there's around just 25. eleven years ago residents kimi ayano
returned back to the village to look after her father and after he passed away she decided to
commemorate him by creating a scarecrow doll in his image and then she never stopped some dolls
were actual people that lived in the community others fictional characters and while ayano is
upfront about the fact that she makes the scarecrows solely for fun rather than some
kind of statement on depopulation it doesn't stop the atmosphere of the village having an
almost haunting sadness the realization of what much of japan's countryside towns will soon face
particularly when entering the overgrown building across the river there was once the local school
what takes me back to my time as a teacher the school hall not scarecrows what's creepy is if
you don't look at them if you look at the floor or the ceiling and at the corner of
your eyes you could delude yourself at their people and then you look and you see 200
figurines looking back at you dressed immaculately wearing costumes they're holding fans they've got
hats they've got glasses moustaches beards the level of detail is incredible it really is like
there's nothing tacky about this the woman that made each of these dolls did an incredible job
i think it's pretty damn cool but the guy on the chair is just creeping me out
he looks like he fell off the local bridge and smashed his legs in this honestly looks better
than a lot of the gymnasiums that i went to school with him yeah it's better than a welsh gymnasium
it is that my gym at school did not look this good they have ping pong tables over there for gosh
sake those are in mint condition you get a pretty penny for those it's hard to put this atmosphere
into words but fortunately we have connor on hand with his eloquently composed insights and
unmatched commentary i just feel sad it's like you know the creepiness is worn off now and now i just
feel sad it's just you know someone cares this much about making these and wishing the town
was once what it was you know i'm sure the person who made these probably experienced the town like
this right it's just really sad i i don't know it's just i'm starting to feel quite sad actually
i kind of want to just go home it's really sad take a shot every time connor says the word sad
this is so sad i object to this marriage i am the father of the baby i don't know which one is
what can i say and get up to business i don't know i mean i'm british so you know i'm cold i couldn't
think of doing this i'd give up after the first you know trying to do someone's foot but i mean
i don't understand people have the energy to do it i'm already i'm tired just watching chris walk
chris is built like a bag of milk i don't know how to react to that i don't know what that means
you know i i don't want to be too harsh you know we've been driving for two hours now and
every single town looks the same you know it's very beautiful but it's just really nothing
distinctive about any of the towns you come in here you stop the car
because you want to know what's going on so fair enough well played you got me to
be fair connor this one over here looks like you and your jojo's suit this guy
no he doesn't he definitely doesn't put a phone up here right that is the same i want a comparison
this one connor here what do you think guys it's the same definitely
leaving connor's scarecrow doppelganger behind we crossed the border over into kochi prefecture
the last prefecture i've yet to visit in all of japan and after a quick change out of our drenched
clothing we head over to the bustling hiromi market to try the region's local iconic dish
welcome to hirome market the busiest most vibrant market in all of culture
now there's one thing in kochi they like to eat and that is tataki like bonito fish
barbecue it's really strange it's kind of yeah it's barbecued on the edge but the
inside is very sort of juicy and meaty and now we're gonna try it let me have
a shot see if it lives up to the height stop talking and give me the fruit chris
it's really charred on the outside and then in the middle it's just like a normal fish
it's so strange i honestly think if you gave this to someone they didn't know what it was
you could probably convince me it was steak it does taste like steak it's so strange it's like
steak with a fishy undertone too but it's really good like the barbecue flavour the salt they put
over it the rock salt one to them that's an eight or nine it's a solid nine i could eat four of them
chris i hope you slept amazingly last night because tonight you're not gonna be getting
any sleep why because you're gonna have so much fun where we're staying that you're not gonna want
to sleep at all let me guess it's a love hotel maybe maybe not oh you're all you do is go to
love hotels these days this course is a love hotel it's my favorite hobby but it's not a love hotel
it's better it's not a hotel much better than that and you better be looking forward to it tonight
well it's been a long day chauffeuring his lordship
around chicago but now at last i'm in connor's hands as he directs us
to our accommodation for the night and my ultimate reward for successfully visiting
all of japan's 47 prefectures you actually want to take the next right that comes out not this
no this one here this one take this one you're a top navigator listen it's very difficult at
night to see where everything is that's why i like bringing joey on journey he can navigate
okay i mean i could see a love hotel side yeah it's it is in it would be hotel district
right but it isn't a love hotel we're coming up on http what the [ __ ] is this that's not a hotel
that looks like tower of terror it's like the twilight zone or something it is a hotel and the
reason i chose it chris is the cheapest no no no no no i knew you were going to say that about me
it's the worst rated what do you mean it's got five stars on booking.com five-star hotel
you mean five stars out of ten five stars that's impossible i've never seen one that low i don't
think you have either certainly not in japan to get anything less than like a seven is like
no never are you sure it was six years this is supposed to be a celebration a day acceleration
i found some reviews yes there's some good ones mold smoke mold and more mold with smoke this
this place was a cesspool of gems smoke and mold the worst hotel i've ever been to after entering
my room for less than three minutes i already started to feel sick the unit bath was full
of ammonium ammonia what does that mean wait wait wait why is there ammonia in the bath i
feel uncomfortable with the blood on my bed cover did you say the blood the blood on my bed cover
all right let's go in let's get this over with you if there's ammonia and blood i'm not i'm not
lingering you know there's one thing i'll sleep in the [ __ ] car the views are probably wondering
why would i do this to myself you know this is my choice right because to me making you suffer
is worth more than any discomfort to myself well i hope you have fun getting home tomorrow because
i'm the [ __ ] driver come on now let's make another whales joke i dare you oh god's sake
i'm cautiously optimistic the one was nice that's always a good start oh [ __ ] you know
by toilet doors
oh it's colorful
that's the moldier smell ever oh that smells really bad all right guys we're in the room
it smells like cigarettes and four kinds of mold um that's really bad there is like a mark on the
wall here uh i don't know what that is it's like dark patches over the room like blood on the walls
and stuff what is all this there's like look how much [ __ ] there is on this walls oh what what