(S&M) It's time for Wonderful Adventure Now Akita! (S) The onsen edition.
(W.A.N.K music)
(S) Ah, yes! Some of you might have felt a little twinge of nostalgia hearing that intro.
For the next 3 days, we'll be in northern Japan in the Akita prefecture.
We're gonna be taking in the fall leaves and doing some onsen hopping.
We're actually 550 kilometres from our home in Kichijoji but getting here was actually kinda easy!
(To the tune of Shakira's Hips Don't Lie) Akita Akita~
I should've had more coffee!
(S) You can get coffee on the train!
(S) Hey! Adventure!
(S) That's not adventure, it's supposed to be high-five! (M) Oh!
(Train horn in the distance) Ruin my adventure!
(W.A.N.K music)
I don't know what your train toilets are like, but I enjoy this one. I think it's a very clean one.
An actual bidet! The train toilet is amazing!
I'm gonna... I'm gonna make sure it works, hold on. Give me... Give me 20 minutes.
We got 3 minutes, girl, we gotta go! (Martina, off camera) Oh my god
(S) Holy sh*t (M) Let's go
(M) You know when you like the person in front of you but you don't know how to tell them so you just tease them?
(S) No, I don't want teasing! Just tell me, okay? I'll believe you.
(S) Thank you!
(M) Very easy to get here!
It felt really overwhelming at first because we've never done this before, but the local bus was easy to catch!
Ganiba was great because it was the last stop!
(M) There were between 7 to 15 different onsen to choose from. We went for one called Ganiba!
And the only way I could remember that was "Ganiba, Ganiba dun dun dun". I did this dance move because it's a... it's a crab
(M) This is a very rustic, typical ryokan. It's a Japanese-style hotel. (S) Yup!
(M) We ended up sleeping on the ground! They put together the futons for you!
(S) I'm excited to see what our bed looks like! If you could just open the door...
(S) Just...
(S) Can you just... open the door? (Laughing)
(M) It's cozyyyy! (S) Oh daaang!
(S) Nice! Nice and cozy!
(M) I took cold Japanese meals, so if you're not okay eating a lot of Japnese foods this could be tough for you.
Might wanna bring something with you.
(S) We wanted to live stream this but I don't think we can.
Look at this tremendous thing right here!
We have this beautiful nabe (Japanese hotpot) here... Some gorgeous mushrooms...
(S) They have a whole aji (horse mackerel) with a stick of ginger
(M) Is it aji or ayu (sweetfish)? (S) Ayu! (M) Ayu, I'm pretty sure.
(S) Here we have some gorgeous crab!
Mmm... It's like macaroni and cheese, potatoes, and crab.
(S) Well, I'm enjoying my dinner. (M) Well, I'm enjoying you talking about food while I sit here suffering that I only had three(?)
(S) We are the only people here eating. Everybody finished eating!
(M) When we checked in, they said we can choose when we're gonna eat dinner. At 6, 7, or 8 o'clock.
And we were like: we don't usually eat dinner that early, we'll go for 7 o'clock. And then we were starving!
But! The good news is that we were like: (singing a fancy song) (S) Yeah, we took our time!
(M) And I picked up my fish and I was like: (Eating noises?) I picked up my rice (More eating noises)
And I actually drank some soup and it was so hot that I physically spat it out into my bowl!
I was like (splat noise) (S) This is why I can't take you to nice places. (M) No one was around!
(M) Good job, Martina!
(Martina, off-camera) I'm literally! Gonna die! If I don't have any more food!
(S) What am I gonna do with my life?
(M) Well (S) I'm so hungry!
(M) Here's my suggestion to Simon: he goes down to the front desk and he goes "Excuse me, do you have any gohan?"
And "gohan" has a double meaning! (Simon, with an accent) You have any gohans? (M) Because "gohan" means food but it also means, literally, rice.
No matter what scenario, they look at him and go: "Gosh this guy is huge" and he goes: (sad sound effects)
Remember when I paid to see a dog earlier?
(S) Oh! What's that? Hello!
(S) Nice doggy! Oh! Oh, are you coming up? Hello!
(S) Ohohohoho! Thank you!
(M) And they'll go: "Listen up gaijin (foreigner), we have food but shh shh, it's a secret!"
And then they'll give him extra rice or food! If it doesn't work, they'll say "Oh you've got those snacks in the corner!"
And then Simon will go: "Aha! Understood!" and he'll shuffle on over!
(S) So! We have another problem here. We have no food and we only have 5 TV channels and one of the TV channels is a FOOD channel!
(M) 2 channels. (S) 2 channels! This is another f*cking food show!
(M) And this one has been exclusively about saba, so... (S) So we have 2 shows...
What can we do? We can't eat and we can barely watch TV.
(M) This will list all the menu (S) This is our menu. What's room service?
(M) Well, let's check room service. There's beer. (S) Beer, whiskey... (M) Shochu. I mean, various kinds of...
And here is Akita local stuff. So this is like, daiginjo sakes and then we can have, like, a sake flight of 3 or so.
Then this is two kinds of wine.
(S) So if we're hungry what do we do?
(M) That's it, actually.
(S) That's it!
(M) So
(S) No food for us!
(M) So beer it is!
I think they just want us to go to sleep!
(M) The onsens were divided up. You have the men's and women's onsens.
We also had and amazing onsen! (S) They had mixed gender onsens which were outdoors and absolutely gorgeous!
Where you could sit in the hot water and look at the leaves falling into the water.
Well that right there
Was an amazing experience.
It's so cold when you step outside, it was like 11 degrees, 12 degrees (51-53 F)
I stepped outside in my little robe and oh God, it's so cold! Samui!
And then I get into the water and now I'm just a furnace!
I'm dripping with sweat, doesn't feel cold (out here) anymore. Just fresh and crisp
This is an amazing, amazing experience!
And after going to an onsen, as you know, you need to have some milk!
I have a nice chocolate milk here!
Ooh! Coffee milk! That's not what I was expecting! Very happy!
(S) Milk!
Now. To avoid any confusion or any complications, before we came here we called up the onsens if they were okay with tattoos.
And they all are! There were no issues. Not every onsen is like that.
We've called other areas of Japan that did have issues with our tattoos. But this area was totally cool with it!
(M) Yeah!
(Singing a tattoo song)
That's my tattoo song!
(S) That's a cool song.
Enough talking, let's go explore this! You ready? (M) Let's go for it ducky, you ready?
(S&M) Nanananananananana!
(M) You forgot how to do it!
I think you're supposed to go right and I'm supposed to go left!
(S&M) Nanananananananana!
(M) No! I mean, come back here. We're supposed to be in the middle and we go nanananananananana!
Okay, so... We got this little onsen pass. Multi pass!
And we can get on the onsens and we can go to different ones located in the mountains.
(S) Onsen hopping, what what!
So we are at Ganiba onsen. We're going right now to this one. (M) Which is the most famous one.
(S) Tsurunoyu hot springs. This one's very famous. Now we're going to do all the onsen hopping.
We're going to try to go to as many onsens as possible.
I read as a rule of thumb, you're only supposed to go to 3 onsens a day. We're gonna try to go to 7!
(M) I'm gonna try to go to 2. So... (S) Okay. (M) You go to your 7.
(S) Once we go to each one we can use this as a little postcard!
(M) It's so pretty! (S) Right?
(M) Thank you!
We got our stamps!
(M) 'Kay. So, we are at arguably the most popular onsen in the Akita area. And I can understand why.
(S) This is a scenic dream! Point your camera anywhere and you will have a beautiful picture.
Everywhere around you, it's stunning!
(M, in Korean) Women's and mixed gender
(M, in Korean) Mixed gender
(S) I've never... Ah sh*t! (Martina laughing)
(M) All over your pants... (S) Noo!
(M) Got it! (S) Got it.
(S) Okay!
(M) All right (S) Beer time!
(M) Hey! Memory of a lifetime, Captain Beer-pants.
(S) Hey. Girl, thank you for going on this adventure with me.
(M) Thanks for organizing it for me, ducky.
(S) This is wonderful. (M) Stop spilling my beer. (S) Oh f*ck! (M) It's opened didn't you know that?
(S) Okay, fine, geez, just trying to have a moment here!
In that case, you're not gonna get any of my tsuruman(?) that I bought for us to snack on.
Trying to be a romantic and sh*t like "I love you, girl" and (gibberish) I'm gonna eat by myself!
(M) Ducky, I gotta say this is hands down my favourite onsen I've ever been to.
Not just because it looks beautiful but because the actual water is so lovely.
I feel so nice right now.
So when you come in here, on the left is men and women's private.
Then there's the mixed gender one.
And then there's the men and women's changing room.
The women's side is totally private, so don't worry.
You go in there and you change, it's got an indoor hot spring, and outdoor one. It's gorgeous.
There was only one other lady there. She peeked over to the mixed gender side and she says:
"Do you wanna try together?"
And I was like: "Scary!" I'm too scared because as I was walking through the changing room there's men and I'm like there's (dog bark) so I didn't
I was feeling scared and shy!
Anyhow! So she said we're gonna open the door and people can definitely see.
So you take your little manner towel. Which, it's like a tiny one. And you just kinda cover your bits.
And as you enter, you kinda roll it up as you go. So, we did and she went first
Such a brave woman! And she inspired me to go too!
As soon as you're in the water no one can see anything. (S) Like two inches below the water it's completely murky.
(M) Then to get out, I showed everyone my butt cheeks... I did, I just did.
I came towards the little swim-away exit to the women's and picked up my towel and used it to cover my breasticles
I didn't know how to open the door (laughing) (S) Ahh! (M) And went like this! (S) Ahh!
Onsen tip! The hotel that you're going to be staying at will provide you with a towel for the onsen.
But when you go onsen hopping, bring that towel with you. Because the other onsens ain't gonna provide you with sh*t
So if you go there, you get wet, you're just gonna have to blow dry yourself with your mouth.
And that's gonna be weird and take forever. (M) Haaa... (S) Haaa...
(M) Hope that didn't screw up the focus mode and we're gonna be out of focus the whole time. We'll find out!
So I have to tell you, I was feeling really hesitant about this trip. (S) Mhm. (M) Uhm. Because I don't do well with travel.
And I'm scared about sleeping in places that I'm uncomfortable with. (S) Mhm.
(M) Not because I'm worried about things because I'm uncomfortable sleeping in different beds.
(S) Physically uncomfortable, yeah.
(M) And it was my pillow. (S) My pillow filled with beans. (M) Beans! (S) Beans!
(M) But after we came here I was like, okay, this is totally worth it. I absolutely love this.
(S) I'm glad I could convince you to come, girl.
Vacation with my ducky! We don't have kids, this is great! (happy song)
(M) Got a milk bubble. (S&M) Very happy! (S) We're very happy here!
(M) This milk is so good as well. (S) This great is great milk!
Not cold? (S) No! Canadian. This is easy. (M) This is lovely! (S) This is summer!
(M) Nice to meet you! (S&M) See you again!
I met a great guy in the water. Came over and talked to me. First time I ever spoke to somebody naked, but y'know, there we are.
He asked me where I'm from and he's actually from Tokyo as well. And he said he drove up here, he didn't take the shinkansen.
(M) Woah! (S) But! He didn't take any of the highways. He just drove for 12 hours. He's just a really nice, happy guy! (M) Yeah.
(S) And this was just a really... Especially being a foreigner going into the water. Like, with my tattoos.
I know that this place approves of tattoos but not every Japanese person does.
Because there's lots of old people here, maybe they don't.
They made me really comfortable and welcome even though we were both completely naked.
(M) Well I had the exact same experience! I mean, I entered this hot spring and it was just one Japanese woman and me.
And I thought, like, I don't want to make her uncomfortable so I tried to get into the water as quickly as possible.
Instead, she's the brave one who comes over and says "I can't do it alone" y'know? And I'm like...
And I'm like "Okay". (S) I just spilled my milk! (M) Oh, ducky! You're too strong boy!
(S) I'm absolutely loving this trip and we've only gone to 2 onsens but, hands down...
This the most beautiful onsen I've been to in my life.
(M) You know what else? (S) Just... Beautiful colours.
(M) Thatched roof gaijins
Woah, ducky, so prettyyy!
(S) So... (M) What happened here, huh?
When you are in town, you have to respect the local customs. You don't want to be a rude gaijin, foreigner.
So, I had to get their specialty. They made ice cream in the shape of a little doggy!
(M) What kind of doggy?
(S) Akita doggy but some nice buttery ice cream!
(M) Hey, question for you. (S) Mhm?
(M) You were like, you don't want to be a rude foreigner you wanna obey the laws but I believe you danced from that station...
All the way here singing your ice cream song.
(Simon humming) I have some ice cream! I have some ice cream!
Do you wanna try some? (M) I do, Captain Moustache-yo.
(S) Guess what? You can't!
(M) (Karate fighting sound effects) Karate! Another onsen tip!
So, most onsens I've been to, they have a shower area where you soap up and scrub.
Rinse off. You want to know all those tips, we've already made a video about onsen etiquette.
But 2 out of the 3 we went to actually had no shower.
I'm like: "What am I supposed to do?' You just got in and I found that quite shocking.
But it was acceptable, so if you do see a soap up station, you should soap up and clean up before you get in.
And if you don't, I mean, just get on in there...
(M) This is what I come out to find, huh?
(S) I'm relaxed.
(M) I'm gonna take this one because it's the colder one.
(M) Can you paint with all the colours of the wind~
(S) Think so.
(M) I cannot remember that song still.
(S) As you shouldn't.
(M) How high does the...
Ducky, will you reenact something with me real quickly? (S) Okay.
(M) It does involve Twilight.
(S) I think I'm gonna pass. (M) But... (S) Bella. We should never get married, Bella, this is a pedophilic relationship.
(M) Okay, well, that's not what I wanted us to reenact at all.
I gotta say you, you got the... The killer angle.
(S) Do I? (M) Yeah, you got a little sunset glistening on your face.
(S) Is that right? (M) Yup.
(S) You should be on camera, you're the pretty one. (M) Uhm...
(M) We just found the most beautiful bench ever. (S) Isn't this great?
(M) It's like it's been...
(S) See the little glistening spiderwebs all across it? (M) Ashes to ashes. Yep.
And look at all the stuff growing out of it.
I know you didn't subscribe to this channel for artsy bench shots, but...
Shut it. (S) Shut it. (M) You're getting it.
(Kissing and blowing raspberries) (S) So that's it for our wonderful adventure to Akita.
Before coming here, we actually knew very, very little about the place. We did not that much research. (M) Nope!
(S) But we just wanted to try doing something impulsive and we had a tremendous time!
(M) I loved it here and what was amazing is that I think Japan is so good at connecting things.
We were like: How are we going to get here? How are we going to get there?
And as you saw at the opening, the train took us to here, to there, the bus, and then we arrived.
We were like: Oh, it's that easy. (S) Mhm.
(M) So, I think you guys should definitely try this kind of an adventure. (S) It's probably a really long video!
(M) Thanks for sticking around 'til the end! (S) And now for some more with the bloopers! (M) Yeah!
And don't forget to check out our onsen etiquette video if you wanna know more about onsens. (S) I'm gonna pick you up like before!
(S) My ducky!
(M) Wait! Come back to the frame, I have to say something.
(S) What? (M) Put me down!
You smell like rotten eggs. (S) Oh!
(M) Because you allow... You're supposed to soak in the onsen and leave it on your skin.
But gosh, he smells stinky! (S) Oh! It's a good stinky!
(M) It's a sulfur stinky. (S) It's a great way to end the video. Thanks everyone, I smell like sh*t
(M) Smell like sh*t, like eggs! Eggs are delicious!
You can read my mind!
(Martina singing Shakira's Hips Don't Lie)