I Escaped to Japan's HIDDEN Mountain Village 🇯🇵 12Hrs Walking the Nakasendo [o38M_9eiAjs]

On my last week in Japan, I visited this

place called Naraijuku. It is a mountain

village, and I wanted to go here because I

saw this video on Abroad in Japan's

channel. He went here as well, and he got

over a million views. So I thought if I go

here too, maybe I'll get a million views

as well. And it looks quite nice, so I

wanted to check it out. I don't know if

you care about the history or not, but

there used to be these trails that linked

Kyoto to Tokyo, and people used to walk

between these cities using one of these

trails. And this is a resting station

along one of the trails. So I decided to

stay the night here to make it seem like I

am resting at the resting station on my

trip from Tokyo back to Osaka. And I

booked a night at this fancy ryokan hotel,

and I don't know if it was really worth

it. It was very expensive. It was like

£480 for one night for 2 people. And I

think if you're going to go to this place,

you could just spend a couple hours. It

got kind of boring after a few hours

walking around, and I felt like we saw

everything that it had to offer after a

few hours of walking, and there wasn't

really a need to stay overnight. So the

main problem with this place is there's no

ATM and there's no convenience stores, no

McDonald's or anything modern, because

it's like a historically preserved

village. So you can buy things using a

Visa card in most of the shops there, but

But to get the train, you have to buy the

train tickets using cash, and the train

only comes every 2 hours. We missed the

train on the last day and we had to wait

over 2 hours for the next train. Luckily,

I had some cash in my pocket and I was

able to buy train tickets. But if I didn't

have any cash, there was no ATMs nearby.

I would have had to walk a very long time

to the next little village, which did have

an ATM. It would have been very annoying.

Okay, so this is the ryokan I stayed at,

also known as a traditional Japanese inn.

Looks very fancy. This was the same ryokan

that Chris Broad also stayed in, but he

chose a different room. I think his room

was uglier looking than the room I chose.

So these are very expensive rooms, about

£500 to £700 a night. Has a private

outside bathtub and it's pretty spacious.

It's nice. So this place costs about £380

for one night. It looks

pretty nice.

Ta-da! Got a kitchen, but you can't do any

cooking. There's no sink or anything, no

microwave. It was really weird getting

here as well because you have to get on

this train, but there was no train

station. When you get off the train,

there's like no ticket barrier thing, so

we didn't scan the IC card to get off the

train, so it's still uncharged. So we have

to go tomorrow to a different train

station to then tap out. It's weird.

Anyway, got tea and

drinks and the phone

empty. It looks like this. It looks

like a barn.

Oh, I want to show you this bit. So the

reason why I chose this room is because it

has an outside bathtub, which I really

wanted. The other room was more expensive,

but it had an inside bathtub and it was

all dark inside. So I chose this one

because it's cheaper and it also has an

outside. I mean, this looks really cool.

Look at that. Oh my God,

it's got a little garden as well.

So it's like a wooden— oh, it's already

hot. Oh my God, it's really hot.

Actually, it's not that hot. I think I

could get into it. So you got a nice

wooden bathtub with This lid thing is just

pretty cool. Look at that. And then

you've got a little garden.

It's kind of weird, like being inside of a

Oh no, it's a little door up there. Look,

I wonder what's in the door. I really want

to open the door. Can I stand on this?

I can't reach it, can I?

Oh my God, I feel like the whole thing is

going to fall over. It's like all rotten.

I wonder what's up there. So yeah, this is

the garden and the

trees. The outside of the building is kind

of weird. It's like concrete. Not— was it

wood or concrete? I'm not sure. It looks

kind of weird from the outside,

and it's got these wooden roof tiles. And

then this is the shower, the bathroom

sink area. Very modern.

It's not really like Japanese style with

tatami mats and the paper walls, apart

from that one over there. And then the

toilet.

The sinks are quite nice. Doesn't really

look historic though. Got a toilet

here. Is it automatic opening?

No, it's not that high-tech.

Got some artwork. Yeah,

so this is my room for tonight. £380 for

one night for 2 people. This was the

cheapest room They've got other rooms,

but they're like £500 or £600 a month— I

mean, a night— and they looked not as good

as this one. I like this one because it's

more open area, open plan, and it's

brighter. It's kind of like a barn with

these wooden beams, and then you got the

bedroom up here.

2 beds.

And the guy, he showed us

around, he was doing like the explanation

of everything. He said these are like

kimono outfits, but they

look like pajamas. I think it's like a

pajama kimono thing. He said you can wear

them outside and walk around the village,

but that'd be kind of embarrassing.

Yeah, that's quite nice.

It kind of looks like there used to be a

second floor on these support beams, and

then you could look out those windows.

I'm not sure if they've— I'm not sure how

much they've renovated the entire building

from how it used to be originally. It's

probably— it's probably been changed quite

a lot. I wonder if it

was actually just a barn house or like a

shed that they used to put animals and

tools in, and they turned it into a really

expensive hotel. I don't know why it was

so expensive, to be honest.

It doesn't really seem that amazing. I

don't know what these are.

Hmm, look, they have their own special

coffee as well. Original blend.

And, um, oh, they have coffee beans! I've

never had ground coffee bean coffee

before. So he said you're supposed to

grind up the beans using this.

I've never ground up my own coffee beans

before. And then I guess you filter it

into that. And, um, I booked dinner for

half 7 at the fancy restaurant. It's going

to be £80 per person. I hope it's going to

be good. I have this feeling it's going to

be kind of weird, like weird Japanese

traditional food. So I have to wait a few

hours until we can have dinner, see what

that's like. Look, there's a little card.

It says my name on it.

Welcome to Byakunarai. Please enjoy your

stay. And they put these rice mochi things

in it too.

Wow. Don't know if it's any good.

Hmm, pretty good. I don't know where my

girlfriend is. I said I finished making my

video, but she's gone.

My girlfriend left me.

£400 a night and no TV.

What are we gonna watch?

We're gonna go for dinner. Should I lock

the door? I feel like there's no point

locking the door. Wow, look at Naraijuku

at night. Who's that woman? Oh, it's a

man. It's a man.

Come, come, come, come, come. Wow,

it looks nice at night. Why hotel not

connect Is it lovely? Because there's lots

of rooms. Wow,

nice. Looks nice and peaceful.

Yeah, have a tasty taste.

So dinner is this way in the restaurant.

This is where dinner is going to happen.

Of course, the soup.

Today it's asparagus.

Dish number 2, Japanese dumpling.

It's like a chicken dumpling.

Dish number 3 is sashimi.

Dish number four is koi fish carp.

She said mix it. Okay. I know.

It's fast.

It's fast. With meat.

Did you?

It's like fish and chips. Dish number 5

is vegetables. What's the flavor?

Tastes like a plum. Dish number

6 is wagyu.

So we finally finished dinner. It took 2

hours. It was okay. Don't know if it was

worth £80 though.

But it was an interesting experience.

Okay, where's my bath? It stopped raining

already, I think.

I want a bath.

It's still hot. I wonder how they keep the

water hot. There's no insects in it.

Okay, time for Bathroom.

Do I take this whole thing off?

Oh my God.

I want the top first. What? I want

the top. Okay.

Ah,

nice.

I want to pee. I want to pee

in the bath.