well that's it isn't it the video's
demonetised before it's even begun look
at this this is tengu
mythical creature uh with a questionably
shaped and rather large nose
and uh today we're in guma prefecture
about two hours outside of tokyo about
to go
on a road trip and uh joining me
[Laughter]
is a rather improved ryotaro that is a
major improvement ryotaro i must say
let's go
gunmer is a landlocked prefecture two
hours west of tokyo
famous for its mountains its sake and
its traditional japanese inns
today as we journey through the region
we'll meet the man who's encouraging
folks
to drink his sake out in a forest
alongside the very spring
where the water is sourced from we'll
taste the juiciest award-winning local
tonkatsu pork cutlet
and stay overnight at a rustic japanese
inn so large
you're transported to your room in a
self-driving cart
something we've never seen before but
our day starts off high in the mountains
at the tengu mirakuji temple
and this happens to be the largest tengu
mask in the entire country
at six and a half metres tall with a
nose almost three meters long
he'd certainly give pinocchio a run for
his money all right it's time to take it
off
that is legitimately creeping you out
actually put it back on
that was yeah well guys we've hit 2
million subscribers here on the broad
japan channel recently
thank you so much for that i'm what what
are you going to say out of the 2
million viewers
i mean the subscribers actually the uh
it's a 1.5 million
it's on me oh yeah is it oh isn't it i
don't
know about that real trade your videos
tend to get less views so actually see
these
sellers these videos together as some
sort of charity project
it's a special charity project but uh we
are in goomba today and the first place
you
seem to bring me is here why why
did you bring me here it's creepy isn't
it it is a bit yeah
well i mean obviously the more that you
have never been here right the goomba
first time it's it's yeah we've sort of
working our way down through japan right
we've done tohoku we've done the six
prefectures
of tohoku many times we're sort of
working our way down japan
now we're going yeah well i mean not
only to this uh creepy tango temple but
i'm planning to take you to the the best
sakura breweries
ever in japan and also a beautiful
japanese inn to celebrate the two
million subscribers
for you and for me something doesn't
feel right about this i think it's
probably because we've got
two gigantic tengu right behind us with
their noses sticking out let's get out
of it let's go
[Music]
one of the most important ingredients
that goes into sake is the mineral water
and sake breweries will do anything to
get their hands on the purest water
that they can find nagai sakuya produces
highly polished jim maisaki to create
their famous mizubasho brand and the
sixth generation owner of the brewery
suny ocean again
has brought us here to the very spring
where the water is sourced so we can
sample it firsthand and also appreciate
the importance of where
you drink the sake i mean who wouldn't
want to get drunk in a forest
well
i've been on they always talk about how
good the water is they always bang on
about the water but they never
ever actually take you to the water
today we're here
by the stream by the water by the source
of where the safety comes from
and now we're gonna drink it out of
champagne glass
it's so surreal just taking a glass and
take it out of the water
it tastes just like well tastes like
bottled
spring water yeah ah
cold very cold very cold oh is it right
from the snow
is it delicious beers
[Laughter]
like champagne yeah wow
oh so good
so good so good party kanji on it yeah
very refreshing
just good dead it's so kind of
relaxing so the air is so cool and
refreshing
with this cold spring water
[Applause]
the water's so cold in spring because
all the snow melts right on the
mountains
[Laughter]
fall in the spring water down
so many sucky breweries always go on
about how important the water is but
to this day on the 20 or so tours i've
been on
none of them ever have taken me to the
actual source of the water to the spring
itself like this and when you come
somewhere like this and sit in the
forest and uh
try the pure spring water you get a
sense of
why the water's so important and you're
able to kind of appreciate it
and get drunk in a forest and while
folks are working in offices in tokyo
nagai sam
gets to sit out here in a forest and
just drink sake and i think
i think he's one i think he's one at
[Music]
life
[Music]
goomba is known for having some of the
juiciest pork in all of japan in fact
the nearby city
of maibashi boastfully carries the title
city of pork
it's not every day that you pass through
a city of pork and so for lunch we head
off to try
a freshly breaded and battered tonkatsu
pork cutlet
[Music]
it's been hard to pick up it's so huge
it's really thick look at that
[Music]
one word heavenly that's what it is
there's two key components in good
tonkatsu number one the pork
and number two the batter right it used
to be kind of crispy and then
soft kind of juicy meat on the inside oh
wow
that's what i'm saying i actually think
it's the thickest tonkatsu i've ever had
once you've had tonkatsu you don't need
to eat for a long time
like two hours before you close two
hours that's a long time
most decent train stations in japan
actually have a tonkatsu restaurant
somewhere
so if you're passing through a train
station somewhere if you're feeling
hungry
tonkatsu is one of the best things to go
for definitely and do not ever sit next
to
the side of who's a left-handed person
because otherwise we're like oh yeah
yeah that's what happens
we should work this out after like four
or five years of doing this
one last thing about like uh some
techniques of um
uh of eating pork right what tactics
you i always leave the edge
of the pole last because this is the
part
that contains the the biggest portion of
like
fat right that's so that's like i love
this part so
that's better this bit i love saving the
best tool
yeah exactly it's like a song i've i
noticed i do that as well without even
realizing it
oh really instinctively some serious
pork tactics going on here
exactly eating the edge tactics
why does that sound so wrong pork
tactics
having spent half the morning
appreciating the connection between saki
and nature
by getting drunk in a forest on our way
to the traditional inn we stop off at a
brewery to quickly appreciate how
you drink sake tsuna nori abe's family
have been producing sake
at their brewery for 280 years and for
his tasting session he specializes
in trying sake in a variety of ways to
show how
different cup sizes and different
temperatures can make subtle changes
to the flavour
[Music]
how is it oh so sweet kind of sweet
delicate kind of flavor
i really like drinking it in the cup
like this you really appreciate it
look at the size of it it's so cute but
i don't want to say the word q
because it goes very much against my
character
of course
48 degrees celsius
[Music]
there um it's kind of rich flavor it's
bit like drinking
whiskey or something you know at the
back of your throat because it's warm
kai you're learning some japanese can
describe things in japanese better than
i can in english
yeah i must admit when the sake is
heated up you can taste it a lot better
a heck of a lot better like the flavors
really come out and it's
but it's less easy to drink because
you're suddenly aware of the alcohol
right you can really taste
the alcohol um so it's probably a safer
way to drink sake
and a better way in my view at least in
winter when it's cold you know it's nice
oh every day every day come by
[Music]
look at this this is the entrance of
japanese
in the ryokan it's like straight back in
time to back to edo era
[Music]
tonight we're staying at kawaba onsen at
a beautiful rustic inn
so large it stretches up the side of a
mountain and our first surprise is how
we get to our room
chauffeured away on a self-driving cart
it's fully automatic so where from sir
from britain we australia the taxi
driver so we're in a golf cart
uh slowly making our way through the
rather large
kind of hotel i feel like i'm in a cut
scene an opening cut scene
for a video game where we're just sort
of sitting on something
waiting it's definitely faster walking
slow death
[Music]
the guy's following me like
laughing
hello hello okay so
it's pretty big isn't it
[Music]
wow this huge room
and
ta-da
hold on no on the rice patty
you complete the video game well done
[Laughter]
finish the mission finish the mission
stage seven cleared
exploring exploring europe explore with
ryotaro's the challenges
oh bathroom oh my god
oh they even have onsen with within that
oh wow now we're talking no we're
talking in this look
it's really nice it's a seriously
impressive room like
it feels more like somebody's house
really
quite impressive one of the better
places that i'd say you and i have
stayed at over the years
well i guess so i guess when when
i'm in the video i always let you stay
at the really good places
that's what it's that's what's happening
always good food it's not without its
downsides though we are sharing this
room i'd rather sleep in a bag
than spend one night in a room with
ryotaro even if it is this good
to be honest all right um one thing i
really like about this place is the
high ceiling normally the japanese
japanese hotels are really low ceilings
they're so like you're full
especially for the uh tall american
people
um sometimes you come in you you kick
your head
um onto this one of these things here
but
now that does not happen to this room
for sure because it's got the highest
ceiling
and check and jump
don't cry for me argentina
the truth is this is a song i really
want to sing
whenever i come to this kind of balcony
uh but anyway look at the view it's
amazing
look at the the roof the of the house
the main building has
it's called a straw like roof and it
takes a lot of maintenance you need to
replace it every 30 40 years
and it's expensive lord ryotaro
overlooking his domain
call me an emperor why you are nothing
kill me
after a much needed escape from ryotaro
in the room's private hot spring
we meet up downstairs for dinner over a
sukiyaki hot pot
an assortment of fresh sashimi and a few
bottles of sake from the breweries we
stopped
at on our journey today and yet despite
the impressive assortment of dishes and
drinks the main thing
that's got our attention is the
chopstick holder
oh dear i thought the sardine was
always used to like eat for eating but
here
they use sardine as the chopstick rest
so brutal i know and then i was just
told that the
half of the people who come here
actually they end up eating it
what's this called in japanese the sort
of thing you put your chopsticks off
yeah like the chopsticks and uh
yeah i mean that is speaks for itself
yeah
you can eat it i could
do it for in japan oh oh
the crunchy sound oh there we go
okay so we've gone through some
breweries today right and then so
um now we've got this whole like nice
dinner
and i've already asked ryokan to
recommend
some sakes for tonight dishes okay all
right
sashimi we've got sukiyaki exact
sukiyaki coming up and uh so
you're actually to drink something oh
just a little bit just a little bit
it's the pairing and i need to pair it
yes
yeah that's it that's it let me take it
home
yeah cheers
i mean we joke about you not being able
to drink quite a lot but it must be a
little bit annoying
no i'm so used to it you know was it
annoying one thing is the thing is right
and um that was one of the true truth
that was one of the reasons why i did
not
look for a job in the japanese company
in japan seriously
i mean it would have been really hard oh
yeah it would be really hard and the
first job i got was in germany right
and then when i came back surely that's
no better they drink
what they drink every day but it's not
they don't have a kind of you know some
kind of
uh ritual right and keep drinking it
seems to me that in japan people change
quite a lot when they drink though
and i heard that people are able to blow
off steam and actually open up to their
colleagues
a lot easier once they've had a few
drinks like certainly when i was a
teacher when we had work parties
teachers would switch after having a few
drinks you would tell me like
their deepest darkest secrets and all
their teachers they hated it was really
awkward and i had to sort of
sit there and be like oh you hate that
one oh yeah it's really awkward
so um i invited this time
uh him chris board
to all these questions chris board
christmas christmas board
breweries and this will be nice and
you'll count and then
how do you feel good huh to be honest
well i do hang out with ryotaro
i do feel like chris board so it doesn't
make sense
but i'm celebrating you right yeah
for you know having more than two
million viewers a team effort
we did it me natsuki pete dawson from
the podcast
joey the anime man uh
charlotte's been in quite a few videos
um
yeah it's been a real team i'm not gonna
give you any more beef
that's what i've decided just now so
we're back in the room
just had a very big very wonderful
dinner feast
a feast no less and uh when you go to
dinner
in a japanese inn you come back to your
room and the beds are just magically
there just appear before you well i said
i've seen some hobbits coming in and
sneaking into the room and they made
amazing hobbits how unpleasant
to the nice people that work here at
this inn but the story hasn't finished
being finished yet
we've got this wow after
local sake we've got local beer for you
because i would be a lover
cheers cheers again congratulations to
your
two million subscribers yeah thank you
very much and thank you guys for uh
following aboard japan this far and uh
coming with us on these sort of journeys
like because uh as ridiculous as they
are
uh and pork tactics aside they're a lot
of fun
and uh it's been a great few years how
many as how many has it been like the
years has been like since you started
the
channel it's been eight and a half years
now wow
pretty trippy it's pretty trippy to like
look back at older videos and think wow
it feels like another lifetime okay you
started off from your your own room
right
started off you're like and i joined
about five and a half years
1.5 million uh subscribers and because
of me
right now drink drink of it what do you
think of all the food and all the drink
we've had today guys what do you think
was the best thing was it the pork tacos
the tonkatsu
let us know what you want to try if you
come here comment to gamma
but for now guys as always many thanks
for joining us today on our trip
uh across guma prefecture and we'll be
back to do it all over again next time
on the broad japan channel yep and now
i've got the horrible task of trying to
fall asleep next to a man who
snores really quite badly like
but why why is the bed next to mine like
can you like move your bed over here
trying to sleep on the balcony or
something