Riding the Underwater Bullet Train to Hokkaido JAPAN

on the next leg of my travels in Japan wanting to take full advantage of my Rail Pass I decided to use the time I had left to go to the very northernmost tip of the country just to see what it was like alright I'm now going to make a journey to the northernmost tip of Japan first stop on the trip a bullet train to Jaco dot a which is the first city in Hokkaido the northernmost island of Japan [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I actually did [Music] you should only get cold we'll see how cold it actually [Music] about what she nodded all feats on this train take it for standing train and car show what muscle job me Mom Junior okay we're leaving a hole into proper which is the main island the water in ansible kinda trade is basically 15 snow has increased dramatically I want it looks pretty long so very excited I didn't see what happened but we've been in this town for quite a while now in general there's been a ton of Thomas so they must just get the tracks through all of the mountains so it's a straight shot as possible check in when we get back okay we're out of the tunnel I'm not sure how long that was but we've only got about 15 minutes left it turns out that you take the bullet train through here starting in 2016 so this is a relatively recent development I think most people fly because getting all the way to Sapporo still takes a really long as the bullet trains don't run we're almost there good journey so far easy smooth ride now that you think other people [Music] Oh a man is cold already this train right here is the Hayabusa I believe my friend Michael he's got a four year old kid who's got a toy like they have like Shinkansen toys that you can like put together so anyways it's freezing in here wow this is great the waiting area has heaters like you can feel the heat emanating so I'm in Hakone now I've got about five hours to just do whatever I want the train to Sapporo leaves at 7:10 that's where I'm staying tonight so I need to go do whatever I'm gonna do but I think I have enough time to get to the top of Mount Hakurei it's supposed to be one of the best three night views in the world that's just something random I read but hopefully that's true okay let's get out there and go see it [Music] stopping us for your car passengers going to call your couple pump please stay on the train until the final song daddy station [Music] please watch your step when you children [Music] okay first time ever in a Hokkaido pretty much exactly what I expected so far it's cold snowy wet there is a mountain you can see right here and I'm hoping that I can just walk there I know there's a cable car that'll take you up but I'm not sure if I can walk without taking the cable car either way I'll go to the top if I want to see it oh and fun fact that hotel is where I'll be staying in two nights on my way back but not tonight obviously [Music] you know I was thinking oh man it'd be great to hike up the mountain but in this weather it's probably a better idea to take the cable car man little weird literally perfect weather in Tokyo it was like summer you just go a couple hours north by train and this is like dead of winter freezing it feels really good but it's just kind of weird how sudden it was this is my destination we've got Russian written on the sides [Music] oh you know there's something we can do to make this more fun and more weather appropriate never mind that one's sold out you'll see what I'm talking about in just a second okay started here went around here right here our destination is in the distance right there keep going [Music] apparently Hokkaido is known for its farms and agriculture so apparently their milk is supposed to be really good which explains that Moo Moo taxi it's an interesting building this almost looks like a building from the US like I feel like I could be in a US city right here [Music] [Music] okay this place will have what I was looking for and you'll be able to see why this will enhance the mood especially with Santa Claus okay not only is it hot cocoa but it's actually hot in the vending machines and in the convenience stores you can actually get hot drinks good to warm my hands as well because it's freezing out here [Music] okay that should be the top of the mountain and provide us with an excellent view of the city it's not dark yet so we can probably wait like another hour and a half but maybe we'll just go up anyway so that I have plenty of time to get back to the station I'm actually not a hundred percent sure I'm heading the right way but I see little green tourist signs so I think I'm on the right way plus I can just look towards the mountain map it's not that difficult to find there's the Rope way right there cool okay so the entrance we follow it down somewhere over there I don't even know what this is the sign over here okay so it looks like this temple was destroyed at some point because of a fire and was rebuilt can you tell how impressive this looks I'm not sure I've ever even seen it simple in the winter before so I guess behind me here is what we're about to get a great view of this mountain is only like less than a thousand feet but apparently provides an excellent view okay this is it 1,500 yen round trip I guess I could have walked back down I don't know if I still want to walk back down I'll just eat the return ticket [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you know I expected it to be pretty good but that is incredible I guess nobody else wanted to come to the roof it is quite cold Wow dude I'm impressed I'm definitely impressed [Music] yo in the words of Ali G technology do you realize the technology and human effort and manpower and hours and effort that took for me to get to where I am right now this over here is the Tsugaru straits the train that I came in on went under that water over there you can't even see the other side from here maybe you can maybe it's over there I don't know we'll get another look but it went under this water and then this massive ropeway was built and it took me up to the top of this mountain it's insane dude okay and also I think I'm gonna wait until it gets dark because it's not that much longer I can see lights coming on already another hour this is haka Laconte bay this landmass all the way around here it's just all part of hokkaido so what that means is it's way off somewhere but somehow the train went under this frigid unforgiving forbidding water and brought us here that is so mind-boggling that that is actually possible how did somebody do that okay actually it does seem that you can see Honshu from here the main island either way that's incredible that they built a tunnel under the water all the way here how just I can't get over that how when you look at the things people have been able to accomplish and then you think about things that we haven't accomplished yet as a species like man actually maybe some of the really far-fetched things actually are possible like teleportation maybe it's possible who knows I think I'll have to agree definitely worth making the journey for okay let's go back inside warm up it's gonna be dark pretty soon I can already see lights turning on oh it's gonna look good wow it got a lot more crowded I'm pretty sure I was the only person up for a while oh man I'm trying to wait for it to get dark but it's quite cold I'm kind of ready to go already okay I changed my mind the ropeway leaves in three minutes weathers coming in it looks very cool but it's not critical that I see the full nighttime view plus it'll look cool going down [Music] okay so I saw these churches from really high up hopefully once we get up there there'll be a sign or something elucidating why there's these Orthodox churches over here I think it has something to do with this was the first port city open to trade in Japan after Perry came here and I think Japanese Orthodox Christianity like this was like the first place I believe don't quote me on that but hopefully when we get up there we can get some more clarification these curls have you ever seen the movie birds the birds what's that Hitchcock movie it feels just like that right now I love this so much man just this weird adventure I'm freezing my butt off why are there crows here where am i wandering to who knows why don't I get to that I'm a guest down here dude there's just an insane amount of crows here [Music] yeah this is a beautiful little town man absolutely gorgeous okay so this is the Russian Orthodox Church which was brought here in 1861 by a priest named Nikolai when the ban on Christianity in Japan was first removed this whole district basically is a bunch of preserved historical sites I guess when they decided to develop the city they wanted to preserve a lot of these old buildings because as I mentioned earlier this is the first port that was open to trade so there's a lot of Western influence in this neighborhood okay we're here we go next let's take a look at that map again well you can feel it it feels like vaguely European him right here I think we should go elite to mother monkey Park I'm still doing okay on time that's for 44 right so it gives me a little over two hours so probably check this out and we'll head back [Music] okay so it seemed this building right here is the prefectural government's old branch office I think a lot of buildings kind of had that Western look during the Meiji era but this place is unbelievably nice this is just like a little Christmas town man it's not Christmas yet but it feels like it here [Music] okay we hereby name this area pari square to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival on the shores of ha Cote so I guess that was May 17th 1854 and apparently that's where the Western influence comes in you can definitely feel it in this area let's get back to the station so I can eat I got a I'm gonna beeline it there if I see anything cool I'll show you otherwise let's just get there [Music] [Applause] [Music] so this is Hockaday Bay I'm right on the edge of it here and then wow this is just such a unique looking place well yeah let's go walk by the water [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I wish I had a little more time she just explore this area it's probably just shopping but man that's cool okay I'm still heading in the general direction of the station I don't know how a clue where I'm at though I think I need to kind of get over this way a little bit man it's weird to how when it turns night immediately your body goes into DNA mode where it's like yo yo yo why are we still outside we need to have shelter immediately even though it's only five o'clock okay I'm back at Station one I still need to get to the other station we're totally like a 10-minute ride away but once I get to that station then I can relax okay the train leaves at 551 hopefully have some time to eat dinner and then I'll take me to Sapporo which will be at least three and a half hours I think that's what it's about then tomorrow head up to the very northern tip it's going to be quite a journey and we'll only have 40 minutes well I'll explain that later but for now got to get this train in dinner so these trains will often have proceeding and reserved seats for my trip to Sapporo I've got a reserved seat but for this one I just fit in here they call it GU Seki and GU means like freedom or like your choice and then Secchia see grab a seat here we'll leave in about 15 minutes okay I didn't realize this yesterday but I can ride this train all the way to Sapporo and it would get there an hour earlier but that would mean that I wouldn't be able to eat dinner I think I'd rather eat dinner so I'll get off at this next island eat dinner then get back on the train I was planning to get on in the first place it's kind of funny most of this trip I haven't even just because I mostly forget I could have gotten some food at the convenience store just hopped on but man nice to actually eat a real dinner remains to be seen if I'll even find anything good here but oh well I can always sleep on the train could be a long ride what a what a strange thing it is when a train station is empty I was wrong earlier that hotel that I said I was gonna stay up on Friday it's actually here so we might as well go take a look see if we can find that outside and also find some food which is looking kind of unlikely we'll see okay that's my hotel oh man I definitely definitely should you just stayed on that train and grab some food from a convenience store beforehand because it doesn't look like there is anything here it is just like dead that might be a restaurant up there actually let's hope so shop and food I'll be something up here right okay I'll report back once I find some place to eat okay maybe I didn't make a mistake this seems like a nice and have a real meal it's got plenty of time 50 minutes it's probably okay not bad Ong ki ramen was a good dinner satisfying enough food and then there's a memorial to this dude I don't know who he is looks like a performer or something where's his name me Chia me Hoshi okay anyways time to grab a snack or two then I'll go away from the Train did this type of like last person at the train station nobody's around freezing cold feeling this is the feeling that I live for this is magical anyways about some ice cream this place is known for its milk and ice cream and stuff this is just a convenience store one but hopefully it's a little bit higher quality than normal I guess whoa what is this crew teeth ice cream in the winter I think people are here too actually I was watching the TV earlier there's little subtitle that said eating ice cream in the winter because it's winter [Music] the key is you don't want to drink these right away because you need the warmth I'm gonna use it for the warmth now and then I'll drink it once I get on the train man there's I I mean I've said it before there's something magical about trains and train stations man especially late at night like this oh it's nothing but it's such a great feeling it's hard to explain chickie chickie of course I stay sticky Jay no boys upstairs icky 8900 listen maybe less [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's 9:26 got about an hour left I'm tired and want to be on this train very bad as I get to that taking a shower going right to sleep it's gonna be great I hope anyway man that felt like a long ride I think it's mostly because I'm super tired okay 15 minutes to the hostel they're right to sleep dude the Sun sets here at four o'clock so I've spent most of this trip just thinking that it's the middle of the night the whole time I'm like it's not that late it's like little after 10 but it feels like it's 2 a.m. and riding on a dark train for so many hours doesn't help the feeling of that so I'll be back here on Friday in the afternoon to do at least a little bit of exploring part of the way I plan this trip was that all of my train rides would be in the morning and at night so that during the day I would have time to do exploring currently we are not in exploration mode we are in let's get the hell to the place where we can sleep and have a shower this is a nice hostel take why very early thank you very much for watching please consider checking out our patreon page at patreon.com slash adventure we also have t-shirts now on our teespring page I'll see you in the next one I don't know when you a lot of I think a lot of buildings and stuff

Channel: AdventureArchives

Views: 1,114,368

Rating: 4.8249931 out of 5

Keywords: japan, hokkaido, hakodate, shinkansen, bullet train, traveling in japan, traveling to japan, snow in japan

Id: I1ohY1GeXGw

Length: 35min 11sec (2111 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2020