Abandoned In Japan – Japan Road trip 27 🎌

Abandoned In Japan – Japan Road trip 27 🎌

[Music] Okay, little GoPro problems. GoPro keeps turning off, so we’re not sure why. So, we’ve just uh reformatted the hard drive, the the SD card. Got to get out on this uh tight little bend. I think we’ll be okay. So, just get out there quickly. [Music] There we go. So, the scenery might have changed. We had to go couple of hundred meters to find a pull in. But the ice spy has not changed. It has not. So I was just saying red Tory gate, but I also want to add an eye spy with my little eye for any tory gate. So a tory other than red. So So two tory gates. Two tory gates. Yeah. But I’m kind of wanting to see maybe a wooden or a stone tory gate today. So that would be kind of cool. That would be cool. I spy with my little eye. First one to see. Let’s call it a sports car. I mean any sports. They’re quite rare. One just went by and it made me think sports car. Matsui city. Okay. So this is Matsoui City. So give you an idea where we are. So a sports car. You know what I mean? Don’t uh use loose interpretations and just say, “Oh, that’s a sports car.” because it’s a sporty BMW. That’s not a sports car. You know, we’re looking for what most people would interpret to be. And even bonus points if it’s like the one that just went past a little K sports car. Yes, we did a few of those. Not many, but a few of them. Well, the one that went by was it was tiny little sports car. And that’s kind of what K car. They’re not spies, Michelle. So, we can’t we haven’t won anything. How we go with it? Think of a a new eye spy maybe. Okay. I spy my little eye. First want to spot somebody on a bicycle. Okay. So, that’ll do for now. Um last night we stopped in a minoi is quite a cute one. I think I took a little video. I’ll drop it in here. Oh, look at this. I don’t know what it was, but that’s Wow. That for a tunnel entrance going down. Boop boop that one. So, we stopped in a interesting little Minoi. I’ll drop a little clip in here to show you and explain why I found it so interesting. Now, I might look rough, but how many of you have slept night after night in the back of a car in Japan before? So, I noticed only this morning because it was dark when we arrived last night, but there’s a lot of signage showing beef. This is, I think, Tajjima beef. The origins of Kobe beef. This vending machine is selling beef. Look at that. That’s the first time I’ve seen beef for sale in a vending machine. And quite expensive. I mean, you can you can spend 50 bucks Australian, maybe about 30, 40 bucks US. Would you spend 5,000 yen in a vending machine for beef? But look along here. You step back a bit. So, you can take it in. Sun’s a bit bright, but these pretty little buildings, and they’re all ramen shops. So, there’s some of the prices. They’re not bad prices either. There’s a very simple bowl there for 500 yen going up to about 1,500,600 the highest one I can see there. The sun will be up over this mountain in the next 40 minutes or so. Picked a good spot. Nice and cool. Could do with a soft bed though. See you on the road. And back in the room. So great place, huh? I really, you know, was fascinated by the fact that there was all that beef there, Michelle. Everything was all about the beef. Um, the history of the the Kobe beef. I can’t remember the name of the cows. Can you Oh, no. No. I Anyway, you would have heard me mention it in the in the video just now. So, you can tell by maybe the the ground color and the general sort of look of the scenery today that we’ve had some pretty heavy rain, which is pretty cool. Um, quite refreshing, wasn’t it, Michelle? Yes. Luckily, we were actually stopped. You put Let’s put some clips in of the rain in a coffee break. We stopped for a coffee break as well. Wasn’t Wasn’t raining when we stopped. Wasn’t even signs of raining when we stopped. 5 minutes ago. And back in the room. I’m like your hypnotherapist taking you away on sort of interesting excursions. But I don’t want to miss any of the journey either. Oh, another one. I’m loving these sort of uh oldie worldy. Look at the what do you call ivy that’s hanging down. Then I have to adjust the height limit in there to take another sort of six foot off for the ivy. So we are in the real sort of country hills around Mitsui heading south on Honu. We’re we’re still debating whether or not to head to Fukuoka. It’s a little, you know, probably a little further than we intended going on this journey, but we have got time and we would love to maybe pay another little visit to one of our favorite cities in Japan, Fukuoka. Um, it’s looking likely likely at the moment, but not don’t hold your breath. So you can see the skies are very not so blue today. Yeah. Moody and sort of, you know, forboding looking. Uh the sort of rainstorms we had uh today have been so heavy that you couldn’t really drive in them. Not not safely. So yeah, two cars actually stopped where we were stopped during the rainstorm. Yeah. I think people just want to get off the road. It’s too It’s too heavy. Yeah. And um it’s brought the temperatures down a little bit. So we’re a little bit currently at 27° C. So cool. And I think that’s about 80° Fahrenheit, maybe. Somewhere around there. Maybe somebody will correct me if I’m wrong. I know often I’ll say it’s about sort of 22,000° Fahrenheit. That’s when it’s hot. Oh, look at that. Uh so we’re up quite high, aren’t we? We are. Yeah. Yeah, the temperatures actually dropped cuz it was 29 not long ago. So, yeah. Well, before the rainstorm was 31. It was. Oh, look. I think it might have dropped just coming up here because of the height again. And also, there’s rain in the air. Yeah. Maybe it’s about time Japan had an end to this extremely hot summer. I mean, it’s broken all sorts of records. It’s been one of the hottest summers on record. Typical for Michelle and I. two months driving in Japan. So, so hot. And we could just do with uh a little bit of a break from the heat ourselves. It would be nice to stay around the sort of mid20s. That would be cool. But we’ll see. We’ve got uh just over a couple of weeks left. Yep. Anything could happen. Absolutely. Not a lot of traffic on this road. No, it’s very quiet. Yeah. Not a lot of Tory gates. Uh what was the other? Sports cars. Have we? Sports cars and no bicycles. Now, I don’t know if you noticed the other day. I’m looking at these crash barriers again, but we went through a section of road where the crash barriers were Woo. That was joggly. Yeah. Yeah, the whole road sort of tilted to one side where the crash barriers were much worse than than these. I mean, these also look pretty rough. That was hilarious really. I mean, it felt like cars had been bouncing up and down, but getting a similar vibe here. Not so bad though. Little bit straighter. What else has been happening today, Michelle? We Come on, let’s do the roller coaster. roller coaster. Arms up. Everybody got their arms up. Yay. Even the car behind me is coming at speed. Everybody wants a roller coaster. So, we’re going to left turn one yet. Oh, look, another one. Oh, but we’ve got a left coming up, I think, in Yeah, but we might not be going left. Oh, do you want us to carry on, Michelle, if we’re going to Oh, no. No, we can go left. Yeah. Okay. We’re looking for some fuel at the moment as well. So, I spy with my little eye. First one to see a service station. Now, it may not be the service station we head for because we’re looking for one with reasonable prices. Prices cuz some of the prices are a bit high. Yes. Here they are. They are high, haven’t they? We’ve seen them at 180, 185. Yeah. Um nearly 190. We’ve paid as little as 15 sort of nine 157. So to see them nearly up to 190 is uh crazy. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re a little bit remote and we were in a big city just now and uh the prices were nothing under 180. I don’t think Yeah, I could understand it cuz we were in the city. So but this one should be all right. But we’re going to maybe we’ll see. We’re looking at what, Michelle, do you think it is? 169. 169. And quite often you’ll find a little small service station in villages like this. And they’re they’re usually quite reasonable prices as well. I don’t think there’s no guarantee that you’ll get what’s actually on on the outside. Oh, on the sign. On the sign. That is true. Because quite often it’s if you’ve got a card or you’re paying a certain way. Yeah. We quite often don’t get what we think we’re going to get. No. We think we’re going to get oh look 160 and we go in there and they charge us 164 and you think okay. And if you translate it it’s a membership price or you have to pay only cash or it’s a little bit frustrating. Just tell us the darn price. I tend to think. Yeah. Because I’ve worked out how to regular fuel. I know how to read that now. So we know it’s the right one. Lot of road works as well on this road. Small road works, but a lot of road works. Look at that power. I was going to say it’s a power grid, isn’t it? That’s a horrendous looking. Yeah. Fancy living next to that. Oh, big bird. It’s a heron. Heron. Or as I like to say, big bird. Are we coming to any towns at all, Michelle? This is a little bit uh plain for everybody. Yes, I’ve got a turn in a minute, I think, to for mine in 400 m going right. Okay. And are we getting close then to your service? Yeah. So, over the over the river. Okay. 300 m. follow Michelle’s um Michelle’s instructions. This road I think up here. She’s got an app that tells us where the the reasonably priced fuel is. There was going slightly off with the way we were going, but we’re going to go along. Taking a little maybe fuel detour. So, keep an eye out for that. Uh yeah, just here service station. You will suddenly move the bike and the Tory and the Tori and the bicycle. Sports car. Sports car. So now she’s going to now. So 5 km. 5 km on this road. That’s quite a detour for a bit of fuel. No, but it’s getting us onto a road nearer the lake. Okay. We’re just moving down. All right. So I’m quite happy to change our our route somewhat. So, we’re also going into this little town which is always interesting I thought find. It’s all uh Lawson’s around here, isn’t it? A lot of Lson, few marts, less 7-Elevens. We stopped at one Lawson we thought was huge. And then when I got inside it was tiny. It was just the building was big. There’s a rice place on the left. You can tell I started to spot them because of the hoppers. I was thinking exactly the same thing. Yeah. So, you know, the rice um milling. We’ll just go ever so slow behind this guy. He must be running out of fuel. He’s doing Yeah. slowly going along. Doing about 30 km an hour at the moment. So, about 20 m an hour. Don’t know why he’s going so slow. I think he must have dropped something and he’s looking for it probably. I think he’s just dallying along probably on the phone. Yeah. Or it’s a Oh, look at um another fire truck. No, here. Oh, him. Missed it. I’m looking at that one. It’s a So, here’s an Enos. What What’s the What’s the price here? Okay. He was going next. He was looking for fuel. Or is he? I’m not sure. So, there should be traffic. Where? Who’s moved the traffic lights? Yeah. 175. Do you think it’s worth Michelle going on to your one? We carry on. And there’s I think there’s more. It’s more of a big town. Okay. So, there’ll be some there. There’s a 10 minutes away apparently. I think there was a sort of sculpture of the creation. I don’t know. It looked like a godlike figure with a chisel and hammer. That was cool. By the way, uh if you spotted that service station, you won. Oh, yes. They mean it can be any service. Doesn’t have to be our service station. So, correct. If you’ve already put down in the comments, service station, why are you not paying attention to my comments, Stephen? [Music] This feels like sort of Tory. Yeah. Type. Might see one here somewhere. Might not be red. Tory country. That’s the word I was looking for. Not uh not as in conservatives, but uh as in little bridges. Gates. Gates. That’s the word I’m looking for. Yes. And not as in Bill Gates, the great philanthropist, the giver of everything. That might have it been a sculpture of Bill back there. Actually, such a such a giving soul. Look at the little funky. I remember back in the day when everybody despised Bill Gates and then for just a tiny minute, for about half an hour, two or three people liked him. And now I think am am I wrong to say comment down below if if anybody can find an ounce of love for Bill Gates and maybe I’m completely wrong but I never like the man. Okay. This is uh we rocked up to Milton Kees. It’s a new part of town. New part of town. Some people might get that reference. [Music] Okie dokie. It’s a t red taxi with a satellite dish on his roof. Was it a police? I think it’s fire. Fire fire car. Thought it was a taxi for a moment, but Oh, wow. We’re in a town now. This is why the prices surely somebody’s got reasonably priced fuel. Although we were just in a town where everything was 180 190 so we could be wrong but you you say you’ve spotted one online Michelle that’s recommended we’ll only um I’ll put a little bit of fuel in because we’re we’re getting to a part of the world where the prices get back down to normal just puts my mind at ease if I’ve got you know if I’m down to one or two bars I prefer to put a a little bit of fuel in so I don’t have to think. This this vehicle is ever so efficient. I think it’s about 17 18 uh kilometers to to a liter. I know it should be MPG uh for the Brits and the uh Americans watching, but uh that’s quite efficient. I don’t know what it is per if somebody could actually convert what that is, miles to the gallon, it would be interesting. So I think we’re getting 17 12 um kilometers per liter on an average. 172. That’s not our one though, is it? No. See, it says 175. So what price do you get? I think it’s probably members prices again or cash price. Who knows? It’s hard enough buying fuel in Japan. Every time I press a button, I get a pizza delivered or somebody comes around on a roller skate and offs to wash the car. It’s absolutely way too much information in Japanese service stations. Way too much writing. Just put your price of your fuel up there and a button to press. And a button to press. I kid you not. I’ve had them with pizza delivery. Um that you can buy at the the the the pump itself, whether you want to get a car wash, all sorts of things. Ramen. Hello. Nobody going. Oh, it’s us. There we go. We just wait here then. Yeah. So, carry on straight. Yes. You 1.2 and then you’re going left. Is that an old Buick on the right? Somebody might notice in the comments. Not an old Buick, but a new one. It looked like a Buick or somebody will have spotted somebody who knows their cars. White color. It was on the right side. Let me know. Not many American cars in Japan, so it probably wasn’t probably some uh some version. This is a very modern looking town. On and off. It is. So 800 m and you’re going left. Turning left or it’s on the left? Turning left. Look at this above us. Is there a tram system here or is this just awful cable management? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a tram line, although it could be. Electric buses. A bizarre amount of cables to have hanging. I mean, they do have a lot of cables, but they’re usually pretty tidy and not sort of in the middle of the road. This doesn’t look like tram or bus electric bus cables, but I’m not sure why little children crossing the road. All those children, there’s tiny ones here. Look, he was waiting for them. They cross. Look on the left here. Look, these little girls are on the way home on their own. Everybody pays respect. I’ve seen builders and site managers coming out and watching them across the road. These these little ones here, look, they’re tiny. They’ll cross by themselves. The bags are bigger than them. This little boy here with his blue bag. Look, he’s on his own. He’s on his own walking home. Two more of them further ahead of us. It looks like these guys are with them. They are not. They’re just Look, crossing. So 100 meters going left. That’s beautiful. I love it the way the Japanese children this one here. Uh possibly. Yes. Now you’ve got a no, Michelle. Yes. Yes. Can’t say possibly. I don’t know. Yeah, that’s correct. Okay. So all those little kids walking home from school on their own. We used to see it in Fukuoka. We used to see it in Osaka. Um, it’s so nice to see. [Music] Guide me. Guide me, Michelle. It looks like I’m going into a toll road. Um, no, you’ve got to go turn right. That’ be left. That side, Michelle. She’s pointing left, but then turn right and then right. Yeah. Down there. Donna, could you have brought me to a worse? spot for fuel. It’s It’s a kilometer just down here. 900 m on the left. Okay. When Michelle sees 900 m, she says, “Look, look here.” I said, “That’s a kilometer, Michelle. It’s still quite a way.” I know. I say it’s just down on this road. No, I’m explaining sometimes your concept, but I know 900 m. She Michelle will see it as 90 m. Anyway, I’m going to say, did you see my bicycle way back there? No. So, we need to get forward a little bit here cuz I can’t even see the traffic. There’s a stop sign. [Music] Okay, I think we can make our way out. We’re on a lovely country road and now we need fuel. Who knows where we are? We don’t need fuel this desperately. 600. Look, I found it on the app. Straight on. Yep. On the left or right when we get up here? Airlift. 400 m on the left. Okay. So, that’s a little bin truck we’ve just passed. We had that as an ice spy. We did, but we didn’t find one. So, I’m just uh just going to squeeze between these two and stay on the left side of the road. Anyone spot any Tory gates? Cuz there must have been a few sports cars. And if you’re calling out every car that’s got like a slanted bonnet as a sports car, I’ve kept quiet. You’ve seen what you think are sports cars. I thought that’s not a sports car. I’m thinking sort of like a cabernet. you know, something with a little bit of, you know, the Porsche stroke Ferrari, but maybe uh a tiny Porsche Ferrari. So, it says tollfree. Yeah. Should we go on it? I’ll go on then. So, what I was saying is we’ve we made it our mission to travel across Japan without using the toll roads. People always say the toll roads in Japan are extremely expensive. And I thought, well, we’re paying enough to be here as it is. Do we really need to use them? And I can say categorically from the south from the very northern tip of Honu down to the southern tip as far as we’ve got. So far to Matsui, I’ve never felt like I should have been on a toll road and also going from from Osaka all the way up the coastline to the northernmost tip to Cape Omar. Never felt like we should have been on or we were missing out by going on to a toll road. So my answer would be unless you want a sort of soulless bland experience, please go on the toll roads. But if you want to enjoy the country and see small towns and beautiful scenery, just stay off the toll roads. They’re a tiny bit slower, but not that much slower. Not much. No. For example, from from where we were staying in our previous a few nights ago when we were staying in the Rioan down to Fukuoka going via toll roads or going by minor roads was only about 10 km different over about 7 or 800 km drive. Yeah. So, absolutely. That’s just my opinion. What were you saying, Michelle? Um, we’re going along down to the lake now. So, that’s cool. Is it a special lake? Um, don’t know. Lake Hang on. It’s getting close. You could have ice spied that lake, you know. Good. Lake Shinji. Lake Shinji. Yeah. I wonder whether it’s a saltwater lake. It’s very near the sea. Not much. Probably not. No, I would say not, but it might be cuz there’s two sort of lakes. I don’t know. Google maps won’t tell us that, but maybe someone can research it. Is it uh so what? I would think not. No. Okay. It looks to be almost most of the lakes in in Japan tend to be almost volcanic. Yes. But can you see any rivers running down into the lake at all? Uh generally if you can see rivers running down into it, it’s going to be a freshwater lake. Yes. There’s so much mountains around us. I would say it’s fresh water and it may even be a reservoir. No, I think it Well, maybe. Yeah, I think that one Yeah. And the one next to it, I think, will be salt water cuz that opens out onto the sea. Well, even if it opens out onto the sea, it could still be just fresh water into brackish water into into sea water. Going to be there soon. Okay. Ice B might live. First one to spot the lake. Turn right. I’ve got a hard right here. Michelle, is that the same as you? Yes. So, we still do need fuel, but you know, it was never urgent. Um, I could probably still go a couple of hundred km um on the fuel that I’ve got, but guess down to the level where I I’d rather get some, but I’m not paying one I’d like to try and get it for about one late 160s. It doesn’t make a massive difference, but mentally more little children walking home from school. Not walking with my sister. Not walking with my sister. She’s got her wellie boots on. Oh, look at these kids. It’s so cute. They’re crossing. It look like maybe a grandfather behind. I don’t think he was with them. I don’t think he was with them. And he didn’t say sort of wait for me. Yeah, they’re just crossing. Could you imagine in many of the Western countries now, and I use Western countries to mean Australia, a lot of uh the Anglosphere, they’re so uptight about children, I mean, every single child, if this was a a western city, if this was Australia, every one of those children would be driven to school. And there’d be a definitely be a lollipop lady on the on the road. They wouldn’t be able to walk by themselves. Not at that age. These kids are I know. 7 8 6 7 8. Would I be right, Michelle? Yeah. Yeah. So, I’m just looking where you’re going. [Music] Okay. [Music] At the light, turn left. signs forum Shinji. Shinji. It’s like Shinji. [Music] 97 kers. 97. Wow. Well, that’s good. Don’t need to follow my map now anymore. Concentrate. Ooh. [Music] Well, look, I’m sorry you guys will have spotted it already, and I’m sure someone’s put it in the comments already, but that’s a massive lake, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not um the Great Lakes of Michigan, but it’s certainly the size of some of them. [Music] That a minoeki? It’s not a minoi, is it? No. [Music] So, what do we know? What can you share with us about the this lake? Probably got some legend, some history behind it. [Music] Keep your eyes peeled cuz there may be a toy gate in the lake cuz sometimes they’re using the water. Yeah, they’re quite often just off of the Yeah. Don’t forget to look out to the right for gates. You might even see a train to the left because we’re right alongside a train track and we’ve seen some beautiful trains. Yeah. Um, I kind of I did don’t know if I should even say this. The original idea of this trip to Japan was to cross people are going to say, “Oh, why didn’t you do this?” aren’t they to cross Japan or south to north, north to south on all of the small train lines. And sometimes I wish we did because we’ve missed the opportunity to do some of these smaller train journeys because it’s not easy when you’re in a vehicle because you have to leave the vehicle and then you have to come back on yourself. We haven’t really had the opportunity. Lake Shinji Park up. Yeah, lots of shade up there as well. That would be a nice uh too early. Too early. Yeah, got a good few hours driving to do yet. [Music] So, yes, that was the original idea is to start from the south of Japan and go to the north. They little Tory gates. Well, I had to look then. I’m not sure. I think not. They look like lots of tory gates though. How’s that? I don’t know. They look like a lot of stone tory gate. They had a a shape to them, Michelle. They could be. I’m sorry I’m pointing things out that you we’re not meant to be pointing them out, but I’m I have to say because I can’t debate it after the fact, but it looked to me on the right there, there were a load of stone tory gates in the water. So, um, what do you guys think? Could you see them clearly through the camera or was it too far away? But they weren’t red. So we can still look for our red one. We can still look for our stone ones cuz we can’t verify we can’t that they were wood to gates or stone. Definitely stone, not wood, but um 172. That’s 169. Should we go in here? Yeah. gets it done. Get get a little bit in there. So, oh, she’s sent over there. Okay, we got service here. [Music] This is nice. Okay. Nissan regular. Regular. Oh no. Same price. [Applause] No. Okay. So, um it’s a while since we’ve had a service um fuel stop. Yeah, I think was it the the guy who had the ones up and up in the ceiling? Is that the last one? And I keep saying I want to we we keep pulling into places and it looks like they’re going to serve us, but they all go and sit down in their chairs and just say get on with it. So, Oh, they got the [Music] So, the price of this fillup is possibly going to be about 173, Michelle. 172. 172. Okay. So, same as the the last place, but [Applause] this is interesting. This is uh the first time I’ve been to one of these larger fuel stops. Thank you. Can I go backwards? Can I go this way? Hey. Okay. Okay. I’m going backwards cuz I want you to see this lovely lady. [Music] Thank you. Byebye. I wanted to get the lady to come into the shot. What did that work out, Michelle? Was it 172 in the end? No. No. How much was it? 174. Oh dear. We never get the price we think we’re going to get. Okay. We paid a bit over the top, but that’s all right. But the fuel tank’s well over halfway and uh means I haven’t nice little lady doing it for she was. So 174. So we paid even more than the last place, but but that probably would have been that price as well. I’m sure it would have been. Yeah. But hey ho, it is what it is. It put a smile on our face. That’s all that matters. That’s all that matters. That’s a big Lson on a with a water a waterfront. Yeah. Oh, I don’t know if you saw that. Ladles and jelly spoons. Did you see it? Big big Lson’s just out on a pier front. And now we’re on the left of us. We’ve got the train tracks. This could be a very interesting stop. Unfortunately, we’re not planning to stop till early evening. We’ve we’ve already been to a supermarket, got some food, Mrs. Martin. So, cafe. Mrs. Martin Cafe. That’s where we are. Okay. If you want to sort of geolo locate us on Lake Shinji, Shinji, Mrs. Martin’s Cafe. Mr. Brown’s Boulevard. Yeah. [Music] So, what have we got left on our eyes spy? Have we got anything? We’ve got quite a few things. We’ve got the red Tory gate. We’ve got uh sports car which I haven’t seen yet. Although we may have seen people may have spotted sports cars. I’m sure there have been in all amongst that city traffic. There must have been. Must have been. We was busy concentrating on the road. Um lordy. What else was there Michelle? There was other things. Uh look uh Kamichi station. Okay. And trains there. take if there was a train there, I’d take you to do a little bit of train spotting. Uh, you got me. Well, I suppose if it was stopped at the station, you could. Yeah, if it was there, I’d jump out. You know me. So, now you had a stone tory gate, so we haven’t said that certain. No, I think we’ll carry on with the the Tory gate search for both stone and for red. We haven’t seen my bicycle. So, seen the bicycles. I think that was it. No, there was something else. It will come back to me. Somebody be shouting at the screen. Oh, you’ve forgotten that one. The fuel station. That was one, but that already passed the lake, right? I know there’s one more, guys. I know there’s one more. So, if it comes to us, uh, sometimes we remember. I’m probably wrong. There probably isn’t any others. This is a busy road, isn’t it, for the big trucks. Yes. Yes. We’re at 176 there. I know 174 for the regular. You can’t even express really how cute polite the Japanese people are in the stores. I mean, I was saying in a previous video, I think I may have said, or at least I was saying to Michelle at one time, even in the supermarkets, as they leave the floor, they turn to the supermarket and make a little bow. Yes. I mean, in Australia, that would be just like taking a Mickey, wouldn’t it? It’ be like, “What on earth, man? What’s happening?” and the kindness at which the service station staff treat you. Um the respect they seem to pay. I know if this was in the anglophere and I I don’t know because there was always a a sense of service in America but then there was always this sense of you know how much are you paying me for this service you know this tipping culture which really only exists in America I mean nobody else in the world has that sort of tipping culture but here it’s we don’t want anything for it We certainly would be insulted if you offered us anything for it. And there’s no sense that they’re sniggering afterwards and saying, you know, do you know what I mean? Sort of. I think it was in the UK or in Australia and they sort of gave a little bow and a thank you as you walked off, they’d say something sort of sarcastic under their breath. I don’t think that happens here. I could be wrong. So, um, let’s I want to see a train. Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn’t it? I’m not sure how long we should make this. No. And we’re tending to use the same eye spies. I suppose we could keep it simple and go yellow car, white car, red car, blue car, which is what we used to do with the children, right? We did. They didn’t have to spot a brand. Now, I do like the fact that almost 90% of this journey today, the traffic lights have just been flashing um give way. I noticed that. Yes. Yeah. rather than um what’s this one offering? 170 for regular. So, a little bit less. Lots of fuel stations along here. Busy old road. Was quite hard to get out on. Well, it wasn’t that hard actually. Now, that’s bit of an overstatement, isn’t it? I mean, people who saw saw me coming out and they knew it was probably about 30 seconds. Look at this thing dangling over the edge. What on earth is that? The waters are Wow. Everything’s even all the cars are up on bricks. And that’s abandoned, isn’t it? No, I think it’s an off. It’s a secondhand store. Ah. All the tops of the mountains are in cloud. You know what my mind is is thinking? I want to go back and see that building and show people that building because it’s it’s madness the the the the state of some of these what you would call Look at that little pulley system for the flag. Oh yeah. So what we would call the sort of secondhand soil. My lord, this is a busy road, isn’t it? There is as traffic as far as the I can see, but you’re getting to see a little bit of the lake. You might be getting to see a little more of the lake than you probably want to. [Music] Although, there’s a break coming to my right here. So, maybe I can ease out and force a after the truck. Force an entrance. Maybe. Mhm. Is there anything coming up? Yeah, there is a car, but not straight away. Okay, take a look at what I turned around for because Oh, he’s stopping. Everybody’s stopping. Oh, that’s cuz you talked about the traffic lights. [Music] I never, what’s the word I’m looking for? It never ceases to amaze me just how much some of these places are so rund down yet they still seem to be trading. I could be wrong. It might not be trading, but to me it looked like it was trading and it looked like it was trading in secondhand tap. Do we go in this one or further up? No, in there. Oh, I think further up. Ah, okay. So, we could have gone in that that side, but [Music] surely that’s open, Michelle. [Music] Is it open? There’s a an old jeep. Proper classic. Some plows and farm machinery. It’s an R2-D2. Wow. It’s an old phone booth. Noisy road. How did this place get into such disrepair? What is that piece of equipment there? Amazing. That is really bizarre. I mean, I’ve seen shops in sim similar condition that are fully trading. That’s closed there. Yeah, that is closed. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Now, when we turn when we turned around earlier, some of you may have noticed a Tory gate. The there to gate. Did you spot it and wonder if we hadn’t Oh, there’s an airport out there. Look, there’s an airplane taking off. So, just to the left, there’s a shrine here, and you won’t see it driving this side, but you will have seen it as we turn around. There was a Tory gate, and we’re obviously right next to an airport as well. Yeah. Now, a stone Tory gate, not a red one. Nope. So, it looks like my GPS has turned off and it was 97 km on this road. Okay. So, I don’t think we’re going to get lost. No, I think the internet’s died. Generally, the GPS doesn’t turn off because the internet dies, but wow. This whole area is in disrepair, isn’t it? That’s a par something. Mammoth. Mammoth storm. The amount of corrosion on the buildings makes me wonder whether this might be salt water. Although the sea’s not far away, so it might um get to it. Yeah, it would have to be connected though for it to have salt water. But um you know, it doesn’t there’s many thousands of locks in Scotland that are near the sea but have no salt water in them. Yeah. [Music] [Music] So, we seem to have lost uh connection. I think probably what we’re going to do is end this little game of ice by we’ve had our interesting Yeah. trip and you’ve spotted a few things. Michelle and I need to work out why our GPS isn’t working. And um it’s a nice view, isn’t it? It is a nice view, but I might stop also at at a comini and get a a drink. Okay, good idea. So idea to all of you, thank you for joining us again for maybe is a shorter. I don’t know how long this one was. Reasonable length. Yeah. A few dramas here, there, and everywhere. Different countryside, different views. A little bit different. A little bit different to what we’ve had in maybe previous views. I I think it’s quite fascinating again to see a Renault there. Sorry, my mind. When I see something as unusual as a French car, tend to comment on it. Uh pretty much everything here is is Japanese, isn’t it? Or the odd uh the odd European vehicle. Yeah. Um, yeah, a feast of a feast for the eyes, I would say. Absolutely. Every part of Japan’s a feast for the eyes. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Just let this gentleman turn into his work pace. We’ve got a clear road. Be good. Love you all. And Michelle and I will see you in the next episode. Let me know what you think. See you soon about the eye spy. And did you manage to uh spy much today? Take care. Bye. [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]

Join us as we hit the open road toward Kyushu, chasing adventure through Japan’s winding country roads, hidden vending machines, moody skies, and sleepy seaside towns. 🌧️🚗
Between vending wagyu beef, quirky roadside finds, and endless “I Spy” laughs, this is the side of Japan most travelers never see — raw, rainy, and real.
It’s not about the destination — it’s about the stuff you find in Japan along the way.

🎬 What you’ll see:
* Abandoned towns and secret ramen stops 🍜
* Wagyu beef vending machine discovery 🥩
* Rainy drives and roadside Torii gates ⛩️
* Honest reactions and travel banter that’ll make you smile 😄
📍Filmed across Honshu as we head south toward Kyushu — avoiding toll roads, chasing stories, and capturing moments.
👉 Subscribe for more road-trip adventures across Japan!

00:00 On the road again
02:33 Beef vending machine discovery
06:20 Heading south under grey skies
09:30 I Spy: Road trip games
14:00 Fuel stop reality check
24:00 Life off the toll roads
45:07 Let’s turn around to see this

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