This is an amazing road station or a Rhodes, a roadside station is what they would call it in English.

I guess it's a Mikino Iki.

Japan has almost 2000 of them in this network that crisscrosses the entire country, Kyushu, shikoku, Hokkaido and the islands.

They all have these and this is a kind of like a, I don't know like a, like a like a station on the highway where you can rest but it's more than a rest area.

It's like, well just let's get outside.

I'll show you ah it is very hard to explain.

I guess it's easier to show you.

I was here 5, 4 months ago, I was here four months ago in the snow.

I climbed this hill to the top and I showed a train crossing a bridge and I've come back here.

It's very, it's odd for another job.

Well another filming job, this is I guess they've just completed it before.

It wasn't, wasn't finished yet.

This is Amy Chino iki and if you've ever been to Japan, especially you know, driving, you've been to one of these, this is my car, the train crossing the wrong bridge.

I know that was pretty crazy.

That was a good live stream too.

This is Fukushima and this is where um a very famous spot where you can see a train crossing but more than that, it's a mission to Becky and it's in the countryside and it's absolutely beautiful and it's a place where you can just sleep for free.

You don't need to get a hotel because I slept here last night.

It was cold.

Look at this cherry blossom tree, wow, it is really cold.

It was about below zero yesterday, wow, mm hmm.

There is a little morning fog.

You can see in the distance the cherry blossoms just covering the countryside.

They have been done in japan for a really long time.

Sorry in Tokyo.

The cherry blossoms finished up about three weeks ago but they're just starting to bloom here.

This is really incredible.

And the morning air is really good.

Sushi.

Very good.

Mm hmm.

By the way that I was going to climb the mountain, but I, I'm just hearing the train right now.

Do you see it?

There's a train crossing in the, in the distance there.

Um About a 64 months ago I was here uh filming the train crossing from up here on this vantage point.

You can look across the river into the snow or right now in the spring and and get a picture of the train.

But with the fog, it's probably not too good.

The color of the river is absolutely beautiful too.

But these machines are pretty incredible.

You can stay here overnight.

There's free facilities, free restrooms, there's vending machines.

Um, some people, especially in the summer, they camp here and if you're stranded, you just need a place to rest your head.

You can come to a Mikino Iki and that's what I did last night and I hear it now.

It's like, I want to see that train going by.

This one just was completed.

I cast this year, I'm still kind of asleep.

It's really pretty and there's still some snow here.

Wow, it is cold.

I traveled 330 km from Tokyo to get here in the middle of the night.

I rented the car at eight PM.

I read the car at eight PM.

Ah, I went home and had some dinner, Like packed up the car at nine.

I left, I arrived here at one 30 and then I slept here until now, which is about 4.5 hours of sleep.

I guess that's enough.

Maybe I'll take a nap after I film.

But I want to film this before traffic comes talking about the cherry blossoms here.

Let me show you the facilities really quickly.

And then I got to get on my way.

Maybe I'm gonna do another livestream this afternoon as well.

So I thought this is really nice because um, oh, that's the sign for the machine.

Do you see that?

It almost looks like a youth hostel or something.

But I like the fact that right here they have picnic tables.

You can come with your family kind of joy, enjoy this spot.

This is Mishima town in Fukushima.

Hey, Danny's here.

Thanks buddy.

Uh, the inside of it is closed.

They open up in the morning now what's great about um, Mission Wiki is inside local people, farmers, uh, shops, restaurants will open up inside of here and it's almost like a marketplace.

So you can go to Amici Noaki instead of a gift shop.

Right.

It just becomes a little bit of everything.

It's really pretty, wow.

There's an E.

V charging station.

I didn't know that.

I didn't see it in the middle of the night, wow, it's so cold.

And then here's the restrooms.

I went in there for a little bit, brushed my teeth last night.

It's very clean.

Of course it's in Japan and there's a vending machine corner here.

Hey, lilac, peach.

How you doing?

Good morning.

Cold, fresh air.

This vending machine options.

Nothing unusual though.

This is the same stuff we have in in Tokyo Lemonade.

This is a weird one that's about it.

You know, I was hoping that this would be a little bit more interesting, but I don't even know that.

Okay.

It's freezing.

She's saying beware of heatstroke.

Okay.

It's not a problem.

I'm shivering.

Oh wow.

There's even a bus here that goes between your eyes.

Ooh, media sta station and the road station.

It's a far distance.

Everything in Fukushima is far now.

Here's, here's one interesting tidbit that I saw last night, There's the Muccino Iki signed to go in here, One last tidbit here.

Alright.

It was 330 km to drive here from Tokyo on the highway and if I went from one side of Fukushima to the other side where the um Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located where we had some bad Stuff happened about 11 years ago.

It's 340 km.

So it's actually Fukushima is actually so much bigger.

Then a lot of people realize It was a 330 km and I had to come from Tokyo kind of a roundabout way.

But the whole prefecture of Fukushima from one side or the other, I drew a line to measure the distance on the roads was was more so Fukushima is a massive prefecture and then gets one of the top five biggest, which is why when, when that that meltdown happened and all that radiation went into the air and everything.

Um when they said the name Fukushima, that really upset me because it's no different than Tokyo.

Really this part of Fukushima is on the other side of the mountains, it's completely separated from so much and it's so beautiful and I think a lot of people will, will have that stigma that when you hear Fukushima you think of, you think of, it's like saying um like the texas nuclear meltdown and that's the entire state right.

It's just, it doesn't, It made me upset about 10 years ago and now I think we're starting to see things returning a little bit more than normal.

I don't know, but I'm really, I'm really glad to see um like new places like this in Fukushima and I'm actually driving back after this to go and cover a topic that um, it's kind of um what sword?

It's kind of inspiring I think to see the changes that are happening on the coast.

So I'll be driving from this side to the coast, which is about a three hour drive after I finish up with this shoot.

Um do you have any questions?

You can leave them in that, that down in the comment section.

I just woke up and I'm a little bit dry blood a little bit um uh, tongue tied.

I'm gonna get a coffee up the road here at the convenience store.

I'll put the map in the description.

But you can check out Mishima, Fukushima or Mikino Iki and we will get you here.

It's a nice place that you can crash anytime I slept in the car.

There's only a few hours, it's not enough time to get a hotel and there's not really a hotel or in this area that, That isn't a broken, which costs like 14,000 yen.

It's just not worth it.

I'd rather get the four hours of sleep shoot and then return home.

That's why I'm here and then I can edit their air to the run.

I'm going to get some coffee.

Alright.

I'll bring you, I'll find something in Fukushima probably on the coast somewhere and show you another aspect of the countryside because when you get out here, it's really, it's really nice to enjoy the view, like that beautiful cherry blossom tree right in the corner.

Alright, everybody see you.

See you again soon stay warm.