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  

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 port cutler 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 meters 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 abroad japan channel  

recently thank you so much for that i'm what what  are you gonna say out of the two 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 have to know about that realtor your videos  tend to get less views so actually see these  

sellers these videos together as some sort  of charity project this is a special charity  

project but we are in goomba today and the first  place you seem to bring me is uh is here why why  

did you bring me here it's creepy isn't it it  is a bit yeah i mean obviously the war 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 uh creepy tingle 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

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 jamaisaki 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

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  

from the stream it's so surreal just  taking a glass and take it out of the water

it tastes just like well it tastes  like bottled spring water yeah ah cold  

very cold very cold oh is it right  from the snow is it delicious beers

like champagne yeah wow

oh so good so good so good party  kanji on it yeah very refreshing

just good job so kind of relaxing so the air is  so cool and refreshing with this cold spring water

the water's so cold in spring because  all the snow melts right on the mountains

fall in the spring water float 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 really 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 and the guy sam gets to sit  

out here in a forest and just drink sake and  i think i think he's won i think he's one at

life gummer 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  

it's really hard to pick up it's so  huge it's really thick look at that  

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 tongue paste 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 you're feeling hungry  

swamp hats is one of the best things to go  for definitely and do not ever sit next to  

the side who's a left-handed person because  otherwise we're like oh yeah yeah that's  

what happens we should have worked 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 what 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 flavor

how is it oh so sweet kind of  sweet delicate kind of flavor  

i really like drinking a 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 cute  because that goes very much against my character

of course

48 degrees celsius

in there um it's kind of rich  flavors but like drinking  

whiskey or something you know at the  back of your throat because it's warm  

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

every day every day can't buy it  look at this this is the entrance  

of japanese in the ryokan it's like  straight back in time to back to edo era  

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 it's definitely faster walking slow death

and the guy's following me like laughing

hello okay so it's pretty big isn't it

wow this huge room

hold on no on the rest buddy you  complete the video game well done  

finish the mission finish the  mission stage seven cleared  

exploring exploring europe exploring  with rioters the challenges

oh bathroom oh my god oh they even have onsen  with it look at 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 why 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 riotro 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 in for  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  

not that does not happen to this room for sure  because start high ceiling and check it jump

don't cry for me el gentina 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 coming 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 saudin was  

always used to like eat for eating but  here they use sardine as a 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 chopstick west and uh  yeah i mean that is speaks for itself

oh the crunchy sound oh dear 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 going to drink something  oh just a little bit just a little bit  

it's the 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 have  

been really hard and the first job i got was in  germany right and when i came back surely that's  

no better they drink what they drink more every  day but it's not they don't have kind of you know  

some kind of a 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 about a few  drinks 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 kim chris board to all these creative breweries  christmas that's why it's crazy breweries and this  

would be nice ryokan and how do you feel good  huh to be honest i do hang out with ryotaro  

i do feel like chris board so it does make sense  but i'm celebrating you right yeah four four  

you know having more than two million viewers  it's 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 sneaking into the  

room and they 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  after local circus we've got local beer for you  

because you would be a lover cheers cheers again  congratulations to your two million subscribers  

yeah thank you very much thank you guys for uh  following abroad 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