Tunnel Vision Crossing This Great Bridge – Japan Road trip 28 🎌

Tunnel Vision Crossing This Great Bridge – Japan Road trip 28 🎌

So ahead of us, it’s almost like the Golden Gate Bridge, isn’t it? It’s a beautiful bridge going across to what’s the name? How do you say the island, Michelle? Kyushu town on Honchu Island. And it’s quite southerntherly. I mean, it’s not I don’t think it’s the most suddenly spot because there are many others. A big banana ahead of us. Do you think it’s a warehouse? Good taste, it says on the building. Look. Good taste. We thought we would come down here. This interesting looking town. So, this town at one time, I’m thinking a long time ago, would have been a small fishing port on the the tip of um Honchu Island. You can see the houses running up up the mountain there. Oops. I can hear a hear an ambulance or a police car. So, I think we should stop and let him go. Yeah, we could go that. Michelle, where is that? Well, that’s going into the town. Under the the You direct me into the town a little bit. Yeah. So, we’re not going to turn. Might as well show people. I mean, we’re here. I’d like to if I can dip my toes in the water here. So, you have a shower. No, not as bad as Not as wet as last time, hopefully. But So, is there a left turn or what is it? Left or right? Well, it’s technically a straight on. So, we’ll see. They’ll everyone will be probably be going right. Okay. But we’re going to go straight. So, we’ll be going across that bridge shortly. We’re We are heading over to Kyushu Island. Um Kyushu mainland, should I say? It’s We’re head towards Fukuoka. Wow. I don’t see any people down there on the beach. It’s right on the edge. So, this is quite interesting. That’s a big bridge. Is that a similar sty? Is it a cable stay? Is it a cable bridge like that on the Golden Gate or is the Golden Gate Bridge? I get my bridges confused sometimes. To me, it looks a little bit like Golden Gate Bridge, but I might be wrong. It might be a box girder bridge, but this one’s a a cable bridge. very similar to the Chingmar Bridge in Hong Kong for my reference. So, I’m not sure that that doesn’t look like there’s a place down there you could go and dip your toes. No, not there. Anyway, we will see. We’re just looking to see if there’s I don’t know why I thought there’d be a beach here or some sort of like at least a a point. Well, we got maybe get down to this sort of point. Oh, there’s something coming up here. Oh, cannons. Oh, cool. No stopping there. No stopping. No, that’s the pedestrian tunnel. So, there was a pedestrian tunnel. So, there’s a tunnel under there. Yeah. You go take the elevators down under the water. Under the water and you walk it. Wow. So, I wonder if it’s got glass. Well, no. You wouldn’t see much cuz you got to go down pretty deep to get below the shipping lane. You can take you can ride well you can walk your bike through it and you can walk through it and it’s about a kilometer just over a kilometer I think. Uh the bridge itself is longer cuz it it starts further back on the on the land. So here we are. We’ve we’ve driven from the most northerly spot Cape Omar all the way down through the country having some amazing experiences. And now we’re at the most southerntherly spot. At least we’re on the most westerly southerntherly spot. I think there are some little bits of uh Honshu that go down a bit deeper, little bit further back, but we’re not heading that way cuz we want to get across to um Kyushu. So, this is a lot more industrial than I expected. I thought it would be I don’t know what I thought it would be, but it is what it is. [Music] I’m just about to get the red lights. Some kindly Oh, there’s a big temple over there. Look. Let me um It was meant to be the the lights stopping us to have a look at this beautiful temple. Look at that. That’s better. Now we can see it. Look at this shrine. How beautiful. Wow. This is prettier than even the front allows you to believe. Look at this place. Looking across at Kyoshu Island. Wow. We don’t walk through the center. We’ve been taught that by our friend Max. [Music] The way that tree, each limb has been supported by a wooden frame. [Music] It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The paints very fresh. [Music] It’s a little bit like rubbing your belly and tapping your head or rubbing your head and tapping your belly. It’s uh I know it’s two claps and a bow or is it a bow and two claps and then often another bow and another clap or is it another clap and another bow? I tell you what, we saw this from the road and I’m pleased we just crossed over to have a look at it. I mean, do you see often such a beautiful view across to another island state, Kyushu from Honshu? Beautiful. If you want to know a little bit about it, there you go. Knock your socks off. It’s something to do with a monkh and a snake and some sort of gourd. There’s a beautiful stone here as well. We got to get on, Michelle. We have. This is exactly what I was hoping for, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get down and dip in the water. No. Oh no. Oh no. That’s deep water. Kyushu. Kyushu, the home of one of my favorite cities in the world, Fukuoka. Well, you look at that bridge. Now, interestingly, there is actually uh a toll going across the bridge, but it’s not expensive. I think it’s about 400 yen. So, we have been able to cross the whole island from the furthest most northerly tip all the way down to this southern tip of Honshu without going on one toll road. And I have to say, I think it’s been worth it because we’ve never been sort of up against those, what are they called? Like barricades that you get on the high roads and you never really see anything. We’ve always been going through all these beautiful little towns and cities. I’ve loved it. What do you think? I would 100% say if you are driving across Japan, anywhere, north to south, east to west, few hundred miles, a few thousand kilometers, stay off the toll roads. There’s no need for them. And unless you’ve got to be somewhere really quickly, which you should never, you should never be traveling like that unless you’re in business. Enjoy Japan. Enjoy the roads of Japan. Our next adventure is going to be We’re running out of time, but we’re going to have a short adventure on Kyushu Island. I wish we had had time to go to Hokkaido, but you know, you know, when we were up there, there was some problems with the feries. We didn’t want to wait several days for a ferry. It was a big holiday weekend. [Music] Thank you, Honu. We’ll be back again soon cuz we probably only got about 10 days max on the island and then we’ve got to head back and get this car back, get bubbles back. These tiles are a map of some sort. And uh I’m guessing can’t quite work out. Ching. It says Chingo, China, which is where we just were. Busan in South Korea, which is where we’ve been also. Oh, it’s the direction. I’m guessing it’s a north south is it Pittsburgh California Shimoseki city the center of the world. Ah now I’m seeing is this it’s a globe with Japan in the center. Who would put themselves in the center of a globe? Not us. not the Anglos. So, we’re about to find out with you what the toll costs are crossing the bridge to Kyushu Island from Honchu Island. Is it an island? I mean, I suppose Japan is an island, isn’t it? It’s all islands, isn’t that? Yeah. In 200 m, turn left. Suppose Australia is an island really. Yeah, Big Island. Big island. And we’re still on the big island of Japan. We are. Oh, Lord. All that. We’re not even sure if we’re going across the bridge. We’re not just going to the little island, are we? No, no. Back onto our little island. No. You sure? No. Not sure. No, you’re not sure. No, I’m not sure. Just zoom back and see where the GPS where came and tell her that side. I don’t know. No, it’s taking us over there. Really? Yeah. Very confused. Got cash. Okay. I think it’s 160 if you’ve got it changed, Michelle. 10 100 90u. Yeah. Yeah. Ah, okay. I think that might be right. Check. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think this is the pedestrian bicycle tunnel you mentioned about. Somebody said if you get I was just quickly reading it said if you get chance go through the historic Kunune tunnel. Look, it’s puffer fish. Puffer fish. So, we’re going under the channel. So, the pedestrians are below us. Now, I was just saying how I’m earlier how I’m sick of tunnels, but this one’s cool. Yeah. Th This is blowing my mind. I have no idea what we’re doing. Let me just um All this time we’ve been heading for the bridge. Clear the windows. get a little little clearness cuz I can see a lot of had some heavy rain today. So apparently unbeknownst to us and we’ve just filmed and told you all we’ll be going across that bridge later on. Somehow we ended up in this tunnel ever so cheap. Uh 60. Yeah. About a dollar US I think. Maybe the um yeah, I’m I’m happy. I mean, I don’t mind. I’m I’m quite content. We at one stage were going to stay on the what I’m going to call the nodule on the edge of the island there. Would have been nice to go over that big bridge. We got to come back. Yeah, maybe we could do the bridge on the way back, but I don’t even know how we got to the tunnel. So, you know, we didn’t I don’t know, Michelle. We’re the most hapless travelers. So, we’re still going down and then suddenly we’re going to go up. I spy with my little eye. First one. See a pedestrian to spot Kishu. Kushu Island. Kishu. Oh, again. It feels hard calling it an island because when we were at Fukuoka, I didn’t feel like we were on an island. just on another bit of Japan. So, we’re down, down, down, down. You can feel you’re going down under. There’ll be boats and ships and fishing going on above us now. And now we are deep deep in the belly of the earth. Starting to flatten out. I don’t know if the camera picks it up, but you can feel it in the car, can’t you? We’re we’re on the flat now. Yep. Um, so what came first, the tunnel or the bridge? I think the tunnel. I think the tunnel, cuz this has got some history to it. Um, and you said I think there’s a pedestrian section to this. There is. Apparently, you take the elevator down and then you can walk and um and it’s free and it’s just over a kilometer. Okay. Um, and obviously you can walk back if you want to. You can take bikes, but I think you have to get off and push, right? How bizarre. And how cool. We’re going up now. Starting to rise back up. So, I think we’ve crossed under the channel. So, we’re deep beneath the sea. Remember, large shipping um boats have to go through this channel. So, we had to go fairly deep. And we’re rising, rising. Could be nighttime by the time we get out. Pouring with rain maybe. Looking at the clouds. It looks so dark up there. There was a point where I could see it looked like middle of the day. The sun was out. It was beautiful. It’s only about 5 and sun sets around about 6:30 or so. It’s about 5:00, but it’s been There’s a really dark cloud in the air. Okay, so here we come. We’re out. Out. Boooo. And it does look dark. It does. It does look dark. Now, what are we doing here? Do we have to We’re sort of going to be heading a little bit off to the right. So, I’ll stay this side. We’re on Kyushu. We’re on a completely separate I was another part of Japan. Yep. Cool. We’re going to pull over and work out our route. Just turn the camera on briefly to say good night to everyone. Kyoshu is welcoming us with a bit of heavy rain. So, we’re port side. We’re going to drive probably about another 45 minutes out of the city and find a place to stop for the night. We haven’t managed to book a hotel. We were going to try and book a hotel tonight, but we’ve just had very few opportunities. And um I think at this time of night we’re quite happy to have one last night in the car and we should find something tomorrow. Do you think we should do should do should be fine tomorrow. There’s a Mossberger. I think our first ever Mossberger was in uh Kyushu, wasn’t it? In Fukuoka. Yeah, that was cool. It’ll bring back some memories. Oh, fuel prices are cheaper. 163. That’s not bad. Not bad. I’m trying to see what this building is up ahead. It looks like a church, but it’s probably a pacheno. I think there’s a pachenko, I reckon. I don’t know. You see, you can see to the right there’s a sizable tower. This guy, keep rolling till we get to be a church, hasn’t it? Surely. Surely that can’t be a pachenko. It could be though, couldn’t it? But that’s quite quite the building, isn’t it? It is. That’ll be famous. A lot of people will be shouting at the screen. They know what the name of that is. But that’s a an amazing looking building. It looks almost sort of Greek Orthodox, doesn’t it? It’s huge. Yeah. It could be Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox maybe. But geographically, we’re closer to to Russia than we are to Greece. But it’s definitely not of a standard. It’s not the sort of Catholic looking church. I mean, it’s certainly a Christian church, I think. So, who knows? Like that sign sign that says San Marco. It’s like a billboard. Surely the church hasn’t got its own billboard. Yeah. Okay. It’s a sort of like a faux faux vintage looking church. That looks like it’s got a lot of age, but I don’t think it’s probably got that much age. Oh, to me, Michelle. Ah, I got these dark truck drivers driving like the Formula 1 drivers all over the place. What is wrong with Japan? 41° you can cook an egg on the bonnet or hammering downward with rain. We haven’t had any other weather, have we? We haven’t. No. I think Japan hates me. Good night. 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 an unforgettable drive from Honshū to Kyūshū, crossing one of Japan’s most iconic spans — the Kanmon Bridge (or was it the tunnel?!). 🚗💨

What starts as a scenic plan to film the bridge turns into a hilarious twist — we somehow miss it and end up deep under the sea, driving through the Kanmon Tunnel, with ships sailing above us!

Along the way, we explore a quirky fishing town, stumble upon ancient shrines, spot mysterious cannons, and finally reach Kyūshū in a downpour.
Expect laughs, wrong turns, and plenty of “how did we get here?” moments — just classic Japan road trip chaos.

If you love Japan travel, off-toll adventures, and discovering the country’s hidden corners — this episode’s for you. 🇯🇵

✨ Watch till the end for a cozy sign-off, our first Kyūshū night, and a surprising “church” sighting that might not be a church at all!

📍 Route: Shimonoseki (Honshū) → Kanmon Straits → Fukuoka direction (Kyūshū)💴 Tunnel: 160 yen🎌 Road Trip 28 of our Japan series

00:00 – Almost the Golden Gate of Japan
02:30 – The mighty Kanmon Bridge
03:30 – Cannons & a hidden pedestrian tunnel
05:20 – Beautiful shrine detour
08:30 – Toll bridge talk & road-trip reflections
10:40 – “Japan at the centre of the world” map
13:40 – Wait… are we going under the sea?
15:40 – Deep beneath the channel
17:40 – Hello Kyūshū (and rain!)
19:10 – Mystery “church” or pachinko palace?
20:40 – Road-trip chaos & goodnight Japan

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