And then the Tsunami Hit – Japan Road Trip 🇯🇵✨

And then the Tsunami Hit – Japan Road Trip 🇯🇵✨

So yeah, tsunami warnings the only news. high 
school students evacuated to this rooftop. Urgh!!, day one. First 10 minutes. We’re just 
driving out of Osaka. Would you believe it? There’s a tsunami warning. We want to drive 
along the west coast. Is it Michele? Or east coast? East. East coast. East coast. And there’s a 
big tsunami warning, but we’re we’re going anyway. We’re not going right down onto the coast, so 
we’ll be safe. Are we organized? Not really. Do we know what we’re doing? Not really. Not at 
all. And um but we’re doing it. We’re doing it. How this road trip around Japan, we’ve named 
our little car ready bubbles. And there’s a story behind that. Some very close friends will 
know already why the car is called Bubbles. So, day one and the very beginning of 
our Japan road trip. Two months around Japan. Wow, these are narrow little 
roads. Even for these tiny cars, people grow rice. You see here, any little bit 
of field, they’re growing rice in the fields. There’s another one to to our right here. 
Now, the reason we went for this car, so it’s not quite a Kei car, although it’s a 
Kei car body, it’s classed a little bit higher. It has a more powerful engine. And we took some 
advice and several people said to us, you know, if you’re going to do a long journey, you need a 
little more power than the 6 or 700. Little Tori gate, was there? Yeah. Oh, cool. We did get 
a Kei car initially and we went for a drive, didn’t we, Michele? We had this cool little 
Kei car and we went up into the mountains and it really struggled up the hills. So, 
I’m finding this one’s got a lot more power. Uh you can actually accelerate and 
overtake something if you need to and you can certainly go up the up the hill. So, I 
think it’s the perfect car for us. [Music] Wow, look at that valley ahead. It’s nice. Look 
as I come around this corner here. Look. See, we going through that valley. Oh, wow. 
That’s pretty, isn’t it? It is nice. What are your thoughts, Michele, on this um first 
day? It’s a bit of the unknown what we’re getting ourselves into, but I think we’ll be all right. 
I think we can do it. Oh, we know we’ll be all right. It’s just as usual, we haven’t got we 
haven’t got a clue what we’re doing. We just got to get ourselves organized and sometimes you 
just got to step off the edge. And at least we’re not hiking or cycling this time. No. These houses 
up here pretty, aren’t they? They are pretty. We’re probably not going to film much today 
cuz we’re really really finding our feet unless something weird happens. We’re just finding 
our feet. So, see you on the road. Okay. So, I just said to Michele, “Turn the camera.” We’ve 
been in this tunnel for I I’m going to say three, four, five minutes. I can actually We can 
see the bend now. But this is probably one of the longest tunnels I can remember even in 
maybe in the Alps in Austria or Switzerland, but it’s one of the longest tunnels. You know, 
this is all free, which it should be. I mean, the people of Japan have paid obviously to have 
this built. So why they should then have to pay to use it would be a madness. And I do think I 
was saying to Michele around the world, you know, there are so many countries that use toll roads 
now. And I find it a little bit offensive that the governments, you know, use the money, the 
taxes that you pay to build roads and then charge you to drive on them. So it’s nice to see um Oh, 
how pretty is this? It’s nice to see, you know, these sort of facilities. Now, there are way 
too many toll roads in Japan for my liking, and I think people should uprise and 
say to their governments, you know, we paid for these roads. Uh, we don’t really 
want to then have to pay to use them. But, uh, wow. We are in a gorgeous roadway. Gorgeous 
gorge. A gorgeous gorge. Right. All right, I’m going to stop cuz Michele’s arm’s aching. Okay, 
so we’re in the what I thought was a town. It’s a city really of Wakyama. Bit like Osaka again. 
Quite big. It’s not really where we want to be, but we wanted to come and just see Wakyama. It’s 
the next city up. And um that drive, by the way, was beautiful, wasn’t it? So nice. And I wish I 
could have shown you. There’s these uh Michi No eki like parking places, like service stations, 
and they’re great. They’ve got like local food, farmers markets. We’ve probably passed 10 of them 
or so. We’ve been into two. Sorry I didn’t film, but we were we didn’t know what to expect. 
And today, to give you a sort of reference, is the day of the tsunami warning, the 
big one. So, we have seen a few signs, haven’t we? But nobody’s nobody’s rushing away 
at the moment. So, we’ll keep driving. But we’re getting down to sea level now cuz the Wakyama 
port is just ahead of us somewhere. But we’re going to get out out of this city. It’s not that 
we don’t like Wakyama. It’s just it’s it’s it’s too similar to where we were in Osaka just now. 
And what’s the name of the town we were one of the first towns we had marked? Yeah. Yua has held 
a second news conference. It’s urging people in coastal areas or along rivers to evacuate 
to safer areas immediately. Be there until is lifted. Waves may continue for an extended 
and there could be powerful surges that cause further damage. The agency says tsunami waves are 
expected to continue for at least a safety. So, we’re listening to NHK World of the I’ve just 
done a report from the town we’re in saying that people are going to the evacuation centers and 
earthquakes. So, I know how scary a tsunami. I figured I shouldn’t move around until the advisory 
lift. So, yeah, tsunami warnings. Around 300 res, including high school students evacuated to this 
rooftop in Hokkaido’s Mukawa town. belongs to the fire department association. It’s our first 
day driving along the coast. What a day to choose. [Music] In the coastal town of Matsushima 
in Vi Prefecture, people fled to higher ground, including this parking lot a drive from shore. So, 
we’re really pretty much at coastal. I can get up these mountains if I have to. Destructive tsunami 
waves may hit Hawaii in 400 m. Continue straight. China. What do you think, Michele? Russian state 
news agency has released footage reportedly provided by the Russian Academy of Science. 
I don’t think we’ll be continue straight then turn right. I don’t think we’ll be camping on the 
coast as we plan to do. Be in the hills a little bit. That’s actually the estie from the sea. At 
the light, turn right. The staterun pass news agency has also aired the video. Okay. Let’s go 
downhill. We go downhill then. Continue for 7 km. That is sea level. It’s a tsunami 
warning. And that is sea level. Run for the hills. They say run for the hills. 
Day one. Exciting stuff. Never a dull moment. So, we are monitoring. I mean, we’ve heard that the 
the highest the waves have been here is about do they say two about two 2 feet? Uh yeah. 
50 cm actually in this area is the highest. Yeah. Um but the thing is the the waves tsunami 
waves come in sort of like they they come in like the ripples on a pond, you know, they get 
bigger and bigger as as they come. So, they are expecting some fairly big tsunami waves coming 
in, but we’re not sensing any immediate urgency in the locals here. And we are monitoring very 
closely. I think it’s maybe further up towards Haido Island where it’s closer to Russia where 
the the massive earthquake has been. Um, yeah, but it is a little, you know, worrying. It’s uh 
what time is it? 4:00 in the afternoon and we we want to be stopping in the next couple of hours. 
We were planning to sleep in the car tonight. We’ve got a bed sort of fashioned in the back, 
but I’m definitely not going to be doing it at uh at sea level. I don’t think I’ll be able to 
sleep comfortably. And I’d say here where we are, we’re probably below sea level. It’s probably 
a little lower. We’re in a valley. [Music] But you can Tori gate. Oh yeah. And 
are we going straight or can’t see you? Yeah. We’re just car we’re going to 
go right the way along the coast, aren’t we? Yeah. The international research 
institute of disaster science at Toku University was wellversed in the mechanism 
of tsunami. That is our route. He said there have previously been major earthquakes in 
the Kamaka Peninsula. The largest was in 1952. At the time it caused tsunami to 
hit Japan. What is that saying? 30° C. There’s the sea. So, there is the coast and we’re pretty 
low. If they get the expected Wow, we are very close, aren’t we? Yeah. Good. 
Uh I you we shouldn’t be laughing really. We shouldn’t be laughing. Oh, look at 
this. Look at this. In Ishinoaki city, Miyagi Prefecture leaders said waves 
more than 3 m high. You can hear the news of northeastern Japan. It’s like there 
were reports of house houses being flooded all down the coast. Evacuate. Evacuate. 
And we are here in prefectures of Shisu. It’s very beautiful though, 
isn’t it, Michele? It’s great, isn’t it? Lovely. It’s gorgeous. You 
can see the uh the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, we can see the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, we can 
see the Pacific Ocean. Soon after noon, it’s there. the first wave was detected 30 cm 
was observed the evacuation. So they’re doing reports from around different parts of the country 
evacuate one um old man said uh he’s going to kand we’re okay. Okay, they got the 
tsunami breakers here. Oh gosh. You know, it is quite um what’s the word? 
Mellowing. Sombering. Sombering. Yeah. The the thought that this area here 
could within the next 24 hours be hit by a fairly big tsunami. Probably find 
most the boats are in in this harbor. We’ve just rocked up. We need 
to do a bit of shopping. So, we The ocean is just there. We’re pro probably 
Well, you can look. This is a super evergreen. I don’t think it’s very much above sea 
level, but people seem to be shopping. There’s Michele. Hello. Super evergreen. This 
is a good supermarket to look out for. Not been in evergreen before. No. Nice meat if we’re 
going to be having barbecues on the road, which I think we will be doing. So, this is 
very finely shaved, fatty. Um, six 670 yen. So, I I’ll try to do things in yen. People can 
convert it cuz if I keep seeing that to me is about about $7 Australian. That’s 
nice looking salmon. Yeah. 637. Now, there’s a second price. If you look there, 
it says 688. That’s the price you pay. So, the price is in supermarkets. If it says 637, 
it’s plus tax. So, the fish, as we might expect right here on the coast, looks delicious. I 
think this is a sushimi fish, isn’t it? So, you can eat that raw. Raw fish. Delicious. 
[Music] So, this is a nice big supermarket. Here’s the coffees we’ll be having on route. 
These little dripover coffees. We’ve had dozens of them already, and we’ve only been here a week 
or so. I need a drink. And I also wouldn’t mind a bag of crisps, Michele. These are Ah, they’re the 
ones we like. These are good, aren’t they? Yeah. Couple of those for a dollar. Lovely. Just plain 
salted chips, crisps. But they are delicious. So, let me turn the camera off. You can see it’s a 
beautiful big supermarket. I don’t want to get into trouble. Not on our first day. We’re already 
driving into a tsunami. I’m probably going to get, you know, comments about that. I think, uh, 
sushi it is tonight. Nice and easy to eat, easy to handle. Seeing anything good, Michele? 
Little salad. I’m looking at the salad. This is a chicken one. No, it looks nice. Oh, this one’s a 
ham and egg salad. I prefer the chicken one. Looks like it’s got a little seaweed in. And that’s 
what I thought. Yeah, looks quite tasty, that one. No card pay caught me out there. They don’t 
actually take card here. So no credit card only uh cash or pay which is an app I 
think. So this ice is just for calling. This is not drinking ice. You cannot cannot 
drink this ice apparently. It’s only for your coke. Yeah. There is Bubbles for those of you 
who haven’t been introduced. Our little Suzuki could do without this tsunami warning. Just want 
to decided concentrate more on just driving. So, we just went up a mountain to get away and then 
had a bit of a sharp coming down and I said, I think we’re we’re high. I think we’re got 
some altitude now. I can’t show you because we drove past it, but just to our right 
there was a big ship. Huge. Huge ship. So, we’re still at uh we’re still at sea level. So, we’re kind of looking now for a place to stop. 
We would prefer to Well, we won’t prefer. We’re definitely going to get some altitude. So, but 
you can see it’s it’s quite flat where we are. So, it can might get up in these sort of little 
mounds, but I’m not sure what’s up there. We haven’t brought the GoPro in, but um I don’t know 
if you’ll have enough data. Will you storage? They come in close. Yeah. Just Oh, you 
wanted lots of that. Wanted lots. That’s very salty. Very delicious. Rich. 
Nice. Sh. Do you want to try try a little bit? You don’t spill it. Okay. I’ll 
just uh put a few drops on there. Try that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is the original soy 
sauce. So, this is their original one. It’s delicious. I mean, it’s very salty. You want 
that with a bit of rice, on a bit of fish, maybe with some noodles, but very delicious. Put these 
as if they’re closing. They are closing. They are closing. Quickly, let’s try. Is this one with 
curry? No. To have with curry. Oh, what it said. Much milder. A lot less salt. So, almost a little 
bit sweet. saying soy sauce curry. And then that one is this one here. Right. What are they 
saying about this one? Um yeah, with vegetables. Okay. That’s really strange. That’s got a meaty 
sort of flavor. Quite delicious. So, we’re going to have Michelle come to me. I got I’ve got 
sound on here so we can get a bit hopefully So, we’re going to have Go in close 
and show me the soy sauce ice cream. Look at that, Michelle. They’re actually 
closing, so we’re rushing this a little bit. Oh, that’s delicious. Is it good? Yeah, it’s almost like a salted caramel. 
Like a caramel. It’s really nice. Try that, Michele. That’s nice, isn’t it? Like a salted. Oh, 
that’s good. Oh, very good. Sand. Thank you. I’m glad we caught this place. How is the 
tsunami? Tsunami. No problem. No problem. [Music] If you’d like to stay, you don’t have to leave. 
We’ll leave the lights on and the door unlocked. If you drop by, you don’t have to knock. We’re 
happy to share whatever we’ve got. [Music]

🚗🌊 What’s the best way to kick off a two-month road trip around Japan? Apparently, with a tsunami warning.
Join us (Steve & Michele) as we launch our epic Japan road trip in Bubbles, our trusty little Suzuki, with absolutely zero plans, lots of laughter, and one giant natural disaster advisory.

From the coastlines of Wakayama to supermarket sushi and soy sauce ice cream – this first day has it all: winding mountain roads, long tunnels, surprising serenity, and a healthy dose of “what are we even doing?”

Tsunami or not, the adventure begins – and you’re coming with us.
🎥 Subscribe for more raw, real, and ridiculously fun moments on the road in Japan.

00:00 Tsunami Warning Begins
00:34 Leaving Osaka in “Bubbles”
01:40 Why We Chose This Car
03:17 Epic Japanese Tunnels
04:55 First Impressions of Wakayama
06:15 NHK Tsunami Alerts
07:45 Change of Plans – No Camping at Sea Level!
09:30 Hunting for Higher Ground
11:17 Coastal Flooding & Reality Check
13:03 Supermarket Adventures
17:33 Soy Sauce Tasting (and Ice Cream!)
19:40 Tsunami? “No Problem.” We Roll On!

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