JOURNEY Across Japan: Escape to Paradise 🏝️ PATREON Diary - Day 1 & 2 🌶️ Pain in Paradise

So FIRST off guys, a big thank you for all the birthday wishes.
As off yesterday I’m 32 years old…and bloody hell just typing that out for the first time has let it sink in that I’m now one year older.

ALAS! It’s the 10 year anniversary of Abroad in Japan this year and we still have everything to play for. I’m utterly hell bent on making this the best year yet and to that effect, I’m delighted to announce shooting Journey Across Japan: Escape to Paradise has been a success so far. - Er...well almost.

You may have seen on various social media posts that I perforated my right eardrum while filming one of the videos, effectively making me deaf in my right ear for the near future. To call it a painful experience was an understatement. Honestly, I haven’t felt that much pain since I broke my wrist or sat through a Ryotaro’s Japan video.

Hopefully it should heal in the coming months though and in a few days time, I’ll reveal how it happened on an upcoming diary post.

But without further ado, let’s dive into the Patreon Diary from Journey Across Japan 4, where I’ll be chronicling what went down on each and everyday of our trip (complete with photos).

And next week, I look forward to sharing with you guys a Patreon exclusive look at the trailer for the series, several weeks before it’s released publicly!

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DAY ONE & TWO
Flying into Okinawa direct from Sendai feels like flying into another country.
The moment you catch sight of Okinawa and the islands, everything about it looks completely different. From the striking turquoise seas and white sandy beaches, to the abundance of palm trees and luscious vegetation and even the buildings themselves, which seem to rely far more on concrete than the mainland.

Joey, myself, Ian the driver and Marcus the cameraman arrived in Okinawa a day before Natsuki and booked a "treehouse" accommodation at the far north of the island in a beautiful bay, far away from the hustle and bustle of the downtown city of Naha.

I’d hoped to kick off the video in the treehouse, but upon arrival we discovered there were only two beds in the room (even though it’d advertised four). Worse still, as the treehouse was situated in what was essentially a jungle, the room was infested with enough creatures to start a mediocre zoo.

Having slept poorly the night before, I opted to abandon ship and stay in a nearby hotel along with Ian, while Joey and Marcus stayed in the treehouse in the comfort of their spider mattresses.

Fortunately, neither of them were phased with the presence of insects which made me feel a lot less guilty when Ian and I escaped into the night, leaving them in their adventurous accommodation. And while the treehouse won't feature in the series, it'll certainly appear on the Patreon behind the scenes episodes! You'll get to see it in all its glory.

The next morning before Natsuki arrived, Joey and I decided to get acquainted with the seas of Okinawa and headed off to go snorkelling in a bay that felt like the setting of Finding Nemo. No sooner had we plunged under water, we were greeted by dozens of friendly fish, which felt utterly surreal and dare I say, even magical. That was until I got bitten by several fish, prompting me to hop on the boat and make a hasty escape, lest I end up as literal fish food.

We landed back on shore to be met by an excited Natsuki, where our challenge for the day was revealed, which I won’t spoil, suffice it to say the three of us ended up running around downtown Naha, each on a quest of our own to complete in 30 minutes.

That evening, after two years since our last encounter, we met up with our good friend Chiaki!

Born and raised in Okinawa, she’d moved to London and ended up becoming the biggest Japanese Youtuber in the UK. We'd last hung out on our trip to the Sapporo Snow festival in 2020, where I’d nearly killed her and Natsuki with the Hot Sauce from First We Feast’s Hot Ones. (Much to my amusement and the almost 2 million people who watched the video: https://youtu.be/o1-fQzpfw4U ).

But we were very lucky to be in Okinawa at the precise time she was home from the UK for the first time in 2 years!

However, not so lucky for me, it seems time hadn't healed old wounds and Chiaki hadn't forgotten the hot sauce nightmare she'd endured in Sapporo.

And so after we'd been invited into her home and had a pleasant dinner with her parents, she sprung the hottest sauce in the world upon me. The ultimate revenge.

In fact, it wasn’t so much a sauce as some kind of horrific industrial paste that came in at 9 million scovilles. (9x times spicier than a Ghost pepper). 

I knew we were screwed when we had to unravel it from three different boxes and truthfully the only way I got through it was watching Natsuki and Joey suffer along side me.

Suffice to say, our pleasant dinner and relatively laid back first day ended with a great deal of pain all round.

All in all, it was a fun "warm up" day, before the trip really got under way on day three…  

And so begins Journey Across Japan: Escape to Paradise!
Now let us never speak of spicy foods ever again.