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  • A Day in Akita

  • We're getting on the night bus. (⊙◞▽◟⊙)

  • Yeah!

  • R: All right, so we got this- J: Footrest? Nice.

  • We got blankets...

  • velcro pillows...

  • Nice. ( ° ー°)

  • All right. Goodnight.

  • This is also a really great way--if you get into an argument with someone...

  • Like, if I don't want to talk to Jun anymore I'm just like

  • "All right. I'm done."

  • "I am exiting this conversation."

  • "RIGHT NOW."

  • *ppbllblblppt*

  • REST STOP

  • At some of these rest stops they have giant LED maps

  • that map out every single toilet and they tell you which ones are occupied

  • and whether they're Japanese or Western toilets.

  • You can plot out exactly which toilet you want to go to.

  • It's amazing.

  • It's like the Mecca of Japanese vending machines.

  • COFFEEEEE

  • Do you want Blendy coffee?

  • There's this type of Blendy coffee.

  • And there's also this type of Blendy coffee.

  • One of these things is not like the other

  • Can you spot it?

  • Can you spot it, Jun?

  • This one?

  • CORN SOUP?!

  • "Please make yourself at home."

  • We're back in Akita again. We were here last year for the Namahage Festival.

  • Namahage are terrifying demons native to Akita

  • who descend upon the towns once a year to TERRORIZE the people!!1!

  • Where's your wife and son?

  • How they are doing is written in this book,

  • so you can't hide anything from us.

  • Your son is playing video game all day without doing homework at all.

  • I see nothing good written about your son here.

  • Well, well, Namahage-san...

  • let's put that aside...

  • Okay, so actually the Namahage are messengers of the gods

  • who visit families in town and make sure their kids are behaving!

  • So that's why they're terrifying--

  • TO SCARE KIDS INTO BEHAVING.

  • It's like the Japanese version of...

  • opposite Santa.

  • Naughty or nice list?

  • The owner of the house knows the Namahage in person.

  • They might have gone to the same school?

  • To kids, he asks if they've been listening to their parents well.

  • To the parents, he asks if they've been parenting the kids well.

  • I guess I can become Namahage here.

  • You're going to transform into Namahage.

  • I'm gonna scare all the little children.

  • I'm glad there's no kids around here now.

  • This was a good shirt to wear.

  • Look! You can't tell.

  • I look like a monster.

  • Scary ?

  • I can't see anything.

  • Say "UWOOGHH"

  • UWOOOOGHHAHHH

  • You sound like one.

  • OHGHHHGHHGHHH

  • You make a great Namahage.

  • Approved by a local.

  • We're at the site of the Kamakura festival, which they're building right now.

  • It's like a story high. They're just standing on top of this giant thing of snow.

  • Under this man,

  • there're 4 to 5 groups of 20 people each building 100 kamakura igloos.

  • He's in charge of...

  • I'm the boss.

  • And now they have this bulldozer to put snow (AND PEOPLE) on top.

  • They build it from the ground up and then pack snow on top of it.

  • But in the past they used to just use shovels and flip it up.

  • That's so much effort.

  • Do you want to try working on it?

  • So you'll get to do this now.

  • Yaaaay!

  • Yes, please.

  • I'm gonna help build one!

  • Good luck.

  • Right now he's like, "This annoying foreigner wants to help try..."

  • "Can you just let her do something?"

  • "Just let her pack it on. You can redo it later."

  • SNOW CHAINZ [Why are there no Alaskan rappers with this name]

  • What should I do?

  • Umm...what should she do?

  • Scoop some snow here and...

  • You look like a shokunin now!

  • Thanks.

  • Welcome back.

  • That's crazy!

  • That looks way too big for you.

  • Do I look like a pro?

  • Thank you very much!

  • Okay, so Akita is really far north so it gets a lot of snow,

  • and even though you can’t really tell in this video it’s pretty deep.

  • There was a lot of unexpected sinking.

  • Bring snow boots.

  • I bought snow boots in Akita and it was the BEST DECISION EVER.

  • At the castle we tried on the clothes that kids are supposed to wear.

  • The kamakura igloos are for kids to sit inside, and theyll like invite you in for a drink.

  • And mochi.

  • But that’s not the most important thing.

  • What?

  • There’s one other major thing we need to talk about in this video.

  • What is it?

  • Jun's

  • TERRIBLE

  • SNOW ANGEL

  • What?

  • WHAT ARE YOU DOING

  • What's wrong with that?

  • TRY A LITTLE HARDER

  • O-okay.

  • Well that is not what we wanted to talk about.

  • We also saw a taiko performance, which was amazing.

  • And the shrine priest let us walk up to the holy tree and touch it for good luck.

  • But you're not normally supposed to do that, though.

  • So don't go do that unless they say you can.

  • And the food was great, by the way.

  • And we probably stayed in the nicest hotel in Akita prefecture.

  • It had a super huge onsen that we obviously couldn’t film inside of.

  • But I did film a tour of our room that’s way too long to put in this video

  • so I'll upload that to our second channel if you're interested.

  • Anyway, thank you for watching, and please enjoy the view from Yokote castle.

  • Thanks to JapanBusLines.com for sponsoring our trip to Akita.

  • If you want to book a highway bus in Japan, which is one of the cheapest ways to travel,

  • they have a website in English where you can easily search for and book bus trips all across Japan.

  • There are a ton of options from women's only buses,

  • seats with power outlets,

  • single private seating if you're traveling alone,

  • and more.

  • We'll put the link in the description box.

A Day in Akita

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