japan land of the cute cuddly and of
course friendly oh my god what the hell
is that
so today we're in akita prefecture in
north japan home to the tastiest chicken
in the entire country it's cute as dogs
and of course most horrifying creatures
but if you think that's unpleasant wait
until you see what we're traveling with
today
oh my god me
three and a half hours north of tokyo by
shinkansen akita literally meaning
autumn fields is japan's sixth largest
prefecture but with a population of just
one million its mountains lakes and
luscious fields remain amongst the least
densely populated in the entire country
secluded on the north west coast along
the sea of japan akita has a strong
sense of identity and some rather unique
if not terrifying traditions and today
we've come to see what we can do here in
just 24 hours
from eating the juiciest yakitori
chicken in all of japan
and enjoying a dip in a hot spring
to meeting the universally beloved akita
dogs
but our first stop is the orga peninsula
home to the utterly horrific namahage
demons
so we're about to go into this beautiful
traditional straw house and meet these
terrifying namahage god-like creatures
can't be much more terrifying than e.t
or ryotaro
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yeah the words post traumatic stress
disorders spring to mind
the namahage are godlike creatures that
roam the mountains and are welcomed into
the homes of locals each year during the
new year's holidays once inside they
check to see the harvest has gone well
for the year and intimidate the children
to work harder at school a bit like
santa's naughty or nice list but far
more traumatizing because they literally
carry knives
and when i say they enter your home i
mean grown men put on a massive costume
and burst in through your front door a
situation that probably wouldn't work
out so well in other countries
we watched a video of the ceremony on
screen a minute ago and uh
on new year's day they all burst in the
house and start like taking the kids
away and the kids are screaming the kids
are crying for for their life and
they're like just dragging them around
the room and uh
yeah
i wonder how many kids get ptsd off of
this but yeah an incredible amount of
detail you gotta admit some of axes some
of swords some have sticks no shotguns
like only primitive weaponry
the real question is who would you
rather go on a date with
him
or him
leave a comment below but we all know
the answer the scariest ones they're
always the ones that don't have a weapon
well these have got like
butchering knives
this one's just like a horse look at
this
no weapon just a horse i think the
scariest thing though isn't the
appearance it's the noise they make when
they come in they go
you know i think you kind of think of
the image of japan it's always cute and
cuddly things isn't it and then you see
this and this is very much the
antithesis all of that but i love it
it's a great way to get kids to do their
homework and stop messing around
threaten them threaten their lives
still don't be deterred by the thuggish
and frightening namahagi gods akita has
a reputation for having the most
beautiful women in all of japan referred
to as akita biji unfortunately though
there's no akita bijin today it's just
riotaro in a hot spring oh dear
the people of orga peninsula refer the
number huggers so much they've even
stuck them inside the local hot springs
giving what's meant to be a typically
relaxing experience an ominous sense of
dread then again maybe that's just
ryotaro yes it definitely is
[Music]
japan has just been ruined
by one man okay
oh god
so onsen are typically supposed to be a
relaxing affair but not only do we have
a horrible creature next to us we've
also got the namahage
it looks like it's going to rip our
bloody heads off look at it
what is that
and also i've got the hot water
spluttering in my face coming straight
out of the ground being pumped up it's
not overly relaxing but the water is
really nice it's full of minerals and
because we're outdoors you've got the
nice sort of summer cool breeze coming
in weirdly ryotaro's lost his voice uh
it's a strange omen i don't know what it
represents but yeah his voice is going
yeah
i'm starting to sound like an old greek
guy
insult the viewers of greece
from the hot springs of north japan it's
a typical afternoon with ryotaro how's
the water great it's nice akita akita's
hot springs are usually famous for being
extremely hot
like 50 degrees celsius so it's actually
quite bearable apart from the the spray
in the in the face but
where's rachel
who's that having a bath with batman
bloody yeah
leaving the onsen behind elderly greek
batman and i head further in land to
meet the only animal more famous in
akita than the namahagi
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the universally beloved akita dog is a
great source of pride for the people of
akita so much so they built the only
museum in the world dedicated to
japanese dogs
up until 1931 akita dogs were known as
odate dogs due to the breed's origins in
the city of odate with dna very similar
to that of a wolf the dogs were often
used to hunt bears out in the wilderness
of north akita
with a reputation for being remarkably
loyal the most famous akita dog is of
course hachiko a dog that's been forever
immortalized at shibuya crossing
hatchkorff famously waited every day for
10 years outside shibuya station waiting
for his deceased owner to return until
he himself passed away in 1935. his
loyalty to his owner became the stuff of
legend in japan and was even referenced
in one of my favorite episodes of
futurama go watch it and have some
tissues ready really bloody sad
look
is nippon danji literally japanese guy
japanese guy that's his name
so big it's so big it's like minnie
might think japanese looks like a b
really small but like shiva dog but it's
not they they look like shiva but it's
huge like a male dog uh normally it goes
like around 40 kilos um it's a pretty
big i just i just love boxing you've had
a dog yeah i had i had one
dog she did a black shimmer dog never
had a dog i do want one one day it's
just a little bit difficult when you
live in an apartment in japan
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is inevitable
while kobe might be home to japan's most
famous beef and aomori is home to the
most prized tuna akita is home to the
nation's most delicious and sought-after
chicken called hinaijidori and given
with just around the corner from the
restaurant best known for serving the
chicken and grilled yakitori skewers my
full stomach is also inevitable
so this is the restaurant yakitori
restaurant but not only the simple
yakitori this is one of the best
chickens we ever have hinaya julie and
standing here i just can smell the
amazing amazing yakitori uh
smell then let's check it out
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so these beautiful freshly grilled
skewers of chicken have just been
brought up to us they smell incredible i
love the way they're slowly grilled over
the charcoal grill releases that sort of
juiciness
slowly cooked what are we waiting for
let's dive in no
story first about this
chicken you know what you do all right
okay what's he what does he do he
literally mean that right so um
first of all you need to know that
there's a chicken called
right
yeah uh tori is like chicken so hinai
dairy chicken
is hinay area local chicken
right right so they're two different
but this is
origin because you cannot eat hinay dodi
because that's natural monument
definitely in a nutshell hinayadori
chicken which was known for its great
taste and enjoyed by powerful lords
throughout the 17th and 19th centuries
was designated a national treasure in
1942 and as such was never ever eaten
again however unsurprisingly the people
still wanted to eat chicken and after
crossbreeding a hine dory chicken with a
rhode island red a new plumper breed was
created and bred locally here in akita
called hinai jidori to qualify as
hinaijidori the chicken must be bred in
a free-range environment and they're
only ready for consumption at least 75
days from hatching due to the strict
agricultural conditions only one percent
of chickens in japan meet the
requirement and because the chickens are
raised in a colder environment their
skin is thicker than other breeds and
the fat is said to be sweeter
fantastic
that's the story
listen to me oh so good is it it's so
juicy let me just heavily seasoned
perfectly salted this is called negama
it's probably the most popular yeah
anyways
chicken
leek chicken leek chicken what's the
significance of the leek why is it that
well um it's being said that the it
helps the digestion all right yeah yeah
like you don't need eating chicken uh
like sometimes like you know you might
have like a bad stomach or something
right but adding leek and everything
just helps
digestion it's quite a nice sort of
refreshing thing to go with the the
saltiness exactly you just ate chicken
there but i like it
i've got a big mouth right here i can't
fit them
yakitori is my favorite japanese cuisine
i just love the simplicity of it there's
just an elegance to it like it seemed
like such a simple dish but if i was
tasked to do it i would screw it up at
every turn like the best yakitori places
they do it very gently over charcoal
grill
use special charcoal don't they all the
time it burns very slowly and over a
long period of time so it releases the
heat very gently cooking it through
yeah so it doesn't have that sort of
toughness to it when you cook it really
quick it's really tender but it's still
crispy on the surface beautiful jewels
of fat on top as well and uh that's just
so damn good such a such a simple dish
done so well and season to perfection so
what what what how can you tell a
difference between like ordinary chicken
and legendary chicken how to tell it
tastes a bit more gamey more gay more
flavor he does he does he does he's
about to back up a little bit
there's nothing better than a long night
sitting with friends going to a yakitori
restaurant and getting wave after wave
of yakitori over some beers so we've got
our main dishes uh inanimate udon and
oyakudon
and ryostra is now going to explain what
they are well i eat them all right
so
everyone knows right
so udon is
mostly popular in the west it's like
osaka and uh fukuoka and all these
places and but there's a one place in
the east japan that's where the old
mississippi where putin is pretty
popular which is here in akita right
inaniwa they call it i think what's so
special is like kind of flat flat
noodles it's flat no no but it's kind of
it's a lot thinner uh compared to the
west yeah they're kind of translucent
yes it is just try it i like it because
it's not as kind of filling um as
regular udon i've had this quite a few
times whenever i pass through akita
we've doused it in this dashi soy sauce
fish stock and it tastes fantastic but
the dish i'm most excited about one of
my favorite dishes
is literally mother and child
dish
uh because it's called my mother and
child in one ball yes that sounds
absolutely terrible
sounds really wrong but it is basically
chicken and egg right away chicken egg
egg bowl yes so you've got the rice
uh you have the chicken the chicken is
then sort of mixed up with egg soy sauce
marinated chicken uh in a kind of sweet
like kind of almost
you typically eat it with a spoon it's
the easiest way to eat it and uh oh no
yes
and again they use hiday jidori chicken
yeah so let's see how it goes so with
one mouthful we get the chicken the egg
mother and child
it's so graphic
and of course the rice oh
sugar very sweet very sweet the
chicken's salty the sauce is sweet and
the chicken is very juicy as well
it's a very satisfying dish like
i often this is probably one of my
favorite dishes um in japan actually and
it gets even better when you put some
spices
spice
so
the the mother becomes like a spice
mother like spice girl
doesn't quite know how to respond to
that
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well guys that was our whirlwind tour of
akita prefecture i'm sure we'll be back
soon there's so much to see and do here
right but what was your highlight of our
trip
mr pacquiao
i just realized
and of course as we saw the dog yeah the
accurate dog it's inevitable yeah after
me
you my highlight your highlight i think
it has to be the number hugger it's so
that brutal unpleasant violent it's
beautiful i love it
yeah
the noise they make was utterly
horrifying and but at the same time you
know it's education right it's
educational
traumatizing children as long as there's
educational value it's fine but as
always guys many thanks for joining us
on our trip i'm sure we'll be back soon
and we hope to see you right back here
on the bronzer band channels do it all
over again next time next time take it
away batman
[Applause]
i must say
it's still an improvement over ryotaro
isn't it i've seen ryotaro in the
morning and uh
yeah it looks something like that
is that what i'm talking about