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  • Morning guys! I'm in the car today with my 2 friends Quinlan and Candie in

  • the back there. We're going outside to do some exploring! We got super lucky with

  • the weather today. So I live up in Morioka city in Iwate Prefecture it's

  • quite up north it's almost near the top of the main island of Honshu and the

  • environment around here is very different than Tokyo. Many of you guys

  • might not be familiar with Iwate but we are blessed with lots of trees

  • and mountains and rivers lots of gorgeous nature and for the first time

  • today Quinlan's going to take us out hiking so

  • I'm gonna explore some of the area near my house and I can't wait to see it

  • because I've been watching Quinlan's channel - he focuses on lots of outdoor

  • adventures and they all look super exciting and I hope we don't run into

  • any bears today. I recently watched his video on how to protect yourself from

  • bears in Japan - hopefully we don't run into any but he has assured me that when

  • you're on a hiking trail that's commonly used by lots of people, the bears don't

  • usually show up so I think we'll be okay right?

  • We'll be okay. You know how to protect us if bears show up? I can run faster than

  • you! yeah I've got bear spray I'll actually bring bear pepper spray! Oh I

  • didn't know that was a thing! Yeah I've got it

  • oh wow! Right here, it's actually German. German quality pepper spray!

  • Bear spray - so we're fine. All right we're prepared!

  • I don't know where we're going it's a surprise, I told him to surprise

  • us. So I hope you guys enjoy the video!

  • So just making a little pit stop because there are some abandoned buildings here

  • that I've always wanted to see, I'm sure you guys would be interested in them as well!

  • Love how the trees grow out of the buildings. There's tatami rooms and so

  • it's like going back to nature - it's like there's been a zombie

  • apocalypse and the earth is being taken back. Yeah so this is Matsuo Mines - you'll

  • see some really cool drone footage of it on YouTube

  • I've been looking a lot because I've really wanted to come here and there's

  • quite a few other apartments in the background there. So the deal with

  • Matsuo Mines is from around the 1920s there was a sulfur mine that

  • opened up just a little ways over there and it operated for over 50 years. At the

  • time these were really high-end apartments for the employees, they're

  • like the envy of the area they had a movie theater there, a bath house a

  • rather nice restaurant and even flushing toilets, which at that time was like wow!

  • you know for Iwate Prefecture people didn't have flush toilets. Actually my first

  • homestay didn't, they had just a hole in the ground.

  • what happened to them, well basically in 1969 the mine closed because it became

  • cheaper to get sulfur as a byproduct to processing oil and so there's no need to

  • specifically mine in it and so they closed it down and everybody moved out

  • because they lost their jobs and it just sort of went back to nature. Thing is

  • you cannot go in here, but if you do you go in here - there's no

  • fine. They will tell you get out it's, you know, bad don't do it. But you're not

  • gonna get arrested. But don't do it cuz never break any Japanese

  • regulations ever yeah. However I just saw a little old lady

  • going inside the building there so...

  • Man that was awesome I would love to go inside and explore. Quinlan was

  • saying that people have left like newspapers and lifestyle items like

  • kitchen utensils and there's a astroboy chair in there somewhere which I only

  • know because I heard from someone else uh-huh I've never been in there

  • definitely not. We parked at kind of like a little terminal area where these

  • toilets and some omiyage shops and stuff and we're way up high already we're

  • basically at the top of the mountain we kind of cheated a bit but we're headed

  • over to that peak there is that right that is right we're gonna climb up to

  • the top of that peak and get an amazing view of the area. Quinlan was just

  • saying in the winter he wants to come backcountry skiing and after they

  • closed down the mountain for the hiking season apparently some older Japanese

  • men do some outdoor backcountry skiing in the mountains here and it sounds

  • really exciting! There's a cabin where they just leave

  • supplies so you can just anybody can just go up and use the cabin and stay

  • overnight. We're here and the normal walk that people do around Hachimantai you

  • can see these little trails around these they call it marsh but it's a lake the

  • Gama lake and Hachiman Lake it's not a marsh and so they do a little loop around

  • these that's beautiful and I totally recommend it - but today it's gonna be

  • just a parade of people so I thought going up this little mountain will give

  • us great views. So it's one km to the summit really short let's

  • see how long it takes. Bamboo! This is all bamboo here! So it's a decent hiking

  • trail but probably needs some some hiking boots but it's nothing too

  • difficult

  • look at the view

  • the only thing if we actually do see a bear the most important thing is don't

  • run just stop stand still look at it then

  • we'll be fine in Canada they always tell us if we see a bear to make ourselves

  • look big and scary to scare it off yeah but in Quinlan's video where he talks

  • about bears he said that the bear is here you should just kind of stay still

  • and stare at them you shouldn't try and make yourself look scary cuz they don't

  • care. Nice little trail, I like this!

  • steep towards the end of the hike

  • all right we're heading back down the mountain now and off to our next

  • location right we're almost back down to the car Quinlin went ahead because he's

  • super speedy he's gonna go get the car and pick us up

  • I bet he's there waiting. A lot of people ask me why I live all the way up in Iwate

  • Prefecture, especially when most of my work is down in Tokyo I do have to

  • commute down to Tokyo several times a month but it's because I have places

  • like this where I can just come out and explore it's completely new to me I feel

  • like there's always something new to discover here in Iwate it's such a big

  • prefecture that there's so much around my house that I get to o experience got

  • a little muddy on that trail so prepare for some mud don't wear your best

  • clothes or sneakers look at this wooden torii gate it's interesting I think I've

  • ever seen a torii gate like this so I found the cutest little of August the

  • community today look at that hit I have never seen one like this

  • little Halloween Rilakkuma and yeah it sure just tastes like regular wagashi!

  • let's try it

  • interesting it's kind of a mix of washi and play-doh just different unusual it's

  • kind of flavored tastes a bit like caramel okay it's caramel flavor pretty

  • tasty it's an interesting texture very similar to chew on play-doh but in a

  • good way that makes sense if you guys are around in Japan for the

  • Halloween season check out lawson they were selling these so our next stop for

  • the day is Goshogake Onsen - you can see it in the back there. Quinlan was

  • just explaining to me that they have mud baths and also these little boxes that

  • you kind of put your body in and your face sticks out and they fill up with

  • steam and you get kind of like a steam treatment it sounds really cool I'll

  • have to come back here and try it for myself but the view of the steam coming

  • under that one's hands really need we're going to go up to this oh you knew ma

  • which is this really well you'll see it's pretty intense and I don't know if

  • this trail is open last year this was closed because the volcanic come because

  • the volcanoes are literally breaking through the walkway and so those areas

  • where the walk was like consumed by a little volcano and so you know a geyser

  • or something and so we'll see if we can do this trail or not but if nothing else

  • this is really fantastic gwenlyn said this is one of the spots

  • where lots of bears show up he's actually been here on a day where they

  • had the whole trail blocked off because someone had spotted one there to thank

  • the criticize so you whack this you whack this to scare the bears away so a

  • kit real hard

  • it's not that loud actually came on the perfect day look at the colors Juanita

  • Wow look at that oh that's impressive

  • oh look at it this is crazy I've never been anywhere like this

  • wonder how hot that is 98 degrees Celsius started bubbling over so they

  • had to close off the pathway there look at that yeah this place is heaven for

  • photographers you must feel they get some really cool photos here this is

  • amazing I'm so blown away that this place isn't more well-known however I'm

  • glad because this is peak season this is the best weekend to come up here and see

  • this place and there are so few people and that's where we just what what is

  • yeah a little peak up there haha that's funny

  • yeah a little peak right there that's the mountain we just climbed

  • alright guys I think we're gonna say goodbye here I really hope you enjoyed

  • exploring Iwate and we headed into Akita prefecture now right yes we are

  • we're in the neighboring Prefecture at the moment I hope you enjoyed exploring

  • the two with us I had so much fun thank you so much to Quinlan for introducing

  • these amazing spots to us I will link it down below please do go check out his

  • channel and I'll see you guys again very soon

Morning guys! I'm in the car today with my 2 friends Quinlan and Candie in

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