Staying in Japan’s $100 IGLOO Hotel vs. $1,000 PRIVATE Bath Inn

there's not many places you can wake up in japan and have a view like this the safe write and perform a rap song about your day so much volcano come on let's go good afternoon guys and welcome to journey across japan the second leg of our journey across kyushu and over to nagasaki today we've just arrived back from yakushima island you can go and check it out in the first episode usually we start these episodes kind of in the morning but because we spent the entire day on a ferry coming all the way from yakushima back to kakashima we didn't really do anything so the day for us starts here in the late afternoon and it's time to introduce you to our fellow travelers natsuki and joey guys how you doing hey what's up oh hey relax and except i'm very very scared we are going to kumoto and aso first things first though challenge of the day before we embark on this 24 hours oh mother challenging how long calm down all challenges exciting challenge every day on journey across japan we are doing challenges sent in by you guys the last one we did yesterday was catch your own food and yakashima didn't really go according to plan and the one we're doing today our vampire man is is from richard tolson who says write and perform a rap song about your day grab something difficult it's gonna be that's pretty difficult but i mean at least it's a fun challenge like usually the challenges are like throw yourself in a river or eat the worst food so that's actually quite fun yeah and you can beat box i could be bob you're a lyricist you've got it in the back we've got it in the bag walk this way tug this way cuz this way going groomer model let's go he's right let's go let's get this let's get this show on the road [Music] [Applause] back on the mainland and back on the road from kagoshima we're heading north to the prefecture of kumamoto to the base of japan's largest active volcano one of the largest super volcanoes on the planet mount asso it's here we hope to explore the hellish volcanic desert on the summit and escape to what looks like another planet before heading to kyushu's most picturesque hot spring town of kurokawa tomorrow evening but first things first i've got some rather unique accommodation lined up for the guys tonight an igloo village that looks like something out of the flintstones or the smurfs aso farm village is home to 450 earthquake resistant domed houses made from polystyrene foam in 2018 i passed through the village briefly on the original journey across japan cycle and i'll admit i'd never seen anything quite like it ever since then i've been wanting to return to see inside the igloos and experience what it's like to stay overnight in one and today after three years of waiting it's time to find out so just arrived at aso farmland it is as weird as i remember it it's basically like bedrock from the from the flintstones or tatarina what do you think that ski baby snow village i like igloos as far as i know we're the only ones here of the i think 80 80 of these and there's 80 in this area this yeah the scale of this place is bonkers because you'll find out tomorrow when there's actually some light but let's go and actually look inside but i've never been in one so come on do you want to do the honours go on lead the way i know you're excited my own house come on please [Music] you right now oh magic oh switch oh mom very well [Music] what is going on there that is the weirdest shaped bathtub i've ever seen i'm not really sure how i feel about this it feels like a cheap hotel oh maybe police stop feels like a cheap hotel yeah like paris apparently so the walls are made of like some sort of magical polystyrene foam substance like a plaster kind of thing yeah it's supposed to be like earthquake proof and they build them so like they'd be good as a shelter and then they decided let's turn it into a hotel but yeah very simple natsuki's hit the hell the nail on the head there um [Music] oh it's good to be here in the igloo house the muddy glue how do you feel asking now you're here this is aso kind of region where natsuki is from right i well speaking of volcanoes we're going to climb mount asso tomorrow you can climb it i'm crying now what's the first i've ever heard of it it's the clown i've only seen you do exercise one time natsuki i like hiking um he doesn't like it he's lying yeah let's enjoy volcano [Music] early the next morning while joey is still tucked up fast asleep in the igloo i have a wander around the somewhat ghostly village desperately searching for signs of life oh and if you're wondering where natsuki is yep you guessed it he's in taber cottage it's not quite tobacco it's not quite a cottage but either way tabber cottage is my new favorite word i think if i came here when i was seven this would be amazing as a 30 year old man it does feel a bit weird it does feel a bit bizarre i mean this is the second time i've come here now right and it's the second time i haven't seen anybody apart from ourselves staying here like what's going on the people just not like so far village i don't know there's a lot to like i mean look at this place here look at the commitment the sheer commitment that's gone into that roof there beautiful on it not so sure about that ruth that uh that seemed better dave but i mean look that's that's cool who wouldn't want to stay in this thing it's it's great again it's this empty giant housing estate from some sort of weird dystopian future where people live in huts i don't know how to feel about this place but there's not many places you can wake up in japan and have a view like this honestly crazy so this area that we're in is called the royal zone he's the biggest igloo houses and they come with a garden like a lot the ones the other side don't have a garden they're all kind of crammed together this is the royal zone this is like the biggest i think this is the biggest one this one here the garden goes all the way around it like if you've got big money to spend which we don't this morning this is where we would have stayed right royal zone a all the other ones are numbered we're in like igloo 57 this doesn't even have numbers just a when you make it bigger life this this is where you end up [Music] leaving the flintstones behind we begin our ascent of the 1500 meter mount asso while a bitter natsuki delivers a damning verdict on the igloo what a ridiculous sentence to say out loud did you sleep okay at the dome house natsuki my mother mama why little shots the little shower yeah my feet were actually hanging off the bed because it was so small oh god the bed though yeah the beds are a bit harder that place it's a suddenly it's interesting place but if i could recommend it for a good night's sleep but we did film a few bits of the wrap and you know this is a difficult challenge it's on you though joey you've got to think up some lyrics i gotta write some lyrics for that as well i'm using my skills in the weirdest place i never thought i would have to bring my rap skills to a journey across japan but so you've done a wrap before jelly i have done a wrap before you have done this rap this rap business yeah what what how's it work what do you mean how do you wrap this rhyme like yeah i want to rhyme in time as i climb like yeah how do you that's exactly how it works wow you think of a word so i say mount afso you say mount asso you you know it's just gonna be more difficult than i thought that's the sort of level of rapping we're talking bloody hell as we reach one of mount asso's five peaks nakadaki the landscape takes a sudden turn we come face to face with a hellish barren landscape devoid of plants with a vast volcanic desert stretching out before us it's as if we've suddenly traded japan for mars elon musk would love it of the seven craters on the summit only one of them is publicly accessible and the area is under constant surveillance to ensure the hazardous gas doesn't creep up to dangerous levels in which case the entire mountain is closed off there's a lot of gas coming out of the crater and they've got like four warning lights and today it's the second worst one two ppm so if you come up here with heart disease or tuberculosis be careful we can't see the the crate is sort of over there sulfur dioxide if you're want to stand over there when that cloud hits you [Music] i honestly like can't walk around without a mask it's it's so potent it feels kind of dangerous to be up here amazed they let people come and stand up here and peer into the crater itself given all the sulphur gas coming out but in 2016 there was an eruption they shut it down for quite a long time but for me the scary thing is watch the damn thing erupts you know they come pretty surprisingly there was a few years ago mount ontake in central japan erupted and killed quite a lot of people because people were just hiking up it having a nice day and it erupted so when you come up to places like this there is a degree of risk but you know we've got a rap song to make let's go equally as impressive as the smoldering crater is the sprawling volcanic desert and amidst the otherworldly backdrop we realize it could be the perfect setting for our somewhat chaotic rap music video look at that this is the closest thing to mars without leaving without leaving earth there's some sort of boulder here that's been ejected from the uh from the volcano look at this it looks like a dinosaur what do you think pop sale capsule dinosaur cup cell dinosaur capsule yeah you gotta put this in the in the rap video you're gonna rap anywhere it should be right here in front of this boulder [Music] and as you'll see later on we certainly put the volcanic desert to good use particularly when it came to using the drone spoilers [Music] having spent the afternoon wrapping in the middle of a volcanic desert we're all very much in need of a shower and thankfully to celebrate visiting natsuki's spiritual homeland of assay for the first time we've booked ourselves in to stay at kyushu's most beautiful hot spring resort kurukawa onsen also we saved a lot of money staying in a polystyrene igloo but it's definitely to celebrate natsuki's homeland and not because of last night's cost savings kurukawa literally meaning black river is just 20 kilometers north of mount aso and unlike many of japan's hot spring towns which are dominated by gigantic concrete hotels kurukawa's old wooden buildings blend in with the surrounding forest and river there's a real authenticity to the hot spring town that's becoming increasingly difficult to find and best of all the rooms at the traditional inn where we're staying come with private baths it's here you can appreciate the stunning natural surroundings and in our case shoot a music video for a ridiculous rap so guys we've just arrived at the most beautiful onsen in all of kyushu could have cow hot springs and it is really quite nice but in like a really nice forest we've got a stream natsuki's in his own room and joey and i have got our kind of own special because natsuki snores a lot and we don't want to be near him there you go natsuki there's your key just me just you lucky guy let's go and see your room for the first time absolutely to make up for being pushed in the waterfall this oh [Music] [Music] my house this is incredible oh this is one of the nicest outdoor hot springs i've ever seen in a room it's got its own cave for god's sake and they're like a view of a valley and the light coming through the trees this is very ideal are you excited i'll remember it's scary it's like the waterfall over again it's got like a massage chair as well oh this is amazing amazing tv show looking out for japan there's one more bath one more bath in there secret second bar second boss because i know you like [Music] maybe deep ready very hot very hot all right so now someone is [Music] seems utterly delighted with his room and he hasn't even seen the second floor yet where he'll be sleeping but leaving natsuki behind to stir his private bath i head on over to see where joey and i are staying for the night [Music] so we've seen natsuki's room uh let's go look at the one where joey and i are staying there we go that's lovely lovely rug a green rug jerry i'll let him do the tour of this one jay where you at [Music] oh sitting in his massage massage chair sorry i'm sitting in my louis vuitton massage all right give us a tour all right well welcome black tatami mats which i've actually never seen before yeah they're really rare yeah i think i can count on two fingers the amount of times i've stayed in the place with black tummy now i can count on one finger so we have the massage chair obviously i was sitting in but look at this we have a very fancy outside onsen with a lovely view of the mountains wow it's a very kind of blue color isn't it yeah beautiful water and a great valley it's actually not too hot actually and then once you've relaxed in here you can chill out on this bench most difficult decisions the massage chair or the wooden sun lounges sunlight yeah we've got two beds one for me one for chris um i guess i'm taking that one because my jumper is on it it's decided it is decided i'm on this bin wow it's a really cool onsen resort yeah it's a nice mix of uh western room and a traditional japanese inn and now with the daunting task of finishing the wrap oh yeah right it's pretty tough conjuring up a rap video about nothing in six or seven hours but also i don't know if i may be the first one ever to rap about those particular topics the first ever rap about a dome house a volcano and a yorker life goal it's a world first right here put it on your cv joey how are you opportunities will come flooding again dinner time let's go for dinner we've got shabu shabu hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat that you typically boil in water with vegetables in fact shabu-shabu is an onomatopoeia derived from the swish swish sound of the ingredients being stirred through the simmering water so it's dinner time and we have got kuroge wagyu beef here from kumamoto yeah clearly has created a verb before bedtime wow the act of doing shabboshabu is quick we're shoving shabba dabbadoo that's some good shouting you're doing put that in the lyrics all right what a day volcanoes weird dome huts and then i'm shabbing with natsuki oh yeah the rap's coming along better than i thought joey's actually done a good job with the lyrics i found some i've got an app on my phone that i've been like making music on check this out right it's just like you have like different loops and you sort of combine them so you've got like the drums then you've got percussion and then you've got melody should be so i've been playing with that while joe's been doing the lyrics and that's he's been dancing in the background dancing in the bathroom good dirty debatable so i've been giving jerry things that i want in the wrap for example black tatami what have you come up with that rhymes with black titanic jerry pastrami and salon pastrami and salami how's that gonna work chillin in the inn on the black tatami i want pizza pastrami salami with dinner out the way there's just one last scene to film for our rap video and it's time to put our private bath to good use so this room i think we can really make this room work because you've got a lot of the steam coming off of the hot water right and together it's hot it's very hot good luck joey it really is like shabu shabu you've got these lights and you can sort of control them from your phone and they flicker and do lots of stuff so i might stick them around the room wait for some of the steam to build up it'll give it a really cool cinematic kind of effect hopefully [Music] hey finish the rap video [Applause] hello guys hey so tired after a relentless day they've been in the onset for two hours filming my skin is pirates right now but it's nice onset like natsuki you've got a cave in your wrong sense deep deep cave yeah how do you feel about the old rap song it's been quite a hectic exiting song it's insane we did it we did it we did it i like it it's the taking part that counts we've had to do this in nine hours so bear that in mind when you realize how bad it is so here it is our rap song what's it called ascii yeah someday too much volcano too much that's feeling volcano take it away too much volcano let's go [Music] kumamoto the land of the hills and the grotto welcome to the road show of the nippon trio we're in the dome home and wouldn't you know we got first class tickets to the royal zone [Music] [Music] oh my god now we're chilling at the peak of the volcano it looks kind of bleak but it's okay though i'm with the bros surrounded by the sulphur clouds so brace yourself cause it's about to get loud too much volcano no volcano no volcano aso no volcano no volcano by the way it's natsuki's holiday a getaway to a far away place of state kurokawa black river like these to tell me i like pizza [Music] so much volcano come on no volcano no volcano [Music] in the banks by the riverside shout out j aj you've just been defeated i dare say that's challenge completed [Music] so much volcano come on [Music] [Music] oh my god jj [Music] so there you have it guys too much volcano the rap song you never knew you needed a rap song you never knew you didn't need was it good let us know in the comments please say something nice and we did the challenge after the first failure on day one we succeeded this time so well done everyone yeah well done tomorrow we continue our journey onwards to nagasaki it was very fun now guys as always many thanks for watching journey across japan we'll see you right back here to do it in the next episode bye for now cheers more adventure more adventure yeah yeah more adventure hashtag always place why me

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 1,680,698

Keywords: journey across japan, abroad in japan, wagyu, hot spring japan, onsen, trash taste, the anime man, journey across japan natsuki, japanese food, japanese hotel

Id: cqX_2Wmj7xE

Length: 25min 3sec (1503 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/midnightsiren182]

Now to figure out which amazing ryokan that is

[u/SmokeyFan777]

that rap video was amazing lmao. Loved this episode.

[u/Human_Stick_Observer]

That onsen was amazing!

[u/MaJuV]

A - S - O

So much Volcano!

[u/cfuentea]

great episode! clever and profound lyrics on that RAP, YO! 😎

[u/stayhigh247]

love these dudes. feels like you’re hanging out with old buddies :)

[u/rynnikelddi]

Just when you thought JAJ couldn't get any better, Chris and the boys top it up with this epic masterpiece. XD

[u/metalslug123]

The drone shots in this episode were amazing.

[u/funkymonkeyinheaven]

A. S. O.

Nowhere.

Oh my god.