what
oh hello there i'm standing here at the
most northern tip of japan's main island
of honshu in aomori in front of a big
factory
that sells lots of cider and we're about
to go on a whirlwind road trip
across aomori prefecture it's going to
be a lot of fun these
are apples they look like grapes but
they're not they're apples and
don't take them don't pick them off in
public that would be wrong that'd be
very bad but don't do that
aomori lies at the most northern tip of
honshu it's a region with a strong
cultural identity
and an impressive range of cuisine from
japan's most prized tuna in the sugary
straight in the north
to horse meat bbq in the historic town
of gonohe in the east
today however we're going on a journey
of west armory to try five local dishes
including an incredibly rare delicacy
bear meat
something i can't say i've ever had
before but why is it eaten here and what
does it taste like we'll also stay
overnight at a traditional inn
visit a picturesque shrine and watch
ryotaro make a fool of himself as per
usual
and our two-day road trip kicks off in
aomori city
at the a factory their tribute to the
region's number one export
apples and of course the presence of
apples means you can enjoy
the perfect drink to kick off your
morning
there's a reason i love aomori so much
it's not just the apples
it's the cider and this is a side of
vending machine for 200 yen you can get
a shot of your favorite brand and my
favorite is kimori cider sweet
i'm having this instead of coffee this
morning come on fill that cup
no what is that it it's like a shot of
cider
probably a good thing given it's only
nine o'clock in the morning
obviously you can't drink and drive in
japan and we are going on a road trip so
i needed a driver a chauffeur and
they're all busy so
i've got ryotaro with us how you doing
through and
expensive strawberry expensive chauffeur
oh this is good
nice crisp refreshing taste of apple in
the morning beautiful beautiful
as a liquor breakfast that's what we
have liquor breakfast
i know you and i don't agree on many
things we have today but one thing we do
agree on is aomori is our favorite
prefecture
in tohoku there's six prefectures in
tohoku and we live in miyagi prefecture
uh what is it about aomori that keeps
bringing us back anyway i don't know
they've got lots of meat
good meat and also um you got cider
there
and all great uh fish as well the sushi
that they serve
really good sushi here as well but let's
face it it's mainly decided
at least for me anyway in my defense i
need a lick of breakfast just to get
through my morning with ryotere but our
first stop
an hour west of aomori city is one of
japan's longest wooden bridges the
dancing crane bridge
constructed from local cypress trees and
famous for its three iconic arches
walking across it is said to bring good
luck as the crane is seen as a symbol of
longevity
in japanese culture it seems rather
fitting given that aomori
has the lowest life expectancy in any
prefecture in japan and we'll find out
why
a bit later on and no it's not because
of the beds
so we just stopped off at the longest
triple arch bridge
in japan is that right 300
meters long could just be the longest
bridge they had to complicate it with
arches but the thing is they could not
call it the longest bridge that's the
longest
triple ice bridge that's what it's all
about getting that tighter isn't it
exactly it's the number one title that
they needed
it's a really nice view though you've
got mount iwaki in the background the
tallest
mountain in aomori right yep so how
long's this bridge been in 300 years 400
years
23 years what 23.
23 years do they build these bridges
just to win awards
and get those triple arch titles i guess
so
it's a nice day like if you are going to
build a bridge across a lake don't just
build another boring generic bridge
build something like this right build
something
that's actually beautiful to look at so
i think you've got to be you're going to
be building what they do
cuatro what is it like quattro bridge
quattro
uh irish bridge number one quattro arch
bridge that's what it is let's get
crowdfunding let's go
make it happen
[Music]
checking into our traditional win at
duckier hot springs before enjoying our
evening
banquet serving up three local meat
dishes i'm able to finally sneak away
from ryotaro to the comfort
of my own room so just checked into the
room and
it's my favorite part of any journey
with ryotaro the bit where i get to go
to my own room and get away from the man
for a few minutes and
the room today is rather spectacular
check this out
how beautiful is this now i'll admit
when i come out
and film these videos these days i often
don't bother filming the room anymore
because i've seen it so many times that
they all start to blend into one they
all start to look the same but this one
in particular has so much character to
it the artwork the pottery the
embroidery the lighting the lighting
it's pretty elaborate here there's even
some sort of stove in the middle of the
table that i don't know how to use and i
didn't use it
for fear of burning the place down but
still my time in this room is fairly
short-lived we're about to go and get
dinner
and i know it's going to be a weird one
ryotaro mentioned that it involves a lot
of bizarre meats
and well it's never a good thing usually
[Music]
what do we got then really this there's
a there's an assortment of meats here
i don't know what they are hunter uma
chef's recommendation course that's what
it is
okay so what's uh what's this one here
i'm gonna call this the most daring
looking dish uh
what is it looks like sashimi oh is it
deer sashimi
deer deer but like a day they lightly
cooked
um on a surface have you ever had it
before yes is it good
super good super good you should try it
super good
what about this one here this one there
okay this looks like
a cake yeah this looks like beef i'm
gonna say this is
some sort of local beef uh look or beer
okay what local bear local beer
local bear you can eat bear in japan
they are hunters a japanese hunter is
called matagi
and they are the ones that who actually
hunt there
but not like you know just shooting
around anything recently there are too
many bears that sometimes hurt people
and some people actually killed by bear
too so they're like group of hunters
who who hunt the bear um are only
limited to a certain amount of
numbers i've heard bear attacks are
actually up recently because uh as the
population goes down
in the countryside the bears have been
getting a little bit more bold actually
wandering into this sort of run-down
villages yeah yeah so we've got deer
we've got bear what is this one here
mushrooms and pork white ball wild ball
same thing well you can't go wrong with
wild ball that's usually pretty good
okay one dish out of three that i know
is good for sure
let's uh let's see if they live up to
the height let's start with the deer oh
you haven't had any beer so you should
start with the
chimney you should dip into the sauce
here and
put some garlic on all right here we go
good isn't it it's really good related
it actually tastes a lot like sashimi
no if you close your eyes i mean if you
keep your eyes open it still looks like
sashimi it tastes like sashimi
that's pretty good where the deer that
this come from oh just a mountain back
in the backyard i think i'm not really
sure
good girl what a weird dinner dear bear
balls sounds like a wrap
what kind of wrap is that bad boy
[Applause]
dude why is he there why is he there one
to ten on the deer
there ten because i love i love the d
sashimi
i'll give it a nine so we've lit the
grill yep for the
uh the bear the bear in the meantime
let's have some wild ball
yeah there's something quite surreal
when i first moved here
i remember i went walking just on my own
in the mountains i was enjoying it and
then i walked past a bear sign it dawned
on me that bears exist in japan
and i turned around and ran back to my
car very quickly while the number of
attacks are going up they're still
pretty uncommon to stomach uncommon and
also like it bears
normally right they they fear the human
being so
all right here we go then do you just
have it do you have it with any sauce no
it's
sauteed in a pepper it smells a bit like
uh
what smells like beef yeah
how's that like it's pretty chewy but
it's got a really satisfying meaty kind
of flavor to it
it does and it's absolutely covered in
salt and pepper with the garlic
it's a really nice combination of
flavors would i eat it often no
i think it's a very special meat i'm
going to give the deer
nine out of ten the pork the wild boar
rebel ar tim and the bear
and eight out of ten eight eight nine so
dear actually one
day one yeah i mean
people might find it a little bit um you
know uncomfortable
yeah eating bambi raw it sounds good
that'll be the title of this video yeah
so eating bunny
raw you'll be sued by disney you know
what i mean but what is it about elmore
why do they hunt bears here of all
places
well first of all uh they're moon moon
bears and they start heart like
hurting people as well that's one thing
and also these hunters have always been
hunting
over like 100 years or more 200 years
almost these hunters
obviously they we eat right instead of
like wasting the meat right we actually
eat the meat too
it's like there's often stories in the
media you read where a bear walks onto
somebody's farm
turns up and has a fight with somebody
like i read a story about
an elderly man in aomori that punched a
bear in the face that was attacking his
orchard
i was stealing some apples or do you
think you could fight a bear i'll fight
with bumby
thank you thank you for sure
now that i would pay to study bambi
versus ryotaro
[Music]
last night um i heard like really heavy
rain
and this morning i woke up and like i
saw snow and i went
and got out and this is what i see the
snow in front of me all over it's the
first the first time
i saw snow this year and this is our
murray
this is it on a clear day iwakiyama
ginger which sits at the base of mount
iwaki has a clear view of the mountain
but the snowfall has got in the way
nevertheless as we soak up the tranquil
surroundings
and the locals quietly sweep away the
falling leaves ryotaro does his best
to take advantage of the peaceful shrine
[Music]
time to do my morning prayer
[Music]
if you ever want to do a prayer at a
shrine in japan the pattern to follow is
bow twice
[Music]
clap twice say your prayer
and finish with a final bow just make
sure to pray
for something good what would you pray
for conquering the world
conquering the world at 9 30 in the
morning
yeah exactly a horrible man
[Music]
he doesn't even have a rebuttal just
that's it
[Music]
aomori the home of apple
look my kingdom
apple kingdom [ __ ] terrifying
every year over seven hundred thousand
tons of apples are produced in japan and
aomori prefecture
accounts for over 50 even within el mory
there are places more famous than others
for their highly prized apples
such as these orchards here on the
outskirts of hirosaki city
we've stopped off to meet a friend of
ryotaro's nami hal dempoya
a native of the distant landlocked
prefecture of nagano
she moved 600 kilometers north to be
closer to the sea and in the years since
she's become a farmer and a massive
orchard in the shadow of mount iwaki and
there's only one question on ryotaro's
mind
it's famous for apples i don't think
we've said it in this video yet but uh
we've had
apple juice we've had cider we've had
bears and i'm sure the bears eat apples
and the last thing on our list
is apple pie it'd be a crime to come all
this way to aomori and not have one
for our last stop of the journey we head
into the city of hirosaki
where ryatore plans to stuff me with two
more must try
local apple dishes and also reveal why
aomori prefecture
has the shortest life expectancy of any
prefecture
in all of japan
[Music]
so after the wild animal course
we're gonna apple pike up apple course
apple pie cookies
you say apple pie i've got apple curry
here curry
with slices of apple inside it looks
fantastic where's that already
i'm gonna start ready you can have the
pies out of the curry
one thing that interested me though is
what you told me earlier is that people
in aomori have the shortest life
expectancy in all of japan right i think
nagano prefecture the life expectancy is
84.
they're number one and aomori is 82. so
whole two years short why is that
any ideas why it's being said that the
aomori people like
loves their salty things and a sweet
thing so like lots of sugar and lots of
salt
lots of apples and lots of bad and also
the the biggest consumption of
instant ramen in whole japan that'll do
it
right and also they're doing a lot of um
sake because
the sake is really good here so it's
like all the good things
to make them live short that's what i
can tell and your friend is at all
in our morning called the unhealthy tour
or something and it's like
uh life is short tour life is short
that's what it is that's an amazing idea
for a tour not history not culture
just the quickest way to die on a tour
yeah and there is a rule that you go to
ramen shop right in this tool
and you have to drink up the whole soup
of ramen oh my god cause that's a lot of
salt
that's a death sentence doing that but
what a tour
that'll probably do quite well no it did
well it did really well did oh it did do
well
you do well this curry is really good uh
the apples
i don't eat it no it's horrible it's
disgusting you don't want it no you
don't want it
the kind of sweetness and the beef and
the curry is really nice it goes well
i think per capita hirosaki the city
we're in now has
more coffee shops than most places in
japan because each coffee shop has their
own variant
on an apple pie and the idea is to get
people into their different coffee shops
we
even have a map i've got a map that
describes
oh which coffee shop has got what kind
of apple pie
this is any
so far organization this should seal the
deal yeah everybody help and they'll
tell you
where they are so i look how many they
are that's what this video should have
been
should have been you and i going to
every apple pie shop in hirosaki
and then apple and they're dying
to be honest after all the things we've
eaten on our trip i expect my life
expectancy he's probably dipped as well
uh of all the dishes we've seen on this
trip though which one did you think you
want to try the most the wild boar the
bears
the deer the apples the pie the curry
what would you like to try let us know
in the comments below but for now guys
as always many thanks for joining us on
our journey across elmore today and
we'll see you right back
here on this japan channel don't waver
again next time
no no your life expectancy is about to
get a lot shorter