The most beautiful village in Japan - Rural Life in Asia

Hello, good afternoon. Welcome back to another video. Dave and I have just arrived at this beautiful village, Bie, in Hokkaido. This is dubbed as one of the most beautiful villages in Japan. That's a... that's quite a statement, but... I mean, it was very beautiful. We got the bus in this morning and we just arrived at this little place that you found, didn't you? And we got a room here. It's like a shared house. We've been thinking that we want to experience a bit more Japanese rural areas, staying in Japanese homestays. It's been lovely. Yeah. Just the quietness and yeah, the rural side of Japan, really. So we've got probably about three and a half, four hours till the sunset, so I think we're just gonna spend today exploring the village. Yeah. See what's around. So our host has given us two of these bikes. She said, ah, it's just an old bike, and I thought, this doesn't look like an old bike. Perhaps the standard of Japanese people are quite high when it's not pristine or electric bike. It's considered as an old bike, but that's the fun bit. You work out all the food that you've eaten so far in this Hokkaido island. That looks pretty. On to the centre of Biei, and I think it's quieter. So after a quick pit stop for lunch, a late lunch, it's now three o'clock and we're going to try and get to some flower fields, which is like a 30 minute ride. Ready? Yay! We're just stopping over to double check the route, but there's this playground behind me. I don't know if you can see, and some kids are playing. I just think it's always nice to see kids playing outside, having fun with no worry. It's so pretty, isn't it? Feels a bit like a dream come true, cycling in a Japanese countryside with the autumn leaves and a beautiful afternoon. This is a little bit of a climb. Golden hour, this. Not so much on my leg, not very golden. You can do it. No, it's a different muscle. And also the height of this bike is not suitable for me. It's too short, because obviously this belongs to the host daughter. Therefore, if I like cycle it, it's just so uncomfortable. We just swapped bikes, because I just couldn't with that one. It's too short. Now Dave is cycling it and it's even shorter for him. Oh dear. Beautiful. Konnichiwa. It's getting dark, hey? So we thought, you know, I thought personally, I do not want to cycle down, only to cycle up, just to see a sad sunflower field. And as much as I would like to be an adventurous girl, I'm quite tired. So I'll be more than happy to head back. Let's go. I need the toilet. What is a travel day without a toilet day? No. Run, run, run, run, run. Pedaling faster. Chilly, getting chilly. Cold. We're back at the Japanese guest house that we've been staying at. Matsumi Nasato in Bie village. But we specifically asked to order a dinner and I've never been so speechless, guys. Can you see the beautiful spread of Japanese meal that we have been prepared for? It comes with so many different intricates and textures and colors and it all comes from their own garden. Look at this beautiful tomatoes. Oh my god. So pretty. Such rich deep color. We've got some aubergine over here with some soy sauce. We've got some spring roll with fresh prawn. A bit of sauce over there. We've got the mains, which is I think chicken with some fresh tomato sauce and salad. And what's important is actually the Japanese steamed rice. Oh, look at that texture. Bon appétit. Excited? Good morning from Bie. We are walking towards the bus station because we're trying to catch a bus towards this blue pond natural attraction. And it's one of the most popular things to do because the blue pond is so clear. It was once featured on Apple actually. Oh, really? Yeah. Anyway, we've got about 20 minutes until the bus arrives and about one and a half kilometers to go. So let's go. So we've arrived at the bus stop. How cute is this? The bus stop actually was established in the 1994. How do I know? Well, they tell that this 1994. I don't know if you can see that. It's just a tiny little cute bus stop. We've arrived at the blue pond, which initially I thought would be quite serene and tucked into the nature a bit. A bit more like out of the way. To my surprise, it's actually very accessible because to my left is a car park and to my right is the blue pond itself. We've got a plan. So the first thing that we'll be doing is to walk around the pond because it is still beautiful. And the second bit will be hiking slightly, probably towards the national park and passing through a waterfall. We'll see. We'll see how our legs are doing. Shirogane blue pond, which is what I am standing in front of, is beautiful, especially during autumn. Obviously, it creates this contrast color between the leaves and the pond itself. And what's interesting about this, this was an accident. It was created by an accident due to the landslide. And then aluminum seeped into it, makes the water become really like this crystal blue. Wow, look at these cute dogs. How fluffy. Obviously, we are not the only one who would like to enjoy this pond because as you can see, lots of people. Such a pretty, pretty photo actually. To me personally, the most atmospheric bit of this pond is the dead trees because it's like a contrast to life where because of the aluminum, trees cannot actually survive on this water. But because of the distinct color and the dead trees, I don't know, it makes it even more like mysterious for some reason. I think we should probably leave now and go to the waterfall, which I think is three kilometers. Which actually is the source of this water pond. So yeah, hopefully we'll get some stunning views along the way. As part of a touristy experience, I've purchased two types of blue colored food. I've actually bought a blue pork bun. So you got pork filling. The other one that I bought is actually a bit more sweeter. So for 500 yen, I got four pieces of blue donut. They look green on camera. I mean, to be fair, this is more fun than actually nutritious. But when you are in a blue pond in bay, why not join in the fun? Look at this autumn color, so stunning. We are here at Shirahige waterfalls, which was created by a volcanic eruptions. I thought it would be just like another tourist destination, but it is actually really beautiful with the color. It's so pristine and if you can see also some of the mountains surrounding it. It's funny, you'd think that like you'd have to hike to get to these places. The town is there and the waterfall is here. Just right here. There is no challenge. There is no challenge to get this view though, which is a bit sad for me. Native to Hokkaido island. What is that? So speechless. He was so unafraid of us. Do you think he has seen a lot of humans? Thank you so much for watching our entire series from Japan and specifically from Hokkaido island. Yeah, we had so much fun traveling around this island and although we didn't see like the main touristy sites that I guess most people go to the first time they come, I think I'm really happy we came to Hokkaido. It's such a nice area. Yeah, it's been like an interesting first time experience in this beautiful and unique country and it sort of creates this understanding that each country has such a distinct distinctive character and I think Japan in itself is very like distinctively different. Very organized, very kind people but very reserved and obviously beautiful nature as well. So let us know what you think down in the comment section below. If you haven't watched from the first episode, please make sure to do so and yeah, can't wait to see on the next series. We'll be from Taiwan! See you again next time! Bye!