What $250 Buys You at a Japanese Hot Spring Inn

well that's it isn't it the video's demonetised before it's even begun look at this this is tengu 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 [Laughter] 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 pork cutlet 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 metres 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 broad japan channel recently thank you so much for that i'm what what are you going to say out of the 2 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 know about that real trade your videos tend to get less views so actually see these sellers these videos together as some sort of charity project it's a special charity project but uh we are in goomba today and the first place you seem to bring me is here why why did you bring me here it's creepy isn't it it is a bit yeah well i mean obviously the more 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 creepy tango 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 [Music] 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 jim maisaki 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 well 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 it's so surreal just taking a glass and take it out of the water it tastes just like well tastes like bottled spring water yeah ah cold very cold very cold oh is it right from the snow is it delicious beers [Laughter] like champagne yeah wow oh so good so good so good party kanji on it yeah very refreshing just good dead it's so kind of relaxing so the air is so cool and refreshing with this cold spring water [Applause] the water's so cold in spring because all the snow melts right on the mountains [Laughter] fall in the spring water 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 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 nagai sam gets to sit out here in a forest and just drink sake and i think i think he's one i think he's one at [Music] life [Music] goomba 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 [Music] it's been hard to pick up it's so huge it's really thick look at that [Music] 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 tonkatsu 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 if you're feeling hungry tonkatsu is one of the best things to go for definitely and do not ever sit next to the side of who's a left-handed person because otherwise we're like oh yeah yeah that's what happens we should work 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 so 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 flavour [Music] how is it oh so sweet kind of sweet delicate kind of flavor i really like drinking it in the 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 q because it goes very much against my character of course 48 degrees celsius [Music] there um it's kind of rich flavor it's bit like drinking whiskey or something you know at the back of your throat because it's warm kai 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 oh every day every day come by [Music] look at this this is the entrance of japanese in the ryokan it's like straight back in time to back to edo era [Music] 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 definitely faster walking slow death [Music] the guy's following me like laughing hello hello okay so it's pretty big isn't it [Music] wow this huge room and ta-da hold on no on the rice patty you complete the video game well done [Laughter] finish the mission finish the mission stage seven cleared exploring exploring europe explore with ryotaro's the challenges oh bathroom oh my god oh they even have onsen with within 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 what it's 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 ryotaro 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 you're full 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 now that does not happen to this room for sure because it's got the highest ceiling and check and jump don't cry for me argentina 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 call me an 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 sardine was always used to like eat for eating but here they use sardine as the 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 chopsticks and uh yeah i mean that is speaks for itself yeah you can eat it i could do it for in japan oh oh the crunchy sound oh there we go 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 to drink something oh just a little bit just a little bit 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 be really hard and the first job i got was in germany right and then when i came back surely that's no better they drink what they drink every day but it's not they don't have a kind of you know some kind of uh 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 they've had a few drinks like 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 him chris board to all these questions chris board christmas christmas board breweries and this will be nice and you'll count and then how do you feel good huh to be honest well i do hang out with ryotaro i do feel like chris board so it doesn't make sense but i'm celebrating you right yeah for you know having more than two million viewers 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 and sneaking into the room and they made amazing 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 wow after local sake we've got local beer for you because i would be a lover cheers cheers again congratulations to your two million subscribers yeah thank you very much and thank you guys for uh following aboard 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 aside they're a lot of fun and uh it's been a great few years how many as how many has it been like the years has been like since you started the channel it's been eight and a half years now wow pretty trippy it's pretty trippy to like look back at older videos and think wow it feels like another lifetime okay you started off from your your own room right started off you're like and i joined about five and a half years 1.5 million uh subscribers and because of me right now drink drink of it what do you think of all the food and all the drink we've had today guys what do you think was the best thing was it the pork tacos the tonkatsu let us know what you want to try if you come here comment to gamma but for now guys as always many thanks for joining us today on our trip uh across guma prefecture and we'll be back to do it all over again next time on the broad japan channel yep and now i've got the horrible task of trying to fall asleep next to a man who snores really quite badly like but why why is the bed next to mine like can you like move your bed over here trying to sleep on the balcony or something

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 774,888

Rating: 4.9865909 out of 5

Keywords: japan travel, japan hotel, japan hot spring, sake, gunma, abroad in japan

Id: 3n_rgmagVoE

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/stairhopper]

Two videos in a week. I feel blessed. Absolutely brilliant content though, it’s really been eye opening! Also, can’t believe I’ve never noticed Chris is left handed...

[u/Dreadsupreme]

I’m pretty content with Ryotaro being in so many of Chris videos as of late!

[u/Chrisixx]

Man, that room is absolutely gorgeous.

[u/goodbehaviorsam]

Shit I want to go on a sake booze cruise. That seems fun.

[u/lunahreddit]

Have really enjoyed all the videos you've brought out recently, it's been a great escape!

[u/metalslug123]

Hot sake and tonkatsu. Now they are speaking my language.

[u/rynnikelddi]

Highlight of the video has got to be drunk Risottoro. lol

[u/Fitzy0728]

Drunk Ryotaro is a gift