What?

Oh hello there.

I'm standing here at the most northern tip of Japan's main island of han Xu in our more in front of a big factory that sells lots of cider and we're about to go on a whirlwind road trip across armory profit.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

These are apples, they look like grapes, but they're not, they're apples and don't take them, don't pick them off in public.

That would be wrong.

I'll be very bad but don't do that.

Mhm.

Al Maury lies at the most northern tip of han shi.

It's a region with a strong cultural identity and an impressive range of cuisine from Japan's most prized tuna in the cigar is straight in the north to horse meat barbecue in the historic town of Ghana here in the east today.

However, we're going on a journey of west all morning to try five local dishes including an incredibly rare delicacy bear meat, something I can't say I've ever had before.

But why is it eaten here?

And what does it taste like?

We'll also stay overnight traditional and visit a picturesque shrine and watch reiterate, make a fool of himself as per usual.

And our two day road trip kicks off in armory city at the a factory, a tribute to the region's number one export apples and of course the presence of apples means you can enjoy the perfect drink to kick off your morning.

There's a reason I love Al Maury so much.

It's not just the apples.

It's the cider and this is a side of any machine for 200 yen.

You can get a shot of your favorite brand and my favorite is kimo decider.

Sweet having this instead of copy this morning.

Come on, fill that cup.

You know what is that?

It's like a shot of cider.

Um Probably a good thing given it's only nine o'clock in the morning.

Obviously you can't drink and drive in Japan and we are going on a road trip.

So I needed a driver, a show fair and they're all busy.

So I've got real story with us, how you doing and expensive shop expensive show further.

Ah this is good, nice crisp, refreshing taste of apple in the morning.

Beautiful, beautiful as a, as a liquor breakfast.

That's a liquor breakfast.

I know you and I don't agree on many things, but one thing we do agree on is Al Maury is our favorite profit share in to hook.

This makes perfect use in talking and we live in the, are you uh what is it about Al Maury that keeps bringing us back then.

I don't know what they've got lots of meat, good meat and also you know side of their and what a great fish as well.

The sushi at this really good sushi.

Here's what, but let's face it, it's mainly decided at least for me anyway.

Mhm.

In my defense I need a liquor breakfast just to get through my morning with reiterate, but our first stop an hour west of armory city is one of Japan's longest wooden bridges.

The dancing crane bridge stood at all.

My HAC constructed from local cypress trees and famous for its three iconic arches walking across it is said to bring good luck as the crane is seen as a symbol of longevity in japanese culture.

It seems rather fitting given the Al Maury has the lowest life expectancy of any prefecture in Japan and we'll find out why a bit later on and no, it's not because of the beds.

So we just stopped off at the longest triple arch bridge in Japan, Is that right?

3 300 m long.

It could just be the longest bridge there too complicated with arches.

But the thing is they could not call it the longest bridge is the longest triple arch bridge.

That's what it's all about.

Getting.

That title was exactly the number one title that they needed.

It's a really nice view though.

You've got Mount Iwaki in the background, the tallest mountain in Al Maury.

Right, yep.

So how long is this bridge?

Maybe 300 years, 400 years.

23 years.

What, 23, years.

Do they build these bridges just to win awards and get those triple arts titles?

I guess.

So, it's nice.

They like if you are going to build a bridge across the lake, don't just build another boring generic bridge, build something like this.

Right, build something that's actually beautiful to look at?

So I think you gotta be, you gotta be building what Quattro, What is it like the bridge arch bridge, number one Quattro arch bridge.

Let's get crowdfunding.

Let's make it happen.

Checking into our traditional in at the hot springs before enjoying our evening banquets, serving up three local meat dishes.

I'm able to finally sneak away from Rio to go to the comfort of my own room.

So just checked into the room and it's my favorite part of any journey with regard to the bit where I get to go to my own room and get away from the man for a few minutes and the room today is rather spectacular.

Check this out.

How beautiful is this Now.

I'll admit when I come out and film these videos these days, I often don't bother filming the room anymore because I've seen it so many times that they all start to blend into one.

They all start to look the same as this one in particular has so much character to it.

The artwork, the pottery, the embroidery, the lighting, the lighting, it's pretty elaborate here.

There's even some sort of stove in the middle of the table that I don't know how to use and I don't use it for fear of burning the place down.

But still my time in this room is fairly short lived.

We're about to go and get dinner and I know it's gonna be a weird one.

Right?

I mentioned that it involves a lot of bizarre meats and well that's never a good thing usually.

Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm.

What have we got them real?

This is, there's an assortment of meats here.

I don't know what they are.

Hunter Omakase chef's recommendation.

Cause that's what it is.

Hunter Mark Hunter Mukasey.

Okay.

So what's, what's this one here?

I'm gonna kill this the most daring looking dish.

What, what, what is it looks like Sashimi?

Always a deer.

Sashimi.

Dear dear.

Like a day lightly cooked on a surface.

Have you ever had it before?

Yes, there's a good, super good, super good.

You should try it.

Super good.

You should try.

What about this one here?

This one there.

Okay.

This looks like, uh, yeah, this looks like beef.

I'm gonna say this is some sort of local beef.

Uh, local bit.

Okay.

What local bear, local beer, local bear, you can eat bear in japan.

They are hunters.

A japanese hunters called Maggie and they are the ones that who actually hunt there, but not like just shooting around anything recently that too many bears that sometimes hurt people.

And some people actually killed by there too.

So there's a group of hunters who hunt the bear.

Um, only limited to a certain amount of number.

I've heard their attacks are actually recently because as the population goes down in the countryside, The bears have been getting a little bit more bold and actually wandering into this sort of rundown quiet villages.

Yeah.

So we've got deer.

We've got bear.

What is this one here mushrooms and pork, Wild boar, wild boar, something.

We can't go wrong with wild boar.

That's usually pretty good.

Okay.

One dish out of three that I know is good for sure.

Let's see if they live up to the hype.

Let's start with a day.

Oh, you haven't had a good idea.

So you should start with, you should, you should dip into the sauce and put some garlic on.

Alright, here we go.

Dear dear.

Good evening.

It's pretty good.

Release.

It actually tastes a lot like sashimi.

If you close your eyes, if you keep your eyes open, it still looks like sushi and it tastes like sashimi.

That's pretty good.

Where the day that this comes from the mountains back backyard.

I think.

I'm not sure on the back way dinner.

Deer bear balls sounds like a rap.

What kind of rapids up?

They're bad boy.

Yeah.

Bad, bad, bad, bad.

Yeah.

Why is he?

Why is he here 1-10 on the dead dear 10 because I love, I love the deer.

Such unique.

I'll give it nine.

So we've lit the grill, yep for the bear.

The bear in the meantime let's have some wild boar.

Yeah, there's something quite surreal when I first moved here remember I went walking just on my own in the mountains.

I was enjoying it and then I walked past the bear sign.

It dawned on me that bears exist in japan and I turned around and ran back to my car very quickly while the number of attacks are going up.

They're still pretty uncommon to stop coming and I was like a bear all and ignore me right there.

Beer human beings.

So alright, here we go then.

Do you just have it?

You have it with any source?

It's also a pepper smells a bit like beef.

What's not my beef?

Yeah.

How's that?

Like it's pretty chewy.

It's got a really satisfying meeting on the flavor to it does and it's absolutely covered in salt and pepper with the garlic.

It's a really nice combination of flavors.

Would I eat it often?

No, I think it's a very special meat.

I'm going to give the deer nine out of 10, the pork, The wild boar level 10 and the bear and a 10 a nine.

So dear.

Actually one day one.

Yeah, I mean people might find it a little bit uncomfortable on sunday.

Yeah, eating Bambi raw Sounds, that would be the title of this video.

You know, eating Bambi raw.

You'll be sued by Disney, you know what I mean?

What is it about Al Maury?

Why do they hump beds here of all places.

Well, first of all, there are more, more bears and then they start hardly hurting people as well.

That's one thing.

And also These hunters have always been hunting over 100 years or more 200 years.

Almost these hunters obviously we eat instead of like wasting the meat.

We actually eat the meat too.

There's often stories in the media read where bear walks into somebody's farm turns up and it has a fight with somebody.

Like I read a story about an elderly man in our worry that punched a bear in the face that was attacking his orchard was stealing some apples or you think you could fire bear?

I'll fight with bumby.

Thank you that I could do that.

So now that I would pay to see family versus reiterate last night, um, I heard like really heavy rain and this morning I woke up and like I saw snow and in corral and this is what I see the snow in front of me all over.

It's a fresh the first time I saw snow this year and this is our Murray.

This is it on a clear day.

Iwakiyama ginger which sits at the base of Mount Iwaki has a clear view of the mountain but the snowfall has got in the way.

Nevertheless, as we soak up the tranquil surroundings and the locals quietly sweep away the falling leaves.

Ryutaro does his best to take advantage of the peaceful shrine time to do my morning prayer if you ever want to do a prayer at a shrine in Japan.

The pattern to follow is bow twice clap twice, say your prayer and finish with a final bow.

Just make sure to pray for something good.

What did you pray for hunkering the world, conquering the world at 9:30 AM?

Yeah, exactly.

Horrible man.

Mhm.

He doesn't even have a rebuttal.

Just that's it, innit?

Uh huh.

I'll Murray the home of apple.

Look my kingdom after kingdom, fucking terrifying.

Every year.

Over 700,000 tons of apples are produced in Japan.

And armory Prefecture accounts for over 50%.

Even within Al Maury, there are places more famous than others for their highly prized apples such as these orchards here on the outskirts of Hirosaki city, we've stopped off to meet a friend of ricotta Rose.

Let me hold the employer A native of the distant landlocked prefecture of agony.

She moved 600 km north to be closer to the sea and in the years since she's become a farmer and a massive orchard in the shadow of Mount Iwaki.

And there's only one question on his mind.

I thought Maury, it's famous for apples.

I don't think we've said it in this video, but we've had apple juice, we've had cider, we've had bears and I'm sure the bears, the apples and the last thing I list is apple pie will be a crime to come all this way to al more and not have one for our last stop of the journey.