Ramen and Vending Machines – Japan Road Trip 15 🎌

Ramen and Vending Machines – Japan Road Trip 15 🎌

Good morning. Come and look at this breakfast that we’ve got here. This is beautiful. So, this is a western breakfast. Bacon, egg. It looks like a little salad with I would say egg yolk, maybe. Over this side, we’ve got a Japanese breakfast. So, let’s have a little look. Oh, this is tight. Oops. Okay, there’s [Music] hold that thought. She just rang the doorbell. I think uh saw we weren’t Japanese. She’s bought a little fork. A little fork all wrapped up beautifully. So, come back down here. So, a little maybe a miso soup or a little onion soup. And I’m thinking in this one it’s probably some rice. Oh, yes. So, freshly steamed rice. Little bit of vegetables in this beautiful piece of salmon. Cool. Too fresh and very hot. Cups of coffee. What a great place. Nice. This is a great place, right? Very impressed. We just want to film our hotel. I love hotel we stayed in. Now, these balls, they must be rubber or something cuz they sort of they move, but not maybe only at night. So, when we came to the hotel, it looked really rund down, but when you came inside, they’re beautiful. [Music] So, you come around the side here, select your love room, and the prices here to have a look at. And also here the style of room. Some of the rooms have ball tables. Some will have outdoor sleeping. I’ll show you our room quickly. It’s not too messy. So 111 was our room. Just come in here quickly. Little look around. Nice simple room. Have we left anything? No. I hate leaving the room. I always double checking, triple checking. But yeah, I had this sort of swing chair. We didn’t really use any of this. So, we just sat in the sofa and did editing editing for you guys. Did a little live stream from this bed, which was kind of cool. This bath was really nice. This is a a sort of small bath, but it fills super quick and it’s got a jacuzzi that acts a button there and it bubbles up. Anyway, it’s an untidy room because we’ve just checked out. Big thumbs up for this hotel. I really like it. Hotel Lotus. I look for the name. Lotus Gardens. Yeah, great little place upstairs. Really good food. Love the ambiencece of this front lobby area. often sat here and did some work much to the patron’s surprise because you’re normally in a love hotel nobody sits out the front listen to the water trickling on this little water feature here it’s actually really peaceful very pleasant anyway time for us to hit the road we are heading towards Fukushima so we’re going back south Fukushima it’s going to be interesting I don’t think we’ll do it in one hit cuz we’re lazy lazy We’re not lazy. We’re just We stop and look at everything we see. So, let’s hit the road. Come on, Bubbles. You’ve had a few days rest. You ready, Michelle? Yeah, just about. Okay, we’re leaving our little love hotel. So, we’ve just left our little hotel in Morioa and we’ve debated it’s been a busy few days actually editing. We haven’t been able to visit the town at all because well, firstly, there’s been three days of storms. So, the rain has been horrendous, which is really lucky because we didn’t particularly plan to avoid the rain, but we did plan to spend a few days in a hotel in this area. But now we are just driving down towards Fukushima. Fukushima. Fukushima. I said to Michelle, I’ll probably not put the camera on and film the roads because we’ve done so much road filming, but it is exceptionally pretty out here. Very pretty. Very pretty. And also, it’s it’s farming country, isn’t it? It’s this is small holdings. There’s rice fields to the right of us here. The rice is starting to come. Yeah. So, all the rice crops are starting to yellow on the left. They’re much more closer. Yeah. on the right here. A little green up, but I should say, look at that garden. So gorgeous garden. So yeah, I keep thinking I won’t do any more filming out the front window and then I just think it looks so beautiful and even if it’s just for our reference. Turn right. There’s still water in with the rice, so it’s not ready yet. Okay, so they haven’t drained the field yet. No. Shell can see the water running through the little ditches that feed the rice. And what they generally do when they’re close to being ready, the crop is almost ready, they’ll drain off the water. So they’ll open the gates, drain off the water. At the light, turn right. At the light, turn right, and then that just accelerates the crop drying. Very clever, isn’t it? Really, while it’s growing. So, we had three days rest at the hotel. Got a fair bit of editing done. Not quite caught up with all our edits, and I’ve still got some thumbnails to work on. I’d love to know from you if you’re watching this now, are you enjoying the style of thumbnails that I’m using at the moment, or would you prefer something different? Now, I don’t want you just to be pedantic and say 100% you don’t like them, but you know, maybe give me some advice. I don’t know if you can see just how flat the valleys are between these huge mountains, the volcanic mountains around us and then you have these huge plains. Now I’m not sure of the geographical reason, geological reason. I’ve seen this in Europe as well between sort of mountain ranges up in the the Pyrenees, but to my right and left all the way up to the mountain sort of plateaus, it’s just flat. Perfect for crop growing. Maybe the geologists amongst you can explain why the land is so flat between the mountain ranges. I’ve just turned off a little laneway. Sometimes I see a building and it just intrigues me. I’m I’m confused. The next left Google’s going to want me to go a different way cuz Google wants me back on the route. There’s a building ahead of us. It looks almost like a a silo and I don’t know with a like a house on top. It’s the most unusual, very strange looking building. I really can’t fathom what that can be. Turn right. Wow. What on earth is that? So, we turn right here. Have a look at this building. It’s It almost looks like a a simple corrugated metal silo, but it’s got a house built on top. Look at that. It’s a very unusual building. So, it’s one, two, three, four, several stories. It’s probably about eight stories before it has the house on top. I can’t kind of work out what it is. Anyway, it’s nothing we can visit. So, we’ll get back on our road. Hanamaki Southwest Country Elevator. Elevator. That’s what the signs did up the field. Comment if you know what it is. I really can’t work it out. The line, turn right. I said to Michelle, we’ve got to start trying the different regional ramens. This place came up on Google Maps as being a great place. So, a couple have just left. I popped in to see if we’re allowed to film. The guy said yes. I think it’s going to be bit of a Google translate and we’ll try and work out what the local the local ramen are. So, as usual, we’re going to go with what the locals have. I’m going to see if I can get some yossa as well. So, this is niboshi d eggs. First thing you’ve got to do, get your money, pop it in here, then make your selection. Now, let’s have a little look. What’s the difference here? thin noodles or thick noodles. So, I fancy thick noodles. We’ll go with that one. That’s your ticket for your your food. Two tickets. I’m going back to the machine. I want to order a plate of guiosa also. So, this one I think is guiosa. Now, Michelle and I have been to quite a few of these places, particularly when we were in Fukuoka. We used to love coming in these places. They’re a little bit. You do have to understand how they work. You pay at the machine, you get your ticket, chef takes it. Sometimes they bring it to the table. I think they are maybe bring it to table. And um I’ve also ordered uh there’s no English in here. This is We’re right out in the countryside. So, we’ve ordered uh ramen. I’ve also ordered some gua Japanese style dumplings, which we absolutely love. We love I got to go down. That looks gorgeous, doesn’t it? Looks really cool. Wow, they look good. Actually, Michelle, to be honest, I’m going to try the broth to start with. So, wish you were here. You wish you were here. Oh, good. It’s really meaty broth. Very meaty broth. Delicious. Like a oy good. [Music] And if you look at um let me just widen you out a little bit so you can see. Now these spoons, by the way, they got this little ridge on them. Ever so clever. So they can sit on the side of the um the plate, the bowl there, while you tuck into the noodles. Michelle’s already tucking into them. I want to catch up. So we’ve got green onions on top, little fishcake, hard-boiled egg, some nori seaweed, some fresh ramen. Oo, I’m not the best at slurping. You really got to learn to slurp your noodles here in Japan. I find I always end up tending to want to bite them off. You may as slurp them in. Look at that beautiful piece of pork. I think it’s pork belly. It might be shoulder. Japanese style noodles. Best in the world. I think I’m going to go and grab one of these. Giosa. Delicious. The only thing I really like is a nice beer, but there’s a zero zero alcohol tolerance for driving in Japan. We’ve still got some driving to do. But a lovely cold beer would go down a treat. I’m going to polish that bit of pulled coffee. You finish yours. I’ll finish mine. Delicious. Little nory seaweed. That’s nice. Oh, yum. Then this little It’s like a fish cake. Almost like crab crab sticks but tastier. I love the fact that it’s a young chef. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s probably his own business, I would imagine. He’s on the roadside so people can pull up. Yeah, I’m used to the Italian style sort of twiddling noodles around on a fork, but never been great at slurping. It kind of goes against our Don’t do that when we were children. It’s not necessarily essential that you have to slurp. By the way, a lot of Japanese also don’t slurp. I always find slurping just going to make a mess. I always get it all over the front of me if I slurp. Okay, getting back into the broth. I’m not going to leave any of this. This is really good. Now, let me just pause. So, these guiosas are are quite delicious. They’re really well seasoned. Try one, Michelle. You should have one. I think they’re pork. So, it’s always good to uh take yiosas and dip them in spicy sauces or chili sauce. Little vinegar sometimes. Enjoy, Michelle. I will. They’re really good. Oi, for me, I’d pick that up and drink that now. Is that the dumb thing in Japan? Don’t ask me. Thank you. Very good. Oi. Oi. Very good. Full, full, full. Next time, Michelle. I want to sit down here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So beautiful, isn’t it? The chef comes out to thank us for coming in. Little bow. Great place. So he’s advertising there 628. There’s a I think a very basic noodle dish that he does. That’s barely $5 US. So good value. Neibo shame. That’s what we had. Highly recommend. I don’t suppose many of you are coming out this way, but if you do, drop in, say hello, enjoy the ramen. Definitely order some uh guiosa as well. Come on, Michelle. We have to get going. Did you enjoy that, Michelle? Oh, I did. It was lovely. Yeah. Several people have said to us, you know, are you having ramen? We’ve had lots of ramen, but when we stop, we often have all sorts of different uh different meals, but I said to Michelle, we’ve got to start enjoying the different ramen in the area. So went in and asked chef if we could actually film and he seemed quite happy. So hope you enjoyed it. Let’s get going. So I think we should just take that road. I agree. We’re we’re we’re we’re heading down into Sendai. Mhm. So we’re just wandering. There’s two options. One kind of avoids Sendai, which seems pretty pointless. We’ve just had our ramen. Delicious. We’re both feeling stuffed and we’ve just stumbled across what looks like a a vending machine. Heaven. So, let’s have a little look. Heaven or hell. I don’t even know what these things are selling to be honest. Look, the vending machines all the way along here. The red ones say drink and food. What? What is this? Wellington boots. Why would you buy Wellington boots? Actual Wellington boots. T-shirts. Maybe there’s more more around the corner. Look, just show you. There’s an end here. Goes around here. We We’ll explore those in a moment. poem. What do you get a get a poem? New glow. New glow. Bambello. Hello world. Wake up. What are you getting? I thought that was the rock. It’s a Japanese rock. Michinu. Hello. What’s a,000 yen? Whatever it is. Like 1,000 yen. I have no idea. I have no idea. What are they selling? What are they selling? What are you getting? A cat. Is there even buttons to press? Are these just empty or Come on. Come back down here. There’s more fluffy white whatever they are. Random drinks. You can get a CD or you can get like a turnip. Who doesn’t want a turnip from a vending machine? Some sort of edetomami bean product. I’m not even sure if half of these are selling anything. Help me out, guys. Are these ones just empty? What is this? I’m going to have to translate some of this and work out. It looks like food. water. Bizarre. Just skip around. There’s a family here. Ah, this one makes more sense. Look, chips, pocky sticks, all sorts of little sweet treats. So, that’s the food section. Over here, you’ve got ice cream. Bunch of ice creams. This guy’s doing actually ramen from the machine. Do not get your ramen from this machine. There’s a brilliant little restaurant just up here. And this one I think is hamburgers. These are much more typical cold drinks. You can get yourself a nice cold Pepsi cola. No CocaCola. Doesn’t look like it. Nope. I had to stop. Never seen this many vending machines outside of the city center. The craziest one for me is Wellington boots. And I’m not even sure are you are you just going to get these tiny little Wellington boots? Are you going to get a big Wellington boot like this? If you’ve ever bought Wellington boots from a vending machine, let me know. 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]

Join us on a quirky Japanese road trip adventure! 🚗✨
We start with a beautiful Western vs Japanese breakfast showdown 🍳🥓🍚, before giving you a sneak peek inside a surprisingly cozy love hotel in Morioka. From jacuzzi baths to peaceful lobbies, this stay had more charm than we expected!
Next, we hit the road towards Fukushima, passing golden rice fields and stunning mountain valleys. Along the way, we stumble on a mysterious “house on a silo” 🏠🤔 and finally tuck into a steaming bowl of local ramen 🍜 with crispy gyoza 🥟 — easily one of the highlights of the trip.
Just when you think it can’t get more Japanese, we find the weirdest vending machine alley ever… selling everything from ice cream to Wellington boots! 🥾🍦
It’s food, fun, and a little mystery — Japan at its best. 🇯🇵
Come along for the ride!

00:00 Breakfast: Western vs Japanese 🍳🍚
02:15 Inside our love hotel 🛏️
05:30 On the road to Fukushima 🚗
08:45 The mystery silo house 🏠
11:10 Ramen & gyoza feast 🍜🥟
16:30 Vending machine wonderland 🥾🍦

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