JOURNEY ACROSS JAPAN: FROZEN FRONTIER ❄️ Day 1: Dogs, Igloos and Ice ❄️ (Patreon Diary)

FIRST OFF guys!

I want to say a big thank you to all the kind words regarding my engagement to Sharla. It means a lot and I’ve been genuinely moved by how amazing everyone has been about it all! If you want to find out how the proposal didn’t go according to plan at first (thank you British weather), I recommend checking out the most recent Abroad in Japan Podcast episode!

I’m pleased to say filming the latest series of Journey Across Japan series is now finally over and it all went rather well - over the course of the week we travelled by dog sled, steam train and ice breaker ship on an 800km expedition around the east side of Hokkaido.

It’s a region that none of us had ever explored before, which is wild given how often we’ve shot videos in Japan’s largest prefecture! But Sapporo, Hakodate, Noboribetsu Spring and even Wakkanai reside on the west side of the island with the far east separated by several mountain ranges.

Joining us on this journey we also had Pete Premier Two who took Anpanman’s place as a challenge master figure and he brought a hilarious new angle to the trip.

Here’s the first entry in Journey Across Japan Patreon Diary covering the first episode of four, from Journey Across Japan: Frozen Frontiers!

DAY 1: A Song of Ice and Dog Sleds

Hokkaido was once home to the Ainu people, an indigenous population that has mostly disappeared sadly. But there are traces around that we planned to film on our trip.

On our first day we travelled by around using the traditional dog sled favoured by the Ainu. Rocketing across fields of snow in the morning sun on dog sled was quite the experience, with Joey on the back guiding the sled and me on the front trying to film it.

It quickly transpired that my faith in Joey had been sorely misplaced when he took a corner too sharply, causing us both to fly off into the snow, while the dogs simply carried on without us. (Luckily we captured the whole disaster on 360 camera).

Next up we visited some real life igloos nestled on a frozen lake, while Joey and Natsuki incinerated their feet in a natural hot spring foot bath.

But the aim of our first day was to explore an entire village made of ice - somewhere I’ve always wanted to go.

Drinking cocktails out of a block of ice was surprisingly pleasant, even though it’s practically impossible to hold the damn thing without gloves.

We even watched an Australian tourist eating his ice glass in the corner of the bar, just like Australians do.
 

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the ice village was the convenience store, selling food and drink. However, given it was in a frozen igloo, all of the drinks had frozen accordingly as well.

While some may think that’s pretty cool (literally, teehee) for the most part it was straight up fucking impractical. Dying for a bottle of water, I realised there was little point in buying one and waiting an hour for it to thaw out.
 

Worryingly Pete and Natsuki nearly burned the village down when Pete dropped his flaming marshmallow.

One of the highlights of our first day was the accommodation itself - to fit the whole team in, we booked a huge room overlooking a ski resort, with a Las Vegas style bathtub and sauna IN the room itself.

Escaping the cold and immersing ourselves in the tub, it was the perfect end to a great first day of snow, igloos and ice. At least it would have been if Natsuki and Joey let me in the bloody bath.

TUNE in tomorrow folks for the next diary entry on Journey Across Japan: Frozen Frontiers! It may well be my favourite day of the trip...

(Also: This may have been my favourite shot of the day!)