- Oh God!

- That's Pocari Sweat. - Is that not water?

- That's obviously not water.

It's sweat in a bottle.

(cheerful music)

Good morning guys and welcome back to Journey Across Japan.

Never-ending cycle of despair.

Today, it's pretty big day.

We're leaving Honshu Island, mainland Japan.

Today we cross over into Kyushu, the last island of our journey,

and the last leg of our tour.

So I feel kind of weirded out.

I feel like this is a pretty big deal today.

We're in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Yamaguchi is at the southern tip of Honshu, and I'm right by

the Tenmangu Shrine, one of the most glamorous shrines in the entire prefecture.

The Tenmangu Shrine is dedicated to the God of study.

So you actually see students coming up here to pray

for good fortune in the coming exams.

And I think that's quite nice.

Given that in the UK, instead of praying for good fortune in exams,

we're basically just down a can of Redbull and hope for the best.

Good morning Ellen.

So for those who don't know, Ellen is my university friend.

She's travelling around Japan for a week or two,

and I'm her tour guide for the next four or five days.

- Yes. Thank you

- "Yes, thank you". How formal.

And she's fromCambridge, which means she's really smart.

Oh, wait, you didn't go to Cambridge University.

- No I didn't.

I went to the same uni as you did. -Oh yeah.

Maybe not that smart after all.

What's this? - Um, this is amazake.

- Woah, what is amazake? - I'm not entirely sure.

- Amazake is basically a sweetened sake drink.

It's kind of the leftovers from...

It sounds bad.

It's like the leftover rice from making sake.

There's no alcohol in it.

Which is good because you can't drink alcohol and cycle in Japan, unfortunately.

Probably for the best.

Anyway, what's today's challenge?

So, these are challenges you guys have sent in.

And today's challenge is...

That's good. - Wow.

- Just how much Japanese do you know?

- Umm, about three words. - What are they?

- "Konnichiwa". - Hello.

- "Arigatou gozaimasu". - Thank you.

- "Sayounara". - Goodbye.

Perfect. - And that is it.

- What more could you possibly need?

Throughout the day, I'll teach you like 10, 20, 30 words.

I love it when it gradually up, and then 30. - Yeah.

And then at the end of the day, we'll test you and see what you can remember.

- Okay. - And you can try it at home

- Challenge accepted.

- What about shrine?

Since we're at a shrine right now, might as well teach the word for shrine.

- Yeah ok, go. - The word for shrine is 'jinja'.

- Jinja. - Jinja.

- Jinja. - How are you gonna remember that?

Well it, I thought this tasted like ginger. - Right.

- I was at the shrine. So, jinja.

- So, that's the first word of the day.

- Jinja, got it.

- Now, let's go on a bicycle. But what's bicycle in Japanese?

- Bicycle-ah.

- Tschh. (bursting in laughter)

- We got some work to do.

On our journey today, we'll come face to face with the most

flammable looking bridge you'll ever see, tunnel our way into Kyushu on foot,

and see if wasabi ice cream is actually edible.

We'll also be introducing Japanese words throughout the day.

So be sure to pay attention to see if you can pass the test

at the end of the video.

And who knows maybe you'll win the grand prize, which is nothing.

Take two - teaching Ellen how to say bike.

The word for bike in Japanese is 'jitensha'.

- 'Jitensha'. - Jitensha.

- How do you say let's go?

- Let's go? Um, 'ikimashou'.

- 'Ikimashou'. - Em, you gotta do, with the excitement,

with power.

(clapping hands) - Ikimashou!

- That'll do. - Nailed it!

(rock music)

- The word for dangerous is... - Go on.

- 'Abunai'. - 'Abunai'.

- A-bu-nai. - Abunai.

- Good, you've nailed it.

- You wanna know the words for left and right?

- Yes, please.

- Left is 'hidari'. - 'Hidari'.

- Hidari. Right is 'migi'.

- Hold on. - 'Migi'.

With that in mind, do you want to take the next hidari?

- Got it.

Oh, God it's so beautiful.

How do you say 'beautiful' in Japanese?

- For this, it's 'kirei'. - Kirei.

- Kirei, kinda means pretty, or beautiful.

- Kirei!

- The word for great is 'subarashii'.

- Subarashii. - Subarashii.

- Subarashii Yamaguchi

- Yeah, you're good. - Haha.

- You learning so fast. God, took me three years to learn that.

(gleeful music)

You know what, when I saw this bridge on Wikipedia this morning,

I thought it had been photoshopped or something in the photo.

And yet, it hasn't been photoshopped.

It genuinely is that ridiculous.

Look at it.

The first time you gaze upon the Kintai Bridge, you can't help

but think somebody got a little bit carried away with their credit card.

I mean, It's not the most practical looking bridge.

But its unique design is less to do with aesthetics,

and more to do with combating the unforgiving forces of nature.

There's about 150 people on this bridge right now.

And I can only see about four or five, because of the first archway

blocking the view of the rest bridge.

So if you're wondering why the Kintaikyo Bridge has this

very elaborate design, there is a pretty good logical reason.

Up until 1673, this region have a lot of bridges.

But they kept getting washed away by the strong currents

of the Nishiki River that runs beneath it.

So in 1673, the locals in Iwakuni built this bridge for the extremely

top-heavy design that could not be washed away.

And it worked up until 1950, when unfortunately a typhoon

did get the better of it.

But the locals in Iwakuni loved the bridge so much they rebuilt it,

and it's remained here ever since.

So in one way or another, the Kintaikyo Bridge has been here for 350 years.

- Um, right, help me with the flavors.

- I don't thing there is enough flavors to choose from.

What does your heart tell you?

- This one.

- What was it? - I don't know.

- Oh. Yeah, get that one.

- What is it? Is it something terrible?

- You can't read the characters, can you? - Is it like sea..sea... Or something.

- You've gotta get it though. What made you go for that one?

- I don't know, I just... - Does it look like it mint or something?

- I don't know. I kind of thought..

I thought pistachio maybe, and it looks kind of nice.

I was going for this one, but the broken top put me off.

- I think you've gotta get out.

If you get it and eat it, I'll tell you what it is after.

- Oh god, help me. Okay.

I can't believe I went for the wasabi one.

- It probably tastes quite good.

- Yeah, probably.

You think that's bad.

You were pretty lucky.

There was one right next to it for garlic flavor.

- Oh, okay,

- This thing probably actually work.

Japanese flavors, Japanese weird flavors tend to usually be okay.

But I hope it tastes awful, because it'd be much more entertaining.

- No flavor.

Hmmm.

Okay, it's not terrible. But it's not great either.

- One to ten?

- Four.

- Four? - Only a four.

I'm trying it's not, it's not good.

It's...

It's very similar to mustard actually.

Which just so, just so happens to be a flavor that I hate.

So, uh, they you go.

I can't do it. (chuckles)

Having contaminated her taste buds with wasabi ice cream,

Ella needs to wash her mouth out.

And I'm bloody hungry.

So we make our way to the nearest 7-11 to grab some lunch.

- Um, what about that one?

- This? - Yeah, what does that mean?

- It says, 'onigiri'. - Onigiri?

- Onigiri. - What does it have in it?

- It's got sauce, yakimeshi.

It's kind of like a sweet soy sauce.

I guess it's like okonomiyaki, to some extent.

- I wanted it then. - The pancake we had in um,

Hiroshima the other day.

That was so good. I'll take it.

So I should probably get something to wash it down with.

Emm, what about this one?

- That's cow piss. - What?

- Calpis. - Okay nope, not that.

- Down there somewhere, is that why you're here.

- This one? - That's Pocari Sweat.

- Is that not water?

That's obviously not water. It's sweat in a bottle.

- (speaking in gibberish) - Yes.

But do you know waters in Japanese?

- No.

- 'Mizu'.

- Mizu. - Yeah.

- Finally, its... - Think 'me' and 'zoo'.

- Mizu.

- Mizu, use it. - Mizu!

- But do you know what iced coffee is?

- Iced coffee?

- Iced coffee.

-No. - 'Ice ko-hi-'.

- No, what is it? - Is it all that I was saying.

Hot coffee is 'hotto ko-hi'.

Koo- Hii-. - Ko-hi.

- 'Aised ko-hi-. - This is quite a hard word to say I reckon.

Ko- Hi-.

Is that Crunky?

- It is Crunky.

(singing) Is that Crunky? - So, that's in English?

Err, Crunky?

- It's a combination of cookie and crunchy.

it's not quite cookie. It's not quite crunchy.

It's Crunky.

I've been making fun of you all day for your guesses at Japanese word.

They're actually pretty good guesses.

Because in Japan they have a lot of 'gairaigo'.

Literally - foreign borrowed words.

Easy example: orange.

- Mhm. - In Japanese, 'orenji'.

- Orenji. - Orenji.

My favorite is a DVD player.

- (chuckles)

- When I first learned that word, it made my day.

It sounds so much cooler than British English.

- Yeah, DVD player.

- There's no V sound in Japanese.

You kind of go Bi, Wi, Vi.

So these are words that Japan didn't really have.

Things that are introduced to Japanese culture.

Because Japan was shut off for a long time

When foreigners brought up, they brought lots of

culture and things with them.

And so they brought language with them as well.

And that's why Japanese has lots of foreign borrowed words.

So odds are, you can look at most things and, um, find a foreign borrowed words.

What about this?

What are these in American English?

- Potato chips.

Something like that. - Good.

- Really?

- In Japanese, poteto chipsu.

So, yeah, you can guess a lot of things.

- So I'm trying to learn 30 words today.

- Right.

- How long would it take to learn Japanese?

- So I made a video a few years ago called "Speaking Japanese In Six Months".