- [Micaela] Hey guys, good morning.
- [Tatsu] Good morning.
- Today we are in Saga Airport and Tatsu's
just setting up his camera.
We are gonna be spending the next few days
in Saga Prefecture shooting a promotion video
It's a pretty big deal, and uh, yeah, we're excited.
Have you ever done anything like this before?
- Uh the promotion videos?
- Yeah, I mean, yeah, I have worked with
a lot of city halls last year but this time,
I'm kinda like nervous because cause it's
happening in Kyushu,
- Yeah.
- The place where we lived.
Um, so many memories here, so,
I'm very excited to work with the people
that live in Saga and very glad
that I can work with them.
- And work with me too, right?
- Uh oh, I'm very nervous though,
cause like, we have worked together before but,
not officially, kinda like not official.
- Yeah.
- Not like this right?
- This is our first actual,
- And I'm gonna be a director and then
she has to obey whatever I say.
- Yeah.
- And,
- We may kill each other, we may not kill each other.
- We may break up.
(laughs)
- Yeah.
Watch to the end of this video
to find out if we stay together.
- Or not.
- [Micaela] For our first job of this year,
Tatsu and I were hired to make a promotional
video for Saga Prefectureʼs
multilingual travel app, "Dogan Shita To".
Saga Prefecture has a reputation
for often being overlooked.
Situated between Fukuoka Prefecture
and Nagasaki Prefecture many people
will pass through Saga Prefecture
on an express train,
and very few travelers will stop to explore it.
But Saga, in all its' modesty,
has a lot of natural untouched beauty, delicious food,
and celebrates a lot of Japanese tradition.
During our two weeks of shooting
we went from corner to corner, and so,
to help give you an idea of what Saga is like,
here are my top four picks of things
to do in Saga Prefecture.
One of the most picturesque shrines in all of Kyushu,
Yutoku Inari Shrine is definitely a sight to behold.
Built into a steep hillside of a valley,
thereʼs lots to explore here,
but if youʼve brought your camera
and youʼre looking to make some memories,
I definitely recommend renting a Kimono
at Saruku, located near the shrine entrance.
Um, I just did this last month in Tokyo
and it was really fun,
so I was excited to do it again here in Kyushu.
I get to choose my own Kimono
and we're going to walk around Yutoku Shrine
which is absolutely beautiful, majestic.
Majestic shrine.
So this time, I've chosen a bright red and black Obi,
and then a striped white, red, and purple Kimono.
It should look pretty cool when it's on.
This is the final look.
Looks a lot different than the one I did last month,
and I really like it, I love the stripes,
I love the bold patterns.
I don't know if you guys can tell
but it's actually snowing right now,
and the sun is out,
and it's so beautiful up here in the mountains.
If you are traveling with friends, or a partner,
this is a cool way to get some
really beautiful photographs.
but even if you donʼt feel like dressing up,
this shrine is a breathtaking place to visit,
and a popular place to pray to the gods of life,
for rich harvests and business prosperity.
Located on the Northern tip of Saga Prefecture,
facing the ocean, the Karatsu Yobuko area
feels like it operates in a completely different era.
Far away from the hustle and bustle
of modern day, and free of designer brands
and materialistic desires,
this is a fun little area to drive out to
where youʼre very unlikely to ever see another foreigner.
So now we're in Yobuko in Karatsu in Saga.
Karatsu's actually so far away from Saga City
that I've heard that Karatsu people
don't consider themselves part of Saga,
so it's really interesting to come all the way out here
and see how they love kind of separated from the city.
Here in Yobuko they have a morning market
every day until about 12 noon,
where they sell all types of fish
that they've taken from the Genkai Sea.
So let's take a walk down the street
and see what we can find.
So along this street we found an old
candy shop Dagashi-yasan
Candy that was sold during the Showa Era,
like things that are not so popular anymore,
could be found in stores like this,
and it's pretty cool to look around,
so let's see what they've got inside.
Ahh, these are so cool.
There's a bunch of old games here in the corner.
This one's 10 Yen.
There's another one for 10 Yen.
This one's 50 Yen, one piece.
I guess it can't be that old if it's one piece.
From the port in Yobuko,
you can hop on a ferry tour to a nearby island,
or take a tour to visit the seven naturally
formed sea caves on a coast nearby.
So now we're on a boat.
We're gonna go to a cave.
- Yeah, have you ever been there?
- Yes, twice.
- I've never seen or been there.
- I've been there twice,
this is my third time going but,
- Third time?
- Yep.
- Oh well that's a lot.
- Yeah.
- Pretend that, you know.
- I'm gonna pretend it's the first time,
I'm gonna be amazed.
[Micaela] The water here's incredibly clear.
This looks amazing, this is fresh sashimi,
many different kinds.
We've got some Shu Mai right over here,
which is like a squid steamed dumpling.
We've got Chawanmushi which is steamed egg,
and some soup.
Tatsu's got an Ika rice bowl
which he's already digging into.
[Micaela] How is it?
- So good.
- [Micaela] Fresh squid.
If you come to Yobuko, you have to have the squid.
The fish is what it's famous for.
So beautiful.
Pottery and Ceramics are a huge part of Sagaʼs Identity,
so much so that they even have a porcelain theme park.
If youʼre looking for some truly unique souvenirs
to take back home, you can get your hands dirty and
make your own pottery, or you can look through
literally thousands of hand painted designs
by local artists and find a style
that fits your unique sense.
I am absolutely in love with this cup,
I wish I could buy it, but it's 300 dollars.
Between the towns of Imari and Arita,
youʼll find that the streets, and even in the shrines,
are decorated in carefully handcrafted porcelain.
These vibrant pieces of artwork stand out against older,
traditional neighborhoods, streets, and buildings.
Iʼve lived in Japan for 13 years now,
and Iʼve never seen anything like this before.
- Pretty good, isn't it?
- [Micaela] Porcelain torii is really cool.
- Yeah, this is like really cool.
- [Micaela] Where you goin?
- Tryin to head to a little small bridge.
- [Micaela] Ahh.
- Whoa.
- [Tatsu] Yeah it's pretty, isn't it?
- [Micaela] Oh that's cute.
So we're in this beautiful river,
and the tiles along the river, are Imari-yaki pottery.
And they're quite clean.
They must be well maintained.
Very cool.
After falling in love with the pottery,
in both Imari and Arita,
Visitors can enroll in one-day pottery classes,
and make a personal souvenir to take home as well.
I'm excited cause I get to make whatever I want.
I get to choose out of all of these designs,
and I think I'm going to make something
I can drink tea in.
Okay, so I tried to make this one,
and this is what I ended up with.
As you can see there's quite a size difference,
but when they put it in the kiln,
it's gonna shrink to 80% of this size.
I still think it's gonna end up
being a little bit bigger than this.
It looks kinda like a bowl right now,
I don't know if I could use it for tea,
but I don't know, I guess we're just
gonna have to see how it turns out.
So we've arrived at a gallery and cafe called Ota,
and their famous for their Arita Yaki Curry,
which is Japanese Curry served in a
porcelain Arita Yaki bowl that you can take home
after you've eaten it.
This Yaki Curry is so popular,
they even sell it online.
Fans of Arita Pottery can choose
the type of dish it is served in,
some designs costing more than others.
We got presents, we got cute Doraemon Arita Yaki bowls
and inside is another serving of Arita Yaki curry.
It's pretty heavy and the box is still warm,
so I think we have to eat this today
or tomorrow at the latest but
I'm so excited we got two of them.
Japanʼs Southern Island of Kyushu
has many natural hot springs,
but some are more popular with tourists than others.
While many tourists are rushing
to different prefectures for hot springs,
you can skip the crowds by coming to Saga instead.
Wandering around Ureshino City,
you run into a few public foot baths as well.
So this is a foot sauna,
you open it up and steam comes out.
You can shut this box overtop
to keep your knees warm and steam away.
Normally it can be kind of intimidating
to travel to places that aren't very
touristy or English friendly,
but the people we met in Ureshino
were very happy to chat with us.
If you're studying Japanese and you want
to test your own fluency,
here's a really great place for you to start.
So I've been in here for about,
what, not even 10 minutes.
my legs are turning red it's so hot.
So when it comes to Onsen there's different water qualities
and some water can be carbonated,
some can be drying but Ureshino's hot spring water
is very heavy, it's very silky.
It feels like I have lotion on my skin,
but I actually didn't use any today.
Okay, I think that's all the information
I can give you right now.
To see what else we got up to
when we were in Saga Prefecture,
youʼre gonna have to watch Tatsu's video.
Click the link in the description to see the final video
we made, and let us know what you think.
And if you wanna see more of this type of video,
please show your support by liking,
subscribing, and sharing with your friends.
If you want to see more of Tatsu's work,
make sure you follow his You Tube
channel and his Instagram.
Thanks so much for watching, bye!
(light-hearted music)