returned back to the village to look after her  father and after he passed away she decided to  

commemorate him by creating a scarecrow doll in  his image and then she never stopped some dolls  

were actual people that lived in the community  others fictional characters and while ayano is  

upfront about the fact that she makes the  scarecrows solely for fun rather than some  

kind of statement on depopulation it doesn't  stop the atmosphere of the village having an  

almost haunting sadness the realization of what  much of japan's countryside towns will soon face  

particularly when entering the overgrown building  across the river there was once the local school  

what takes me back to my time as a teacher the  school hall not scarecrows what's creepy is if  

you don't look at them if you look at the  floor or the ceiling and at the corner of  

your eyes you could delude yourself at their  people and then you look and you see 200  

figurines looking back at you dressed immaculately  wearing costumes they're holding fans they've got  

hats they've got glasses moustaches beards the  level of detail is incredible it really is like  

there's nothing tacky about this the woman that  made each of these dolls did an incredible job  

i think it's pretty damn cool but the  guy on the chair is just creeping me out  

he looks like he fell off the local bridge and  smashed his legs in this honestly looks better  

than a lot of the gymnasiums that i went to school  with him yeah it's better than a welsh gymnasium  

it is that my gym at school did not look this good  they have ping pong tables over there for gosh  

sake those are in mint condition you get a pretty  penny for those it's hard to put this atmosphere  

into words but fortunately we have connor on  hand with his eloquently composed insights and  

unmatched commentary i just feel sad it's like you  know the creepiness is worn off now and now i just  

feel sad it's just you know someone cares this  much about making these and wishing the town  

was once what it was you know i'm sure the person  who made these probably experienced the town like  

this right it's just really sad i i don't know  it's just i'm starting to feel quite sad actually  

i kind of want to just go home it's really sad  take a shot every time connor says the word sad  

this is so sad i object to this marriage i am  the father of the baby i don't know which one is

what can i say and get up to business i don't know  i mean i'm british so you know i'm cold i couldn't  

think of doing this i'd give up after the first  you know trying to do someone's foot but i mean  

i don't understand people have the energy to do  it i'm already i'm tired just watching chris walk  

chris is built like a bag of milk i don't know  how to react to that i don't know what that means

you know i i don't want to be too harsh you  know we've been driving for two hours now and  

every single town looks the same you know it's  very beautiful but it's just really nothing  

distinctive about any of the towns  you come in here you stop the car  

because you want to know what's going on  so fair enough well played you got me to  

be fair connor this one over here looks  like you and your jojo's suit this guy  

no he doesn't he definitely doesn't put a phone  up here right that is the same i want a comparison  

this one connor here what do you  think guys it's the same definitely  

leaving connor's scarecrow doppelganger behind  we crossed the border over into kochi prefecture  

the last prefecture i've yet to visit in all of  japan and after a quick change out of our drenched  

clothing we head over to the bustling hiromi  market to try the region's local iconic dish

welcome to hirome market the busiest  most vibrant market in all of culture  

now there's one thing in kochi they like  to eat and that is tataki like bonito fish  

barbecue it's really strange it's kind of  yeah it's barbecued on the edge but the  

inside is very sort of juicy and meaty  and now we're gonna try it let me have  

a shot see if it lives up to the height  stop talking and give me the fruit chris

it's really charred on the outside and then  in the middle it's just like a normal fish  

it's so strange i honestly think if you gave  this to someone they didn't know what it was  

you could probably convince me it was steak it  does taste like steak it's so strange it's like  

steak with a fishy undertone too but it's really  good like the barbecue flavour the salt they put  

over it the rock salt one to them that's an eight  or nine it's a solid nine i could eat four of them

chris i hope you slept amazingly last night  because tonight you're not gonna be getting  

any sleep why because you're gonna have so much  fun where we're staying that you're not gonna want  

to sleep at all let me guess it's a love hotel  maybe maybe not oh you're all you do is go to  

love hotels these days this course is a love hotel  it's my favorite hobby but it's not a love hotel  

it's better it's not a hotel much better than that  and you better be looking forward to it tonight

well it's been a long day  chauffeuring his lordship  

around chicago but now at last i'm  in connor's hands as he directs us  

to our accommodation for the night and my  ultimate reward for successfully visiting  

all of japan's 47 prefectures you actually want  to take the next right that comes out not this  

no this one here this one take this one you're  a top navigator listen it's very difficult at  

night to see where everything is that's why i  like bringing joey on journey he can navigate

okay i mean i could see a love hotel side  yeah it's it is in it would be hotel district  

right but it isn't a love hotel we're coming up  on http what the [ __ ] is this that's not a hotel  

that looks like tower of terror it's like the  twilight zone or something it is a hotel and the  

reason i chose it chris is the cheapest no no no  no no i knew you were going to say that about me  

it's the worst rated what do you mean it's  got five stars on booking.com five-star hotel  

you mean five stars out of ten five stars that's  impossible i've never seen one that low i don't  

think you have either certainly not in japan  to get anything less than like a seven is like  

no never are you sure it was six years this is  supposed to be a celebration a day acceleration  

i found some reviews yes there's some good ones  mold smoke mold and more mold with smoke this  

this place was a cesspool of gems smoke and mold  the worst hotel i've ever been to after entering  

my room for less than three minutes i already  started to feel sick the unit bath was full  

of ammonium ammonia what does that mean wait  wait wait why is there ammonia in the bath i  

feel uncomfortable with the blood on my bed cover  did you say the blood the blood on my bed cover  

all right let's go in let's get this over with  you if there's ammonia and blood i'm not i'm not  

lingering you know there's one thing i'll sleep  in the [ __ ] car the views are probably wondering  

why would i do this to myself you know this is  my choice right because to me making you suffer  

is worth more than any discomfort to myself well  i hope you have fun getting home tomorrow because  

i'm the [ __ ] driver come on now let's make  another whales joke i dare you oh god's sake

i'm cautiously optimistic the one was nice  that's always a good start oh [ __ ] you know

by toilet doors

oh it's colorful

that's the moldier smell ever oh that smells  really bad all right guys we're in the room  

it smells like cigarettes and four kinds of mold  um that's really bad there is like a mark on the  

wall here uh i don't know what that is it's like  dark patches over the room like blood on the walls  

and stuff what is all this there's like look how  much [ __ ] there is on this walls oh what what