like me out oh it's just started snowing I don't know
if you can see what a cool experience oh this is awesome visiting a hot spring outside in
the snow is something I've always wa
nted to do the challenges for this trip are not just
that Dan's completely covered in tattoos but even if I went to a traditional one alone you
can't wear clothes in them so I wouldn't be able to film it anyway so this is about
as close as we will get but I'll take it oh man that was awesome that town is so
pretty time to cross another one off the list Japan is famous for many different
things one of them is alcohol and while I'm definitely no stranger to a drink this is
a foreign concept
to me today we've come to do something that you can only do in Japan
these are saki vending machines behind me here and the way it works is you get a little
cup you exchange money for tokens and then you put it in the machine and out comes your sake
sake or Japanese rice wine is a traditional alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice
sake can vary in flavor and Aroma sake plays a deep role in Japanese culture from breaking
down walls when meeting people celebrations to showing your trust
in someone by sharing
your sake together Cheers Cheers comp comp one shot strong strong tastes all right
really tasty strong smooth though Down the Hatch just a few hours from the hot spring is
nigata city where we had found out there was a saki vending machine in town so obviously we
made the trip down we spent one fun night in the Gata before continuing down the West Coast
right now we're heading south to a town called kazawa and this is a city that really appealed
to us because it's fam
ous for being a samurai town the samurai were Elite Warriors in feudal
Japan serving noble families from the 12th to the 19th century they followed the Bido code
emphasizing loyalty honor and self-discipline they wielded katana swords and played a
significant role in Japanese society and warfare we'll begin here at the kazawa castle this
place is being completely reserved and it's really beautiful to take a walk around here after that
we're going to check out some of the local towns and som
e of the more traditional areas and
explore the history of the Samurai here in kazawa I love coming to visit places like this
it's so beautiful here and to add to it we've got a really nice day it's a lovely afternoon
we've had some crappy weather for the last few days but this is oh this is amazing kazawa
located in ishika prefecture has historical significance in Samurai history as it was
the seed of power for the me Clan during the Ido period the MAA Clan were powerful feudal
Lords know
n as the Dame mu and the samurai were influential in shaping the Region's culture
and history kazawa has preserved some Samurai districts and the kroin garden wants the ma
Clan's private Garden this is the nagamachi samurai house district and this is a really
beautiful traditional part of town actually visiting a traditional town is on my bucket list
but this is not the place that we're going to be doing that that's actually coming up tomorrow
this area is a traditional samurai town that ha
s all been preserved in its original condition
and it's just so beautiful walking around through here what are we doing Dan looking for a samurai
sword found a samurai umbrella this material is drink aoy not sharp okay okay but weight is the
same as we are one about 1.2 kg okay it's feeling dangerous it's good so same weight
yeah it does oh yeah is the samurai family female oh the female family
oh I like it though you going to get one yeah what one do you think one
of these the girls one y
eah small girl this is cool I like
this but then I like the gold on I wasn't going to buy a sword but Dan was
buying a sword and I got jealous so I think I got to get one too sword Envy after Dan
bought his sword I figured I have to have one as well it's a great souvenir to bring
home from Japan so I got the middle size one because I'm going to need to take it back on
the plane so I figured that one will fit in my suitcase I hope if it doesn't I don't know
what I'm going to do it's definit
ely not carry on I have a bad feeling about this uh-oh hopefully I can get it to I'll have to
take it out of the box hopefully I can get it like this oh God it's going to be close oh just oh thank God I really
wasn't sure if that was going to fit on my bucket list was visiting a traditional
Japanese town and as we make our way down south Kyoto was the obvious choice I was also hoping
to catch the cherry blossom while I'm here but it looks like they're still a few weeks off
but I will see it
before the end of the trip Koto is famous for its temples and shrines
which we will visit but it's also well known for preserving the older buildings
and keeping the traditional styling throughout parts of the city taking a
walk through here is like going back in time so this is what I really enjoy doing when I
travel is to just walk around and take a look at the streets look at the buildings the architecture
everything I mean look how look how beautiful this is this is the one I want to m
ake
my house just like this want to live here kilor which actually used to
be Japan's capital is one of those cities that you can just get lost
in wandering around taking in the sides what I find quite funny is
that it's fun to walk around here all day looking at just looking
at the houses and if you tried to do something like that in a small
town in Australia you'd be quite disappointed there is a certain calmness to Koto that is a real part of its charm Dan and
I wandered around the str
eets for a few hours before heading to our hotel to
check in to get ready for a night of fun so also in Koto I'm going to be
ticking one more thing off the bucket list this is something I've always wanted
to do I don't really know how I'm going to do this this is Pachinko and Pachinko we
can't actually really take a camera in here but I'm going to be taking my tiny little
DJI in and hopefully we can get away with it Pachinko is a Japanese game that is
essentially the mix of an arcade game
and a poker machine it's a massive Obsession
in Japan there are over 2.2 million pachinko machines all across the country and
some Paras having up to 1,000 machines inside money is exchanged for small balls that you play
through the machine when you get the balls into certain holes you're rewarded with more balls
which you can continue to play or exchange for prizes I don't really know what's happening
but I'm winning little B they just keep coming out oh I got something to see gambling is
actually illegal in Japan so you
cannot exchange the balls for money however you can cross the street and find a shop that will
be willing to buy your prize ticket from you for a cash amount this is the loophole that ensures
Pinko is not breaking any laws I guess what do you think that man I wanted to love it but weird
I got a clue what's going on not a clue not a clue we didn't really have any idea what we were
doing and it turns out we weren't that great at it I exchanged around $10 and g
ot to play for
around 30 minutes I won the small prizes many times but never the bigger jackpots ah dude that
was fun you enjoy no kind of yeah I did I did I did quickest way to lose $10 yeah that Weck we
went for we're in there for quite a while I'm just rubbish at it it's something we've both
wanted to do cuz we've always always seen it been really intrigued no idea what still
not idea I'm going to do it again you're going to do it again yeah yeah all right we'll
do it again in Tokyo in
Tokyo awesome so much fun we're spending two nights in Kyoto
because it's a really beautiful city and there's still a few things on my bucket list
to check off here okay this might not be for everyone but this is definitely a bucket list
item for me I'll keep the segment quick for you this place is called AE86 special
shop and why have I bought you to a dealership that sells 1980s Toyotas
well this place is actually quite special the 1986 Toyota Corolla as it was called
here also called th
e the Toyota Sprinter was made famous from a Japanese anime Initial D
Initial D started off as a Manga comic in 1995 before becoming an animated Series in
1998 while I do enjoy the odd anime it's not something I watch often but anyone that has a
passion for Japanese cars has watched Initial D I put down onto the anime last night
what did you think love it now I want one tofu store right yeah t St recently these
cars have become a real collector's item in places like Australia or America the
y're
really hard to come by an example of one of these in Australia probably goes for around
55 to $65,000 which seems crazy there was a point in time these cars were undesirable
[ __ ] boxes but they've since grown a cult following and to see this many looking like this
Allin one place it's just it's mind-blowing to me Dan has been very patient with me taking him
to all these weird spots along the way but I promised him I'd make it up to him because
I had a great afternoon planned somewhe
re special now when I think of Kyoto I think
of beautiful traditional houses and temples and shrines we've come to one of the the
most famous ones have actually come on a Sunday for some reason and it seems like the
whole rest of Kyoto is here as well but we're still going to check it out Fushimi Inari
Taisha is a Shinto Shrine located in Koto it was founded all the way back in 71 ad and
is dedicated to Inari the Shinto God of rice prosperity and business the shrine is famous
for its thous
ands of vibrant orange tauy Gates that form winding paths up the sacred Mount
Inari these gates are known as toi and they Mark the significance of passing through
from The Real World into the realm of the Gods it's really beautiful here but
it's super busy but every now and then you get lucky and there's no one
around and you get a little pocket to yourself there are around 880,000 Shinto shrines
throughout Japan ranging from small local shrines to larger ones like this one these shrines
p
lay a significant role in Japanese culture and spirituality serving as a place of worship
cultural heritage and Community Gatherings this one here in Kyoto is a sight to behold it's
just so beautiful here everything looks like a movie or an anime or something if you see
the characters on the fence here is really beautiful I'm loving all of this we spent the rest of the afternoon
one wandering around Kyoto taking in the sights and continuing to eat
as much amazing food as humanly possible ah
man Koto has been a real success and I
am oh I'm so excited for what we've got coming up still top of the morning to youp morning
excited for Kobe yeah look for some poo so today we are off to Kobe and we are
going to Kobe for one reason and one reason only Kobe was a must- visit town for us and while
we didn't know much about Kobe at all the city is famous all across the world and we knew the most
important thing so the reason that we have come to Kobe is to eat basically Kobe beef I've o
nly
had once before and I'm dying to try it here and of course we had to come to Kobe to try
the best Kobe is famous for its exceptionally high quality beef the marbling and tenderness
make this often considered the highest quality beef in the world and tonight we are visiting
a restaurant that's been highly recommended to us Kobe beef is not just any cattle from
Kobe there are specific requirements and each restaurant must have a license to say that
they are eligible to cook the highest q
uality beef Kobe comes from a specific breed of
wagu cattle raised in the hiyo prefecture these cattle are pampered with a special
diet strict regulations and even massage regularly to ensure the meats unparalleled
taste tenderness and rich flavor it Ben my mouth is watering so the intricate marbling
of the fat throughout the meat contributes to its buttery texture and melting your mouth
sensation making Kobe beef a highly sought after delicacy we got two different types of beef
to try thi
s last one that we're having is the serlo that's just it's unbelievable it's worth
the money oh man amazing you satisfied satisfied by far e easily the most beautiful meat I've
ever eaten yeah yeah I think so the flavor is just amazing how soft and tender it is it's
just on another level thank you byebye thank you bye-bye oh my God that was amazing check that
off the list Kobe beef definitely isn't cheap and the meal ran us both about $200 each but it was
definitely worth it to have an incr
edible meal and for the experience after after our meal Dan and
I hit the town for some beers and of course more darts well Kobe was awesome except I'm not happy
last night I had my ass handed to me in DS Dan was Dan was on fire fire last night six Bull's eyes
in a row six Bull's eyes in a row that's really after an amazing and expensive timing Kobe we
made way to Osaka my favorite city in Japan we are in Osaka now I'm just reviewing all the
footage from Kobe we had an amazing time there bu
t we had our first real kind of issue I guess
it's been really smooth sailing up until now but when we were leaving Kobe we got screwed over by
our hotel basically that wasn't entirely their fault so our hotel gave us a map of where to park
and it's all in Japanese and they recommended a place for us to park that had cheap parking right
next to the car park is another car park that we weren't supposed to park in that's short-term
parking only so when we went to go get the car the following
morning we were hit with a $171 bill for
parking overnight as opposed to $20 what we were expecting well weed up and parked in the wrong
car park last night this is how much $171 to park overnight Savage big mistake anyway even with
that Kobe was amazing it was just an expensive couple of days but all good still getting
through this list and still having a bunch of fun today we are in shinsekai in
Osaka and there's something really special here that I'm dying to tick
off my bucket list Sak
ai is a district full of restaurants bars shops gaming
everything is here and it's complete Madness now being the fact that I was a
kid that grew up in the '90s and loving the feeling of nostalgia something I had
to do on this trip was to come and visit a retro video game store today in the shinsekai
district we've come to a retro games arcade that has all the games the classics that
you used to play a whole bunch of games you've never even heard of and this is
just it's like going back in
time it's amazing in my childhood video games were a very
new thing and all these original games have made a real Resurgence original console games are now
becoming collector's items and this arcade has all the classics from the ' 80s and '90s just doing
all the cheats I know you know 1989 me so as a kid I wasn't a huge gamer or anything like that but
I just find all this all this stuff really cool I had the original Nintendo I never had a Super
Nintendo I had a Sega Mega Drive a Sega Mast
er System oh God I got to dig back way back in the
memory PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 but it's just so cool to see all these old games you haven't
played in years and years the original Mario Brothers Street Fighter I don't even know
what half these games are but it's so much fun I can steal that d so funny I haven't played this in years
like I couldn't even tell you the last time I played this you still remember where
all the cheats and everything are so much have fun so good so good highl
ights of the
trip one of the highlights of the trip for sure remember this one I don't remember that
either it's the first maker this this is it right yeah this is it like threee Nintendo yeah
well they didn't come out in the west maybe this is what the first Nintendo looked like before
they repackaged it as the nest oh right I didn't know the red one so continuing on with this
theme just nearby is a retro game store and they sell everything here from old games old
consoles this is just st
ep back in time it's amazing Super Nintendo games along here so cool
controllers oh the gun I never had this really cool so unfortunately I didn't see anything that
I really wanted I was hoping to get a Game Boy or something like that I'm going to be making a
studio space soon in Bangkok I thought a retro video game console from here would be really cool
but they only had one game boy it was at 300 bucks so I can actually get it cheaper in Thailand
but it's so cool to walk around and see th
is anyway we spent a total of 3 days in
Osaka hanging out and having fun and taking a break from filming as I mentioned
earlier Osaka is my favorite City in Japan so it was nice to take a break from
the fast-paced trip and just have some fun we are back on the road today heading to
a town called Nara which I'm really excited about this two things that I want to do in Nara
and I think one of them is going to be a real highlight what is no no no no no
no no no this is this is not good oh tha
t's the car park ah all good where we parked the
car I thought what I'm looking for wasn't here but that's just the car park I
think what we found or what we need is up ahead well what a disappointment so this
area that you see behind me just here is is or used to be an abandoned theme park
and this is one of the most famous ones in Japan that I've been able to come across
and it looked am amazing I was dying to come here and check it out but it looks like it's
all been flattened Nara Drea
mland opened in 1961 and ran until 2006 it was reported to be
demolished in 2016 however videos and photos kept showing up online of an abandoned amusement
park leading it to becomeing a attaction for urban explorers I'm really confused by this because I'd
seen a YouTube video from a guy that explored this like 6 months ago and I've just jumped back on cuz
that place looks like it's been flattened for a really really long time so I'm just doing a little
more research now I'm checking I'm in
the right place I think I am okay I've been doing a bit of
reading and looking at the video what I think has happened is this person's reposted an old video or
used old footage or whatever to to tell the story so unfortunately it looks like this place has
actually been knocked down for a really long time I was really looking forward to this I thought
this was going to be a real highlight of the trip damn oh man this sucks anyway there is something
else I wanted to do in narrow so let's go
do that with fresh feelings of defeat from the
amusement park I'm Keen to turn this day around so we've come to Nara Park and this
isn't just any old park there's something really special here there are around 1400 deer
living in Nar Park and the surrounding areas deer are sacred animals here and Legend has
it these deer are protected messengers of the gods hello I just bought some biscuits to feed the
deer so I think I don't know if they're trained or they just know to do it but they'll bo
w to you
before you feed them I think we'll see feeding the biscuits I'm hungry myself that's so lovely so I first discovered
this place a year ago and I didn't know that there was live deer here I just came
down thinking it was a regular Park I was pleasantly surprised to see them here last
year was a lot quieter and it was much easier to feed them they're all running towards
me to get the biscuits I think this year there's a lot more people here so they're not as
Keen for it it's just so
nice to see them like this I love animals and being outdoors
in park so I really enjoy enjoyed the day just wandering around and hanging out
with the deer I was disappointed about the amusement park not being there but it ended
up being a great day so yesterday in Osaka we did the Retro video games which was
a whole lot of fun but I actually had one more thing that I wanted to do there I
wanted to do the Super Mario Kart experience and unfortunately we weren't able to do it so
unfortunate
ly Dan didn't meet the requirements with his licensing or whatever the issue
was and I didn't want to without him so we scrapped that one but in 2 days I've missed
two off the bucket list that I have to do next time we spent one night at a small town
near Nara before heading back on the road we were treated to amazing
weather and a very spectacular view well good morning from cucho we
came here for two reasons number one to see Mount Fuji which is just here and
number two to visit a conven
ience store for breakfast and we thought what better
convenience store than Japan's most famous however it seems like there's like a million
people here today for some reason this is ridiculous there is literally Bast
loads of people here this is it's a joke honestly not what I was expecting at
all one of the things on my bucket list is to have breakfast at a convenience store
this particular Lawson is really famous for having Mount Fuji in the background and
it's often shown in movies and
Anime I was not expecting it to be anywhere near this
busy so we decided to skip it for now this is ridiculous hilarious so we took the drive around to Lake cucho because the view of Mount
Fuji from here is epic look at that Mount Fuji truly is a sight
to behold Japan's largest Peak at nearly 4,000 M and is still an
active volcano we got lucky with the amazing weather so decided to
take a drive up for a close closer look wasn't expecting that driving up to
Mount Fuji and a deer ran out in
front of the car might have to slow down a little
we spent the afternoon driving and walking around parts of the mountain before heading
back out on the road heading to somewhere I was really really excited to visit good
morning from a small town called numazu and this wasn't part of my original plan
but we're staying at a little beach house here and I have to show you this because
it's unbelievably cute come in and check it out this is a really cute little
traditional style Japanese hous
e this was my room last night I stayed
on little futons but I actually put the ball out and it was quite comfortable the
room itself is lovely there's a beautiful painting on the wall here really nice
little attention to detail in all these things as we come up here there's an upstairs
this was Dan room and again a traditional Japanese style I just love all this stuff it's
so beautiful and we didn't know that we were going to be staying in a place like this when
we came here it just happen
ed to be like this this is really cool a little sun room here
there's all these bizarre rooms off the main part of the house that we just kept discovering
there's little doorways everywhere little room here this is a little dining room I guess this is
all lovely it's all wood everywhere it actually smells like a sauner in here it's quite nice
unbelievably random and as I mentioned we're at of Beach town so I'll show you around
there as well because that was on my list now when you think of
Japan the beach might
not be the first thing that comes to mind but here we are this is atami Beach a
little over an hour out of Tokyo it's a popular getaway full of hotels and
resorts on the seaside there's even a little surfing nearby but the
day we were there had next to no swell Japan actually has some incredibly
beautiful beaches and Islands especially in the South and while we won't make it
this time I still wanted to see a Beach Town gosh it's so easy to forget that you're
in Japan
as we walk along here just as we were driving down the hill to come in here you could
still see Mount Fuji and now we come here you could be anywhere in the world right now so nice
I get vibes of being in Australia being here down at the marina seeing all the BS lovely what we
came to realize on this trip is we won't get to see the whole country in the time we have here so
we are already starting to plan our next trip to Japan so welcome to Tokyo welcome to a love hotel now
if you've caugh
t a glimpse at my bucket list at any stage I've been trying to keep quite secretive
with it but one of the things on there is to stay in a love hotel and since we're in Tokyo I mean
look at this place it's insane love hotels are all over Japan and the reason they exist is
in traditional Japanese culture people live with their family typically until they marry so
living with your family makes it hard to have any intimate time with your partner these hotels are
all available for short use as
well as overnight stays now there's all different types of Love
hotels that you can stay at here in Japan this one is themed it's kind of like a karaoke room
some of them have very extravagant theming some hotels have individual rooms will have all
different different concepts for each room they're often actually quite large this one is on
the smaller end but it's also on the cheaper end love hotels are all about discretion when booking
you can use a vending machine instead of talking to an
yone they don't ask for your details or
any identification and when you pick up the keys at reception the window is blocked with
a reflective glass screen so that you cannot be seen by the staff working there if you choose
to park in the car park you can also cover your number plate so that people can't see your car
and recognize you there so this one is set up like this is the bed here and then this is all
kind of couches around this one is like an entry level room I think so if you're not
super close
to someone you can come to one of these and it's a karaoke room that has a bed basically so this
is all couch up the back here there's couch along the side there is a giant television that has
a whole bunch of TV stations movies on demand there's games there's karaoke there's a whole lot
of adult entertainment on there and it's all part of the hotel package it's all included in the ray
these love hotels are designed to have everything that you would need inside most people that
use them don't bring luggage so the rooms are equipped with everything that you would need
so you don't need to bring anything with you so this hotel was around $100 a night and to
put that into perspective for the other hotels if you want to stay at a regular business Hotel
you're looking at around $250 a night to stay with within this area on a weekend so these are
often a much cheaper option and the rooms are kind of cool there are booklets and magazines
here that as you take a look th
rough they have they have all sorts of things available this area
that we're staying is in Kabuki Cho which is kind of like a red light district it's not really a
red light district but it's quite fascinating there's a lot of host and hostess bars here and
while I don't really understand exactly what's going on in there the whole subculture is very
fascinating so I guess the most important question is how's the bed it's good it's probably
got a bit of mileage on it but hey so do I all right
good morning so today I am out to
get a little Redemption on a previously failed Mission convenience store breakfast everywhere you
go in Japan there are convenience stores and it's not uncommon for Japanese people to even have
meals in there true to Japanese ways they like to hang on to Traditions so you'll always see
things like magazines comics and photocopiers inside okay let's take a look at the fridge we've
got all juices and everything here coffee I'm not much of a coffee drinker fr
esh fruit mandarin
orange jelly fresh fruit up here yogurts cakes Sweet Things o I love all this yum not for
breakfast and we've got Meats by the looks of it these are that's fish more fish grilled pork fried
chicken skin everything here eggs if you want to make your food make a salad you got cabbage here
got chicken here for the salad salad dressing salad sauces ham bacon and then we're starting
to get into the microwave food section noodle dishes here A whole bunch of microwave options
s
ome soups ooh I might have a soup actually that sounds good now we're in the sandwich section we
got burritos up here some more juices sandwiches look at this one strawberries custard and
whipped cream sandwich no thank you and then you can see here there's lots of different
Noodle and microwave options over a little more we' got small salads pickled vegetables some
salad dressings cherry tomatoes and then even more microwave food there's a whole section
here of different rice bowls rice bo
wl with pork and garlic one of the things I love about
here as well is they've got hot food check this out pork burs fried chicken sausages Curry bread
these are delicious so many different things to try okay I'm going to go with this soup with
chicken green onion and pearl barley I don't really know what any of this is I'm just going to
look at the pictures and hope for the best lemon salad than thank you so one of the cool things about the
convenience stores here is you can sit inside and
eat your food so I ended up getting that
soup and a what I think is a mango passion fruit juice well I'm not going to lie that was way
better than I was expecting all right well it is time to tick one more off the list however
yesterday I had another failed Mission it's so one of the things on my bucket list was to attend
a car meet here I did it last year and it was a really cool experience yesterday was the day we
were going to go do it and unfortunately it got rained out it was just rai
ning really really
hard and given that I leave in a few days I'm not actually going to get this one done so another
fail and another one to add on the list for next year we are on the final leg of our journey now
back to Tokyo for 5 days before wrapping up the trip we had to Bid Farewell to
our trustiness and note that we' put almost 3,000 km on and prepare for
a few fun days in Tokyo thank you bye-bye all right drop the
car off all good no extra fees kind of just a shitload of tolls you h
ungry stop so one of the things on my bucket list was
to eat sushi of course you have to eat sushi in Japan and we did we ate at this place car which
was amazing however I couldn't actually film because thanks to some idiot that decided it' be
a fun idea to lick a soy sauce bottle and post it on social media now that they don't let anyone
film inside anyway we did eat sushi and it was amazing we are flying through this list
getting down to the fun ones there is three left and tonight we're
going to do two of
them so first up is baseball now you might not think of baseball when you think of Japan but
baseball is Japan's most popular sport baseball has actually become Japan's national sport it's
ever growing popularity is very apparent across the country when we were in Japan last year
they won the World Series against America and it was a huge day for Japanese people not only
do they have a highly competitive local league but many Japanese players have also been
drafted to th
e United States to play Major League it seems everywhere you go in Japan
there's a baseball field but there's also baseball cages everywhere and all throughout
the city this is going to be a whole lot of fun all right here we go I'm not
supposed to have the camera in here but whatever good that one oh man that is so much fun it's
much harder than you think much like everything else here in Japan you pay
it a vending machine and the equipment is all included we paid around $10 and
got 60 ba
lls these cages are all super popular and a whole lot of fun and what do
you know Dan and I got competitive again so nice when you hit like how you supposed
to time for beer I think that was fun what did you thing exhausting right I'm so bad at
it it's hard dude like I never played did you play baseball at school we never play baseball
don't have baseball in England though we don't in Australia so I'd never played we play cricket
but it's like quite different but it's a whole lot of fun I t
hink when they see two westerners in
there they're like two Americans are they going to be really good I'm wearing like a Dodgers
hat I've got like a Nashville like hat like a local one they're like oh yeah these guys
they pable they know what they're doing they know we definitely don't know what we're doing
I think they soon saw yeah yeah good fun I liked it so after all that physical activity and Sport
it's time for a beer so we have come to the golden guy which is a little network of hid
den bars it's
like amazing here and there's thousands of bars here so these are all small bars sit around four
or five people the thing is when you go in it's full commitment you can see the stairs behind me
here you have no idea how many people are inside if it's full if you can get a seat so you you need
to just kind of go for it after you Dan one two 3 the way these small bars work is you can
go in and if there's anyone else in the bar you can all chat together the only thing
is if the
bar is full or doesn't look like your style when you walk in everyone turns
around and looks at you and then you need to do the awkward walk out okay thank you
so much bye-bye a that was fun on to the next we bounced around several of the bars
in here we'd visited this last bar on our previous trip this one everyone writes on
money and sticks it on the walls or roof we enjoyed a local Japanese beer and look for
our notes from last year which we never found super tool oh yeah that was good
fun so it's time for us to put the camera away and have some beers properly yeah all right here we are time to cross the
final thing off the bucket list and that's to see cherry blossom and I actually wasn't
even sure if this one was going to be able to happen because the weather hasn't been
great plus it's late this year and raining today even this is our last day here and
if it wasn't today it wasn't going to happen so as we reflect on the trip it's been an amazing
few weeks what's your h
ighlight there's been so much right I'm a foodie so maybe Kata Ramen
was pretty good or the Kobe beef what about you beef I think Fukushima walking around those
the aband around the completely abandoned towns it was a really surreal experience and yeah it was
crazy super cool good food so much good food you can't get a bad meal in Japan I think we get one
right no one my my favorite Ramen was the Tokyo place oh yeah yeah that little spot you sit in
in the little room yeah yeah sick in the l
ittle room in the little room so we didn't get through
everything on the list three things I wasn't able to do but we're coming back right obviously coming
back obviously I'm sad I'm about to fly back to England going to miss Jaan you going to come up
with your own bucket list next time next time part two coming soon as our trip draws to a close we
took the the last couple of days to really soak it in and enjoy our time here this adventure has
been awesome we made incredible memories met a
ton of amazing people and tried our best to eat all
of the food in the country but most importantly we had a wonderful time just two mates road tripping
around Japan and while we didn't get to see the whole country and complete the entire bucket list
that's no big deal because of course we'll be back
Comments
1 hour, 18 minutes and 30 seconds....that seems like a long time. But!......watching this documentary, it flew by so fast! It was even too short, cause it was not a nice moment knowing the documentary was over. Could have watched double the time. Lovely to see 2 good mates enjoying a holiday like this together. All you saw where 2 huge smiles. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to the next one!
This conversation is a reminder of the power of dialogue to bridge divides and foster understanding. It's uplifting.🍓
Your best video ever! I am so glad I saved this video for this evening!
That was a great video, Adam. Looks like you boys had an awesome trip. There are so many more places in Japan that you can visit. Hope to see more full travel documentaries soon.
Great work Adam and Dan. Absolutely wonderful video. Keep up the amazing work. Thanks so much. Patrick
Niiiice one Adam and Dan! You both MUST hit Okinawa on your next visit and see smaller islands from there like Kume, beautiful places and totally different scenery than mainland. We were just in Taipei, Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Himeji on our recent trip and wrapping it up now in Seoul.
Buzzing to see Dan again . Good chemistry , doc realy well put together 8/10 👊 🤜 🤛 ✊️
I’m back after completing the whole vlog/film. I can see you tried your best to squeeze within the shortest time possible but without leaving out the important details. Thank you Adam for this wonderful journey with you and Dan. Loved loved the AE86 shop. Thank you for that. 🤙Till next year…🙏krup
Great to see you & Dan the man back out Voging again 👍
Great to finally see you do a longer vid that I can sink my teeth into! Great stuff
Great video, great trip. This brought back so many memories for me. I traversed many of the sites you were at. Namie was an absolute heartbreaker for me. That is the first town I stayed in while working at Fukushima power plant 35 years ago. The whole area was my second home for years. The west coast from Niigata to Kanazawa was my stomping grounds when I lived in Kashiwazaki, near the Kira nuclear plant. Thanks for taking me back to some of best memories and some of my hardest!
This is awesome! You're a natural at documentaries.
Well done Gents, great footage, great company, and awesome entertainment. Thanks for the Vid ❤
Absolutely fantastic video mate, very well done 10/10 👍
Great trip guys!!!! Adventures & educational. Looking forward for your next trip
Loved the video! I’ve been in JP just about 2 years now, although I usually just stay around Tokyo. Motivated me to explore other places. Missing out. Thanks for the video and good vibes 😎
😊 Absolutely fabulous guys I'm an old geezer but hopefully one day I'll be able to make a journey over there to some of the places you guys have enjoyed Please keep up the great YouTube journeys Thank you for sharing them🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Well done boyz, great vlog, and good to see Danny boy again. Hey Dan 🤗 Anyhow, as always, C Ya in the next one Adam, cheers 👊🍻
Great vid Adam & Dan, looks like a blast. ..at least you both got to drive on your native side of the road👍🏼
Well Done for sure Adam. I lived in Japan and you saw more then I did in two weeks. Great video for sure.