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We're currently spending 2 weeks traveling around Japan. It's my second time in the country, but it's Jamie's first, so our itinerary is a mixture of some of the classic must-see sites, as well as checking out some places that are a bit further afield. If you can't see your reflection in the well, you will die in 3 years. I'm not looking at that. In the second half of the trip, we'll be starting out in Osaka. Highly recommend it. Then we're going to hire out a car and drive around the Wakayama Prefecture. I look at the waterfalls as well. And we're also going to see the ancient Omizutori Fire Festival in Nara.
I'm running across the balcony with this huge fire. The flames are way bigger than I thought they were going to be. And of course, we'll be trying out as much of Japan's delicious cuisine as possible within our 2 weeks in Japan. Just before we get started, I want to talk to you about this series sponsor, Wise. One account for all the money in the world. So, I spoke in the last video about how I've been using Wise as a quick, easy way to transfer money internationally. I also use the Wise debit card because with their multi-currency account, I can spend and withdraw money in over 40 currencies from local ATMs. So, it could be much cheaper than your local bank. But now, Wise are launching a current account in
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Like, 74% of Wise transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. So, if you want to sign up, you can use the link in the description, and you'll be able to claim your free Wise travel card. And now, back to Japan. Our journey began a week ago, where we had 1 day to see a handful of sites in Tokyo. Oh, there's Mount Fuji. Look. Mount Fuji, day one. Boom. Oh, that takes the pressure off, doesn't it? We then made our way to Takayama and stayed at a gorgeous ryokan. It's just what it like just what I wanted.
This is After checking out the village of Shirakawa-go, we hiked a section of the Nakasendo Trail. It's gorgeous. It's like exactly what you'd imagine. And then, to finish up, we had 24 hours to explore Kyoto. I hate to admit Carl's right. Yes. Save that clip forever. And we're now heading to Osaka to begin the second half of our trip. We collected our bags from our hostel and then jumped on the Shinkansen for the 15-minute journey to Osaka. Could have got the local train, which probably would have been cheaper, but oh, well.
We've got three nights in Osaka, and we're going to be staying by Namba Station, which is right amongst the action. And our hostel is just a few minutes' walk away. And then, once we checked in, it was just a 10-minute walk to the iconic Dotonbori district. This is Osaka. Osaka is Japan's energetic capital, famous for its neon-lit streets, lively nightlife, and incredible street food culture. I think he's a wolf. Hello. Osaka began as an important trading hub more than 1,500 years ago, and it's now Japan's third largest city with a population of 2.7 million people and 19 million people in the greater metropolitan area.
Osaka became known as Japan's kitchen for its historic role in the rice and food trade. And so, we can't wait to get stuck in with some tasty This is not sad. No, he's very happy, Oxford. Considering he's about to be food. So, it's our first full day in Osaka, and we're going to do a bit of a food crawl this afternoon. Um but, this morning we're just doing a little bit of shopping. We stumbled upon a little puppy cafe. $10 for two of us for 10 minutes?
Yeah, for 10 minutes. You get to sit with the puppies. They like climb all over you. They have little dogs and big dogs. We went with the little dogs just because they were There were less people. There were a bunch of people in the big dog pen. Yeah. I want to come back tomorrow and try with the big dogs. We'll see how that goes. I'm fine, Jamie. Yes. I don't have words. You can tell by the like endorphins rushing through my system right now. I'm just like Yeah. But, yes, it was amazing. Yeah.
Highly recommend it. So, Jamie has something to say to that, but I Look what I found. Lord of the Rings DVDs. The Japanese with the kanji writing just looks amazing. Go very nicely on the shelf. We spent the rest of the morning doing some more shopping and then it was time to start sampling the food as we head over to Kuromon Market. So, we come to Kuromon Market to start our kind of afternoon evening food crawl around Osaka. And joining us is Wally. Back on the channel. Just happens to be in Japan whilst we're in Japan. Which Amazing.
We just got to Osaka, so Come by. Ooh, that's very nice. You like that? Very nice. I like this diner, Osaka. We started out with the Uh some gyoza. Gyoza of the thunder god. We don't know what that means. However, it is from a Michelin guide gyoza shop. That's actually the name of the restaurant. Yeah, Michelin guide. I like it. No notes. Very good. Very tasty. We continued working our way through the market and next up on the menu was some unagi, otherwise known as freshwater eels.
Some you're going to win, some you're going to lose. These guys decided to microwave the eel rather than grilling it, so The more English you see on the menu, the more of a chance you should avoid them. This was my idea, so I'm going to pick up the rest. We should do this somewhere else. But uh it's uh let's give it two out of five stars. So, we're about to eat octopus on a stick which has a quail egg in the head. Come by. Are you doing it in one? Here we All right. Take two. No need to test it out. I think it's good. That's night and day.
Compared to Mikey's one. and day. Compared to my commute. Oh, yeah. So much nicer. Oh, yeah. Like And there we go. Yeah, like a million miles away. After we'd finished up at the market, we started exploring the surrounding streets for more food and drink options. First time you guys have been to a shot bar? Let's do it. Yeah. So, Walleed found this nice cocktail place. So, they ordered an old fashioned, but I was just in the mood for a beer. We saw you on the boat yesterday. We then stopped for a drink at a very small corner bar, and we asked the owner how long she's had the place.
What's the name of the bar? Uh what? Bar Core. The world's smallest bar. So, we're now having takoyaki, which is like the octopus pancake balls. I did not like this last time I was here. So, I'm curious to see if I do this time around. Oh, that's nice and sweet. Yeah, maybe I just had a bad one. Yeah. Well, good. This is going to be fun. Next up, we went to a very popular okonomiyaki place, and by pure luck, we were the first ones in when it opened. I was just here the other night, AND I HAD TO WAIT IN LINE for an hour and a half. Wow. So, we're in luck. Nice. Uh yes, please.
Yeah, we got three of those. We're getting Yeah, three bottles of it. We got to drink this like a cat. Don't lick it. Two things. Two major types of uh categories here. Okonomiyaki. Which is essentially like a pancake with cabbage and whatever you want. So, this is actually was a rivalry between Osaka and Hiroshima. Yeah. Osaka invented it. Hiroshima introduced the noodles. They were like, "Oh, we're going to make it better. We're going to make We're going to put noodles in the thing cuz you know you can't go wrong with noodles." So, now it's everywhere. So, Osaka
responded by introducing Negiyaki. So, this is the better, fresher version, more healthy for you because it doesn't have as many carbs. I recommend getting one of each. Try both. And the sake, of course. See, one you sound like you know what you're doing, and two, if it's bad, we can blame you. You always blame me anyway. That's true. Seafood Negiyaki. How are you going to eat all this food? Oh, you'll be just That's delicious.
Good spot, Wally. Thank you. Great spot, Wally. Thank you. On the way out, we saw the queue there is now to get in, which shows how lucky we were. But next, we're going to catch up with Wally a bit later on cuz first, I'm going to show Jamie around a Japanese arcade. You have to come to an arcade just once just to see the whole thing. What do you think of that? Wow. It's a lot. I enjoy though. It's just so Japan. It's like a salt on the senses. [screaming]
Next up, we went for a drink at a place called Bar Nayuta that Walid recommended, and we thought it was going to be a hidden gem, but it ends up being the exact opposite. It's very so hard to find cuz it's like in a back street and you go up some stairs and then you don't even recognize the door. You go in. There's no sign. And then you come in and it's this very funky looking bar, but it's all western. So, this place must have been on Instagram or something cuz how does everyone know about it? ching You know, I once had someone in the comments say why don't I ever show things like doing laundry on the trip?"
I'm like, "You want to see that? Like, that really kind of riveting, fascinating footage?" So, here we go. Doing laundry. This is definitely going in the emotional montage at the end of the film. Just like, such amazing travel moments. Today, we're going to be checking out the neighboring city of Kobe, which is just a 17-minute train journey away. And before we get stuck in with trying the famous Kobe beef, we're going to take the cable car up to Nunobiki Herb Gardens for an amazing view of the city.
My favorite thing. Kyle's favorite thing. Jamie's mildly enjoyable. Yes, we got a great view of not just Kobe itself, the whole Osaka Bay here. See how far we traveled today. It's almost like you're at some kind of medieval restaurant or something. I'm surprised there's not a pub here, actually. There is a walk you can do down through the botanical gardens, but since there weren't many flowers out yet, we just took the cable car back down.
You can see little bits down there. It's funny, we've only had one hiking day on this trip so far, but we've been walking so much. Just exploring all the cities, so like, any chance to take it easier for a day. Once we made it back into town, it was time for lunch, and there was only one thing on the menu. Kobe ribeye, 200 g. And fillet, 190 g. Oh, Kobe beef is one of the world's most famous luxury meats, prized for its intense marbling, tenderness, and rich buttery flavor. It comes from a specific strain of Wagyu cattle raised under strict specialized conditions that focuses on a low stress and high
nutrient lifestyle, and they are never given growth hormones. It's so cool to watch. Maximize Everything you dreamed it would be. So good. Yes. Yeah. Yes. It's so soft and just like Hi. I'm sorry. I'm so full on steak right now. That was phenomenal. Just like, you know, you pay a lot of money for it, so you want it to be good, but oh man. And to have it like cooked right in front of you in that setup was just There's countless places here selling it, and I'm sure a lot of them would have been great as well, but to have that kind of It would be awesome.
Yeah, that setting. Not cheap. Yeah. Very much worth it. If you can swing it, do. Like of all of the fancy dinners that I think we or lunches Yeah. Lunch. This is lunch. Yeah, yeah. Uh that we could have in Japan, I think that would be one of the ones that would be like the most special, the most unique. And the way we found it is Waleed recommended this place to us, so he did the leg work. So thank you, Waleed. Uh he didn't get the tab, though, so a bit of a shame, but anyway. Anyway, we're just going to wander around the town now, find some sake, find some souvenirs, and see what happens.
Walk off that beef. We went to do a bit of shopping around town and then we head to the Nada district where you can do a bit of a self-guided sake brewery tour, but unfortunately, we left it a bit late in the day. So, there was only actually one that was still open. I've been very surprised with the trip with the variety of flavors to sake. With other drinks, like some of them have like little nuance and differences, but some of these are very, very different to each other. We then took the train back to Osaka to enjoy our last evening here. We've come to Shinsekai anyway for the evening to get some food and admire the bright lights.
We tucked into a nice bowl of ramen and then tried to win some more sweets before calling it a night as we've got a big day tomorrow. Our plan for the next 2 days is to explore the Wakayama prefecture and this is one of the pockets of Japan where the public transport links aren't so good. So, we hired out a car. We've got a bit of a change in vibe now. We've got a car for this. You've got light rays on you again. See, every time. I'm an angel.
You are an angel. Uh, we got this lovely BMW. Like, when we were booking the car, it was like the same price to get a really nice BMW as just a regular ordinary car. So, we were like, yes, we'll take that one, please. $10 more. Yeah, something like so we were just like, yeah, we'll take that. Um, so, yeah, first time driving in Japan. So, I'm not going to I'm going to now stop talking to camera and focus on the road. So, I'll see you in a bit. So, today, we're driving up to the mountain town of Koya where we'll be spending one night and it's going to take about an hour and a half to drive there. That was some very, very, very windy roads.
Uh, come Up the mountain. mountain there. But, that's cool. All right, let's go and investigate. So, we think we're here. After spending the last few nights in hostels, this is another one of the stops where we're treating ourselves cuz tonight we're actually staying in a Buddhist temple. Cool. This looks amazing. Oh, wow. So, we booked a room which I don't view of the pond and had shared accommodation and shared accommodation and shared bathroom uh cuz it's slightly cheaper than the sort of super duper private one. The pond's under construction. So, they've upgraded us to the super duper private one. So, we have like our own wing of the temple with our own private bath private bathroom. What's this thing? So, great.
Well, we've checked in to our very lovely temple. And now we're just going to have a little wander around the village. And we're just across the road, literally just across the road from the famous orange temple. Probably has a more eloquent name The temple is called Danjo Garan and it's one of 117 temples here in Koyasan. Koyasan is a sacred site in Shingon Esoteric Buddhism and was founded by the famous monk Kukai in year 816. At its height in the 15th century, there were over 1,800
individual temples here and today it remains an active spiritual community and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So, the bell is rung five times a day on a strict schedule. So, we will hear it. Including at 4:00 a.m. But, uh So, there's a little bit of a small town or village here there's like gift shops and cafes. Like I wasn't sure if Koyasan was just temples and cemetery, that's it. But there is sort of some modern aspects to it. After having a bit of an explore, we made it back to our temple in time for our 5:00 dinner. It's going to be a vegan meal, so we shall see what we shall get.
It should be delicious. Vegetarian. Not vegan. The vision very Okay. One of us is paying attention. And it's not me. It's all presented so beautifully. I don't want to touch it. So we just had our dinner, which was absolutely delicious. I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't know what half the stuff was. And now we've got all our layers on to go for the evening walk around the cemetery. Which I think will be very, very special. And I won't be doing any talking to camera during that.
Uh which will probably be a relief for you, but yeah. It's going to be quiet. Certainly a relief for me. Hey. We're heading to Okunoin, Japan's largest cemetery, which has over 200,000 graves and memorials. We'd booked a guided tour where a monk takes us around the cemetery and teaches us about the history, as well as providing some deep insights into Shingon esoteric Buddhism. I couldn't film much though, because we weren't allowed to film the monk, and the rest of the time we were walking briskly through the cemetery. But the tour was fascinating, and once it ended and the group disbanded, Jamie and I
actually got some alone time with the monk as we were walking back, and it ended up being an absolute highlight just chatting to him and getting to know him. He's been a monk for 7 years now. Jamie asked, "What were you before a monk?" And he was like, "Oh, I was a backpacker." I used to be a backpacker. I was like, "Oh, yeah, us too." He said he used to be a hippie. Yeah, a bit of a hippie. He really seemed like a really cool guy just to get to know him. I was like Yeah.
I just want to be like, "Hey, do you have Instagram?" I didn't cuz I Yeah. don't know how monks feel about social media. I don't know how monks feel about social media. Also that. He was just like a regular guy, you know? And he said, "Oh, how much you like the music from the UK?" And he said, "Oh, yeah. You have big festivals in Japan, Fuji Rock. And I saw Chemical Brothers three times there. I also like Prodigy and Noel Gallagher and Oasis." I was like, "Cool." But hey, if you're out there, buddy, give us a shout.
Get in touch. Get in touch if you end up seeing this. Yeah. On the way back, our place has a curfew at 9:00. You've got to be back before 9:00 cuz they shut the gates. And we got off the bus like 8:55, but then they were ringing the big bell by the temple. So, we kind of just quickly went up there to just see that cuz the incredible. Just made it for the ringing of the bell. The curfew for our place is in about 2 minutes. I've got to get BACK IN NOW. WE GOT BACK TO HERE AT 8:58. WE weren't late. And now, we're going to have a bath.
Probably one at a time cuz it's quite small. When we woke up, we attended a morning ceremony at our temple, which we couldn't photograph or film. And then after filling up on some breakfast, we went back to Okunoin to see the cemetery in daylight. It's much larger in the daytime. You can really see how it extends. So, one of the things we learned is that anyone can be buried here. Like anyone.
Like it doesn't matter what religion you are or where you're from. You supply through one of the temples and you can be buried here. So, there's a well here and the legend is if you can't see your reflection in the well, you will die in 3 years. I was like, "I'm not looking at that." Okay. So, also if you trip on these stairs coming up, you'll die in 3 years. Yes. And our guide said last night most Japanese legends have you die in 3 years.
Yeah. So, I'm going to concentrate on walking up the stairs and I'm not going to Once we reached the end of the trail, we couldn't film anymore as we reached the mausoleum of Kōbō Daishi, founder of the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism. Basically believe Kōbō Daishi is still there. He's still meditating for 1,200 years. So, we can't bring the Oh, we can't film or take any photos. So, see in a minute. Well, we had an absolutely lovely time in Koyasan. Like really loved that place. That was really something special. Staying at the temple and you get to explore. Everything in that area just really loved it.
The plan for the rest of the day is we're going to make the 4-hour drive through the mountains and down to where we're staying on the coast tonight and we'll be making a stop at Nachi Waterfall along the way. We're running late. interesting It's a two-way road. It's single carriage way. We've got some wild boars in the road. It's okay, piggies. Oh, look. They've gone up the hill. Cool. Wow. Oh. It's okay. You're not paying attention at all, are you? The drive now down to the coast uh we've gone on some rather sketchy windy roads through the mountains, which is fine, but then
we now begin like an error sign in the car, so we haven't really been filming much of the journey cuz we're just making sure the car's okay and we get to our destination one piece. So, that's where we're at. We've just stopped. Car needs a restart, so we've just stopped at a random spot to have a Ironically, it is the nicest car we've ever rented. Yeah. It's a BMW. Beautiful. Flashback to a couple days ago where we were like, "Wow, we got a BMW." And we're just getting like a stupid error. Um computer says no, so Anyway, we'll talk to you when we get to Natchi Waterfall. Or will we? Or the garage.
We had to stop and restart the car quite a few times, which meant the journey took way longer than we planned. But, eventually we did make it to Natchi Waterfall. Well, we had planned to film an exciting road trip through the mountains today, but instead we're just glad the car got here in one piece. So, instead you get Jamie's shaky handycam. And a line on a map. But, this very flash looking car uh got some bugs in it. Um anyway, we're here at Natchi Waterfalls. We're just going to have a look at the shrine above it before we head to our accommodation for the night. We had planned to hike a small section of the Kumano Kodo track here, but because of the car issues, we've only got time now to check out the views.
That's all good. It's very, very pretty here and it's nice sunny day, so let's make the most of it. I like, "Oh, the shrine's so beautiful." Look at this tree. It's a magnificent tree. I think after I first came to Japan, I saw a picture of this place. Hadn't seen it before. I was like, "Ah, Why didn't we go there?" And so it was very nice actually finally be here. Magnificent, too. Absolutely magnificent.
The Seiganto-ji Temple here was originally founded in the 4th century and has been rebuilt several times throughout history due to fires and conflicts with the current version being reconstructed in 1972. Kind of amazing view back to the ocean from here. I'll look at the waterfalls as well. Wow. That's great. The Nachi Falls here are the tallest single drop waterfall in Japan. They have a convenient hole in the netting here so you can get your photos, which I appreciate very much. Not large enough for a person.
Yeah, we were first alarmed by the siren, but actually it's 15 years ago today they had the huge tsunami, which took tens of thousands of lives, so that's why they had the bell going, the alarm going. Everyone just stopped and bowed uh facing that direction. Really glad we came here though. This has been just lovely. We've now got about another hour's drive to get to our hotel tonight, which is at a random place that Jamie found through doing a bit of searching. I just looked at Google Maps and I searched for a hotels along the coast. I just feel like the little hotel symbol. Yeah. And I just clicked on all of them until I found one that I liked. It's in a little town called Susami. It looks
absolutely gorgeous. And it was like $150. Canadian. I mean, we started out today winding through the mountains and now we're just winding on the coastline. And apparently, we just went past the most southern tip of the main island of Japan. So, we were just driving along and then decided to pull over at the Hashiguiwa rocks because they look pretty amazing. Jumping fishes. Do it again. Shortly after, we made it to our hotel and our room not only had an amazing ocean view, but after spending so many nights sleeping on futons, it was so
nice to be able to sleep in a proper bed again. Happy? It's an actual bed. Oh my god. So, like I have a bad back. So, hotel's lovely, room's amazing. There isn't a restaurant here, which we knew, but there's also nothing really nearby that's open or has like a sea view and stuff. so we thought rather Which depends on both the day of the week and the season, so it's just bad and the time of day as well. Yeah. So, a lot of the places close at 6:00. It's kind of a bad luck Yeah. situation that we've come into. But, luckily there's a Lawson's right nearby.
We have this amazing lounge in the hotel, so we're just going to have a little Lawson's picnic with a perfect sunset view. Cheers. We had a lovely evening at the hotel and a really nice onsen there, which we really enjoyed as well, which couldn't film cuz there was dicks everywhere. So, um Or tits. Yeah, but Depending on your depending which room you're in, but yes. Our plan for today is to continue driving up the coast and then drop the car back off at Osaka Airport before getting the train to Nara.
First little lookout of the day is called Lovers Cape. This cape is for lovers. See so many ships going along the whole shipping lane. So, we tried driving to some caves and Google Maps ended up taking us on a cycle path which had a dead end, so I had to do some doing Austin Powers turn and get out of the space. I read the caves are closed as well. They're not closed. The sign says don't go there. Like it's like no trespassing. This is private property.
Oh, right. Okay. Somebody told somebody and somebody put it on Google Maps. Right. I see. have become the latest victim. After about a couple of hours of driving, we made it back to our car rental at Osaka Airport. But we had to refuel first before dropping it off. Holding up Google Translate to the screen to figure out how to refuel the car. There's so many things like, "Do you have this app? Are you collecting this coupon? Do you want this?" Just want to get some fuel. That's all I want to do. But we're doing it. Once we dropped off the car, the train from the airport back into Osaka took about 40 minutes. And then the train out to Nara took about 55 minutes. And then
we jumped in an Uber to take us to our accommodation for the one night that we're staying here. Place we're staying at is right in amongst the actual park. Like, last time I was here, this is like the furthest we actually walked up to. So, we're really amongst it. Okay. It's there. I got to Oh, wow. Tonight is the climax of Omizutori, one of Japan's oldest Buddhist ceremonies. And so, the reason we're staying deep within Nara Park is we wanted to be at a place within walking distance of the evening fire ceremony. Oh, I don't have a cookie. I'm sorry. You want a tease. Not interested. Oh, here come the rest. I don't have any.
Yeah. Oh my goodness. Look at that little one. I could get busy fairy tale. So, I didn't actually We're here cuz of a festival and I we hadn't planned to come to Nara. I just thought, "Okay, the deer are a bit of a gimmick." But, oh my gosh. The deer in Nara are revered in the Shinto religion as sacred messengers of the gods. They have been protected for over 1,300 years and are officially designated as national natural monuments. Look at you for a belly scratch. We arrived at the temple for the evening ceremony and the queues were already massive. But, since it was still 2 and 1/2 hours until the ceremony began, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat.
Temple's just there and we're about to join the queue but we're just going to quick feed them first. So, the time is 5:30. It starts at 7:30. But, we have booked the private onsen combination for when we get back. So, that'll be nice. A nice warm up Yeah. So, we're here for the Omizutori Fire Festival, which is a 1,270-year-old Buddhist festival. It runs for 14 days, but the main day of it is today. Hence why we're here. And Buddhist monks run along the balcony here with big burning balls of fire.
Uh, they're supposed to be Well, they move at a certain pace along the balcony and with big torches. The festival marks the arrival of spring and the embers from the torches that rain down are a symbol of purification and protection. But, yes, tonight's the main event and it's going to be amazing in just 1 hour and 40 minutes time. We just saw something happen. Three guys. We'll explain it later. Yeah. Just as they brought out the second of 11 torches, they started moving us through so we would get a closer look at the ceremony.
Look how it's starting to walk around now. It's just something like we are moving. But then they kept us moving and we then realized the queue was being escorted out. I think that's it. I guess if you're there earlier you get to stay longer, yeah. Cuz we joined the queue later, you went through first, which means you see less of it. We are just giggling though, cuz we basically just queued for 2 hours for about 30 seconds of fire. But it was incredible to see.
Being a lady going out for a night out, you get ready for 2 hours for a minute of fun. But we did get to see the beginning of it. Then running across the pathway was huge. And the flames were way bigger than I thought they were going to be. Huge. Really huge. Like and you kind of like going, isn't that a wooden temple and you're running around with fire? That doesn't seem to make sense, but they've been doing it for 1,200 years, so but it's still really impressive. Still really glad we did it. Really cool. Really unique. Yeah. Definitely, if you are in Nara on March 12th come and see it. What are the odds?
Yeah. We made it back to our room where they prepared a lovely little evening snack for us. And we ordered a beer to the room. I said, "Can we get four?" She went, "Oh, they're very big." I went, "Uh-huh." We compromised and got three. Kampai. That fruit was delicious. Like I could have another two or three plates of it if it was going. Jamie's like, "Back off. It's mine." You ate yours. Yep. The delicious food continued in the morning with a traditional breakfast.
I feel like our breakfasts on this trip have been one of two extremes. It's either like the most beautifully presented meal you've ever seen or it's an egg salad sandwich from the FamilyMart. Hello, everyone. We had a couple of hours before we had to catch our train, so we decided to explore more of the park. Only this time, we actually had some of the biscuits we could feed the deer. Oh. Hey, it's stuck. Ouch, that's very rude. Hey, ouch. All right, I'm going in. WE CONTINUED TO WANDER AROUND AND MADE OUR way back to Nagashido Temple, where the ceremony was last night.
A lot of the infrastructure's been packed away. This is one of the used torches tied up in the truck here. It's huge. We walked up Stephen, 30 seconds. Now, imagine doing this but carrying a giant lamp post of a torch So, this is the balcony they were holding all the torches off last night. It's free to come up here, you don't have to pay for entrance. Yeah, so they're currently prepping their torches for tonight down there.
They only do a couple torches tonight. Not two tonight. I don't know how many, but it's not as many as last night. [snorts] And like we were queuing over there, but there's this whole standing area here. People had a white badge Yeah. last night, and I noticed quite a few of them actually praying, so I imagine that's Which rightfully so. Yep. We're just tourists trying to watch someone else's religious practice. These are the steps they came charging up. Several times.
Several times with the torches. Well, I'm glad we did that. I'm glad we came back to the temple the ceremony was at last night. Gave it Give it a bit more context. It was nice that you go up on the balcony and see the view and stuff. So, yeah. Good stuff. It's now time to head to the penultimate stop of our trip, and we're going to spend the night in the coastal town of Atami at a very nice hotel. So, to get there, we took the hour-long train to Kyoto and then the 3-hour Shinkansen to Atami, where the hotel's shuttle was waiting to pick us up. So, tomorrow is our last day of the trip, and we're going to be having an extra day in Tokyo just seeing a bit more there before we stay out by the airport for my early flight the next day.
Um and so, then for our penultimate day, we thought maybe we'd stay somewhere nearest to Mount Fuji, like in case the weather's good and we hadn't seen it, we could do a little excursion to go see it. But one, the weather's not good, it's covered in cloud, we went past it on the train and you couldn't see it. And two, we saw it the first day from Shibuya. So, we thought, well, let's stay in Atami. But Jamie found us a really, really, really nice hotel because I'm off to Indonesia for a couple of weeks once I see Jamie for a couple of weeks after this, so it'll be like a nice treat for us at the end of our trip. And we've had some lovely accommodation this trip. We've had some very basic things sort of
deliberately so we could afford a place like this, but this is lovely. A good way to end. So, let's just skip to the main bit. Let's just search it. The best thing about this room. So, we have a balcony with our own little private onsen hot bath, hot tub, whatever you want to call it. If Forget room First of all, we have a little porch, a little entrance porch. But if you get room service, they don't come into rooms, you have to interact with other people. You just put it in the little cubby. So, if you ring a number, beers will magically appear in that tray.
A magical cubby. After spending a good couple of hours in the tub, we went upstairs for some drinks at the rooftop bar. So, we've come up to the rooftop terrace, which gives an amazing view of the bay. It is a bit cold, cuz it is March and it's a bit cloudy, but the alcohol's free, or at least included in the price, so you got to come up for it. And the view is amazing. The view is fantastic. Cheers. Next up was dinner at the hotel's restaurant, which we prepaid for when we booked our room, and we were going to be treated to a nine-course dinner.
Wow. Oh, it's so good. I love this so much. The food was just incredible. Then, of course, we got to eat there again in the morning for breakfast before we had to check out. Yeah, we basically spent most of our time just in the tub here, enjoying this amazing view. But, we're now going to head back to Tokyo and have one last day to explore around there, so it should be a nice fun way to end the trip.
We were lucky to have the sun out for our final day, which meant we got great views of Mount Fuji on the train ride to Tokyo. Once we made it to the city, we head to the traditional district of Asakusa. All right. Last afternoon, we're in Asakusa in Tokyo. Money it's back. We just had some sushi, and now we're going to go do a bit of shopping and then exploring. So, let's go.
Well, if you need your tourist hat, this is the place to come. Breakfast food. Please don't put your chopsticks in my food. on So I did succumb. I got a lantern fridge magnet for the pub and then cheering bottle opener for everywhere. Yeah, I think if you've just arrived in Japan and landed in Tokyo, this might be the first temple or shrine you'll see. I know you quit smoking. I got to get blessed. The last time I did it, I had the best fortune. It's like supposed to be like the number one best fortune.
3 years ago, so Whatever effect up. Definitely went down. Let's see what this says. Oh, thank god. It's good news. Happiness will come to just like cutting rice plants, which I do all the time. Oh, the person you are waiting for will come. Ooh. This is called melon pan. Uh very popular. You can find it 7-Eleven, but why get it 7-Eleven when you can get it's basically a giant Japanese donut. Nice. Looks like a sugary savory snack. It's good. Keep us going for a bit. Found a shop selling movie programs which I didn't even know was a thing. I got the one, two, and three plus Teen Wolf.
Found a street with some cool little izakayas. All of them full. This is cool. So you could have picked any sake cup. Well, I picked the kitty cats cuz they're cute. They're really nice cute little kitties. We've got the out. Can't buy it. Bye. But yes, we just continue our random wander around the area. Like, oh, there's some lights down this way. Let's go down there. It's interesting, even though we're right by the very touristy area, there's not many tourists. I don't know. How good is This is so great though. We're on Poppy Street. We're just only like a couple blocks over from that big tourist street
with all the gift stores and things like that. And whilst there it's like 95% tourists, 5% locals. Here it's like switched the other way around. So, all these places just are filled with local people. And it's funny like they have people standing outside of all the restaurants actively inviting people in, but when we walk past they just ignore us. They want to keep it local. So, don't come here. Don't ruin it. It's great. It's really good. Can't buy it.
Yeah, I really enjoyed that last day in Tokyo. It was nice to actually you know, other times on the trip we sort of trying to lose some of the tourist crowd and we just find a secret bar that was full of more westerners. Stumbled upon the street, which again I keep saying was just two blocks over from the most touristy street in Tokyo. And just a local spot. It was just lovely just hanging out there, being amongst the atmosphere. Yeah, getting amongst like the actual life in Tokyo. Yeah, cuz some trips you sort of finish off with like some big huge crazy activity to finish off. And other times it's nice to just to hang out. That's what we did. no, it was great. Okay, watch.
It's red. Yeah. It's white. Okay. So, what were your general impressions of your first time in Japan? I loved it. I knew you would. It was an easy sell. Yeah, it's kind of like it's hard to describe Japan in sort of like a quick summary or like one word because it's so many different things all at once. It's both this like crazy urban center, like neon lights, and then also like this beautiful peaceful, traditional space. So, it's Is it I've never been anywhere like it. It is a land of contrast. That's sort of It's almost a cliche saying that about Japan now, but it's just you have to say it cuz it's just so It just sums it up so well.
It's true. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you can summarize it once again. I know I need to go back to Japan. I'm already thinking about when we can go back. How soon is too soon to go back to Japan? But, I do feel like I got enough out of our little 2-week trip. You didn't go home feeling short-changed or anything like that. No, not at all. I feel like I got a good taste of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, what was Speaking of taste, nice segue.
What was your favorite meal? Oh, um I think it's a tie. Mhm. The Kobe beef. Also, the meal that we had at Wanosato the Ryokan in Takayama was really amazing. Got to try a whole bunch of things that I never would have, and I'm a relatively adventurous eater, but like that I never would have had or never would have ordered. Plus, the presentation was so beautiful. You feel bad eating it. Yes. Yes, you just want to look at it cuz it's like art. It was absolutely so stunning, and also delicious. But, the Ryokan, I was just say best place we stayed is an obvious winner.
Yes. I don't ever want to leave. Best activity or experience in the trip? Oh, I think if I had to pick one, I really loved the Nakasendo. That was going to be my answer. Yeah, sorry. I also really loved the cemetery walk in Koyasan. I also really loved that afternoon in Kyoto that we had. Yeah, Kyoto went way better than we thought cuz I was just like I loved Kyoto last time I was in Japan, but this time with all the tourism in Japan going through the roof, I was like this is just going to be so chaotic. And it did get busy, but it wasn't it didn't spoil the experience. That was a really pleasant surprise for me.
Yeah. I think whenever we go back to Japan, like I really want to go cuz we went from Tokyo kind of south, I want to go north and just see what's there. Yeah, I do feel like I got kind of the highlights of Japan, not out of the way, but out of the way. Yeah, yeah. Like so like the classic we did the so the classic highlights and now it's like let's just go and see what else is out there. There's so much more to discover in that country. So Yeah, but that's it for Japan. At the end of the trip, Jamie had to fly home, but then I went off to Indonesia with my mate Luke and we had two weeks traveling around there and that's what's going to
be up next on the channel. So I'm going to leave you a little preview of that trip right now. It's perfect. It's very like a bird just without some swings here. Once we start going uphill, I was like flooring it and it just wasn't going. This is pretty amazing. I thought we did it better. I'll ask you one question. What do I have in my pocket? That was sick. Oh my god. Come on. This is unbelievable. Are you seeing that as well? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
This is it. This is the hostel I stayed at 13 years ago, which is weird.
