Name: 48 hours in Hokkaido | Road Trip Across Japan
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T11:28:03.000Z
Duration: 18 min 57 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Grab your woolly hats, scarves, and gloves

Transition words & phrases

because we're off on a road trip across Hokkaido.

Hokkaido is Japan's second-largest island and most northern prefecture.

Last year we visited Sapporo, the island's vibrant capital city,

and I've returned for a road trip in a reasonably-priced car

to uncover what makes Hokkaido such a popular tourist destination

There's so much to see that we've turned the journey into a two-part series.

In this episode we'll journey across the island's seismically-active landscape,

and in the second episode we'll stuff ourselves with the local cuisine.

Joining us on our trip is my good friend Chris,

a real-life American person who'll be acting as the cameraman

Let's get to know Chris with a quick Q&A session.

Chris, what is your favorite thing in the world?

- Ice cream. - That is the end of the Q&A.

also known as Toyota Yaris to most other countries.

It's cheap, it's gonna get us from A to B,

There's three good car companies, good rental companies,

in Japan that I recommend. Nippon Rent-A-Car, Toyota Rent-A-Car, and Niconico.

Niconico tend to be the cheapest, but I often go Nippon Rent-A-Car,

just 'cause I find the cars are slightly nicer and newer.

This is where we are now, in the city of Hakodate,

and we're gonna drive along the coastline here, all the way to here.

This is called Noboribetsu, or Hell's Valley.

It's a very seismically active region, lots of geysers and hot springs and things.

And then we're gonna drive from Noboribetsu to Furano.

Now, Furano is right in the middle of Hokkaido

and it's known for its big, rolling fields filled with lavender.

And I think it's gonna be a lovely way to end this video,

with a shot of the nice, rolling lavender fields of Hokkaido.

- Are you ready, viewers? [Chris nods camera]

- 'Course you are. Let's go and have a look.

After 200 years of being closed off to the outside world,

allowing foreign trade at five ports throughout the country,

In fact, the first-ever U.S. citizen to be buried on Japanese soil lies in the city;

who passed away while American ships were surveying the port in 1854.

And in the years that followed, the influx of trade and foreign cultures

led to the presence of some not-so-looking Japanese architecture,

architecture which can still be found throughout the city today.

It's the top of Mount Hakodate, overlooking the entire city.

It's quite a unique kind of place, given that we've got the sea on both sides

I've not been to a city in Japan quite like it.

Great view. Incredibly cold, can't feel my fingers, but...

Nice place to start the trip, I think. It's very romantic.

It's just a shame that the person who's with me isn't...

isn't someone you can really have romance with,

and it's a little bit of an odd kind of district,

'cause there's lots of foreign, kind of European-style buildings around,

like this Russian Orthodox Church. Because Hakodate opened in 1859--

it was one of the first ports in Japan to open to the West--

lots of European powers rocked up and started building

churches and red brick buildings everywhere,

so the whole area feels a bit of an anomaly.

It doesn't feel like being in Japan. It's the least Japan-looking district

that I've been in in Japan, and there's also a glove on the floor, look at this.

I quite want to wear it, 'cause I don't have any gloves

But that's the kind of exciting thing you can find at the base of Mount Hakodate.

- *whimpering* - You don't... seem to handle the cold very well.

- That's a pretty impressive building; this is the old government ward building,

so the government of Hakodate used to be based there.

The only thing more impressive than this building

is that elaborate snowman over there that's hastily been built this morning;

The first snowman I've seen on a trip so far,

and the detail and the quality of that expression is exceptional.

That's a really good snowman. 8 out of 10.

It's like being in the UK all over again.

So we're in the old British Consulate building that was opened in 1859.

These days it's just got a nice tea room and a museum.

And it's a great place to get some British tea.

We're sitting here, the snow's just kicked off outside,

And our journey-- after this tea, our journey across Hokkaido will begin.