How to Travel Japan – The Ultimate Bucketlist (Full Travel Documentary)

JAPAN! We are here!
In this feature-length Travel Documentary, Dan and I are spending 3 weeks traveling all over the country. We rent a car from Tokyo and head out on the road, completely unplanned. We his several awesome spots like The Mountains, Fukushima, Sendai, Ginzan Onsen, Niigata, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Numazu, Atami and of course Mount Fuji before finishing up in Tokyo.

We had an incredible through Japan, we took in the sights, ate as much as we could and had the time of our lives traveling through this incredible country!

#japan #travel #documentary
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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 from 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 whack 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 hotel 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 car 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 planning 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 that’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 basically 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 Japanese 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 like 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 fun 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 just 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 couple 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 them 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 some 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 some 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 God 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 huh 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 does 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 doing 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 architecture 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 challenging 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 wanted 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 famous 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 some 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 known 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 has 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 yeah 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 definitely 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 make 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 streets 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 got 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 the 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 they’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 somewhere 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 thousands 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 play 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 only 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 quality 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 this 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 incredible 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 but 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 Sakai 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 Master 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 highlights 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 step 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 this 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 that’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 Dreamland 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 bow 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 unfortunately 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 convenience 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 house 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 happened 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 caught 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 anyone 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 through 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 fresh 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 some 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 bowl 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 raining 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 hungry 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 the 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 balls 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 think 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 hidden 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 highlight 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 little 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