When I was twenty, I visited Japan for the first time

and was gobsmacked.

To me, Japan was nothing at all

like my home country, Canada.

("O Canada")

I had never seen rice fields before,

and the skyscrapers and neon lights of Tokyo,

they were magnificent.

However, after almost a couple decades of visiting

and living in Japan,

I finally went to Japan's Northernmost prefecture, Hokkaido.

As the plane was descending, I thought to myself,

"Huh, this looks a bit like Canada."

I mean, Manitoba's fields are much bigger,

that's where I grew up by the way,

hence why I have the photographs,

but in comparison to the rest of Japan,

seeing big, open flat fields like this, is rare.

Actually, as my wife and I were driving around Hokkaido,

we kept on using the saying, "Hokkaido wa dekkaido."

In Japanese, dekkaido literally means big road,

while Hokkaido means Northern Sea Road.

It's just a play on words

that is trying to say, "Hokkaido is big."

Hokkaido dwarfs other Japanese prefectures in size,

by a lot.

The next closest prefecture of Iwate

is over five times smaller.

Japan Rail, JR,

actually made this neat overlay of Hokkaido

that you can move around other prefectures.

If you know Japan, then you'll be surprised to see

that Hokkaido spans from Osaka to Tokyo.

But if I move Hokkaido over to Canada, yeah, tiny.

In any case, the roads were big enough over here

that my wife even drove,

which she refuses to do around Tokyo,

because the roads can get very narrow, to say the least.

What we drove were two RVs from Hokkaido Nomad Car Rental,

which seemed like a very Canadian,

or maybe it's an American, thing to do.

However, again, like the size of the fields and landmass,

Canada once again outdid Japan.

Whereas this compact Japanese RV sleeps five,

this compact Canadian RV,

which is one meter longer, only sleeps three.

You can get bigger RVs in Japan,

but I thought this comparison most apt.

In Japan, they're used to making do with smaller spaces,

that's why the five sleeping spaces instead of three.

But if you consider other amenities,

you see the difference in lifestyle.

One thing the Japanese RV had

was a non-flush toilet.

We could have used it,

but since there are nice toilets

at roadside stops and campsites,

a flushing toilet is less of a priority.

I mean, this is the washlet

from the campground we stayed at.

Another thing,

is that no matter the size of the Japanese RVs we looked at,

there were no showers,

whereas this was a common feature

in standard-size Canadian RVs; why?

It's probably because Japan has many sentos,

or public baths.

I especially like the ones that are onsens,

or hot springs.

Unlike Canada, Hokkaido has many volcanoes.

And a quick note, yes, Canada has volcanoes,

but they're not nearly as densely packed

near population centers as in Hokkaido or Japan.

And with volcanoes, comes many hot springs.

There is a stove in the RV,

but we also never had a need to touch it.

You'll soon see why.

And thinking of food, Hokkaido

has an almost identical food self-sufficiency ratio

to Canada.

While Hokkaido produces 185% of its caloric needs,

in Canada, it's 183%.

These are big league numbers,

as many countries nowadays are not self-sufficient at all,

with Japan's rate at a dismal 37%.

But again, in Hokkaido,

they can almost feed themselves twice over,

and trust me, they tried to do that to us

while we were there.

What surprised me

was how much the food I ate at our farm stay

was similar to what I ate in Canada.

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, corn.

Now, this could just be because the farmer I stayed with

actually lived in Canada for a year.

I was asking you, how come you know English?

(laughing) I was staying in Canada,

30 years ago.

But if you look at the types of agricultural

and livestock products

of which Hokkaido produces the largest volume in Japan,

you'll find a lot of similarities.

Wheat, beans, potatoes, sweet corn.

Bloodhorses?

Okay, so some differences.

We happened to go to the Kitchen Garden Farm Stay

at a great time of the year,

during the fall harvest in September.

And did I say great?

Because I meant incredible.

Not only in the volume made,

it was a mini-Thanksgiving, minus the turkey,

but the freshness.

I cannot emphasize this enough.

So this is fresh corn, not cooked, no salt,

no butter, no pepper, nothing.

It's so sweet, I can't believe this!

(corn crunching)

This is like the best fresh corn I've ever had.

The only fresh corn I ever had, not cooked.

Crazy!

What's it taste like?

Tastes like an apple.

Although apparently,

I've never had Taber corn from Alberta.

(corn crunching)

I love corn, I can eat it all day.

So anyways, back in Hokkaido, the farmers had a greenhouse

that we could harvest various produce from.

No, it's a bit soft.

- Oh, there's a hole. - There's a hole.

The bugs really chewed on it.

(laughter)

This is small.

They also had fields where we had to work them old school.

(screaming)

Shin got a lot of big ones!

Yeah! I got three big potatoes!

After that got tiring, we decided to modernize things.

(metal bars clacking)

How much is that blue bucket?

The twice of this bucket.

The price is about 600 yen

for 20 kilograms.

This one is going to the starch factory.

I think 500 yen per 100 kilograms.

It's terrible (laughing),

the farm, the Japanese farm.

Cannot make the money.

Enough money for life.

But my daughter will be better.

And the people is good.

He told me that when they found out one of his daughter's

had a mental disability,

his wife and him decided to go into farming,

to get the best food for her.

That was twenty years ago.

(insects chirping)

Now this is the morning spread.

Again, it's something I can't show on video,

but these were honestly the meals

with the freshest produce I've ever eaten in my life.

Yes, those bacon and sausages are a bit weak sauce,

but look at these hash browns!

I've never once seen these made in Japan,

so seeing this familiar dish brought back memories

of my oldest brother making this very dish for me.

I was honestly nostalgic.

Okay, where was I, yes, talking about why Hokkaido

is like Canada, but not.

Well, the not part would be the sleeping arrangements.

In this farm house, we slept in the loft,

using futons laid out on the ground.

Not everyone in Hokkaido,

or Japan for that matter, sleep on the ground though;

beds do exist, as well as hammocks apparently.

But before we went to bed,

we did what seems a very Japanese thing to me

and played with hanabi, or fireworks.

(fireworks sizzling)

Do you want to know something funny?

Oikawa-san is actually young for a Japanese farmer.

Now I am, and my wife, is 58.

In Japan, 63.5% of farmers are over 65.

In Canada, most farmers are no spring chickens either,

with 54.5% over the age of 55.

Canada has younger farmers,

but the average age of both Japanese and Canadian farmers

are similarly, getting older.

After leaving the farm stay, we decided

that for lunch we'd have ice cream.

That's not a joke.

We literally went to a specialty dairy producer

and ate ice cream for lunch.

This is partly because we knew a huge feast

was coming our way for dinner,

but also simply because Hokkaido is known for its dairy

and its soft cream,

so you need to try it while there.

Hokkaido produces half of Japan's dairy.

Although for some reason, Japanese cheese

leaves much to be desired.

My recommendation is get your soft cream in Hokkaido,

but your cheese in Canada.

Right now in Japan I'm currently making do

with shopping at Costco and getting Gouda from Holland.

So back on the road again, I noticed some other differences.

The size of vehicles.

Simply compare this Japanese farmer's truck

to Canadian ones.

But what surprised me about Hokkaido's roads

were these arrows.

They mark the lanes,

which I can tell you from experiencing Canadian winters,

would come in really handy,

especially during snow storms and at night.

Something else you can't miss while driving

is these collapsible barriers

that protect the road from wind and snow.

I think we could use this around my birthplace in Winnipeg,

since we're known as the windy city, kinda like Chicago.

We Winnipeggers also think we have a snowy city,

but we only get 114 centimeters a year,

which is less than Toronto.

However, unlike that city

which shuts down and declares emergency

after a few centimeters hit the ground,

we just go about our day.

Sorry, got distracted (chuckling) making fun of Toronto,

a favourite Canadian pastime.

However, when it comes to snow,

Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital city, takes the cake

with an average of 597 centimeters of snowfall a year.

That's 20 feet, in American.

I think the reason why Winnipegers believe

we're a snowy city is because when it does snow,

it's consistently cold enough, that it stays.

So there is some truth to that nickname of ours, Winterpeg.

While cramming in a lot talk about my hometown is fun,

let's get to the camping.

On our way in, we stopped by this site on a lake,

and I don't know about you,

but I've never seen such a staggering amount

of on-shore lake camping before in Canada.

However, where we camped at was this glamping site.

There was a single tent pitched here,

but most of the spots were reserved for RVs

and other more swanky abodes.

I mean, there's an oil heater in here.

And you have a table, and all your beddings.

And look at these fancy fire pits.

And, well, like in Vancouver,

they also have container housing.

I like this massive window in the front

where you can sit down and have a nice cup of tea,

coffee, or in the kids' case, hot chocolate.

Whereas in Canada it's for the homeless,

in Japan, it's a luxury.

Although, these modular homes in BC look nice

and they're trying to solve a complicated problem,