This video was sponsored by the Aizuwakamatsu tourism board
Good morning. It is quite early. It's very cold and I'm
in Asakusa right now. I'm about to take the train from Asakusa
station to Kinugawa onsen and then changing that and they're
going to Nishiwakamatsu. Oh yeah getting good with my words!
I'll just be showing you around. So what is there to
do there. I have no idea because I've never been before.
You feel kind of like Harry Potter in this little carriage
but I think it's like the nicest
transportation I've taken in Japan which is a compliment in
itself because transportation is very nice.
So once you get off the previous line that we were
just on, you've got to get onto the Mountain Express and this
one actually
Goes through the mountains and right through the valleys and
everything. It very beautiful.
I think there's a special guest onboard. That's a tough job.
He's even got a little captain's hat.
About three and a half hours away from Tokyo now. So feel
like right in the thick of the Inaka.
Japanese countryside.
It's really beautiful.
There's so much snow. Apparently it just snowed
yesterday which means it's going to be beautiful drone
footage and I can't
wait.
It's like soup but
It's not salty?
Hell yeah.
This town is like
So quiet and peaceful. It reminds me a lot of Kawaguchiko,
in that
It's very old school it's very like mountainous like you can
see a lot of mountains surrounding the area. Yeah it's
really lovely.
So this is my third Sake Brewery I've been to and it's
also the third time it's been explained to me all in Japanese
so I'm starting to slowly get the idea of how it's made. They
do have some English charts and stuff set up but it's mostly
Japanese but you still get to see how it's made. You can
actually watch the people make it themselves.
If you've never tried sake before you can usually feel it
more than you can actually taste it. But you can't always
really taste a huge difference between them but some are a
little more sour, some are a little larger sweeter, some are
a little stronger.
And it also tastes very different when it's warm.
Oh it's Jelly! It has gold in it, actual gold!
This is actually like 3 percent alcohol so it's kinda like a
chuhai
Chuhai kind of level.
So we're now heading to a candle festival. This is only
held like on every second Saturday of February or
something like that. I'm really excited for it, it's supposed
to be really beautiful. They've given me some hot Amazake which
is
kind of like sake but it's not alcoholic. It's very sweet.
So we've come to Tsuruga Castle. They have a kind of
projection mapping onto the castle. It's really beautiful.
It's a really freezing cold and I forgot my gloves.
So this hotel has... they give you use of the yukatta
I can't remember if it's supposed to be... Hey Siri. Is
a kimono
Supposed to go left over right or right over left. Oh you are
useless. Kimono worn right over left were reserved for the dead
.!Okay so left over right it is.
I've never done this myself. S omebody else usually comes to
help. I think you tie it like this. I'm also about to go eat
some dinner so...
I am impressing myself now.
I just look like I've got this, growth, on my side. That is
definitely not done correctly. Yeah
Exactly. Oh it's definitely not supposed to be splitting at the
bottom. Oh Hannah what have you done. That I'll do donkey.
That'll do .
Holy crap that's really good. That's so nice. Yeah. It's
like. Tofu. Potato. Mochi? I don't know, it's all the good
stuff.
I had so much fun in this trip to Aizuwakamatsu and there's
still a day 2 video coming up soon so stay tuned for that.
But even on the first day I felt like I had a really
beautiful introduction to the lesser known countryside of
Japan and especially in the snow everything just looks a
million times more beautiful. Of course the links for every
place hotel restaurant experience that I had will all
be in the description down below. A few things that I
should note is that the train that we took to get to Aizu.
It's called the Yuttari Aizu Tobu free pass and basically
this is a four day ticket that will include all of you
transportation from Asakusa to Aizu and it's definitely worth
your money because it's quite a long trip out. Another thing to
note is that all of the places that I went to today they
provided either a vegetarian or vegan menu for me which was so
so nice of them. So if you would like to get the same kind
of treatment at these places that I went to today it can be
done but you just have to let them know in advance so if you
can't speak any Japanese then it might be helpful to get a
Japanese friend or maybe the hotel stuff that you're staying
at.
Maybe they can call in advance for you. But anyway thank you
so much for watching this video. This is actually the
first video that has not been edited by me. It was actually
edited by my friend Jess so huge round of applause for Jess
I paid her obviously but yeah. Also go check out her channel.
But anyway I really appreciate you watching this all the way
to the end. It means a lot to me. Follow me on Instagram. I
also have a Twitter now. Hey hey hey.
You don't have to follow me there though I don't I don't
post much but anyway. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next
time. Goodbye