Welcome to Day4 Ep 9 of my summer road trip 2020. Today as I leave Niigata City, I stopped by a North Korean elementary/middle school to check it out. My friend told me about it the previous day so I thought why the hell not, let’s stop by and take a look on the way out. After that, I finally leave the city limits and I run into this massive Buddhist monk statue along the Japan Sea coastline. I had to stop and take a look. Turns out it’s a famous monk named Shinran Shonin that lived from 1173-1263. This monk was exiled out of Kyoto for practicing a banned teaching called nembutsu. He also founded a Buddhist sect called Judo Shinshu. The dude died at the age of 90, and this statue was build in 1990… don’t know when it was closed. After that, I found a huge abandoned hotel and went for a look inside.
This summer I only got one week off for my break, so I decided to hit the road and drive north through Tohoku Japan. I packed up the car with my camping gear and hit the road, driving over 1400 km in 9 days. I didn’t have a destination in sight, I just wanted to drive up the Japan Sea coastline and head north as far as possible. My goal is to make it to Aomori, but we’ll see. I’m going to stay off the highway and use only the local roads, cutting through small towns and villages along the way. Join me on this road trip adventure through northern Japan. If you enjoyed the video, please give it and like and feel free to leave a comment, I always enjoy reading what you have to say.
Intro 00:00
North Korean school 00:27
Shinran Buddhist statue 4:26
Walking to hotel 6:34
Inside hotel 9:05
#traveljapan #niigatacity #abroadinjapan
2 Comments
It's bigger than the North Korean school next to Shikishima park
very interesting to go through abandoned buildings