i gotta cover
the pivot tube
okay now now we're good so we are doing
a road trip today i've gotta drive
something like five to seven hours still
kind of undetermined but there's a bit
of a catch and that catches that we are
doing the entire road trip
in this
honestly look how tight i'm gonna have
to crouch down for this this is japan's
cheapest car i think it's about 850 000
yen which would usually be around 8
grand but with the current exchange rate
it's closer to 5 000 dollars for this
little thing it's called the dai
hatsumita and it's so basic that it
doesn't even have automatic locks
everything has to be done
with a key
i guess let the adventure begin
sounds okay
[Music]
so i'm actually borrowing this car i've
been using it for the past couple of
weeks to get between my house and the
airfield for my training but this is
definitely gonna be the furthest drive
that i've done
so far that provides we're gonna be
taking back roads today no highways for
three main reasons number one the back
roads will give you a better view and we
get to experience more of the area of
kyushu number two i'm not entirely
confident that this car could survive an
extended drive on a highway like five to
eight hours and number three we're not
in a rush at all my meeting is tomorrow
at nine a.m so we have plenty of time to
relax
and enjoy driving through the mountains
and experiencing kyushu
this is a good little car though i'm
going to give it some love it's not my
first time driving a k-car like if
you've been with the channel for a while
you'll know that i rented a k camper van
last year and did a whole adventure but
this one even in the world of k-cars
this is like it's like the k-car of
k-cars this thing only has about 50
horsepower 5-0
fifty i'm pretty sure i have more than
50 horsepower you know what
i actually think that i recognize this
area for my training today i definitely
flew over this
oh super super narrow bridge speaking of
today's flight training flight training
is going really well by the way i am
loving every single day of this today
was kind of the first
bad day it wasn't even a bad day it's
just we got up
we started our training and then the
cloud ceiling descended upon us
and created this cloud mountain us
sandwich and when that happens the
flight instructor needs to take over and
take us back because you cannot see out
the front window that being said i am
truly and genuinely loving every single
day of flight school so far honestly
more than anything i just feel insanely
grateful for the opportunity anyway that
is all i'm gonna say on flight school
for now
i am still working on videos for the new
it's up in the air channel
if you're subscribed and you won't miss
those
[Music]
and suddenly the fog up here in the
mountains has gotten so thick that i can
barely
see in front of myself
serves me right seriously right for
trying to do a road trip
right
before
the rainy season
hits here in japan but still
this is why i love driving the mountain
roads
at this point i'm about an hour into the
drive it's been mostly mountains the
entire time and i'm starting to get just
a little peckish
i'm gonna try and see once we get out of
the mountains if i can't find a place
to stop and at least grab some food
[Music]
so we seem to be driving through a
little bit i always say we
yes it's us
obviously it's just us
we're driving through a little bit of a
town now i'm hoping that this means i'll
be able to find food i'm kind of in the
mood for some ramen maybe it's just me
but different towns give different
feelings and this little town village
whatever it is it feels like it would
have ramen so
that is what i'm in the mood for because
that's what it feels like this whatever
you want to call it is all about so i i
have my eyes open for robin
is that a ramen stand
[Music]
i see ramen i see ramen
[Music]
that sign there
says that this is their holiday their
day off this is
this is the day that this ramen shop is
closed
this close this close to ramen
i'm right there
okay so i see a sign for ramen up there
[Music]
i'm gonna try i'm getting fingers
crossed hopefully
it's actually open and not an abandoned
shop because there have been a large
number of abandoned shops as well
oh my you've got to be kidding me you
have
absolutely got to be okay
it's another holiday
oh
did we find one
is it open
it's open
[Music]
i'm just so full i most certainly
ordered way more than i needed eyes
definitely bigger than my stomach today
[Music]
and that i hit my arm from now
oh it's going so well it's going so
beautifully we're doing great the goal
is to make as much progress make as much
ground make up as much ground as
possible before it gets dark because
i've kind of taken the scenic route
it's i've been on the road for well over
three hours and i've really only made
about an hour of progress
so i need to stop enjoying the sights
and learning the area let's get back on
the road and see
how much progress we can make
for before i get too tired today
[Music]
i need to stretch out a bit
we are about halfway there which feels
hugely positive i've stopped at a hotel
for the night one of the other benefits
to the car being super tiny
is that you can put it in the compact
car spot let the little cars go in the
compact spot spot a few days ago i
visited my buddy mitch who lived down
the road in kagoshima and when he saw
the car he was so excited he was like
how how are you driving this car so i've
never seen a car this bad before
and so i mean it doesn't even have like
like
hubcaps or tire coverings of any kind
and i'm pretty sure that i weigh more
than this car
like if this car hit me at full speed i
would win norm compared to what you
usually drive around the country you're
big what are they called camping cars
and stuff like that
kind of downgrade
[Laughter]
student life we got our boating license
together here in japan last fall and
spent something like a week driving
through the mountains in this giant
camper van so it seems like he got a big
kick out of me dropping this tiny little
k car
this building looks super tiny from
outside how
how is it this big and what
okay
not too bad
we've got a pizza mint oh that reminds
me
i brought my own snacks as good time as
any to open up i'm just i'm thirsty
right now and i desperately want to
drink i meant to bring these along as
road trip snacks but got so focused on
the drive that i totally forgot usually
i do this section this is a sponsored
section by the way by
tokyo treat and sakurako and usually i
do it is like a sponsored read where i
just quickly go through but i
desperately just want snacks but let me
get the boxes open if you don't know
what these are tokyo tree and saturday
are both subscription snack boxes
from
japan okay so these are the boxes these
guys are huge supporters of the channel
so i'm always happy to give them love so
the tokyo treat box you usually get
about 20 the latest most exclusive
limited edition and seasonal flavored
snacks available in japan with sakurako
you get 20 traditional authentic
artisanal japanese snacks and there's
usually a piece of tableware in there as
well and there's always a really good
tea in there there we go we got hokkaido
that is right they always have a
different theme and this month sakurako
is the taste
of hokkaido and the booklet obviously
outlines
everything that's in there the dietary
and
snacking snacking shibuya is the theme
for the tokyo i just realized this but
the books open up the opposite way the
japanese the japanese way both of the
how have i never noticed this there
should be a back stories and okay i
really i want a snack first and foremost
what in the world is okay all right this
at this point we are literally just
snacking i'm insanely thirsty
and i was looking forward to the drink
and it is a caramel popcorn soda i have
no idea what that is but
about find out
it reminds me of a couple years back
when i took the shamisen girls to
brisbane
and
we went to 7-eleven and bought just the
weirdest snacks that we could find the
things that would surprise them
i'm
gonna drop stuff that's how tired am i
gonna go with this matcha nosanda
to roll off of black thunder
also yes i said roll off instead of
spin-off
what is in here by the pajamas
i still have at least two hours of
driving to do and i'm meeting someone at
nine o'clock in the morning so
realistically
i i should get some sleep but now at
least i have snacks for the entire drive
back which is gonna be equally as long
it tastes like a candy it just it really
does taste like the caramel off of a
popcorn
off of a pocket
so i gotta sleep around one woke up at
five that that's four hours i'm awake my
my face isn't but i am i don't count
that as a full night sleep by the way
and pro tip for nights when you can't
get a full night's sleep go to bed with
the mentality of this being a nap trust
me it makes it a lot easier to wake up
in the morning and actually then take a
nap or two throughout the day one of the
reasons i'm leaving so early so that if
i hit morning traffic i can just stop
somewhere and take a 30-40 minute nap
but at least this way i get ahead of the
traffic
[Music]
see waking up early in the morning does
have its benefits you pretty much get
the roads entirely to yourself you get
the odd car here and then and because
this car doesn't have a ton of power
when i do get one of those cars more
often than not they get really impatient
and whip right past me i'm doing my best
all right
this this little car she's doing her
best but it's not even about the speed
really it's about how thin these are
it's a k car you don't want to go fast
in a k car safety
safety is a thing which again is why
we're on the backgrounds
[Music]
so i'm going up a really steep hill
right now
and these k cars are basically four
seaters you're legally not allowed to
put more than four people in the car and
years ago i'd use this exact same car
and we had four people in it and we were
trying to go up a rather steep hill and
the engine just couldn't handle it we
rolled to a very slow stop we managed to
just just make it but we thought like
people were gonna have to get out and
walk up the rest of the hill
[Music]
while i was stopping to get some aerial
shots
this really
nice older gentleman came up and he's
like what what drone do you have there
he's like i've got the two i really want
the three and i was like wait
wait
you you fly drones and he's like yep 86
he's 86 years old and he flies drones
and drives out to the river to walk his
dog every morning
and that is just
the most amazing thing in the world to
me 86 years old and he's standing there
going i really want the mavic 3
ah
these little tiny moments that really
make the road trip i decide any downside
so far it would be the distinct lack
of convenience stores realistically you
don't really expect convenience stores
in the mountains of the countries they
do exist and there's not like there's
zero i don't really mind it's just i
wouldn't complain about having a
coffee
i've been driving through like a little
town for the last five minutes and you
would think that if i had
any chance of finding a convenience
store and some coffee this this would be
it but i'm still not seeing it
actually you know what
i think there's a lawson behind me
i'm gonna turn
around lock the door i do this
and lock it it's got a feature that
stops you from locking your keys in the
car so you literally need to get out
and lock the door i'm almost at my
destination the first thing i'm doing
when i get there
is meeting someone for coffee
[Music]
however small
i feel like we've achieved something
this morning
there was a moment there where i
genuinely didn't think that we were
gonna find coffee at all and we did and
i'm so happy about it and now it's time
to
to go get coffee all right we got one
last leg to this ride let's make it
again
[Music]
so here's something super fun
every now and then on a mountain road
you will get a stoplight for
construction
and that's what we had here
a stoplight
for construction
[Music]
the view from the mountain of coming
into beppu is just one of the most
beautiful views and honestly it doesn't
matter what angle you approach from babu
just looks really good from the
mountains from distance and we're we're
we're in beppu now by the way
[Music]
i should come to think of it i didn't
even think i mentioned that we were
heading to bed that was a really nice
drink
[Music]
scared the
oh all right yeah let me
hey dude how's it going not too bad how
about you alive yeah i'm good it was a
good drive it was a good drive yeah so
dogen let me this is really bright too
dogen and i have been working on a
project together in the background for
what six months now more than that i
think i think it's been closer to uh a
year i'm very excited about today's
shoot looking forward to getting this
finally completed yeah so basically to
make a long story short what this
project is about
[Applause]