Live Q&A with Ryotaro TOMORROW! (Send Your Questions) | ALSO. New WACKY WEEKEND video! (Watch Now)

Hey guys,

So tomorrow we’ve got a LIVE Q&A with Ryotaro for the first time in years!

We’ve let my arch nemesis into the Abroad in Japan studio and for two hours we’ll be answering questions and chilling out over lunch.

🍿Join Live Show:https://youtube.com/live/Q8XYAHIkIio

As Abroad in Japan live shows are rather fast paced and full of questions, I want to make sure you guys are able to get your questions prioritised - especially as I’m sure many of you may not be able to make it due to the time (it kicks off around 11:00am Japan time).

With that in mind, please send me and Ryotaro your questions down in the comments below with the hashtags #AskAbroad just so I can filter through them easily and I’ll do my best to answer as many possible during the show and put them to the man himself.

I Stayed in Japan's BIGGEST Hot Spring VS. Ghost Town
🍿 Watch:https://youtu.be/Zzpu24JveJs

TODAY we’ve just released a Wacky Weekend set in Miyazaki, Kyushu, an often overlooked part of Japan that I’d always wanted to explore. In what’s one of our longest episodes yet, we explore an eerie ghost town, destroy my camera in Japan’s most picturesque gorge, eat the most stressful noodle dish ever, and wander around a ridiculously themed love hotel.

Given all the crazy things we packed into this episode, we had to cut a few key scenes out including an awesome chicken restaurant and an abandoned treehouse - BUT the good news is, you’ll be able to see those on the Patreon behind the scenes video out later in the week!

As well as the Wacky Weekend tonight, we have the accompanying Chris Abroad video where Connor stayed in an absurd accommodation in Beppu - Japan’s largest hot spring town - which will be coming out tomorrow (I wanted to stagger things a bit).

And THEN, at the start of this week we have yet another video, where Sharla and I went and spent 48 hours in Japan’s most “unattractive” prefecture. But WHERE is it? See if you can guess…

On the subject of Wacky Weekend, Connor and I are just one week away from embarking on our next Wacky Weekend Cycle Special following on from last September’s hugely successful Hokkaido Cycleathon where we somehow raised $300,000 for charity and survived 8 days of continuous cycling (with an average of around 100km a day).

I hope I’m in good enough shape to pull this off a second time around, but I’m really excited about the location of this series given that it’s a perfect circle around the island of Kyushu!

On my original Journey Across Japan I was rather sick on the final days of the cycle and ended up cutting a few videos from the series as I completely failed in my role as a presenter. It was a shame given how spectacular Kyushu is and I’m delighted to revisit this stunning part of Japan once again and hopefully do it justice this time around!

As well as streaming everyday on Connor’s Twitch and Pete Premier Two’s Twitch for the second half, I’ll be filming another special episode for Abroad in Japan so FEAR NOT if you can’t catch the stream. All the best bits will still feature in the hour long special.

Expect to hear more about the series later in the week!

AND NOW for the long awaited diary entry from the final day of Journey Across Japan: Frozen Frontiers.

EPISODE 4 | Journey Across Japan: Frozen Frontiers

There’s one thing I’ve wanted to do in Hokkaido more than any other - ride the ice breaking ship Aurora across the sea of Okhotsk and witness the endless ocean of drift ice that sweeps down the sea from Siberia.

So imagine my frustration when we hopped aboard the Aurora on the ONE DAY, the ONE BLOODY DAY that there was absolutely no drift ice.

For me it was the biggest disappointment of the trip, as pleasant as the boat was. Weirdly, it was still absolutely packed with tourists eager to catch a glimpse of the ice and sure enough, we did indeed collide with one block of ice, in the most absurd scene committed to video.

In the empty sea, there was one solitary piece of ice floating calmly across the sea, when the Aurora turned around, carefully oriented itself and then drove head on into the ice, smashing it to bits in front of a cheering crowd of passengers.

The underwhelming hilarity almost overrode the bitter disappointment. Still Natsuki, Pete and Joey had a whale of a time and that’s all that matters.

Next up we visited Abashiri Prison, Japan’s most isolated and notorious 19th/20th century prison. A sort of Alcatraz but instead of being on an island, it’s on a remote corner of Hokkaido that spends half the year drenched in snow and formidable weather conditions.

The prison was impressive, but it was the story of the one convict who ever successful escaped that truly blew us away. 

SPOILERS. A farmer who’d been convicted of a crime that he’d never committed (ah yes, that old chestnut), would pour his salty miso soup on the metal bars of his prison cell and on to his handcuffs, every single day for a year.

UNTIL eventually, one day, he was able to break through the rusted chains, break through the bars on his cell door and climb through the ceiling of the ward to freedom. It’s an epic story that demands a Shawshank Redemption style movie and I look forward to sharing it in the video!

En route to our log cain accommodation in Furano, we swung by a small local town snow festival with a spectacular sculpture and an unnerving crab monument in one of the most bizarre stops of our entire trip.

But it was the log cabin that stole the show; a huge, sprawling home complete with a bar, a dressing room that looked straight out of the opening scene of the movie Joker, and a table big enough for a ferocious game of poker.

The next morning was the final day of our trip and we finally got around to ice fishing, on a stunning lake in the heart of Hokkaido.

After a few setbacks, we were soon able to catch a ton of fish which we promptly battered in tempura and ate in celebration at the end of another trip well done.

Journey Across Japan: Frozen Frontiers was a ton of fun to shoot (far less painful than the Okinawa series) and airs late March! It was an absolute blast discovering a side of Hokkaido you never normally see and I'm looking forward to sharing the four part series with you all soon.

A BIG THANK YOU guys for your support as it made the whole series possible and free of any ads/sponsors (which is always nice).

As always each episode will have an exclusive Patreon behind the scenes episode with outtakes, bloopers and deleted scenes!

Now enjoy Wacky Weekend and don’t forget to send us your questions guys!
Chris