Hello world, this is how our family escaped from Tokyo.
Something I found refreshing about Japan is that if you can manage to pull yourself out of Tokyo
There are so many interesting places to go but a lot of families I know in Tokyo just don't get that far out.
To get a bit of insight as to why, I interviewed a salaryman and asked what his family does on their week-long vacations
Why the extended weekends instead of a full-blown week or two of vacation?
They basically said that even though their companies give them vacation time. They can't just take a week or two off whenever they want
That'd be inconsiderate because that'd be leaving your work for colleagues to do
There are special Japanese holidays like Oshogatsu (Japanese new year) in the winter or Obon in the summer where you can get a week off
But everyone has that time off so it's usually quite busy and expensive
So because many Japanese families can't or don't want to travel too long or too far
Those living in Tokyo don't often go to places like this
My family and I went to Kochi but more specifically the Monobegawa area. Unless someone in japan has family there
They probably won't even have heard of the place. There's many interesting things to do. Let's break it down into a few categories
History, especially samurai. In this area the airport is called Kochi Ryoma airport
It's named after Ryoma Sakamoto a famous samurai who helped overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate in the late
1800s that brought about the meiji revolution. So the guys from this area and you'll find out about him at ACT land. Which stands for
Aiko: Activity land?
No, it's actually arts culture and technology. A C T, act.
Aiko: Oooh
Aiko: I got to wear a yukata
What did you get to ride in?
Aiko: I got to ride it in a little taxi like a Japanese princess or some person
That's very important
It was a little box that you go in and then people hold it up on their shoulders
For some reason they decided to give Shin a sword
(Guide) Like this
(Guide) then this,
(Guide) and finally you cut.
Unfortunately, he's left-handed and back then samurai weren't
There's a
Sakamoto Ryōma the story of his life. Do you remember how he dressed?
He wore a kimono, which is Japanese, but also boots he got from western people
(Guide) See, hospitality.
I was really surprised that they had so many scenes I thought you might just have one or two but there are like over 20 I think
Aiko: yes lots of details.
If you like the story of a samurai's life at act land
Then you'll enjoy the Kochi Prefecture Museum of History
They had this really neat setup where he could see what it was like where leaders would meet
For some reason they gave shin a sword again
Did you get to try on the armor?
Aiko: only the head part
Because it was kind of like lots of weight on it
when I wore it it felt heavy
But I think the real one would be even heavier
Aiko: The one you wore wasn't really heavy the real one is three times heavier than the one you wore
So the guns were from like a different country and then Japanese
Started like breaking pieces and then see how it was made and then make their own Japanese gun
Yeah, the guns came from Portugal four hundred and seventy years ago
And it took the Japanese ten years to start making them on their own
Well while they were busy at Starbucks
I went to the top of the mountain to visit a recreation of where the Joshu (the lord of the castle)
Would overlook the surrounding valley
One of the neat things about traveling to different parts of Japan is that they have different styles of trains
So the station's name is sorry station?
Aiko: Well.. yeah, it's gomen station but gomen means sorry
All right. So what was different about this train than other trains you've riden on?
Aiko: On one side there's a open door place and you can see outside.
And what did you think standing outside?
Aiko: Like it was really beautiful. But if you put your head too much like you like be hit by the pole
So you had to be careful
Yeah, usually in Tokyo when I go to train stations
Like you have your passmo and then you put it in first but at gomen station
But first you buy the ticket and then you go down to the platform
You go in the screen and then when you go to the station
You want to go you give the ticket and then you go out. So that was different than usual trains.
So the train ride was over when we hit the park which conveniently had a beach
How was the beach?
Aiko: There was a place to like go up and see the view from uh a high place
The beach was beautiful and it was kind of warm water
Unfortunately we didn't bring our swimsuits so you guys couldn't go swimming.
Is it nice to be in the water?
Yeah its really nice
Shin hows the weather?
Is it hot?
Its very hot
Aiko: We went to a fruit bar place
It was tasty is so yummy
As fantastic as japan's transportation system is there are some places that are easier to explore by car
Our rental is about 6,000 yen a day and one of the places we went to was Noichi Zoo
So Aiko how has Noichi dōbutsu kōen?
Aiko: Like it had different animals, like cute animals, like big animals
So the zoo was very fun and there was a place that you can touch small animals
I had fun working around too.
I like the trees. There was the bamboo forest. It felt like you were really in nature
Yeah, it was a nice scenery and they even had ice blocks
The zoo is hot in the middle of the summer even with ice blocks
So a place we could cool down was the?
Yanase Takashi museum. The guy that man Anpanman
And so did you watch Anpanman? The anime?
Oh, yeah, like if you say like when you're kids everybody watched Anpanman
Yeah, everybody should know Anpanman if you're like Japanese.
Anpanman giving his head to like somebody.
Wait. Wait. Wait, Anpanman gave his head to someone?
Well, anpan. An, anko is red beans I think?
Pan, like bread. And then his face is anpan
His face is a red bean bread?
Yeah, sweet bread. And then like he gives his head to somebody when somebody's sad or like somebody's hurt
After cooling down it was time to get hot once again.
Yeah, it was kind of fun to make your own drinking glass.
So its really fun but its really hot in the melting place
You need lots of skill to make it last
And after the heat of the furnace we went to Yudaro Cave to cool down
So, how are the caves?
The cave was like cool. There's a cave entrance and then like if you just go a little bit back
It's a really cool like it's like a air conditioner in like the middle of the like outside
and if you go in it's really cool and
Cool, like the scenery. Haha. Cool and cool. I gotcha
There's two parts to the cave, right there's the part that
Anyone can go and you just wear your normal clothes and they have metal stairs and lights and everything like that, right?
but then there was another part where they opened up this gate and
Then you have to crawl through this tunnel, right?
There's a door for like bokenkōsu, adventure course
It's like yeah, it's very adventure and then like, you know, you said like there's no lights and no stairs
and then I just climb on like rocks and then like go on ropes and then like if you fall like
Easy to slip
If you fall or if you trip it's really like really ouchy. It'd be dangerous
Yeah, it would be dangerous like some parts like like really it's really dangerous like if you like
Fall you're like I think I don't know. Maybe you might die you could yeah
yeah, it was like some parts like that, but it's gonna feel like
you can see bats and like
I like it kind of the little adventure. So like it was a really fun for people that like adventures
Yeah, and the guide I really liked her yeah she was so fast
But I felt safe because she was there so she told us where to go safely yeah
How's it in the cave?
Uh its fun
Adventure cave
Yeah, how is mommy?
Mommys freaking out
But she survived. Yeah she survived. Okay I'm tired. Where's the onsen?
(Staff) washing the front
(Staff) alright, wash your hands
What we showed is the tip of the iceberg of stuff you can do when you get outside of Tokyo
So if you visit Japan and have time I'd suggest trying out the lesser-known places like Monobegawa
Three...two...one..GO!
Thanks for watching, see you next time. Bye!
What's it like getting out of the city where you're from
And I'd be curious to know which of the places we visited interested you the most please let us know