Leaving Max’s – The Reality of Sleeping Wild in Japan – Japan Road trip 21 🎌

Leaving Max’s – The Reality of Sleeping Wild in Japan – Japan Road trip 21 🎌

Got to say a big thank you to our good friend, our new brother Max. His beautiful house here in Nigata where we’ve stayed for a few days and shared great food and great company. Max has actually gone to work and we’re about to be setting off shortly. Thank you again, Max. Just getting some content uploaded to YouTube. Video go video going live today. See you on the road. Okay, we’re going to be refueling in a Japanese service station just to show you how it works. Listen, we’re buying regular Okay. So, I think I’m going to First thing you have to do is pop your card in where the green light is flashing. It’s going to verify the card. I want this red fuel. Okay. And then This is asking do we have a point card? I don’t have. I’m not sure what the difference is between these two. Phil, I think you can use. Oh, thank you. So, thank you. So, regular. Okay. Thank you, bro. How about that? Thank you. I panicked with that last screen, right? I wasn’t sure what it was saying. 8 liters. 15. We’re going to go for a full tank cuz it’s quite a good price. 161 is is quite reasonable. But the music, [Music] we tapped out at 4,000. [Music] Cool. Yeah, man. We should have a receipt. Let me just put the to the one. So, the credit card comes receipt is there. I’ll give that to Michelle. She’ll make her do our accounts. 4,07. But look at all the stuff on here. Some of these service stations you rock up and there’s so much written on here. One of them I’m scanning. Do you want pizza? Do you want to clean the car? Do you want to order some um some ramen? Excellent. First call. Happy with that one. We’re full. We’re full. Time to go. That is how by a professional that is how to fill up at a gas station in Japan. So I come out of the visitor center and up here in the sky there are dozens of kite kite surfer. No, not kite surfers. Hang gliders. Now, we’re not sure what we’ve stumbled across here. There’s a big Tory gate entrance. We don’t go through the center. Give a little bow, Michelle, as you go in. So, how is this? Must be a little shrine. Well, it’s not a little shrine. It’s a big shrine. Now, with a little debate on there whether or not we I pretty sure you should be washing your hands away from the the font of water, but there’s mixed. Some people are washing straight in the font, which is what you’re using to wash your mouth with. Anyway, no towels. Michelle, let’s make my hair look beautiful instead. Come on, let’s go. Wow, look at these cypress trees. Go ahead of me, Michelle. I’ll give the scale. They’re beautiful. Old cypress trees. You see so many of these beautiful temples on the road in Japan. It is a big rope and I can’t remember the name and Max only told me a couple of days ago. So, it’s gone straight out my head. Max, I’m sorry. But that beautiful heavy piece of rope, two claps, one bow. Make a wish. Make a little prayer. Little lizard. Slow one. Hello, man. [Music] I’ll have the stick. I’ll have the stick instead. Oh, is she? Lovely. The gentleman’s got a little snail or a little slug. There we go. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. That’s better. Beautiful Japanese flag. It’s blowing in the wind. So, it’s got these beautiful stones here engraved just above the flag. Maybe a little remembrance area. If you uh are able to read, please translate them for us. Now, if I look a bit ragged, we slept in the car last night. It was a pretty tough one last night. Very hot, wasn’t it? Very hot. So, it might look rough, but not too bad. Two nights in a car. A small little temple. Just a look. Okay. Okay. We’re not going to go to that temple. There’s a lady praying. I don’t want to interfere. We come around here and look at this warrior’s pony. How beauty is that? We’re a little bit out of our depths, Michelle. Yeah. To see that. All we know is one of the nicest temples I’ve seen just on the roadside. Beautiful. the significance of which is lost on us really. It’s a shame. We do need a guide. We need a max [Music] [Music] Oh, you’re going to love this fatty pork. [Music] Turn that heat down a little bit. So, pork belly. We’re going to render it. We’re going to turn it over. Let’s get that side a little browner. Look at the the oil coming off of that. You see? You look at the view. It’s beautiful. I tell this is a reservoir. We’re all on our own. Absolutely gorgeous. It’s cool. SH’s gone for a little walk around the reservoir. There’s a path down there. I said I’m going to start the cook. So, Bubbles is here. So, what I’m going to be doing tonight is we’ve got this lovely fatty pork that we bought just an hour or so back in a uh in the supermarket. Look at the lovely juice, the lovely fat coming off there. See, I’m going to season that a little bit more. So, if I can stand you somewhere. Let me just stand you somewhere for a moment. Now, I was thinking of adding a little extra salt, but this is a a French seasoning has salt in it and cumin and cardamon and all sorts of cool flavors. You still with me? Do I look a mess sleeping in the car two nights? Absolutely exhausted last night. It was so hot. I’m so happy to be up in the mountains where it’s a little bit cooler. We’re on our way to Kyoto. Um we’re going to have a bit of a bit of a break in Kyoto. Lots to share with you there, I think. But I said to Michelle, I really want proper food tonight. Well, you know, proper food. I want um want fatty, beautiful. I mean, it’s technically it’s unsalted bacon, isn’t it? So, look at sliced belly bacon. So, I’ll pull them apart. I’m going to get the heat up a little bit. Now I haven’t got the sound on. I see Michelle. Michelle just came around cuz she’s heading round to the to the bathrooms here. The Halloween trick or treat. I want to get some color. I want to get some color on this. Oh yeah. Smelling good. The seasoning is perfect. Tiny bit longer. Then what I’m going to do, that fat is not going to waste. I’m going to put um one or two portions of cooked rice into that. And a few other little bits that we got some cucumbers we’ve got left over from a meal earlier on. There’s a potato cake or a Yeah, this one here is a little potato cake. Just going to dice it up and chuck it in there. Turn the heat off for a moment. Let that continue just to crisp up. Hello, Michelle. Hello. Looking good. Look. Smell that. Oh, it smells good. I can smell it. A lot of oil. But that’s going to be tasty. Yeah, it’s cool. A lot of people would waste that oil and tip it off, but that’s flavor. That’s all the back fat juices. And I’m going to use I think I might go for two lots of uh rice. Is that too much? We’ve got pasta salad as well. Ah, so just one. Okay. Yeah, we’ve got a pasta salad. I forgot we bought a couple of little packets of pasta salad, so can’t really put it back on. a plane. Oh, we can. I’m going to be cleaning it through. I don’t mind. No, let’s go back on there. We’re going to be heating it up again, so no big problem. So, pop the not bacon. Look how crispy and beautiful that is. Pop that there. Hopefully the flies aren’t going to come. And Mr. Buzzy Bee Bumblebee, hold that for me, Michelle. Catch that bumblebee. Catch him with my chopsticks. Riding him, too. tasty. Sorry, double dipping, but uh that is delicious. So, let’s get these are these little packs of rice that you buy in the supermarkets. If you’ve been to Japan before, you know all about these. If you haven’t, you might think this is a you might think this is a little peculiar, but it isn’t. It isn’t peculiar. So common. You film that bee there, Michelle. Look at him. Yes. Look at him. A little hornet. He’s gorgeous. Nice. Pretty is he big fell? We’ve had dragonflies and grasshoppers. Get off. He can have a little bit if he wants. Look, he’s going on there. He’s going for it. Going on there. Yeah, you can have a little bit. Not too much, but if you take a whole slice and run it home, it’s buzzing away. So, get that rice in there. Little fried rice. Little potato croquet. I’m just going to cut that with a chopsticks. I’ll cut that into uh into pieces. Four pieces. Six pieces maybe. I do like cutting with chopsticks. They work so well, you know. There we go. Can turn that heat back on. Let’s pop the bacon in there as well. The pork. The pork, sorry. Yeah. Just continue to coat that through. So there you go, Michelle. Roadside. We got a pasta salad. Got our fried rice. I’ve actually put the pork over to one side. These little bits of cucumber. You’re going to love that rice. Loads of flavor. the seasoning. Let’s get a piece of that pork, Michelle. Just to show everyone that lovely fatty belly pork. Oh, do we eat well for a couple of travelers, Michelle? Roadside, middle of nowhere in the mountains. Delicious. Oh, there is a road above us, so it’s a little noisy. Pork fat, fried rice. with croquet potato croquet and but the the star is really that pork delicious. Michelle’s salivating. So Michelle, tuck in. See you on the road. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All we need is a place to be and a few good friends for some company. 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 on by, you don’t have to knock. We’re happy to share whatever we’ve got. [Music]

After a few unforgettable days with our good friend Max in Niigata, we hit the road again — tired, sun-kissed, and ready for whatever Japan throws at us next.
From navigating a Japanese gas station (confusing buttons and all!) to stumbling on a hidden mountain shrine, sleeping in the car, and cooking a sizzling roadside feast of fatty pork and fried rice… this is life on the move, Japan-style.
It’s messy, hot, funny, and absolutely beautiful.
Join us as we trade comfort for freedom and discover what sleeping wild in Japan really means.
🎒 Locations:
Niigata → Mountain Reservoir → En Route to Kyoto🍳 Food: Fatty Pork Belly, Fried Rice, Potato Croquette
⛩️ Highlights:
Japanese service station, Shinto shrine visit, roadside cooking

If you enjoy slow travel, real food, and seeing Japan beyond the guidebooks — this one’s for you.

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00:00 Leaving Max’s home in Niigata
00:29 Refueling adventure at a Japanese gas station
03:15 Surprise discovery – hang gliders & a hidden shrine
06:45 Two nights sleeping in the car — the reality
09:08 Cooking fatty pork beside a mountain reservoir
12:32 Turning leftovers into a roadside feast
14:54 Dinner & reflections on wild travel in Japan
17:30 Closing thoughts — friendship and freedom on the road

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