JOURNEY Across Japan: Escape to Fuji | DAY 3 - Private Hot Spring & Dr Jelly Returns (Patreon)

We all knew his comeback was inevitable...

Journey Across Japan | PATREON Diary (Day 3)

As the third day of our journey kicked off, we awoke in our remote alpine log cabin in Toyama to discover a family of monkeys moping around. It was all rather ironic and bittersweet, given our failed attempts yesterday to see the monkeys at the Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano.

ALAS, our drive today was to take us through the heart of the Japan Alps, from Toyama to Takayama in Gifu - one of my favourite cities in Japan.

And as our drive was about to get under way we cracked open a challenge capsule to reveal our challenge of the day: to shoot a sequel to Dr Jelly.

Hardly surprising given the suggestion seemed to make up almost half of the 5,000 challenge submissions sent in by viewers! But how to approach the iconic hero from an original and contemporary angle remained a hurdle.

As we arrived in beautiful Takayama city and walked the historic Edo era merchant streets, we grabbed some sticks of the local Hida Wagyu beef.

Typically a steak would cost around 8,000yen ($80), but at a street stall you can get a skewer of the tender, juicy, buttery beef for just 1,000 yen ($10). Still pricey, but a lot more accessible than the full wallet-shattering price of a full steak.

Still, I could have done with more.

After enjoying our Hida Wagyu, we stumbled into the local 1950's museum (known as the Showa-kan). 

There's a lot of nostalgia around the post-war era in Japan, given the country quickly rebuilt itself from the ashes of WW2 into a prosperous nation once more.

And museums such as this are commonplace, packed full of memorabilia and recreations of living rooms, schools and even a restaurant.

I can't possibly spoil the sequel to the first Dr Jelly commercial, suffice to say we put Natsuki's alcoholic hand jelly to good use this time around, as a substitute for energy jelly.

And we certainly put the recreation of a 1950's diner to good use as well!

Leaving Takayama behind we finished our day at Gero hot spring, one of Japan top three hot spring resorts, where we managed to snag a room with a private hot spring!

But not just any hot spring - an actual hollowed out 1,000 year old log!

We also had a good chance to introduce Ryokan culture as well.

- By eating it all.

Between the traditional streets of Takayama, the Dr Jelly commercial and a stay at a traditional inn with a 1,000 year log, for me personally this was the best day of the trip so far.

It made a welcome change from forgotten quarries, creepy statues and abandoned love hotels!

Join me here again tomorrow for the next chapter of Journey Across Japan, as we finally arrive at the base of Mount Fuji and maybe, just maybe, get our first view of the mountain.

(Bloody unlikely given there's a typhoon. ARGH).

Chris

P.S. New Abroad in Japan video out tomorrow! Keep an eye out.