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  • ready yeah one two three oh my god  no no oh no oh we can't do that  

  • look at the river this is really  sad i don't know what to say

  • have you ever gotten a ferris wheel and then  instantly regretted it on a windy day this  

  • is so precarious but the saving grace is the  amazing view of the akashi kaikyo bridge one of  

  • the largest suspension bridges in the entire  world the thing that taints the atmosphere  

  • somewhat is we are joined unfortunately by hi it's  connor and this is wacky weekend lucky weekend

  • so once a month for one weekend conor and  i meet up for a wacky weekend somewhere  

  • around japan for this month i thought i would  complete my ultimate task of visiting all 47  

  • prefectures in japan i've got just two i've yet  to visit i'm richard uh takashima and kochi both  

  • in shikoku island where we're about to go into  and now i do want to celebrate this momentous  

  • occasion you've essentially completed japan so  i have arranged some special accommodation just  

  • the finest accommodation i could find why  am i very cynical and why there's nothing  

  • to worry about this is good it's literally  gonna be something [ __ ] like i don't know  

  • it's something that's gonna be an experience the  cheapest hotel no no no no no not at all i'm very  

  • excited i don't trust you connor but either way  i want to get out this down ferris wheel like  

  • if you move like you can see the whole thingdon't know why i did that i was very scared before

  • so now that i'm here i don't really feel  like it was that difficult to get to is  

  • there a reason why you haven't  exported because i'm your driver

  • to be honest yeah like that's the thing  like shikoku is pretty tough to get to  

  • you need like three or four days in a car and  that's why i've never been to tokushima and  

  • kochi before they're pretty inaccessible i also  think i haven't really heard much about it well  

  • they're incredibly rural like tokushima is famous  for being pretty much empty or devoid of feet  

  • one of the places we're going to go to is a great  symbol of that but when the first place i want to  

  • take you today on this trip is a bridge that looks  like it's straight out of indiana jones remember  

  • you see the temple of doom yeah of course the  bridge goes over yeah there's that [ __ ] where  

  • is it why was it safe it can't be safe i mean  in normal weather conditions it'd be great  

  • but unfortunately there's a typhoon this week i've  had a weather warning for the past three days on  

  • my phone warning me about rains in this area but  of course no road trip would be complete without  

  • the perfect road trip so don't do it don't do  it what the [ __ ] i don't want to do this road

  • no volcano i love it

  • and so as we head deep into the mountains of  takashima and the incoming storm makes short  

  • work of the blue skies connor and i arrive at  our first destination a 150 foot rope bridge  

  • precariously hanging overdisturbingly ferocious river  

  • what is that look at that the bridge we can't  cross that that's a set piece in an action movie  

  • that you know the bridge you cut when the bad guys  are chasing you so they all fall down but for the  

  • bridge you actually go across in normal everyday  life do we have to go on it yes yes he did

  • oh no we can't do that look at it oh my god  thirteen road bridges once spanned the ear valley  

  • but today only three survive one of which is the  kazura rope ridge suspended 45 feet over the river  

  • and made using five tons of vines which need to  be replaced every three years it's as visually  

  • striking as it is unsettling i never got a chance  to use my engineering degree while i was doing  

  • youtube but i feel qualified enough to tell you  this is not a material that we made bridges out of  

  • i do not feel safe with this this is terrifying  these are just twigs they found on the ground what  

  • are we doing i don't want to do this i've watched  a couple cross it for the last 20 minutes very  

  • slowly and methodically struggle their way over it  the water below looks absolutely ridiculous like  

  • it's the most ferocious  water i think i've ever seen  

  • you're dead near that you're immediately dead  notice how every single person crossing the  

  • bridge is clutching onto it for dear life they're  so terrified even take one step on the bridge and  

  • so with the river below about to break its banks  and a violent thunderstorm in the clouds above  

  • against my better judgment we begin to cross the  bridge and quickly regret it oh it's so slippery

  • oh my god the gaps are massive look at  this i can put my whole foot through  

  • that's not good that's not  good that's a no that's so  

  • dangerous how is this a tourist  attraction this is a death trap coming

  • i'm not playing this up for the  camera this is actually terrifying

  • come on chris what's the problem look at  the river i'm like the heaviest person  

  • that's ever come on this bridgeam worried it's big mouth isn't it

  • the gaps get bigger

  • it's like it's because i'm holding the  umbrella oh [ __ ] off look at that  

  • even if it wasn't the rainiest day in 200 years  this would have been scary the fact the water  

  • looks like that like if you fall in you're  dead do you think you can survive that no no  

  • while conor speed runs the  bridge like crash bandicoot  

  • meanwhile i can't take my eyes off the water  transfixed on the alarming river rapids below  

  • hurry up we get over the bridge  no no no [ __ ] go i'm stuck

  • he's done it he survived the bridge legitimately  one of the scariest things i've done in japan oh  

  • my god the rain the water the wind how do you feel  chris i want to get in the car i want to go home  

  • man that's scary there's literally  nothing stopping you from falling in  

  • with your leg there's there's nothing it's so  dangerous i feel alive hey eight out of ten

  • after being spiritually reborn on a treacherous  rope bridge connor and i seek shelter deeper  

  • into the valley at a rather unique place in  fact unique is an understatement because here  

  • in chicago's most isolated valley lies  the village of nagaro a place where the  

  • human population is outnumbered ten to one  by eerily life-like scarecrows 350 of them

  • so we've been driving through some  of the worst rain i've ever seen  

  • how do we turn the corner i'm not happy about  this chris i want to go home i thought they were  

  • like villagers i thought they were like locals  who were just sitting at the side of the road  

  • it's the first of the scarecrows there's two in  a wheelchair one standing one's just falling over  

  • it's quite creepy because we just passed uh some  construction being done and i thought there was  

  • just two employees just uh doing some construction  but they were just scarecrows it was really creepy  

  • literally all the roads are closed  we really shouldn't stay a lot we  

  • are actually going to get stuck in the  middle of nowhere with these scarecrows  

  • as we slowly make our way into nagoro  without a single human being in sight  

  • we gradually begin to appreciate the sheer  scale of the village's scarecrow population  

  • what is this great what is this

  • oh

  • oh my god i don't like this chris  you don't like this no i do not yeah

  • oh no i'm not going in there i'm  not going in there look at it get in

  • like if there was like eight i'd be like  oh that's kind of cool but there's like  

  • 80. i don't like this can we go now  

  • the story of nagaro is one that you'll hear across  japan that of a dying village on the brink of  

  • extinction japan's population is shrinking fast  today the population stands at 126 million but in  

  • just 30 years time it's forecast to drop below 100  million and it's out here in rural japan where the  

  • effects are being felt the most nagara once had  300 residents that called the village home today

ready yeah one two three oh my god  no no oh no oh we can't do that  

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