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ready yeah one two three oh my god no no oh no oh we can't do that
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look at the river this is really sad i don't know what to say
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have you ever gotten a ferris wheel and then instantly regretted it on a windy day this
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is so precarious but the saving grace is the amazing view of the akashi kaikyo bridge one of
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the largest suspension bridges in the entire world the thing that taints the atmosphere
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somewhat is we are joined unfortunately by hi it's connor and this is wacky weekend lucky weekend
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so once a month for one weekend conor and i meet up for a wacky weekend somewhere
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around japan for this month i thought i would complete my ultimate task of visiting all 47
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prefectures in japan i've got just two i've yet to visit i'm richard uh takashima and kochi both
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in shikoku island where we're about to go into and now i do want to celebrate this momentous
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occasion you've essentially completed japan so i have arranged some special accommodation just
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the finest accommodation i could find why am i very cynical and why there's nothing
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to worry about this is good it's literally gonna be something [ __ ] like i don't know
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it's something that's gonna be an experience the cheapest hotel no no no no no not at all i'm very
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excited i don't trust you connor but either way i want to get out this down ferris wheel like
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if you move like you can see the whole thing i don't know why i did that i was very scared before
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so now that i'm here i don't really feel like it was that difficult to get to is
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there a reason why you haven't exported because i'm your driver
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to be honest yeah like that's the thing like shikoku is pretty tough to get to
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you need like three or four days in a car and that's why i've never been to tokushima and
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kochi before they're pretty inaccessible i also think i haven't really heard much about it well
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they're incredibly rural like tokushima is famous for being pretty much empty or devoid of feet
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one of the places we're going to go to is a great symbol of that but when the first place i want to
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take you today on this trip is a bridge that looks like it's straight out of indiana jones remember
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you see the temple of doom yeah of course the bridge goes over yeah there's that [ __ ] where
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is it why was it safe it can't be safe i mean in normal weather conditions it'd be great
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but unfortunately there's a typhoon this week i've had a weather warning for the past three days on
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my phone warning me about rains in this area but of course no road trip would be complete without
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the perfect road trip so don't do it don't do it what the [ __ ] i don't want to do this road
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no volcano i love it
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and so as we head deep into the mountains of takashima and the incoming storm makes short
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work of the blue skies connor and i arrive at our first destination a 150 foot rope bridge
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precariously hanging over a disturbingly ferocious river
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what is that look at that the bridge we can't cross that that's a set piece in an action movie
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that you know the bridge you cut when the bad guys are chasing you so they all fall down but for the
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bridge you actually go across in normal everyday life do we have to go on it yes yes he did
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oh no we can't do that look at it oh my god thirteen road bridges once spanned the ear valley
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but today only three survive one of which is the kazura rope ridge suspended 45 feet over the river
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and made using five tons of vines which need to be replaced every three years it's as visually
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striking as it is unsettling i never got a chance to use my engineering degree while i was doing
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youtube but i feel qualified enough to tell you this is not a material that we made bridges out of
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i do not feel safe with this this is terrifying these are just twigs they found on the ground what
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are we doing i don't want to do this i've watched a couple cross it for the last 20 minutes very
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slowly and methodically struggle their way over it the water below looks absolutely ridiculous like
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it's the most ferocious water i think i've ever seen
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you're dead near that you're immediately dead notice how every single person crossing the
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bridge is clutching onto it for dear life they're so terrified even take one step on the bridge and
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so with the river below about to break its banks and a violent thunderstorm in the clouds above
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against my better judgment we begin to cross the bridge and quickly regret it oh it's so slippery
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oh my god the gaps are massive look at this i can put my whole foot through
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that's not good that's not good that's a no that's so
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dangerous how is this a tourist attraction this is a death trap coming
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i'm not playing this up for the camera this is actually terrifying
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come on chris what's the problem look at the river i'm like the heaviest person
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that's ever come on this bridge i am worried it's big mouth isn't it
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the gaps get bigger
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it's like it's because i'm holding the umbrella oh [ __ ] off look at that
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even if it wasn't the rainiest day in 200 years this would have been scary the fact the water
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looks like that like if you fall in you're dead do you think you can survive that no no
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while conor speed runs the bridge like crash bandicoot
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meanwhile i can't take my eyes off the water transfixed on the alarming river rapids below
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hurry up we get over the bridge no no no [ __ ] go i'm stuck
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he's done it he survived the bridge legitimately one of the scariest things i've done in japan oh
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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
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man that's scary there's literally nothing stopping you from falling in
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with your leg there's there's nothing it's so dangerous i feel alive hey eight out of ten
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after being spiritually reborn on a treacherous rope bridge connor and i seek shelter deeper
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into the valley at a rather unique place in fact unique is an understatement because here
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in chicago's most isolated valley lies the village of nagaro a place where the
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human population is outnumbered ten to one by eerily life-like scarecrows 350 of them
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so we've been driving through some of the worst rain i've ever seen
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how do we turn the corner i'm not happy about this chris i want to go home i thought they were
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like villagers i thought they were like locals who were just sitting at the side of the road
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it's the first of the scarecrows there's two in a wheelchair one standing one's just falling over
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it's quite creepy because we just passed uh some construction being done and i thought there was
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just two employees just uh doing some construction but they were just scarecrows it was really creepy
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literally all the roads are closed we really shouldn't stay a lot we
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are actually going to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with these scarecrows
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as we slowly make our way into nagoro without a single human being in sight
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we gradually begin to appreciate the sheer scale of the village's scarecrow population
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what is this great what is this
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oh
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oh my god i don't like this chris you don't like this no i do not yeah
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oh no i'm not going in there i'm not going in there look at it get in
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like if there was like eight i'd be like oh that's kind of cool but there's like
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80. i don't like this can we go now
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the story of nagaro is one that you'll hear across japan that of a dying village on the brink of
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extinction japan's population is shrinking fast today the population stands at 126 million but in
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just 30 years time it's forecast to drop below 100 million and it's out here in rural japan where the
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effects are being felt the most nagara once had 300 residents that called the village home today