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  • The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (明石海峡大橋) is the world's longest suspension bridge that you've probably never heard of.

  • And having traveled 1,000 km across Japan by bicycle for over two weeks now,

  • I've been excited at the prospect of cycling over it into Shikoku (四国); filming it in 4K with drones,

  • all the while laughing and wearing Ray Ban sunglasses, pretending to be cool.

  • It was gonna be magical.

  • And then when I got to the bridge I discovered you can't actually cycle over it, and therefore I was an idiot.

  • Seriously, who builds a 3 billion dollar bridge that can't even hold a bicycle?

  • It's like building a Saturn V rocket without an adequate cup holder.

  • Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining.

  • The change of direction would mean we had an excuse to head towards

  • one of Japan's most stunning landmarks: Himeji Castle (姫路城).

  • Still, wasn't all happy news;

  • because for the next two days and 200 km as we explored the shores of Japan's Inland Sea,

  • amongst the chaos of things going wrong every turn,

  • we find ourselves lumbered with a travel companion with a talent for making situations at least three times worse.

  • Here he is, sitting alone.

  • It is, of course... Ryotaro.

  • Good morning, everyone.

  • And now I'm joining the tour!

  • Haha!

  • So how are you feeling, Ryotaro? Ready for the 45 km cycle today? - Not sure

  • - Not sure? You're pretty fit, you're a pretty fit young man.

  • I'm trying my best - Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying my best. - You're trying your best? - Yeah

  • - I must say, I do feel quite envious. We're sitting at the base of the bridge

  • and there's some sort of party going on at the park and... - Dude, a barbie!

  • Barbecue. Lucky devil.

  • I want to have a barbecue. Why can't I have a barbecue?

  • Well, why don't we have a barbecue? - We'll take a barbecue

  • Yeah

  • Let's get a barbecue and strap it to the bike. I'd love to.

  • Anyway, let's gear up and get out of here

  • Stretching with Ryotaro

  • Oh, shit! *people laughing off-camera*

  • My bike stretching [...]

  • So for the last couple of weeks, you guys have been telling me that I should have got a road bike

  • because my bike is, of course, a mountain bike with really thick tires,

  • which makes it really hard when cycling, or unnecessarily difficult.

  • But unfortunately, the bike has actually broken, there's something wrong with the chain.

  • There's a crack somewhere in this region, so we've had to get a replacement bicycle.

  • I don't know how long it's gonna be before we fix this, so we might have to even write it off.

  • But for now, we've actually got a road bike!

  • So finally, I have a bike with thin tires that's going to be a lot easier to cycle

  • Away we go, let the second half of the journey begin

  • Let's go! - Let's go.

  • I'm now midway through my Journey Across Japan from Yamagata (山形県) to Kagoshima (鹿児島市)

  • And for our trip with Ryotaro, we'll be heading first to Himeji (姫路市) than on to Okayama City (岡山市)

  • And it's certainly a journey of contrasts, from sprawling cities to endless rice fields.

  • I'm really excited about this, guys.

  • See, we have to cycle down the main street leading up to the castle,

  • and it looks incredible. Look at this.

  • Yeahhh!

  • Look at that castle.

  • I've actually been wanting to come to Himeji Castle for about two decades now.

  • Not because of its historical importance,

  • but because it was in my favorite James Bond film, "You Only Live Twice," in 1967.

  • Yes, in the late 1960s, James Bond himself visited Himeji Castle to attend a top-secret ninja training base.

  • So you can probably imagine my disappointment to discover

  • that Himeji Castle definitely isn't a secret ninja training base.

  • Himeji Castle, as it appears today, has stood for 400 years.

  • It was one of Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Sites,

  • and it's the most visited castle in the country,

  • with its dazzling white appearance visible from miles away.

  • Some even say it looks like a heron taking flight.

  • Which is bollocks, because it's a castle.

  • But what makes Himeji so special is it's one of the few Japanese castles to have stood the test of time,

  • when 9 out of 10 castles you find in Japan have been burned to the ground at some point and rebuilt from scratch.

  • Even in World War II, when Himeji city was all but wiped off the map by over 700 tons of incendiary bombs,

  • the bomb that struck the castle refused to go off,

  • leaving the castle one of the last buildings standing in the city.

  • And then again in 1995, when Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県) was decimated by the Great Hanshin earthquake,

  • the castle itself was left virtually undamaged.

  • Simply put, Himeji Castle is the castle that refused to die.

  • To me, that is what makes it the greatest castle in all of Japan.

  • Ryotaro's face aside, this is one of the nicest views I've had on the trip so far in the morning.

  • And in the morning sun it just stands out beautifully, like a beacon. A beacon of history.

  • Bacon of history. - A bacon of history.

  • What the fuck are you on about?

  • And I brought the sunshine for us.

  • He brought the "shunshine"?

  • So this is the challenges you guys have sent in, we're now gonna get our challenge of the day

  • Yesterday the capsule, what are you doing? - Keep the capsule

  • What's going-- what's going on? Why is he here?

  • Pfft.

  • No complaining allowed, what a load of sh~~~~it.

  • Is Anpanman talking? - He's talking, see

  • He's telling you as well, he's telling you not to complain. And be optimistic, like he is.

  • Fabulous day. - Uh, nice.

  • It's gonna be a fabulous day.

  • Ryotaro has just mentioned... you have a friend here.

  • Yes, here in Himeji, a sweet shop

  • He owns a sweet shop? - Mm.

  • - Then why didn't you say so earlier?

  • I did that already, but you're not listening. As usual.

  • I'm not listening to Ryotaro most of the time when he speaks.

  • Because it's usually something ridiculous like... - Be optimistic and no complaints.

  • Oh yeah.

  • Uh, Ryotaro is a great guy and has lots of great things going for him.

  • He's so brilliant, yeah.

  • Really glad I came here, the view of the castle is incredible.

  • It looks so... wow, just wow.

  • Hands-down the most impressive castle I've seen in Japan so far.

  • After getting slightly lost in the back streets of Himeji,

  • Ryotaro calls ahead to Mr. Mori the sweet shop owner,

  • who eagerly greets us, business card in hand.

  • Wagashi, meaning Japanese confectionery,

  • often straddle the line between being sweets and works of handcrafted art.

  • So much so that eating them is often accompanied with a sensation of guilt.

  • Typically enjoyed alongside matcha green tea,

  • they're made from plant-based ingredients such as mochi rice cake,

  • anko red bean paste, and various fruits,

  • making them healthier than their Western confectionery counterparts.

  • To put it bluntly, you can eat as many as you want and never die.

  • A lot of these shops are quite well-hidden though.

  • This shop is like two meters across.

  • There's a big street, then there's a very tiny little...

  • It's almost like a speakeasy bar or something, where it's concealed behind this, like, little door.

  • This isn't gonna do much for my reputation.

  • I've already eaten Kobe beef, black ramen, and fried chicken galore.

  • Now I'm stuffing myself with Japanese sweets.

  • But Japanese sweets are actually a bit more healthy than what we're used to in the west, and there's less sugar.

  • For example instead of using sugar, we've got red bean paste inside this pancake here.

  • I want one of each of these, these differen colored ones. - All right.

  • And uhm

  • The orange - That orange - Orange in a mochi. - No grape? - Orange

  • - No grape? - Orange.

  • And so he's gonna buy me the orange and the grape, and he's paying! Haha!

  • I'm not.

  • You're not?

  • - I can be happy and optimistic, but I didn't need to be generous today.

  • That wasn't in the challenge, was it?

  • So Ryotaro's friend of a friend Mori-san, he's over there

  • His little shop is getting absolutely rammed.

  • He started-- he was a salary man till he was 34 years old,

  • and then he decided, "One day, I'm gonna do something fun."

  • "I'm gonna start a sweet shop," and he did.

  • I like it when people do that

  • A lot of people when they reach their mid-thirties, sort of - They just see the enlightenment suddenly

  • They get enlightened or they give up on their dreams I find, so it's nice that he followed his and made sweets

  • Like I did

  • You followed your dream? - Yeah, I did. - To be on the Abroad In Japan channel?

  • Not really

  • Our endpoint today is the small port town of Ako and for dinner

  • we get stuck into a bustling seafood diner, just a few miles down the coastline

  • So we've just stopped off at a little barbecue spot.

  • Because we're cycling around the Inland Sea,

  • There's also a place where you can sit down relax and eat seafood, yeah this place you can have a barbecue. It's wonderful

  • However, Ryotaro is not a great cook, we figured it wouldn't be a good idea to go to a barbecue because

  • Ryotaro is such a great cook. He's so wonderful. His cooking skills are second to none

  • I love it when Ryotaro cooks. - He just remembered the promise he made. - I just thought he cycles so hard today, he shouldn't cook things

  • He should relax, it's been a nice cycle though, once we got out of Himeji, things started to get a lot more pleasant, I hate

  • cycling cities, I mean, cycling in cities is really fun, but sometimes it's nice not to cycle in the city

  • Happy happy. - Oh god, this is

  • Brilliant - Full of hope and dreams

  • It's so wonderful, even if it is burning my throat from the inside out

  • I think I did a pretty good job today being overly optimistic and happy, I think that's because

  • I know at the end of this cycle today, a very massive pile of Japanese sweets waiting for us at our hotel

  • Kindly given to us by Mori-san and the chap of the the shop, Ryotaro's friend of a friend of a friend of a

  • brothers, uncles, mums, friends, cousins

  • House

  • Yeah

  • Don't kill our cameraman

  • Unbelievable, well that's another day done. - Yep - Off goes the GoPro

  • Well guys, it's been a long day

  • I tell you what, being overly optimistic and "happy" all day has taken more energy out of me than the cycle

  • This is the sweet I've been looking forward to all day

  • This is mochi rice cake with an orange inside it and it's very gooey and it's exploded everywhere

  • It's literally just an orange with rice cake around it

  • That's quite, I was expecting it's just be some sort of flavoring, but it is just an orange in a rice cake

  • Ii've never seen that before. - First time. - Now, let's finish off this cider

  • Did I complete this challenge though?

  • That's the big question guys. The thing is, I did, I keep, it's hard

  • It's hard. - You keep forgetting. - To manipulate and change your personality

  • Yeah, he is just so used to being sarcastic all the time

  • It's true

  • Do you think I'm different on screen compared to how I am in real life?

  • Not

  • Right

  • Well, I thought you were gonna say; I'm much nicer in real life

  • Happier

  • I just have to tell it truth to the viewers. Do you know what I mean?

  • Bye, guys!

  • Bye

  • After cycling for several weeks now, I've been growing accustomed to most small towns looking more or less the same

  • But turning the corner from our hotel in Ako village, we come across a colorful horde

  • of 1950s and 1960s memorabilia, every now and then on your travels across Japan

  • You'll stumble across a Showa era museum, dedicated to goods and items

  • From a time when Japan's post-war economy was booming

  • The Japanese society was a golden era, that many people are still keen to remember

  • So take you back, do you feel nostalgic?

  • Not really

  • But look, It says salt in here

  • They used to, need a special license to sell salt

  • Really? - It was so important. - James Bond, license to kill, Japanese business license to sell salt

  • License to salt? Sell salt, all right

  • Dialing it and

  • Here is our mission for today

  • Try to learn 3 Japanese tongue twisters

  • That's good, at least we got a Japanese guy with us today. We can finally use Ryotaro's main skill, his ability to speak Japanese. - Main skill?

  • Yeah, we don't really use the fact that you speak Japanese much on this channel, so. - That's true. - We can do that today

  • So, good news, ladies and gentlemen, the bike is back my beloved mountain bike that has seen us through the first part the journey has returned

  • The gear system on this bike was screwed 2 days ago

  • And they've actually rebuilt it and replaced it and now it's as good as ever, ready to get back on the road

  • So 3 minutes into the cycle and my adulation of the bike being repaired has quickly turned to horror and frustration

  • So it turns out, I couldn't realize this that the bike now only has like, only has 3 gears

  • and what this means is Ryotaro has already disappeared from my view ahead, because he can go fast on his bike

  • Having to pedal like this like a maniac. I can't go fast, Ryotaro

  • Why not? - Because the bloody gears have been turned into, I think there's only like 2 or 3 gears on this bike now

  • That's why you keep shooting ahead and I can't catch up

  • Okay guys, so I've been struggling to cycle all morning, to the point that my so-called friend, Ryotaro

  • He just sort of disappeared from view gradually and now he's gone, left me here in a field

  • But I've just pulled over to have a look at the bike, because I've been cycling with just 3 gears this morning

  • and it's been really hard and it came to my attention that there aren't three gears on the bike

  • There aren't 3 gears at all

  • There is in fact 1 gear or indeed no gears. It's just a chain on a

  • Just a fucking BMX, this is nothing, look at this. What's this?

  • That's where the gears were

  • It turns out the charismatic bike repairman, that my team took the bike to

  • Didn't so much as fix the gear system on the bike

  • As just cut it off altogether, the cables been severed and it is just now basically a BMX bike, 1-chain 1-gear

  • Bollocks, I'm fucked

  • It's important to point out, this isn't some sort of clever narrative set piece

  • Even I'm not stupid enough to remove a sophisticated gear system on an overpriced bike for entertainment purposes

  • And it was only a matter of time before my wrath caught up with the man who encouraged me to invest in the unfixable British bike

  • Several weeks prior to my journey

  • I'm gonna kill him, he chose that bike he chose a British bike knowing full well

  • That the gear system couldn't be repaired in Japan. This is where I'm gonna kill Ryotaro, right here

  • By this waterfall absolute middle of nowhere

  • Nobody's gonna find him except you, because I've talked about it on camera now and I'm gonna beat him to death with this rock

  • All right, your lucky I can't get the rock out

  • Give me a Japanese tongue twister

  • Tongue twister? - Yup. - of the day, all right, ok

  • The first one of today by this waterfall

  • Well, I came up with this one

  • Okay, it means a bus being exploded by the gas

  • Basu literally a bus, then gasu as in gasoline, bakuhatsu as in explosion

  • It is quite sinister, who thought this up? What's the context of this tongue twister? - I don't know, well it's been popular for decades

  • Everyone knows about it. - What a bus blowing up in Japan? Yeah, bus going by gas

  • Ok, here we go

  • All right. - Yes. - You're done, well, for the first one, I just came up with the easy one, the easiest one ever

  • All right

  • Save your second one for later, now to get back on the bike of death

  • Cycling one gear, ladies and gentlemen is is not fun. It's actually, I can feel my legs

  • Creaking under my own weight now, because it's just taking so much energy to pedal. That's yeah

  • That's your curse

  • Yeah, a curse that you instigated by buying a bike that can be fixed in Japan whatsoever

  • No, the thing is about the timing

  • You know, I said by the timing like it just suddenly happens like your bike got destroyed. - Yeah

  • Yeah, notice how the moment Ryotaro turned up it all went to shit

  • Okay, 2nd tongue twister

  • That means blue rolled paper, red rolled paper, yellow rolled paper

  • All right

  • You've, no, that's not acceptable

  • See, it's getting harder

  • It's, I could do it, if I wasn't cycling a 1-gear bicycle across the suspension bridge, i think i could do it

  • Fuck

  • Oh my god, guys, my legs have taken one hell of a beating today given I'm cycling on 1 gear, good news is Ryotaro found us lunch

  • So you've found us a little okonomiyaki restaurant. - Yeah it was so tiny actually, I actually went in there to ask for the where the parking place was

  • This is very atmospheric. - It is

  • It's a nice little town by the sea

  • Feels like we just broke into some woman's house

  • These Japanese restaurants are quite good though. Where the owners just taking their house

  • stuff the kitchen in it with some seats and turned into a restaurant. What flavor okonomiyaki did you get, Mr. Ryotaro?

  • I got the deluxe. - Deluxe okonomiyaki

  • Pork, the shrimp and oysters, everything together with noodles

  • And what you've got? - I got pork. - That's it. - Pork and. - Very simple, very peasant. - Very peasant

  • I loved that on a T-shirt, very peasant

  • It's time for our 3rd tongue twister, ladies and gentlemen, of the Japanese tongue twister from the master of tongue twisters himself

  • Tokyo Patent Permission Agency

  • All of the tongue twisters they have been really weird. The 1st one was a bus being blown up

  • The 2nd one was about, what was the 2nd one about? It was well like the red rolled paper

  • Red rolled paper and yellow rolled paper

  • And the 3rd one is about a patent office in Tokyo

  • It has nothing to do with the meaning, is it?

  • Well, it is, like these are pretty weird tongue twisters

  • Who thought these up, anyway, what was it?

  • What?

  • No, that's already wrong

  • Yeah, you're getting close. - Close, alright, I'm gonna practice

  • The 3 tongue twisters while I eat my okonomiyaki, and at the end the day when we drop you off at the station, I'm gonna

  • hammer out all 3 tongue twisters, brilliantly perfectly without a single problem. No errors

  • Do you like okonomiyaki?

  • I love okonomiyaki, I really do mainly cuz it's drenched in mayonnaise, mayonnaise makes everything good

  • Am I right, am I wrong?

  • Let us know in the comments, such a desperate attempt there audience interaction. Let's get the audience interacting

  • Interact, okay, sure

  • Question right? - Pose a philosophical question to the audience so we can look at the comment. - Philosophical questions?

  • Philosophical question

  • Should we live or should we be dead? - No, that's horrible, that's very sinister. - Was it philosophical question, isn't it?

  • That's not a philosophica question, that's a fucking sadistic question

  • So we're now in the outskirts of Okayama City, guys

  • And we've really gotta hurry up, because Ryotaro actually got a train to catch

  • To Hiroshima, where he's gonna fly back to Tokyo and that leaves at 3:50 and it's currently about 3:20

  • So we're really pushing hard to get through the city, get to the station

  • How long we got to get to your train?

  • 20 minutes

  • We more or less made it in the nick of time there's the station. - In front of us, finally

  • If you miss this train, you miss your plane from Hiroshima to Tokyo, right?

  • Otherwise I would have had to like stay here a few more days cycling with him, most definitely not

  • It would've been awful for all involved. - We barely made it

  • Well, it's been quite the 200km journey, together we've seen the world's largest suspension bridge, the most beautiful castle in all of Japan

  • We stuffed ourselves with sweets and okonomiyaki and irreparable screwed my legs on a 1-gear bicycle

  • But for Ryotaro, his journey is very much at an end

  • Loads of people just look at you in horror there, when you were like that

  • I genuinely thought that was the end of Risottoro

  • We made it though. - We made it, well done

  • All right. - Before you get to the shinkansen, I've got to nail all the three tongue twisters

  • What was the first one? - The first one was

  • That's it, and the second one is?

  • You made it, and the third one is?

  • Did I do it? - Well kinda, yeah

  • All right, off you go. - Bye, see you guys, see ya. - You're gonna miss your train, go

  • And that ladies and gentlemen is the last we see of risottoro

  • It turns out cycling 1-gear is anything but fun, thankfully now Risottoro is gone, I've got his bike

  • So that's the upside. Join me back here tomorrow as we cycle from Okayama to somewhere

  • I'm not sure yet where it is, I think it's Fukuyama (福山市), it'll be just me, you and the road

  • So I'll see you then guys, no matter where you might be watching from out there on big wide world

  • Thanks for joining us today and remember

  • Oh god, I was going to do a really good tongue twister, then I fucked it. I fucked it all up, dammit

  • Six years, I've traveled Japan far and wide, it's all been building up to this moment

  • Pizza vending machine

The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (明石海峡大橋) is the world's longest suspension bridge that you've probably never heard of.

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