I Traveled 16 Hours To Rural Japan For This

I Traveled 16 Hours To Rural Japan For This

It’s getting real hot and sweaty in Tokyo. So, we’re going to take a trip up north where it’s slightly cooler to Akita. What is Akitan known for? Here’s a hint. Just look out the window. [Music] If you don’t know what a Japanese prefecture is known for, you can usually get a pretty good idea by looking around the station after you get off the bullet train. Tic-tac-toe. Do you choose X or do you choose O? It’d be pretty inappropriate if this were an O instead of an X. In the big cities, stepping out of the Shinkansen station brings you right at the doorstep of hustle and bustle. But here in Akab, you step out into a beautifully manicured lawn. We’ve seen Akita dogs. We’ve seen rice fields. But something else comes to mind when I think of Akita, and I quickly came across it just walking from the station to my hotel. There are three big famous summer cultural festivals in the northeastern region of Japan. The Almi Nebata Festival, the Senti Tanabata Festival, and the Akira Kanto Festival. Looks like there’s some great practice underway for the Kanto Festival. The lantern poles used for the festival can be up to 120 lbs. And he is balancing it on his forehead. I’m surprised kids do this part. It looks dangerous, but it is not festival weekend, and I don’t find seeing a giant stuffed dog or eating rice compelling reasons to come to Akitab. I’ve come all the way here for only one thing, but we have a ways to go before we get to see it. This trip is turning out to be a sampler of public transportation. We started with a 4-hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo. After staying the night near the station, we will need to take a 1-hour train ride to Hadachi station and then we need to transfer to a local bus. If we miss this bus, it takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to walk to our final destination. And I don’t think I have that in me. I thought this was a toy some kid left on the bench, but on closer examination, it looks pretty real to me. Transit in rural Japan is super nerve-wracking. In Tokyo, you can catch a train every 8 minutes or so, but here the train only comes every hour and a half. If I miss this bus, the next one comes in 5 hours. So, I guess that means five extra hours with Mr. Froggy here. Just kidding. It means I need to get on this bus. [Music] Luckily, the bus did come. So, yay. The trip is still on. Is that it? I think I see it. I’ve never seen hydrangeia bloom like this before. They are so densely clustered and fluffy and perfect looking and blue. The temple isn’t open yet, but I already know that this trip out here is going to be worth it. I am not the only one crazy for flowers here. While waiting, I chatted with a Japanese lady who did a solo drive here from Chiba, sleeping at RV parks. That is a 13-hour drive. She’s got to drive back. Yay, it’s finally opening. [Music] I took a bullet train, stayed overnight, nervously tested the reliability of the local transportation. That’s 16 hours of travel, all for this one moment. [Music] You saw earlier how the bus I took from the train station only comes by a handful of times a day. And because of the bus schedule for the way back, I had the choice between staying here for 1 hour or staying here for 4 hours. And with all that time and effort I put into getting here, I chose to spend just one hour here. So, it was a little rushed, but despite how beautiful it is, I just couldn’t imagine myself staying here for 4 hours. I think the sweet spot would have been an hour and a half. Obviously, if you don’t mind renting a car, that would be the best, but I don’t like driving by myself, especially in a foreign country. However, even though I only spent 1 hour here, I thought the whole trip was completely worth it. This unique and stunning garden is imprinted in my mind for a lifetime. We are running a ranking of flower gardens on this channel, and I rank this S tier. Even though I spent 3 days in that S tier garden and only spent 1 hour on this one, this garden rightfully earns its place because the hydrangeia are so densely planted, flourishingly, stunningly blue in a way that I haven’t seen before. And there’s no garden that I’ve encountered like it. Thanks for watching. Bye.

#japantravel #hydrangea #akita
sometimes a city mouse wants to pretend to be a country mouse
visiting the rural countryside for one of the best hydrangea spots in Japan, Unshoji Temple