Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • I thought today supposed to be my day off

  • You know exactly who this is, Chris

  • Your mum?

  • Chris, you're the real monster

  • Good morning, everyone and welcome back to Journey Across Japan

  • We are currently in Kyoto Station in Kyoto City (京都市)

  • And today is my day off and for the next 3 days as we travel across Kansai region (関西地方)

  • Kyoto (京都市), Osaka (大阪市) and Kobe (神戸市) will just be relaxing and taking it easy

  • Joining me on this leg of the trip is our third guest, Mr. Pete Donaldson

  • P: Hello. C: Top London radio DJ, certified Japanophile and dare I say... Friend

  • Why you've got me up so early, Chris?

  • Because we're gonna have a great fun-filled day

  • Pete is currently on holiday so I thought I'd let him decide what we do today

  • Uhm, we've got loads of temples, we've got shrines, pagodas all sorts of things in Kyoto (京都市) obviously given that is an ancient capital

  • So with that in mind, Pete, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go?

  • I want to go to the (Iwatayama) Monkey Park

  • Pete, we're not going to a monkey park

  • Their bums is so pink, Chris

  • I love them so much, not just about the bums, I really like the monkeys as well

  • I like the bums and the monkeys, but maybe the monkeys

  • Look at them

  • They're so big and hunky, it sounds like I fancy monkeys, I don't fancy monkeys

  • Or maybe that one

  • This park was originally a university outpost, used to study monkeys about 60 years ago

  • And then things got a little bit out of control, the monkeys took over, the tourists turned up and now it's one of Kyoto's biggest tourist attractions

  • Accessible by a 25 minute hike up the mountains of Arashiyama (嵐山)

  • The Iwatayama Monkey Park is home to over 120 snow monkeys or Japanese macaques

  • a species native to Japan, who can be found freely roaming mountain ranges across the country

  • Perhaps most famously in Nagano (長野市), where you can watch on in envy, as the monkeys laze around in steaming hot springs

  • Thankfully the only cage at Iwatayama Monkey Park, is the one for humans, where you can stand inside whilst feeding the monkeys

  • Despite the many ominous signs on the climb up, warning you not to look into their eyes or crouched down beside them

  • The monkeys seem fairly undaunted by their human visitors

  • Scurrying in between the legs of tourists as they go about their day

  • In fact, the only time they seem to acknowledge your presence, is after purchasing some monkey snacks

  • in which case you'll quickly become the object of their affections

  • I've named all the monkeys, uhh, that one's Franklin

  • That one is Franklin

  • That is also Franklin

  • C: Why Franklin? P: 2 little baby Franklin's over there, and a third there Franklin

  • Uhh, they're all called Franklin, 'cause I have very little imagination

  • I love the name Franklin though, monkeys

  • I know what you're gonna name your firstborn son

  • Marmaduke

  • I thought the monkeys might be in cages or something, but they're actually just roaming free on the side the mountain

  • So not only do you have a beautiful view of Kyoto (京都市), when the best views you can have of the whole city

  • But you've got loads of monkeys around you as well, what more could you want?

  • Food, could have some food up here that make it better

  • I once had a banana stolen from me by a Japanese macaque, would you believe it? I had it in my back pocket

  • How was I to know that monkeys love bananas?

  • It's not like, it's not like we're ever told that, is it?

  • That's right

  • What I will say is, Pete used to work at monkey zoo

  • I do worked at a monkey zoo, we had the finest collection of primates in the whole of Europe

  • Particularly gibbons

  • Particularly gibbons, I mean, they're not monkeys

  • That could be the name of your Indy band, Particularly Gibbons

  • Pete's new 80s rock band

  • Reasons why I love gibbons more than monkeys, long arms, that's it

  • Monkeys need longer arms, let's stretch the monkeys, come on

  • What's the benefit of having a long arm?

  • to reach my bananas from my back pocket

  • See that, Chris? C: Yep. P: Maybe uhh, we're the real monkeys

  • We're a slave to the man, we're the real monkeys, in cages

  • Of our own creation, I beg your pardon

  • All right, Pete, we need to get the money shot of us sitting with loads of monkeys

  • What's the secret? as somebody who's worked with monkeys

  • What's the secret to like befriending them and getting them on your side?

  • Uhm, well first you have to appeal to their sense of, uhh

  • Fair play, so you must play them all at tennis

  • Rounders and also a game of snooker as well, before you, they trust you, so

  • We need to get them into a pool hall

  • That's the first thing

  • I thought about putting my GoPro on the ground again, like a Point of View shot

  • But then I suspect, the monkeys would just grab it and just take it and that'll be it

  • Just glue onto the monkey

  • Glue a GoPro to a monkey

  • It sounds worse when you say it like that

  • It just sounds worse in general

  • Get the glue

  • Well, Mr. Donaldson, we turned a dream into reality, we brought you to the (Iwatayama) Monkey Park

  • what do you wanna do now?

  • We've got lots of beautiful temples in this area. there's the rock garden

  • As well, If you want to check out the shrines, the Inari Torii gates

  • Yeah, or we could go to

  • Monster (Yokai) Street

  • Okay guys, so we're now on Yokai Street, quite literally, Monster Street

  • It's a fairly unremarkable looking road, until you get to the front of each shop, and you find

  • A disturbing little creature or monster

  • Some of them come from traditional Japanese folklore, others are just dreamt up by the somewhat disturbed shopkeepers, perhaps

  • Right, there's millions of these things down the street, this one is easily, the best one look at it, look at it

  • It's got eyebrows and a little baby, and the little baby's got the same eyebrows, so there's no doubt as to the father or mother

  • In Japanese folklore, Yokai, meaning ghosts or monsters

  • Are feared and revered often exploited and used to scare children into doing chores

  • Very clever if you ask me, legend has it that Yokai Street has its origins rooted in a Japanese ritual known as

  • Susuharai, an annual end-of-year housecleaning ceremony, where people clean out their homes and throw away old unused unwanted items

  • The story goes that over a thousand years ago, the unwanted and discarded household items

  • Displeased at being thrown out and left at the side of the road, decided to fight back

  • Coming to life as monsters and marching through the streets of Kyoto (京都市)

  • Terrorizing the locals

  • thankfully with the intervention of Buddhist priests, the yokai saw the error of their ways and stopped haunting the locals

  • And to celebrate the plight of unloved discarded items, the shopkeepers today remember them with their own creation

  • So the next time you throw out your unwanted, unloved broomstick, spare a thought for it

  • Otherwise, it might come to life and destroy you and all those you hold dear

  • We've come to Kyoto (京都市), this ancient beautiful city and you want to look at monkeys and monsters

  • You offered me shrines, you offered me temples

  • And I want monsters, I want monkeys, all the M's

  • What better way to discover all the monsters on the street and get to know Pete Donaldson, than by going up to each monster

  • Having Pete stare it the face and say the one word that springs to mind, the one thing that runs through his mind

  • Dad

  • Cat dad

  • Yeah, it's a guy I know called Stewart

  • Who's Stewart?

  • Dad

  • It's bread dad

  • You know exactly who this is, Chris your mum

  • Your mum?

  • It's dad again

  • Well, if Monster Street has taught me anything, it's that Pete Donaldson has some potential family issues

  • We're now going to go make our own designs though, guys

  • We go to Family Mart, buy some crap, stick it together and see who can make the best monster

  • And you're gonna vote and decide in the comment section, isn't that exciting Pete?

  • I'm gonna upset you with the things in my brain

  • What is going on?

  • Well guys, Pete and I bought a load of crap from Family Mart, spent the last 10-15 minutes putting it together and this is the result

  • That is genuinely terrifying, I've seen this idea in my nightmares

  • Is these your actual hands?

  • Yeah, I did notice that Family Mart had a photocopier

  • so I thought, I copied my own hands for a realistic skin effect, fish flakes for hair, genuinely stinky and some

  • Some cheese, some hammy sort of a cheese for the eyes only smoke - smoke - pow God

  • C: Smoke cheese. P: Smoke cheese, oh god

  • And some delicious meat for the mouth, for that meaty salty flavor, when your fancy little kiss

  • I've got bubble gum for a hat, Pocky chocolate biscuits for hair

  • And a bubble gum for a tongue and these fork, these forkes here mean that my creation, Mr. Chocolate Face, can actually stand up, look at that

  • Wow

  • That is pretty cool

  • Which one do you think is the best guys? I hope you have been to disturbed by our creations

  • Which one's best, Pete's?

  • Whatever that is or my nice chocolate biscuit bubblegum one, let us know in the comments, let us know who's the winner

  • Well guys, thanks for joining us in are disturbing trip to Kyoto (京都市), no matter where you might be out there in the big wide world

  • Be sure to tune in join us tomorrow, but for now, we'll see you next time, see you later

  • Bye

  • Chris you're the real monster

  • WHY?

  • WHY~~~?

  • Peter

  • To sort of say, yes, in my accent

  • Why aye, man

  • Why aye, man?

  • Why aye, man

  • They do move in herds

  • He's 37 years old, ladies and gentlemen

I thought today supposed to be my day off

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it