Why This Japanese Town Eats BEARS

what oh hello there i'm standing here at the most northern tip of japan's main island of honshu in aomori in front of a big factory that sells lots of cider and we're about to go on a whirlwind road trip across aomori prefecture it's going to be a lot of fun these are apples they look like grapes but they're not they're apples and don't take them don't pick them off in public that would be wrong that'd be very bad but don't do that aomori lies at the most northern tip of honshu it's a region with a strong cultural identity and an impressive range of cuisine from japan's most prized tuna in the sugary straight in the north to horse meat bbq in the historic town of gonohe in the east today however we're going on a journey of west armory to try five local dishes including an incredibly rare delicacy bear meat something i can't say i've ever had before but why is it eaten here and what does it taste like we'll also stay overnight at a traditional inn visit a picturesque shrine and watch ryotaro make a fool of himself as per usual and our two-day road trip kicks off in aomori city at the a factory their tribute to the region's number one export apples and of course the presence of apples means you can enjoy the perfect drink to kick off your morning there's a reason i love aomori so much it's not just the apples it's the cider and this is a side of vending machine for 200 yen you can get a shot of your favorite brand and my favorite is kimori cider sweet i'm having this instead of coffee this morning come on fill that cup no what is that it it's like a shot of cider probably a good thing given it's only nine o'clock in the morning obviously you can't drink and drive in japan and we are going on a road trip so i needed a driver a chauffeur and they're all busy so i've got ryotaro with us how you doing through and expensive strawberry expensive chauffeur oh this is good nice crisp refreshing taste of apple in the morning beautiful beautiful as a liquor breakfast that's what we have liquor breakfast i know you and i don't agree on many things we have today but one thing we do agree on is aomori is our favorite prefecture in tohoku there's six prefectures in tohoku and we live in miyagi prefecture uh what is it about aomori that keeps bringing us back anyway i don't know they've got lots of meat good meat and also um you got cider there and all great uh fish as well the sushi that they serve really good sushi here as well but let's face it it's mainly decided at least for me anyway in my defense i need a lick of breakfast just to get through my morning with ryotere but our first stop an hour west of aomori city is one of japan's longest wooden bridges the dancing crane bridge constructed from local cypress trees and famous for its three iconic arches walking across it is said to bring good luck as the crane is seen as a symbol of longevity in japanese culture it seems rather fitting given that aomori has the lowest life expectancy in any prefecture in japan and we'll find out why a bit later on and no it's not because of the beds so we just stopped off at the longest triple arch bridge in japan is that right 300 meters long could just be the longest bridge they had to complicate it with arches but the thing is they could not call it the longest bridge that's the longest triple ice bridge that's what it's all about getting that tighter isn't it exactly it's the number one title that they needed it's a really nice view though you've got mount iwaki in the background the tallest mountain in aomori right yep so how long's this bridge been in 300 years 400 years 23 years what 23. 23 years do they build these bridges just to win awards and get those triple arch titles i guess so it's a nice day like if you are going to build a bridge across a lake don't just build another boring generic bridge build something like this right build something that's actually beautiful to look at so i think you've got to be you're going to be building what they do cuatro what is it like quattro bridge quattro uh irish bridge number one quattro arch bridge that's what it is let's get crowdfunding let's go make it happen [Music] checking into our traditional win at duckier hot springs before enjoying our evening banquet serving up three local meat dishes i'm able to finally sneak away from ryotaro to the comfort of my own room so just checked into the room and it's my favorite part of any journey with ryotaro the bit where i get to go to my own room and get away from the man for a few minutes and the room today is rather spectacular check this out how beautiful is this now i'll admit when i come out and film these videos these days i often don't bother filming the room anymore because i've seen it so many times that they all start to blend into one they all start to look the same but this one in particular has so much character to it the artwork the pottery the embroidery the lighting the lighting it's pretty elaborate here there's even some sort of stove in the middle of the table that i don't know how to use and i didn't use it for fear of burning the place down but still my time in this room is fairly short-lived we're about to go and get dinner and i know it's going to be a weird one ryotaro mentioned that it involves a lot of bizarre meats and well it's never a good thing usually [Music] what do we got then really this there's a there's an assortment of meats here i don't know what they are hunter uma chef's recommendation course that's what it is okay so what's uh what's this one here i'm gonna call this the most daring looking dish uh what is it looks like sashimi oh is it deer sashimi deer deer but like a day they lightly cooked um on a surface have you ever had it before yes is it good super good super good you should try it super good what about this one here this one there okay this looks like a cake yeah this looks like beef i'm gonna say this is some sort of local beef uh look or beer okay what local bear local beer local bear you can eat bear in japan they are hunters a japanese hunter is called matagi and they are the ones that who actually hunt there but not like you know just shooting around anything recently there are too many bears that sometimes hurt people and some people actually killed by bear too so they're like group of hunters who who hunt the bear um are only limited to a certain amount of numbers i've heard bear attacks are actually up recently because uh as the population goes down in the countryside the bears have been getting a little bit more bold actually wandering into this sort of run-down villages yeah yeah so we've got deer we've got bear what is this one here mushrooms and pork white ball wild ball same thing well you can't go wrong with wild ball that's usually pretty good okay one dish out of three that i know is good for sure let's uh let's see if they live up to the height let's start with the deer oh you haven't had any beer so you should start with the chimney you should dip into the sauce here and put some garlic on all right here we go good isn't it it's really good related it actually tastes a lot like sashimi no if you close your eyes i mean if you keep your eyes open it still looks like sashimi it tastes like sashimi that's pretty good where the deer that this come from oh just a mountain back in the backyard i think i'm not really sure good girl what a weird dinner dear bear balls sounds like a wrap what kind of wrap is that bad boy [Applause] dude why is he there why is he there one to ten on the deer there ten because i love i love the d sashimi i'll give it a nine so we've lit the grill yep for the uh the bear the bear in the meantime let's have some wild ball yeah there's something quite surreal when i first moved here i remember i went walking just on my own in the mountains i was enjoying it and then i walked past a bear sign it dawned on me that bears exist in japan and i turned around and ran back to my car very quickly while the number of attacks are going up they're still pretty uncommon to stomach uncommon and also like it bears normally right they they fear the human being so all right here we go then do you just have it do you have it with any sauce no it's sauteed in a pepper it smells a bit like uh what smells like beef yeah how's that like it's pretty chewy but it's got a really satisfying meaty kind of flavor to it it does and it's absolutely covered in salt and pepper with the garlic it's a really nice combination of flavors would i eat it often no i think it's a very special meat i'm going to give the deer nine out of ten the pork the wild boar rebel ar tim and the bear and eight out of ten eight eight nine so dear actually one day one yeah i mean people might find it a little bit um you know uncomfortable yeah eating bambi raw it sounds good that'll be the title of this video yeah so eating bunny raw you'll be sued by disney you know what i mean but what is it about elmore why do they hunt bears here of all places well first of all uh they're moon moon bears and they start heart like hurting people as well that's one thing and also these hunters have always been hunting over like 100 years or more 200 years almost these hunters obviously they we eat right instead of like wasting the meat right we actually eat the meat too it's like there's often stories in the media you read where a bear walks onto somebody's farm turns up and has a fight with somebody like i read a story about an elderly man in aomori that punched a bear in the face that was attacking his orchard i was stealing some apples or do you think you could fight a bear i'll fight with bumby thank you thank you for sure now that i would pay to study bambi versus ryotaro [Music] last night um i heard like really heavy rain and this morning i woke up and like i saw snow and i went and got out and this is what i see the snow in front of me all over it's the first the first time i saw snow this year and this is our murray this is it on a clear day iwakiyama ginger which sits at the base of mount iwaki has a clear view of the mountain but the snowfall has got in the way nevertheless as we soak up the tranquil surroundings and the locals quietly sweep away the falling leaves ryotaro does his best to take advantage of the peaceful shrine [Music] time to do my morning prayer [Music] if you ever want to do a prayer at a shrine in japan the pattern to follow is bow twice [Music] clap twice say your prayer and finish with a final bow just make sure to pray for something good what would you pray for conquering the world conquering the world at 9 30 in the morning yeah exactly a horrible man [Music] he doesn't even have a rebuttal just that's it that's it [Music] aomori the home of apple look my kingdom apple kingdom terrifying every year over seven hundred thousand tons of apples are produced in japan and aomori prefecture accounts for over 50 even within el mory there are places more famous than others for their highly prized apples such as these orchards here on the outskirts of hirosaki city we've stopped off to meet a friend of ryotaro's nami hal dempoya a native of the distant landlocked prefecture of nagano she moved 600 kilometers north to be closer to the sea and in the years since she's become a farmer and a massive orchard in the shadow of mount iwaki and there's only one question on ryotaro's mind it's famous for apples i don't think we've said it in this video yet but uh we've had apple juice we've had cider we've had bears and i'm sure the bears eat apples and the last thing on our list is apple pie it'd be a crime to come all this way to aomori and not have one for our last stop of the journey we head into the city of hirosaki where ryatore plans to stuff me with two more must try local apple dishes and also reveal why aomori prefecture has the shortest life expectancy of any prefecture in all of japan [Music] so after the wild animal course we're gonna apple pike up apple course apple pie cookies you say apple pie i've got apple curry here curry with slices of apple inside it looks fantastic where's that already i'm gonna start ready you can have the pies out of the curry one thing that interested me though is what you told me earlier is that people in aomori have the shortest life expectancy in all of japan right i think nagano prefecture the life expectancy is 84. they're number one and aomori is 82. so whole two years short why is that any ideas why it's being said that the aomori people like loves their salty things and a sweet thing so like lots of sugar and lots of salt lots of apples and lots of bad and also the the biggest consumption of instant ramen in whole japan that'll do it right and also they're doing a lot of um sake because the sake is really good here so it's like all the good things to make them live short that's what i can tell and your friend is at all in our morning called the unhealthy tour or something and it's like uh life is short tour life is short that's what it is that's an amazing idea for a tour not history not culture just the quickest way to die on a tour yeah and there is a rule that you go to ramen shop right in this tool and you have to drink up the whole soup of ramen oh my god cause that's a lot of salt that's a death sentence doing that but what a tour that'll probably do quite well no it did well it did really well did oh it did do well you do well this curry is really good uh the apples i don't eat it no it's horrible it's disgusting you don't want it no you don't want it the kind of sweetness and the beef and the curry is really nice it goes well i think per capita hirosaki the city we're in now has more coffee shops than most places in japan because each coffee shop has their own variant on an apple pie and the idea is to get people into their different coffee shops we even have a map i've got a map that describes oh which coffee shop has got what kind of apple pie this is any so far organization this should seal the deal yeah everybody help and they'll tell you where they are so i look how many they are that's what this video should have been should have been you and i going to every apple pie shop in hirosaki and then apple and they're dying to be honest after all the things we've eaten on our trip i expect my life expectancy he's probably dipped as well uh of all the dishes we've seen on this trip though which one did you think you want to try the most the wild boar the bears the deer the apples the pie the curry what would you like to try let us know in the comments below but for now guys as always many thanks for joining us on our journey across elmore today and we'll see you right back here on this japan channel don't waver again next time no no your life expectancy is about to get a lot shorter

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 817,608

Rating: 4.9692683 out of 5

Keywords: bears japan, aomori, abroad in japan, bear meat, tohokuk

Id: bpWwTAJrkQE

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/sk8erteo1997]

Is it called a BearBQ?

[u/emrald01]

I came for the puns. Was not disappointed

[u/collegemathchef]

This was a great episode. I love when Chris just goes full tour guide show. He could easily have a program on BBC

[u/Lulubell-Uk]

Hi Chris

I hope you and everyone is well. Me and my partner enjoy watching your channel. I have all ways loved Japanese culture 😁. We would like to come over for our honeymoon and see friends in Japan hopefully when the covid situation gets better 😅. Our question is what food & drink can and can't you bring back from Japan to the UK???

Meny thanks stay safe 🙂.

Laura E

(York,UK)