Sake Rice Farming in JAPAN | Bike Touring Across Japan #3
Welcome to the third episode of the bike tour across Japan series In this video my buddy Nick and I depart from the highest road in all of Japan and make our way to Jowetsu, Niigata. In this video I share with you a near -death experience that my Japanese friend had. I take a ride with a local farmer. I explained to you what a shokonsha shrine is and how it played an important role during the Meiji period. We meet a super cool dude who loves Bali so much that he brought the vibes back to Japan and we finish the video off at an izakaya with some super friendly Genki ladies.
And if you haven't had a chance please check out episode one and two of the Japan bike series. That's a don't breathe area. Yeah. Yeah. Mokto? Mmm.
Can't stop. Don't. Can't stop. Wow.
it was a big volcano and the whole mountain was pushed up You know. Pushed up. Pushed up. Yeah. And cracked.
Cracked. Wow. crazy isn't it That's cool. Mother nature is crazy. So, uh, good morning from beautiful Kusatsu Mt. Shirane.
And, uh, wow. So today we have decided to get a lift up to the top of the mountain Couple reasons. My buddy Nick. He, uh, he's not going to join me for the entire trip.
he can only join for about a week and so we need to get moving and instead of fighting a mountain all day we're gonna try to you know make up some make up some time and also you're not even supposed to like be in this area it's supposed to be uh pretty dangerous to breathe in apparently but this is Kusatsu ski resort. six years ago so six years ago the volcano erupted and spit fucking ash and rocks all over right and during that time shuhei and kana in a uh kohai shuhei's brother they were in the gondola they were about four or five cars up from the top of like getting off the gondola and um i'll play a little clip right now just to show you what it was like the volcano at Kusatsu Ski Resort has erupted Shirane has erupted? there are many people on the ropeway right now where are you now? we are at the gondola at the top the volcano rocks and ash are terrible are you doing okay waiting? we are okay waiting but the situation is dire it's very frightening A near -death experience for Shuhei and Kana, two people actually did die, they were skiing on the mountain, got hit by rocks, scary, scary moment, but since then they have closed the top part of the mountain off. Niigata Wow, you see that gas pouring out of the mountain over there, out of the ground, so apparently that's what makes this mountain so dangerous. You breathe that in, Shuhei is saying that you'll die, and so Shuhei and his buddies, they actually backcountry and they snowboard in this area, and he says sometimes he has to hold his breath when he's snowboarding, it's crazy, we're climbing up the mountain in the truck for safety reasons, that's why. It would have taken us all day to climb up these mountains, I don't think we would have made it honestly.
This is Japan's highest point, how would you say this, the highest mountain you can take by road, right here. Not the highest mountain in Japan, but the highest point that you can take by road I guess, and wow, look at this view, that's Kusatsu, that's where we would have started. From here, we're going into Niigata and we have a nice easy downhill, but there is ice on the roads too, so you've got to be careful. This is hilarious too, so... We're taking 292 road, okay? And so, like 29 in Japanese is Niku, so Niku, my name, right? And so there's two nicks too.
And so, Niku, Niku. Perfect start. This is where we should do it. Thank you, Shuhei.
Thank you. Wow. We might have died on that mountain if we had a psycho out of it. Look at that view.
Are you kidding me? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a little bit hard to get out of here It's a little bit hard Thank you Thank you Thank you Nice day, it's a nice day yo Let's do it Take care Thank you Thank you Thank you Bye Bye Whoo Nice and slow Are you kidding me? Wow, that descent was awesome My face is frozen Got gloves on But it doesn't really do much I don't know how close you want to get to that It's a busted old pipe Is it a busted pipe? Looks like it Well, let's get away from that I did not think it was going to be this cold here in Japan Whoo Take me back to the Philippines Not yet, not yet You telling me this dude would go snowboarding in a tank top and shorts? That's bullshit Looks like I got another good one This is the Indian curry bread Perfect crunch So soft That curry in there is so good too just had to stop and admire the big beautiful wisteria trees those are nice and we're we're on the pushing part we're on the uphill sun's out nice and warm went from wearing pretty much pretty much all my clothes to taking it all off you that's pretty cool so it is the start of rice planting season here in nigata apparently so nigata is famous for rice here in japan rice and sake i didn't realize that so i guess there's rice specifically grown just for sake interesting oh nice nice getting a ride on the sake rice uh i don't know what you call this thing oh but we just finally made it to a city and the guy that actually came out of this car recommended some really tasty ramen and so that's where we're heading right now apparently nigata is famous for ramen as well the only place in town that has any people outside of it and coming into this town it was dead there ain't no activity we're gonna be on this road for about another 20 30 minutes going all the way to jill at two oh man i don't know if it's actually this good because it's good or you think of like, just being on a bike all day, right? It just makes the food taste so much better. But let's see here.
So there's some tofu, got the pork, of course the noodles, got some green onion. What's that white stuff, onions? Yeah, onions. I think that's it. All right, so we just got done eating some ramen. I made Nick walk up the hill a little bit because I wanted to come check out this. This is a Shokonsha Shinto shrine.
There are hundreds of these Shokonsha shrines all over Japan. And so these were basically built to help, to mobilize and to change the world. To generate support for the emperor. you know in 1853 or so when Matthew Perry came knocking on the door here in Japan and told Japan to open up his doors and start trading with the rest of the world well at that time there was still the shogunate the tokugawa clan still held power here in Japan and so even though the emperor was still technically at the top he was just a figurehead he didn't hold any power and so after that you had what's called the boshin wars and eventually the emperor won out with the help of the satsuma clan and the choshu clans and down south and so what they started doing it's kind of a choshu clan tradition is to to enshrine and memorialize the war dead and so that's what they did to start building support for the the new meiji emperor and uh you know the new the new government that ran japan and so they uh they built these shrines all over the country and so when japan started you know becoming a powerhouse in the world and you know they went to war with china they won they got their first colony in Taiwan in 1895 they surprised the world and beat russia and then you know they were just racking up win after win and these shrines were being built all over the place and eventually well the most controversial being yasukuni in tokyo that's also considered a shikonsha where uh everyone who died in the pacific war in world war two enemies and japan are enshrined at yasukuni in tokyo and so you know these little shrines out here i don't think are very controversial at all it's the one in tokyo that you hear in the news a lot there's a lot of people from okinawa from korea and china and other parts of the world that uh are upset with yasukuni because you know for example people in Okinawa they they might have family members who died in the war that are enshrined in Yasukuni and they don't want that and so they have a World War two museum there and of course they they tell their their side of the story and how how they want to want the war to be remembered and so yeah Yasukuni I mean it's an interesting place I've been there another thing I guess it's kind of controversial there is that they're trying to tell everybody or like their message nowadays is is because of the people who fought in World War two here in Japan that's why you have the peace and prosperity that you have today you know I'll just leave it at that but from here we're gonna go to the beach and chill out How was their toilet? Man, that was plush.
What? It was real nice. Was it good? Was it worth the hike then? It was worth the hike. It was the most satisfying too of the journey so far. Konnichiwa! Yasashi! Yasashi! What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? I'm asleep.
You're asleep. I'm asleep. What's that? You're asleep. You're asleep.
Shibak in the chute out of that chute. Is it it a cat? Yeah. And we made it. To the most beautiful beach in Japan. Not even close. I guess it's just not the season right now.
Not a whole lot going on up here. It is a Tuesday. It is almost 4 o 'clock.
But you can tell it doesn't look like there's been too many people up here lately. Wow. Pretty damn cold. It is freezing.
Especially compared to that water in the Philippines about three weeks ago. This water is cold. Alright, so we're done with the beach.
You can get some food too. Maybe so. Are they cooking? I don't know. They're camping about food.
Nice. Yeah, we were just heading down the road. We're going to head to the city and kind of check it out and then maybe check out our campsite.
But we passed by this place. This kind of junkyard looking place with a bunch of different wood art everywhere. And they waved us down actually.
Come say hello. There's even more stuff. Wow. Nick, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. You're good.
I'm good. Nick, how are you? I'm good. Oh, I'm good.
I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. You're going to camp?
So camp is really good. Mmm. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really good. What's your name? Omise Kana. Omise Kana.
You're from Kenne. Omise is Nicky Monique. What's your name? I'm Omise. You're from Kenne. Yeah.
I'm from Kenne. Wow. It's pretty cool. Mmm -hmm. Wow, okay.
Not what I was expecting it to be It's like a real proper shop in here I'm gonna take you to the store I'm gonna take you I'm gonna take you I'm gonna take you I'm gonna take you I'm gonna take you Nice Show right here You got a nice view You got a nice view All we're missing is people to look at That's it There's nobody out there Look at me Yeah, we found our spot tonight I literally sent a photo of this place to Gati And she said, this place looks like Mad Max And then you pull that out And I'm like, perfect Man, it feels so good With all the bags off So good Oh, man Alright, so Got some really good news to share Oh, you saw him over there He's gonna let us stay in a Basically a room that he's using for storage And so we're You know, we were just kind of feeling it out And I was like, is it cool if we Stay here Yeah, it's fine, just post up your tent And We were trying to find a place to post up And he was like, I just You know, if you want to sleep in this room right here, you can So that's what we're gonna do And we're able to take all the bags off the bikes We're super light right now, which is awesome And now we're gonna go hit an onsen We're gonna get a bite to eat And explore Joette so a little bit Mmm Ahh some nice cold milk after the the onsen, it's just always good deep, deep sea fish dinner Wisel yuga coral How do you like it? It's a fish It's a f**kin scary looking guy, don't it, isn't it This is a fish I'm not sure how to say it I guess this is a fish No, no I think we've found a good spot for dinner, that's for sure It's basically just fried chicken It's mayonnaise Fried noodles, basically with some green peppers, cabbage, carrots Beans, browns Hell yeah, we might not have to go to 7 -Eleven Maybe, maybe This is a present from the lovely owner, yay No, it's not bachano, it's not bachano Oh, man They are characters So they just fed us some Some bamboo Bamboo soup I don't know what this is It's bamboo, bamboo This is small bamboo It's beef This is meat This is nigata soul food It's so delicious Thank you It's so delicious Fuck Alright guys, it's been a long day, I started it at 4am, it is now 9 -Eleven Time to go to bed and do it all again tomorrow Alright, thanks for watching guys and I'll see you in the next video
2024-05-24 13:53
