Dustin Williams Video: Living Like a Samurai in Japan for a Day | Japan in a Van Ep. 6 – Aizuwakamatsu

Dustin Williams Video Transcript

Thank you Foreign Good morning guys welcome back to Japan in a van we say goodbye to our friends got to enjoy a nice morning here at DACA Onsen and now it’s time to finally head out to our next adventure which is one that I’ve personally been waiting for this entire trip we’re heading out to a

Remote part of Fukushima called Izu wakamatsu the reason why I’m so excited for this adventure is because Izu walk Matsu is known as the city of the Samurai welcome to Japan in a van episode six thank you Lucky for me NBC was right on the other side of the mountains from Izu it was a relatively quick one and a half hour drive Izu is a city surrounded by mountains it’s a castle town and the interior of the Fukushima prefecture known for its Samurai traditions

Towards the end of Japan’s feudal era the Izu Clan remained loyal to the Shogun even after the feudal leader was removed from power as a result the town became the battleground of the boshin war in 1868. As soon as you enter eyes you you can get a sense of how old and how much tradition is in this city In 500 meters turn left our first location is going to take us somewhere of great importance to Samurai’s history Welcome to Izu wakamatsu we have a ton of ground to cover today not necessarily driving wise but exploration wise like I told you guys Izu walk Matsu is just pouring over with tradition culture and history and I’m so excited to take you guys along today is going to be absolutely awesome

Okay so we’re starting our adventure here out at izumakumatsu at surugajo Castle which is especially important because it is one of the final strongholds of the Samurai aside from the beautiful scenery around the castle suduga castle has a strong story to tell sudigajo Castle was built

More than 600 years ago in the original Stone base and fortification still stand today it was destroyed after the beauchin war of 1868 a rebellion against the newly formed Meiji government which had taken over control from the Tokugawa Shogun and put an end to Japan’s feudal

Era the surigaja castle was one of the final strongholds of the Samurai loyal to the Shogun You can actually make it all the way up to the castle and get an incredible view of aizu wakamatsu usually there’s an exhibit inside or you can get some of the Samurai’s history but unfortunately it was closed foreign Castle but the park was beautiful as well the surrounding moat and stone

Walls which previously served as defensive purposes for the castle add to the samurai atmosphere of the park man that was absolutely beautiful now unfortunately they are supposed to have like a samurai like exhibit thing going on inside the castle Unfortunately they were doing renovation so it wasn’t no

But nonetheless it’s cool that we actually got to come here and see one of the last remaining Samurai strongholds Oh man the architecture here is absolutely beautiful like what I had pictured in my head for town for city of the Samurai like this is like this is what I would this is what I would have thought of mountains everywhere traditional Japanese buildings everywhere cherry blossoms huge Samurai castles absolutely

Incredible next up our adventure takes us to a place called emodia Hill and like I said this is especially a sacred spot for the samurai because of the store that this place has to tell foreign Get up to the site you have to climb around 190 stairs to get up to the hill what’s on top of the hill and what happened on the hill is why this place is so important so the Morty Hill stands to tell a story of the biakatai which means White Tiger

Force this was a group of over 300 teenage Samurai of the Izu domain oh Before you reach the top of the hill you’re met with the temple Izu cesado this was constructed by a priest named ikudo built using traditional Japanese woodwork It’s truly amazing to see this structure in person when you enter in you’ll hear the building Creak as you make the spiraling Journey up and down its construction is so unique that those going up will never meet others going back down [Applause] This is pretty incredible [Applause] Foreign Now this is where the story gets interesting the byakatai were sons of Izu Samurai teenage boys that were 16 or 17 years old they were subdivided by rank in the domain’s samurai population with two squads from the situ or upper Rank and two from the Yori are middle Rank and

Two from the lowest rank in October the Izu were abandoned by the other Northern domain as the pro-imperial forces laid Siege to sagura castle at the height of the battle 20 members of the second situ Squad were cut off from the rest of their unit the young boys retreated to

Lamori Hill which overlooked the castle town when the boys got a vantage point they saw what looked like the castle to be on fire believing their lord and families would be dead they committed seppuku ritual suicide one of the boys lenumo said ikichi survived the suicide

Attempt when he was found and saved by his Samurai’s wife it is only through him that the story of The Honorable piakotai lives on thank you well that was pretty amazing next up I think it’s time for some lunch I’m gonna climb down all these stairs

As I was leaving it I found this little stand and this is something called Manju it’s a Izu wakamatsu like sweet find here it’s like fried Mochi I guess looks looks pretty interesting I figured since we’re here it’s specific to eyes you might as well try it

Everyone’s got red bean paste in it too that’s super good say first R34 exciting in Japan since I’ve been here almost almost nine days ten days This is a special Masa recommendation so I’m also it’s perfectly good this is a specific type of ramen two eyes so it should be pretty good look at that this looks absolutely awesome Foreign Oh That was so good but now I’m so full guitar Ramen 10 out of 10. you guys think Samurai’s ate Ramen back in the day we’re gonna continue living like a samurai today and we’re actually gonna go to a samurai house like a house that was owned by Samurai so we’re gonna

Go check that out see how and what it looked like where samurais actually lived that’s pretty cool Foreign residence where I took a tour through the whole thing and see how they actually lived this is gonna be so cool I’m so stoked such like a samurai nerd I love it this Izu Samurai residence served as the quarters of the Region’s most important and highest ranked Samurai as well as

His family employees and servants the original Samurai house was actually burnt down during the bushimorn 1868 but what we’re seeing right here is the residence since it’s been reconstructed and furnished replicates appearance in the Edo period because of the importance of the Samurai and the sizes regime the samurai residence is quite expansive

There are so many different rooms and sections to look at Gardens guest rooms tea house and archery range which we’ll visit later and a rice as you can see throughout the room there are mannequins and props portraying what it was like back in the samurai days Sing all the rooms in the props in the resonance itself really makes you wonder what daily life was like back then foreign What do you guys think I think I’m just gonna turn our turn our home into a to a samurai samurai Palace there’s a samurai bow yard we’re doing it hi okay up fruit Bigfoot oh Foreign Let’s see I think we’ll get I think Tiano likes a little lucky cat bye-bye that was amazing officially called to his success living like a samurai in Japan for a day I went to Samurai archery school and got a bullseye that was so great gotta be kidding me Godzilla sake oh my God

Well we’re taking this home oh okay now absolutely none of that was planned but that was absolutely amazing today we’ve seen some pretty amazing locations and experienced some very old traditions but there’s one last place I want to visit before we end our day in aizu wakamatsu all right well

We’ve pretty much completed everything that I really wanted to do today and I as you all want to accept for actually going into the mountains uh Mount Bandai is close and I was I really wanted to actually Camp there but I missed the campsites opening by four

Days today’s the 22nd they open the 26th so fortunately no campsite tonight but that’s okay because we actually found a little local waterfall you guys know that I love my waterfalls I figured it is almost four so not quite time yet to go get dinner which I have something

Super good planned for dinner um so I figured we’d go walk the waterfall I might go see melt limori one more time just to catch it at sunsets I feel like being that high up in the city will be beautiful and then we’ll go grab some dinner but let’s go see if this

Waterfall is cool for this mini Adventure we’re heading to takizawafuta waterfall and izuokamatsu this fall was used by villagers and samurais to pray at for good luck during the war this fall definitely has one of the most beautiful interesting touring entrances I’ve ever seen It’s pretty amazing foreign So it’s even cooler that the Samurais came here pray for good luck history and the culture here is always mind-blowing time to head back to the van one I told you guys I wanted to come back one more time before sunset to see the city look at this absolutely beautiful

Not a bad way to end the day the entire city from here absolutely beautiful I thought this would be the perfect end to our day so Izu is not only known for their Ramen but they’re known for giant massive katsu sauce this is insane this is the biggest

Costume ever had in Hawaii making me insane wake me up just for reference to my face oh my God here we go This might be the best the best meal I’ve ever had in Japan Oh my God I need to save her every night all right that’s unbelievable oh that’s all I had to me I couldn’t do the rice but the katsu was phenomenal Good news there’s a combini right there so we’re gonna run to combini grab some water snacks and then head to the hotel that’s kind of wild snacks acquired I don’t know if I told you guys this yet but tomorrow is our last day of Japan in a van it’s like really bittersweet

I’m so excited to get back to Tokyo get back to my 34 and honestly go home and see Tiana and Sparco we have three days back in Tokyo and then get to go home and we have a very very big surprise for you guys playing when I get home but I

Am so ready to be back at my own house with Tiana with sparkle but also living out of this van traveling Japan has been the coolest and best thing I’ve ever done in my entirety I don’t want to get too similar right now it’s like starting starting to kind of sink in that

We’re not going to be doing Japan in advance anymore and it went by so fast anyways what I was getting to was the reason why I wanted to tell you guys that is because we have another four and a half hour drive tomorrow all the way

Down to Mount Fuji from here at Izu wakamatsu so I wanted to get some snacks for the road trip all right quick little hotel check we are staying in for typical very tiny City Japanese hotel room ending our night out here at the hotel doing some

Work oh my God this has been like the longest the the longest shortest nine days of my life like it felt like it went by like this but my body in my mind just feels so exhausted from all the constant travel and exploring and adventuring I mean it’s been freaking amazing we’ve gone

City after City doing as much as we can cram into one day and it’s just been so much fun and I honestly can’t believe it’s actually coming to an end tomorrow so so so far we’ve we’ve started all the way up in Hokkaido I made it all the way

Down to Izu okamotsu and then tomorrow we have our last big jump which is going to be about four hours from Izu arakuriyama sengen park near Mount Fuji which is going to be absolutely beautiful you guys have probably seen the pictures before but it’s got a really beautiful Shrine overlooks Mount

Fuji and I’m really excited to take you guys to I thought that would be an excellent spot for us to end our halfway trip through the entire country of Japan and I’m really hoping that you guys enjoy this please let me know in the comments below because I would love to

Actually do a part two and this time be able to take Tiana Tiana actually works full-time so she wasn’t able to come on this trip because we have a couple more trips planned throughout the year that she couldn’t take that much time off work for but next year I love to plan

When she can actually come and give a trip with me because it was truly amazing and the next one would be going from the opposite very bottom huge area up to Mount Fuji and probably do that during summer time so that everything’s open I’m actually beginning to edit

Right here I’m going to do a little bit of work and get some sleep gets much needed sleep because I’m exhausted and I’m gonna go into a food combos the food today was amazing that’s another thing I didn’t really ever talk about is how how all the food was because we tried all

Kinds of different food from every area that we travel to and there’s all just absolutely incredible I mean everything about the trip so I wanted an adventure and I definitely got what I asked for through all the ups and downs the turns the unexpectedness I mean it was

Absolutely incredible and I really do feel like I got what I wanted out of this trip and and that was to be uncomfortable and learn to and learn to be okay with that Uncle and learn to be okay with it uncomfortability I don’t know it was

Just really good so I’m gonna go and end today’s video here and thank you guys so much for watching today make sure if you guys have not already hit that subscribe button never miss an episode also leave me a like and a comment down below if

You guys enjoyed and I’ll see all of you for the last and final episode of Japan in advance tomorrow Thank you