JOURNEY Across Japan: Escape to Paradise 🏝️ PATREON Diary - Day 4 & 5 🍺 Trapped in Okinawa's Best Hotel with Dr Jelly

Before I get into today’s diary entry guys, I mentioned last week that as a brand new perk on Patreon, we’d be launching slick itineraries showing where we stayed on our trips.

I’m pleased to announce the first one today, showing where Connor and I stayed on our recent road trip through central Japan to see the Snow Monkeys. You can find it attached at the bottom of this post in PDF!

ALSO tomorrow, I’ll be releasing a Patreon Exclusive Official Trailer for Journey Across Japan: Escape to Paradise, a full TWO WEEKS ahead of the public release.

Honestly, it might just be the most ridiculous video I’ve ever edited, so brace yourselves.

But before that though, let's dive into our Okinawa diary once more and see what chaos lies in store...

DAY 4

For better or worse, every Journey Across Japan series has one challenge that permeates every season. The begrudging revival of a character that we should have long forgotten by now.

ALAS, this morning we popped open the challenge capsule to reveal, one last time, that we faced the daunting task of another Dr Jelly commercial. And having seen Dr Jelly sell energy jelly, hand gel and hair gel in the previous series, this time a new product was in order.

But having spent the first few days of our trip experiencing Okinawa’s beautiful waters, from snorkelling through coral and colourful fish to jumping off of a private yacht moored of an island, today we traded the sea for the mountains and jungle-like surroundings of rural Okinawa.

However rather than drive through the mountains by car, we discovered a far more fun way to get around and appreciate our surroundings; Quad Bikes.

I won’t lie, I was quietly dreading the idea of Natsuki tearing his way through a forest on a quad bike. I had flashbacks to Natsuki: The Movie where he almost snapped his head off in a wind tunnel, and as he roared through the landscape singing “Welcome to the Jungle”, I was half expecting another trip to an acupuncture clinic.

Thank god, nothing went wrong - with only one near miss that almost ended in disaster.
The highlight of the quad bikes was undoubtedly the time trial where Natsuki, Joey and I fought it out to see who could beat the track the fastest, the results of which you’ll have to see in the video. (Though spoilers, Natsuki wasn’t too happy at how it turned out).

Exhausted and sunburnt so bad I felt like I’d been held over a flame grill, we retreated to some special accommodation that I’d booked for the day.

Having stayed in a treehouse and an authentic Okinawan home, tonight I’d lined up a villa house complete with a swimming pool - accommodation that boldly claimed to be the best place to stay in Okinawa when I reserved it.

It turned out the hotel wasn’t exaggerating. This place was quite possibly my favourite place we’ve ever stayed in a Journey Across Japan episode and all I wanted to do was stop the cameras rolling and just enjoy it. I wanted nothing more than to break the rules and sit in a sun lounger and fall asleep.

Instead, our luxurious accommodation would become the backdrop to the most stressful evening I think I’ve ever had, as we hastily shot and produced a Dr Jelly commercial, cementing my hatred for the character once and for all.

I won't reveal what Dr Jelly's product was this time around but feel free to guess!
- Also it was also the most sinister Dr Jelly appearance to date.

The main takeaway from the shoot was, never shoot a commercial outdoors, where you can’t control the light easily. As we battled our way through the shoot, desperately trying to finish before sun down, I nearly lost my mind.

Thankfully, I think we were just about to pull it off.
Now let us never speak of Dr Jelly again.

DAY 5
(Ishigaki pictured above)

Today was more of a transit day so it was slightly less intense than the previous days of yachts, buggies and snorkelling.

Leaving behind the villa was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in recent memory. It was quite honestly one of the best places I’d ever stayed and all I wanted to do was to sit in the pool all day drinking gin.

But this is Journey Across Japan and relaxation is rarely on the agenda and so instead of sitting in the pool, we got up early and headed off to Naha airport where we flew one hour south to the island of Ishigaki and the second part our trip.

I mentioned previously how Okinawa felt fairly different from mainland Japan due to its architecture and shimmering seas, but here in Ishigaki, it felt almost like we’d left for an island in south east Asia.

Gone were Japan’s perfectly mapped out rice fields, in favour of a chaotically luscious landscape with palm trees dotting every road and untouched coastlines devoid of the usual concrete seawalls Japan is synonymous for. Just looking out of the plane window I knew we were in for a treat.

Though we landed pretty late, one of the first things we did was eat Okinawa soba, a dish made up of bright yellow noodles, mouthwateringly tender pork and a rich salty broth. It was quite comfortably the best dish we had on our entire trip.

Our accommodation for the night couldn’t have been further away from the slick villa surroundings of the previous episode, as we crammed into a small albeit pretty awesome beach house overlooking the sea near Kabira Bay - said to be the most stunning bay in all of Japan. We may not have had a private pool, but Ishigaki’s scenery certainly made up for it.

As the sunset I looked across the sea in terror knowing that in the next couple of days we’d be joined by the personification of evil himself.

As you’ll see in the last few days of the trip, we enjoyed the biggest highs (quite literally) and lows of the trip in Ishigaki - something to which Ryotaro bared a degree of responsibility.

THE LAST DIARY ENTRY for Day 6 and 7 will be out out tomorrow along with the TRAILER for JAJ: Escape to Paradise! Stay tuned guys.

Previous diary: https://www.patreon.com/posts/journey-across-3-65537917