Train Spotting in Japan – Coastal Japan Road trip 🎌

Train Spotting in Japan – Coastal Japan Road trip 🎌

The ocean is turquoise and navy blue. It’s very pretty. The mountains just so many shades of green. I mean, I should have put the camera on a lot earlier because we’ve been driving through this sort of environment for hours now and uh I never thought to turn it on, but I’m assuming maybe we’re going to continue to have this beautiful coastal road for quite some time. So, let’s just roll with it. Do you have a little game of I spy, Michelle? We can do. Yeah, it’s a good eye spy location actually because there’s quite a lot going on. I think we’ll start with I’m going to eye spy with my little eye. First want to see two motorbikes in the same frame. Okay, so two motorbikes. A very popular motorbike road this. So, you’ll see a lot of single bikes, but first comment down below the timestamp where you see you first see two motorbikes at the same time. Do you want to choose one, Michelle? I spy with my little eye something on a bicycle. Oh, bicycle. So, we’re keeping this uh what’s the word? Two wheels. Two wheel bases. I was going to say a post van for my next one, but there’s So, I’m going to actually include a post fan. There’s one on our right here. That one doesn’t count. Bleached. The red is bleached pink. Pink almost. That’s what you’re looking for. So, I spy with my little eye. First one to spot a red post van. And um it’s the right time of day. It’s morning time. So, they’re out and about. They are. I spy with my little eye some the first one to spot a Tory gate cuz I’ve already seen one. A big stone one I saw. Oh, a Tory gate. Doesn’t have to be red this time. Any Tory gate. Any Tory gate. So, we’re going to leave it at that for now. I think these are going to come pretty thick and fast. Hopefully, some beautiful things. I can think of a few other things. I was going to say like a love hotel because they’re quite obvious. They have sort of like garish designs, but we haven’t any way of really verifying that. So, I might just say to you if I notice something that looks a little like it might be a love hotel. But we started filming this coast because it’s just so varied, so pretty. You have the mountains behind the towns and a beautiful turquoise blue ocean to the to the shoreline or the right side of where I’m driving. And if we’re lucky, we’ll see a cool train. There is a train line, a train track. Gosh, it’s got everything. This place has got everything, hasn’t it? Just to the left of us. What are you pointing at, Michelle? Have we spotted one already? We have spotted one. Was it the bicycle? It was the bicycle. Yes, it’s my one. So Michelle’s already She’s not allowed to. So we’ve got to be careful. I could see Michelle pointing. I wasn’t saying I was just nudging you. You told me that we had to. I’m not going to say quite so quickly. So if you spot if you spotted that bicycle before we did and you’ve got the comment down there, well done you. So, and if you spot one of the eye spies before we even spot it or we don’t spot it, just you can still pop it in because the camera doesn’t lie. So, I’m going to add another eye spy in to keep it at four. Okay, I spy with my little eye, one of my favorite ice spies, a yellow K car. Okay, so that’s a Japanese small car with a yellow number plate, but I want the car itself to be yellow. Ideally, it’s going to be a Suzuki Hustler. One of my favorites, but moving on the road. On the road, moving. Not parked. Not parked. Yeah. Yellow K car. Cool. So, we’re crossing a little Oh, we’re heading down onto the see the sea waterfront here. Yep. So, we got a beautiful waterfront scene ahead of us. 99 kilometers on this road. Ah, could have been 100, couldn’t it? Let’s drive back a bit. See if we get drive back a kilometer. Wow, look at this. It’s uh 99. I hopefully it’s not Whoops. The lights are just changing orange. We We’re safe. We’re safe. We’re safe. So, it’s a Japanese sea there, isn’t it? Beautiful, isn’t it? I don’t know if the camera will pick up the color. There’s this very rich turquoise color going off to a navy blue in the distance. It’s absolutely beautiful. They’ve been just capped by the little white breaking of the waves. Very pretty. So this is a sudden change. Um we are on a more highway style road. I would say really the rust on the left there. I don’t know if you noticed that’s that’s how rusty things get here so quickly. Anything you see metal is going to be rusty because of the sea air. We’ll stay on this road for a little while. I do think we’re turning in land in about uh uh maybe a few hundred meters. There’s a motorbike stood up. Stood up on his bike. I see a lot of them standing up stretching. Yeah. Only one motorbike there, not two. So, we’ve been driving along this coast for this is our second day. Yep. From Nigata. Yeah. And it’s been such a beautiful drive. I I haven’t had the camera on a lot because we didn’t want to make too much data. Um, and we were we were just sort of getting our eye in basically after the stop with Maxi Nigata. So, we were [Music] big shout out to Max Max’s Recipes on YouTube. So, I’ll leave a link down in this video for Max’s uh channel because he’s a passionate chef sharing not just Japanese food, but all the food from his kitchen. There’s another bike. He’s dragging his He’s dragging his feet. Not quite. Not quite. He’d be wearing his shoes out pretty quickly. Yeah. Think it’s a bit warm on the bikes today. It is super hot. There was a bike ahead of us. I don’t know. Don’t know if we’ll see it again. Probably not. I’m sure he’s well ahead. Had the monkey hanging handlebars. And I I felt ever so sorry for him cuz I thought, “Oh, that is a painful way to ride a bike with your arms up in the air all the time.” It was a nice looking bike. Big fat rear tire on it. Thump of a almost a sort of Harley-Davidson thump. So, I’m not sure. I couldn’t I could only see the back tire and I could see his arms sort of up on the monkey handlebars. A lot of these buildings, these industrial looking buildings to the left will be to do with fisheries, fish preparation. So, another Minoki coming up. I think a little roadside service station. big sign with lots of pictures. It’s only where you’re going. Jade Gorge, uh, ski resort and some pond. There’s no skiing at this time of year. That’s way too hot. Don’t think any of those mountains would hold any snow on them, Michelle. Not at this time of year. And some countries you’d have the snow up there even in the in the summer months, but it’s been so hot in Japan uh this summer. I think every drop of snow will have uh vanquished. So, we’re just turning back into a a little bit away from the coastline. Lot more 7-Elevens. This area seems to be back uh predominantly 7-Elevens. When we were further up north towards Aamorei, there was no 7-Elevens at all. It was all Family Mark and um uh Lawson’s Lawson’s mainly Family Mark. Yeah. Oh, this is an industrial town actually, isn’t it? Does it look Is that a big industry over there to the left, Michelle? I’m not sure. Maybe they Yeah, that’s a big industry over there. Look at that. Don’t think the camera You might have caught a glimpse of it, but there’s a huge Don’t know what it is. Commence. I’m actually I’m going to turn in just to show you. Going to pull in somewhere here. Let me just I’m probably going to get into bother for pulling into this service station. But the guys are going to come out. But look. Oh, that little car. Look, little truck. I’m looking at the train as well. I saw the train, but then I saw this little Uh, I’m going somewhere I shouldn’t go here. Yeah, it was just turning around. This is somebody’s This is somebody’s business. But look at that uh train and look at the industry there. So, yeah, we’ll just pretend we’ve made a wrong turn. Oh, and the rice crops are starting to be harvested. They are. So, I’m going to add an ice spy, Michelle. Oh, yeah. I spy with my little eye. First one to see a rice combine harvester. It’s a ute. Is it Is it a ute? Sorry. I’m just It’s a two. I’m just fascinated by loves it. It’s a little It’s called a two. Yeah, I had to. Cool. You could drive that round Melbourne. Yeah, my youth. Two people got two seats in the front there. Okay, let’s skip out of here before we get someone running over to serve us fuel. Cool. So, this is a a real sort of industrial town, isn’t it? Not sure quite what they’re doing here. Maybe someone can share with us, do a little bit of research. Villa Oreta. I’m guessing that’s a pachenko place. Yeah, even on the port side there’s a lot of um commercial buildings. Have we missed something? Has anyone spotted two bikes or uh stop at these lights, give yourself a few moments? Maybe we’ll see. And it will I will include the yellow K car if it’s on the road parked at the lights. Is that fair enough, Michelle? but not one if it’s just parked up. Not in a car park, but on the road it’s fine. So, we’ve included now, and Michelle and I have seen a lot of these. They’re starting to appear in the fields now. Tiny little combine harvesters. The guy sits on the combine. We saw these on There’s a video, just in case we don’t get to see this, we have a video called Mr. Brown’s Boulevard in Taiwan. Yes. And uh there’s a lot of these combine harvesters featured in that video, so you can get across and see. But we might be lucky and we might see one of these cool combine harvesters. They don’t sit inside. They sit on top of the combine harvester almost like one of those sort of standup mowers. Um and the whole thing cuts, sorts out the uh the grass, separates the seed, bales the grass. Very clever. Wow, this is a big wide river mouth here. So those mountains to the left of us when the snow melts, I imagine I can see a fisherman down there, Michelle. Yes, I’ve seen quite a few fisherman. Quite a few. Yeah, low. I imagine it’s it’s quite a a torrent of of mount ice cold water coming down to the sea. Beautiful. Look at this valley here. What’s it’s made even more beautiful by the fact that to the right of us is this beautiful ocean. Um, so hero see the eyes turning yellow. We’ll probably see a combine har I think we will see a combine harvester. Now, some of you may have seen a little bit little bit further back, and I think we’ll give it on this one, Michelle. Some of you may have spotted a yellow kar. Now, it was a a sort of mustardy yellow, but I think it would be unfair not to not to allow it. The golden yellow. Uh not quite the color I was looking for. A little bit more vibrant, but you know, you got to be fair. Yeah. Uh if you spotted it and you’ve put it down in the comments, look at that little temple gate there. How beautiful is that? Gorgeous gate in that one. Black tiles are unusual. Yeah. All these houses right and left with shiny black tires. Uh tires. Tires. Tiles. So, we’ll give you the yellow K car if you spotted it. Yep. I haven’t seen two motorbikes yet. You may have done and if you have, comment down below. But you can’t just make it up. No, camera does not lie. Has to be on the camera. Haven’t seen another post van yet. Nope. Didn’t notice the post van. What else did we have? Tory gate. Tory gate. Did I make another one after you? Um, combine harvester. Mhm. So, we have four, I think. Two motorbikes, Tory Gate, Postman Pat, and the Combine Harvester. Right. Have we forgotten one? Let’s just make sure. Don’t think so. I thought the combine harvester was an extra. Yeah, that was after I got my bicycle. That’s because we did we’ve we’ve dropped the yellow K car and now we’re going to have to choose something else. Yeah. So, I’m going to keep it K car related. So, we’re looking for a car that has the yellow number plate. So, it’s a under sub 660cc motor, but we’re looking for a pink one this time. Michelle pink car. And there’s a lot of pink K cars. They look ever so jolly. ever so fun. They went through one prefecture that had loads. Yeah. They are out. This like mill, this old mill here on the side that looks like it’s um grain. Grain or something. Doesn’t it look like it’s uh being used now, but it might be. It’s interesting. It was sort of rusty, but not. So, I’m guessing it was like a zinc uh or anodized, but the joints were were rusty. Yeah. So where they’ve done the joins probably just the rivets. It’s amazing coastline, isn’t it? It is. Apparently this area has does have quite a lot of earth tremors. Okay. So people are a bit wary about, you know, tsunamis and whatnot and what have you. Just occasionally you have these sort of like kind of ugly blocks of flats or apartment blocks. It’s very orange roof. It’s very orange. We talked in an earlier video about why they have these steep tiled roofs in Japan. Very particular to Japan. And I wonder if uh anyone from an earlier video remembers why or my theory anyway as to why they uh they’re very peculiar to Japan and why they have these very steep roofs. Another 7-Eleven. So, I’m going to add one more. I spy then because okay, there’s a lot of 7-Elevens. I spy with my little eye. First want to spot a Lawson’s combini. So, we’ve seen probably three, four 7-Elevens since we started driving, but I don’t recall seeing a Lawson’s. And they’re often um a lot of Lorson’s 7-Elevens. So just to the right there, you see that building has metal shuttering on it and they were all rusty. They take quite a hammering these buildings on the coastline. They have constant maintenance because it’s a it’s a harsh master the sea, the salt air. A lot of the garage doors are roller doors and they’re rusty. So, let’s see if we can get this green light because we’re going to go across what looks like an interesting little coastal road. I do find it peculiar, Michelle, how many Tory gates you and I see in Japan and whenever we play I spy, we include a Tory gate and suddenly they dry up. You never see one, but we will. We will. Look at the color of that sea. It’s quite amazing. It’s almost Mediterranean looking. Going to go through some tunnels. Someone with a Oh, I was going to say the theodolite, but he’s actually taking ah he’s a train spotter. Ah, of course. So, he’s obviously waiting for a particular train. There’s some beautiful trains that go along this coastal train line. And he set up his camera on the tripod to get a photograph of his favorite train. People will go to any length to get their photographs, won’t they? We’ve seen quite a lot of people with tripods on the strangest little roadsides. quite precare precariously perched trying to get a shot of their favorite trip. Probably trying to get the ocean behind. Probably it’s probably going to look really gorgeous. He was quite high, wasn’t he? He was high. I mean, his tripod was He wasn’t. Yeah. How is everybody share a little comment down below, will you? If you’re if you’re It’s not a live stream, but if you’re lurching, if you’re here and you’re just lurching, watching the video, lurking. I’m lurching. [Laughter] You’re too busy thinking about other things. I am thinking of other things. Lurking. If you’re lurking in the shadows or in lurching, maybe you’re lurching sort of hunched over and sort of, you know, making your way through the comments. Say hello. Tell us where you are. Even through here, this always reminds me of the Grand Prix in uh Monte Carlo. But hopefully the camera’s picking this up. The little openings with the turquoise sea and the rusty roof. Rusty roof as well, Michelle. So, the red lights keep coming on, flashing. Yeah. I think that’s just a a warning of the bend. Yeah. Now, this will be to protect this road from rockfalls and snow, heavy snow in the winter months. Um, I’m sure we’ve got quite a a steep mountain to the left of us and the snow drifts build up. Well, you can probably see now just as we come out of there. But look ahead of me. There’s another one coming up and you’ll see how close the road is to the edge of the mountain. So, it protects has two-fold effect really. Uh, protects from from landslides, but I’m almost certain that it also protects from snow drifts. This is the old road along here. Yeah, it’s not still got trains. It’s not still a train road, is it, Michelle? Um, I think it’s a road. I just thought it was a road that actually was a someone was repairing it. So, but I don’t know. I think now it’s there more. But the train must be below us then or above us. No, not not above us. See? Oh, no. So, it’s not Maybe it’s gone in land at this point. It’s definitely not to our right. No, it’s not to our right. That is just pure drop off into the ocean. Right. That was a nice yellow key car there, Michelle. Oh, traffic light. traffic light. And yes, look, at one time above there, they’ve they’ve sort of protected the edge of the rock with the concrete latis work. So, I don’t know if you’re already screaming at the screen and saying, “I spotted something. I spotted something.” Well, if you if you know the timestamp, I saw it, too. Just pop it down. That particular ice is now gone. I’ll tell you about it when we come out of this tunnel if we get into it. Oh, look at this little bridge. That’s cool, isn’t it? Yeah. How cool. And then there’s a little water fountain. Oh, Michelle, we can’t People can’t see it, but there’s a little waterfall just falling down the side of the mountain. [Music] Can you grab that with your camera just while we’re parked here? Little film of it if you can. [Music] I can pop that in. So Michelle will show you what we’re looking at. A lovely little concrete foot bridge. And if I just roll forward a tiny bit. Get away from that bit. Get away from there. There’s a little little aqueduct. Little water trickling down. How beautiful is that? Ah, it’s cool, huh? Okay, we got green lights. Time to go. Look over this side, Michelle, before we roll away. Look at that. That’s cool. Okay, head again. Eyes forward, everybody. Keep your eye on the road. Did you spot anything earlier, Michelle? Yes. Okay. So, a little bit of maintenance here on the pillars by the looks of it. Yeah. They may even be replacing some of them, but I can see completely new pillars. Yeah. Look. Yeah. Look, they’ve replaced them all the way along. So, putting That’s a job and a half. That is a job and a half. So, you may well have spotted two motorbikes together in the same frame. You may have seen it once or twice in that little section. Um, I think it’s the first time. Correct me if I’m wrong. Yeah, I haven’t seen it before in this game. So, well done if you did. Put the time stamp down and congratulations. Can’t really call this a tunnel, Michelle, can we? It’s a tunnel. A tunnel. It’s a tunnel. What is half a tunnel called? A tunnel or an unl or a null? A null. We’re driving through a null. Okay. H three containers, 20ft containers on the back of one lorry. How greedy. Now this is a tunnel. This one’s got the tu n and the n. N u l Yes. N u l n. I was just as you were saying, I second guessed myself as I said it and then I thought I asked Michelle for just reassurance and she like you were think of course null. I thought it was any come on everybody who who noticed who’s as dyslexic as I am. Oh look we’re going over the highway. Wow, that’s a complete different visual, isn’t it? So that’s the that’s the paid highway. I believe that’s the paid road above us. And occasionally even that comes out and has a look at the ocean. But most of the time you’re down below the shutters and you can’t see anything. It’s boring and you don’t get to see all the exciting things that we get to see down here on the little road. But just in this one instance, it’s soaring majestically above us. Now gorgeous. There’s the rail railway line. So the railway line was on the inside or I don’t know where it was on that um below us maybe maybe a tunnel underneath us or a tunnel or a tunnel as I like to call them. Tunnel. Okay, so we’re looking for our pink K car. Pink K car. Our post van. A red post postal bo postal van. We’re still looking for a Tory gate of any color. And if you’ve already spotted it, you have one as long as you can time stamp it. But we will still hold out. That is not two motorbikes. That’s a bicycle and a motorbike. And we’ve done the bicycle. Um, what else? Michelle Harvester. Should have gone down there. Next time, remind me. Okay. Oh, I I want to go and have a look in that little town. Or is it going to take us well in land? I don’t know if it comes back. Let’s go down here. I think it might come back. Little detour, everybody. Either come back or it’s a river. Little detour. I love these little towns. Look at this. Don’t forget, we’re still looking. And this is probably a perfect place to spot some of the things that we’ve mentioned. to stay on 525. [Music] So this is one of those little towns nestled in the valley. The water would be coming down. They just came out and said, “What on earth are they doing coming through here? Nobody come through here.” So there’s a valley with a a river that comes down. I love these places. I think they’re great. And I’m not sure who lives here or why they’re living here where they’ve got little industries or it’s a second home or maybe the aas. They’re empty. Nobody’s living here anymore. But somebody’s running for for parliament. Okay. So, that was a little detour. It’s why it takes us so long to get anywhere. Okay. Red light. red light. So, we’ll wait here and we can do a Uturn. Probably find this is a long wait, this one, because uh [Music] because it is. So, I was trying to remember all of our ice spies. So, we have combine harvester, right? The post van. Mhm. A pink K car. Mhm. Tory gate. Tory gate. That’s That’s four. Unless I’ve forgotten one. That’s all I think there is. Although generally the combine was an extra. So, have I missed one? Well, we found the U motorbike. So, that was Okay. So, we’re going to add a new one in. Can we go for a really more bizarre one, Michelle? Not bizarre. Oh, no. And a Lawson’s. A Lawson’s. Okay. So, we’re five. We’re five. We’ll leave it at five. Somebody must be shouting at the screen. The Lawsons. The Lawsons. [Music] Okay, let them go then. Not us. Yeah, we’ll just sit here a bit longer. Can’t you see we’re coming out of a busy city? Traffic queuing up behind us. There’s no sign saying no left turns, is there? That would be quite annoying. They’re still going. Honestly, this would be such an easy giveway sign, wouldn’t it? Well, it depends if it’s a busy road, I suppose. Say so. Is the beep of the engine going to start? There she goes. Just to keep the AC functioning. Here we go. We got the green light. We’re going to come out a little wide cuz we’ve got to do a loopde-loop. A full Uturn back onto the main road. Now you can always mention two motorbikes again if you There’s actually four motorbikes in that telephone booth up there. How was that? Just stuck on the side of the fly over. How bizarre. Cool. I like that little town. That’s cool. Oh, well, now this horrible highway is blocking our ocean view. Not for much longer because we’re going to go under it or over it. And it’s going back in land and it is. It’s just giving them a little view of the sea and then they’re going back in. Give a little glimpse of what we get to see. That’s what you get if you’re not paying for your roads. And here is the toll booths coming up on the right hand side. 20,000 yen for 200 m of road. I want countries around the world to revolt against their their governments that charge them for using roads they paid to build. That’s my opinion. I think we shouldn’t nobody should be paying for roads that they already paid to have built. Those trains are going to go on it that one and quite expensive. I believe the toll roads in uh Japan very expensive. People say it costs them many many tens of thousands of yen to drive on them. And I can’t understand it because the smaller roads are beautiful. In my opinion, these roads are far more interesting. But absolutely. Yeah. Just in my opinion. We’re going to go under or over this one? I think we’re going to go over. Could be a 50/50 chance. Oh, we’re starting to go down. No, we’re going under. Going up. Well, we’re not necessarily going Oh, we are going under. We’re going under. You went Did you say under? I did. Only one I saw. And there’s the train line to the left of us there. They are going through a tunnel. As as are we. We are going through a null. A null. Another one. And you can’t be more than 4.1 m. So 4.1 m high to go under this null. What is that about uh 13t and a bit? A bit. Yeah, 13t and a bit. 13t4, I’m going to say. Let me know in the comments if I’m close. Oh, what is that there? A monument. Monument to a woman. Kazami Bridge or Kazami Null. So, we’re very close now. There’s a train line in this rock to the left of us. Oh, yeah. And if you look just down here, right, you just see where the train Can you see the train down there, Michelle? No. No. No. I think it might be in a tunnel. Was a big loop. It’s a big loop. Most of this coastal ride has been all flat land, hasn’t it? It’s not been these sort of windy coastal roads. So, it’s been quite easy riding, but along here. Wow. See where the bikes like it. Yeah, the motorbikes will love this. But, um, climbing. We’re climbing around this beautiful mountain edge. He’s cutting the corner a little bit. Certainly was. And he must be under 4.1 m. So, oh wow, another tunnel. Oh, not going to see a combine harvester along here. Not along here. No, but we are going to see Why was there fourways on there? Okay. Thought I saw a car ahead with a four-way flashers, but uh this is going to be a dark one. Woohoo. Tell me if you see a train coming towards us. We might taken the wrong turn. Oh, it is a dark one. This is a nice tunnel. Do you think the uh camera will cope with this? Uh I don’t know. Darkness. Just see all the twinkling of the white and red lights. There’s a real sort of damp feeling even though the windows are closed and we’re in air conditioning. Feels damp, doesn’t it? And dank. That was an old tunnel, I think. And then we’re back to null. Anull. Definitely. These big uh these big trucks only just fit under there, don’t they? Oh, there’s a fair bit of space. He looks quite close to the limit cuz when you go through the tunnel there’s actually a soft edge or a low edge to the tunnel which is where the restriction comes in I think for the height different heights even inside. M. So, we really have changed the whole dynamics of this road from that beautiful coastline road and the town, the village to now we’re on those sort of winding um mountainside coastal roads, which this is the first time we’ve really come across this sort of road on this since we left Nigata, I think. But I think it’s going to straighten out. I think so. I think we’ve done the hill, done the the mountain. We may be coming up to another little town. So keep your eye out for your pink K car. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a pink K car. They’re very common in Japan. Wow. These trucks have to be quite close to the limit, I would say. Yeah. And certainly getting up near the 4 m height now. I don’t know about you, but I find this sort of road driving a little less interesting. Um, visually, I don’t don’t think we’re going to have much of it. So, stay with us. There’s a little chicane coming up. Have we got a red traffic light there as well? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Okay. Let’s stop. Now, is that red traffic light just for this one chicane? No, it’s for Yeah, it’s a bit further along. You’ve got a white line on the road. You can stop there. We’ve actually just missed the go sign. I think we’re at the at the end. So, what I’m going to do, stop the camera for a moment. I think this will be a long wait. Okay. So, it was quite a long wait. Well, a few moments. I can report there wasn’t a pink no K car coming towards us in the line of traffic or a post van. So we are not far from another township. So we’ll be seeing that Tory gate that we promise you. I’m absolutely certain of it. And then I think after this town we might have a we might stop. Yep. Um and tally up the count. See how everyone’s done. See if there’s a I spy champion or not. Absolutely. Have another two bikes there if you like. It’s not the first. No. If you say that’s the first and you skipped forward and missed the others. Yeah. Another pretty little town to the right of us, right down on the coast. Ainoki. Sign for Mitchinoeki. Yeah. Oh, what does that dropping? Looks like um Maron. Oh, chestnuts. Chestnuts. Okay. Now, Michelle, you think you spotted a Tory gate? I did see a Tory gate. Will the camera have spotted that one? I don’t know. It was probably a little bit too side on. So, if you did, well done. It might not have picked up on the camera because it was uh off to the left. I I just glanced it out of my eye also. So, we’ll carry on with the Tory gate just in case we’re going to include that one, but we’re probably still looking. They’re quite often more visual than vis visible than that one. In a recent game of ice spy, I spotted a tiny tory gate that was only about a foot high. So these signs here you’ll see at the top says Michino Ekki. It’s a sort of government parking area or or government funded roadside station. Roadside station. I don’t know why I call it. So there it is to the right there. It’s a small one. Quite a nice one. Always got great facilities. I don’t know why I say particularly say I think because I’ve heard people say government funded station but they pretty much always are aren’t they? I believe so I think. Yeah. I mean in other countries that pretty much always government funded. Yeah I suppose we thought about it. Yeah. But I hear it mentioned here in Japan they’re government funded or governmentrun road stations and I think well surely almost everything in Australia and Europe and Germany Italy they’re always put there by the the government. So there was another Tory gate we just went past a stone one. Did you see one? Was it clear Michelle? I didn’t spot it. Well again it was side on but I think it would have been more clear cuz it was quite near the road. Very near the road. Red one was stone. Oh, no. No. That’s a stone one. Okay. Well done. So, that’s two in the last super. So, we’re going to we’re going to be having to give that uh crown to somebody who’s spotted a Tory gate. Well done to you. Super duper. And I think we probably got to hand a sort of congratulationally crown. Is that the word? Have a look. Oops. That guy’s coming on the inside of me. If you want, it’s coming at such speed on the inside. I had to stay out on the fast lane. Um to anyone that just spotted the pink K car that went by on the right hand side of us. I missed that one. It’s a a fairly um dusty pink, but it was definitely a car. Pale that very pale pink that we see. Well done if you spotted that. So, it’s coming thick and fast. So, all we need now is our I’m staying out in this fast lane because it’s closing up on the left side, but I was going to move into the the slow lane and that car came whizzing up the inside of me which uh surprised me somewhat. So we’re just looking for our Lawsons and our post ban and probably highly unlikely rice combine harvester at the moment on these roads. Although not impossible. [Music] Certainly yesterday in the driving we saw at least 20 30 maybe. So many so many somewhere around that figure. Maybe we should do someone to see a train cuz we are keeping No, because I think we’re going to wrap up soon. We’re going to wrap up. We’re just going to let these ones go, aren’t we? So, we’ve got more to find. Michelle and I, if you can’t see us, we’re sort of our heads are dodging around looking all over. I was hoping to see a nice big red Tory gate. I must admit, I I do like it when you see a big big red Tory gate on the roadside. That’s They’re more obvious, aren’t they? Look at all the blossom here. It’s very pretty, isn’t it? It’s unusual, isn’t it? In the middle of summer. Almost a Sakura blossom. Wonder what trees these are. Don’t know. Very unusual. Well, that’s the first time I’ve seen so much blossom in the middle of the summertime in this whole It’s next to a golf course. Come in here, guys. Um I think it’s a Yes, it’s a golf course, so we’re probably not meant to be going in here, but look at all the pretty blossom here. So, there’s the ninth the ninth hole, whether it’s a nine-hole course or a I think it’s very small. Yeah, I think kitchen pot maybe. How cool. Is this an in only? Am I going Didn’t see it. Very pretty blossom. There’s two two colors here. There’s a a white blossom and a pink blossom. And I think they’re the same tree. No, they might be slightly different. Actually, they each look the same, but not quite. So, who knows? Sometimes the fertilizer they put in the in the soil can change the color of the blossom. There’s a Yamazaki. Oh, daily Yamazaki. If you’d have if we’d have said daily yamuzaki, that’s another type of um combini or or convenience store here in Japan that we’d never heard of until we got the car and started driving. Yeah. And then we thought it was just in one area, didn’t we? Yeah. This is really pretty. Look at all this blossom. Very nice. I mean, it’s not Sakura season. So obviously Japan is famous for its beautiful uh whites and pink cherry blossom during the sakura season but this is quite uh a pleasant alternative blossom. I’m not sure what plants are. It’s a bunch of bikes. Wow. Four bikes. Is that the most we’ve seen? I know you saw earlier four bikes. I think I seen more than that. And we got the train st we got the train line beside us. So we might have spotted a train. [Music] Two more bikes. Still got the blossom. Blossom all the way through this town. Absolutely gorgeous. I’m not sure of the name of the town. Um whether that was a pitching pitching and putting sort of golf course or a full nine uh course, I don’t know. It might have been a full 18 whole course for all I know. And here we go. I think once we come out of this tunnel, we’ll go on for Oh, this is a 1.3 km long tunnel. So, I think we might end it in the tunnel. Michelle, you think? Yeah. Because it’s a nice nice place to end. Hope you’ve had fun. Hope you got some of the ice spies. We got We did fairly well today. We did. We did. Few things we didn’t see. Uh, we didn’t spot a Combine Harvester or a Lawson’s. What was the other one? Oh, Postman Pat or another post vehicle, but we did see that post right at the beginning. Right at the beginning. Was there anything else that I can remember? I think that was it. So, pat yourself on the back if your name is down there. If you’re the first one to spot it, and that’s the way it works on this I spy and be the first person to spot it and put the comment down in the comments down below. And also, if you’re just lurching, if you’re lurking and just watching and you’ve never commented on any of our videos, please take a moment to say hello and say where you’re from. Throw a few questions down there. From Michelle and I driving, give us a thumbs up. Oh, yeah. Give Michelle a thumbs up. Hit that thumbs up button for Michelle and I driving in Japan. Please subscribe to the channel for more videos from it. Strange places around the world. Loved you all. Take care. We’ll see you soon. We will see you in the next video. What a lovely valley. Yeah, it’s cool. Goodbye. Bye. Oh, you’re kidding. It’s going to be a really interesting town now, isn’t it? Uh-huh. Probably. I’m always starting again. It’s a train. He’s cute. He’s a cute little train, wasn’t he? Little bit of bonus footage for you all if you stayed if you stayed and didn’t turn off the probably see a Lawson and a post from Batman now and everything. I think everything’s off here. [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. America. [Music]

Take a drive with us along the stunning Niigata coastline in Japan. Crystal-blue seas, green mountains, seaside towns, temples, and rice fields all unfold before us.
To keep things fun, we’re playing a game of “I Spy Niigata” — from motorbikes and Torii gates to Lawson’s convenience stores and tiny K-cars.
Join the ride, spot the hidden gems, and enjoy the mix of coastal beauty, local life, and quirky Japanese details.
Can you find everything before we do?

00:00 Welcome to Niigata South
00:52 First “I Spy” challenge
03:05 K-car hunt
05:17 Seaside towns & fisheries
08:04 Rice fields & factories
12:30 Temples & Torii gates
15:11 Lawson’s & more K-cars
18:21 Train spotting on the coast
21:14 Tunnels & toll roads
27:47 Small towns & shrines
37:59 Closing scenes & chestnut trees

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