I am in Tono right now

I've decided to come to this farming village

It's actually a reconstruction of a traditional farming village

I thought it would be really cool to see because I've never experienced anything like that

This place is called Tono Furusato Mura

It's about a 25 minute drive from the station I would say

I'll put all the instructions on how to get here down below

I just arrived, and we're gonna go check out some of the buildings now

Here's a map of the place, it's pretty large actually

So this is where we arrived

And we're just headed up to this place up here

Apparently they have some horses in these buildings

And I'm gonna be making some traditional crafts a little later on today

Some other stuff to see here

And we're also going to be eating some traditional food from Iwate

Which I am really looking forward to!

It just started snowing! So that's interesting...

It's not bad, as long as it doesn't rain I'll be happy

They've given me some cute pink boots to wear

so that I can walk through the snow

These houses are bigger than houses nowadays

So a few hundred years ago these would have

been considered gigantic

All right let's go inside!

There's dolls in here... oh there's a little writeup about them

Look at it, check it out! That's huge!

Wonder what they use it for

Is this what I think it is...

Well this is interesting...

It's lucky I guess?

Okay let's read about it

"Straw Dolls"

This is a male

Yeah we uh... noticed that

There used to be a female doll too apparently

but it somehow became just the male

These dolls protect you from sickness

So people would pray to them for health

And put money in the...

Exactly

So these buildings actually aren't reconstructed

They moved them here from their original places

That's really cool

Smokey in here

Good morning

We're going to see the horse now, there's a horse in here apparently!

Hello

So cute

Umagama: Used for heating water for the horses

This is an old bathtub

The beginning of the Showa Period is when they used these

We're just gonna walk around now and look for some more horses

and check out the other buildings and see what they have in there

Wow

It's huge!

I think this is the one they told us was 17-18 years old

That's apparently around 70 in human years

It's so big! I've never seen such a big horse!

I guess you guys can't really tell how big it is but it's huge

Look at the view! Isn't that beautiful?

All the buildings have the same layout

The cauldron in the floor here

In the back is the kitchen

This area is where everyone hangs out, the living room

Over here is the room for entertaining guests

And in front of that is the bedroom

This wide open area was used for work

The bedroom was only used for sleeping

So they didn't need a light

There are no windows either

So it's cool in the summer and warm in the winter

I heard there was a hidden entrance in here

So at first glance you can't tell there's a second floor

She was just explaining that there are some hidden rooms in this house

They're not sure exactly why this house had those hidden rooms

They don't know what they were hiding in there

One theory is that they were Christians in a time when being Christian wasn't acceptable here

So they had those rooms so they could pray and not be seen

They would have one patch of land where they would grow the grass for the roofs

And it would be just enough for one roof

So each year they would change the roof of one house

So they would choose like "This year will be this family!"

That's cool that they grew all the materials themselves and changed the roofs themselves

Nowadays they don't do that, they get a pro to do it

But I thought that was really neat

Traditional craft time!

We are going to be making some "take tonbo"

Bamboo flying toys? Don't really know how to translate that into English

But it's a traditional Japanese toy and we're going to make them today!

Ok it starts like this and then you have to shave away the sides of it

And end up with something like that

Can I do it?

Stop laughing at me!

It's getting a little thinner!

I did it! (maybe)

I don't know if it will fly

Take-copter from Doraemon

Yay it's time to eat lunch now!

So we've come to the little restaurant that they have on site here

And they've got some special Iwate dishes so I'm gonna try a couple of those

There's this one made out of mochi that I've been really looking forward to

I looked it up and they have it here so, awesome!

Hittsumi is one of the most famous local dishes of Iwate

Dough made of flour and water is flattened and pulled off into small pieces

and put into a soy sauce broth

and it also includes lots of vegetables like carrot, mushrooms, burdock root, onions etc!

It looks really delicious!

It smells really really good

it smells amazing

I'm dying to try one of these noodles

Itadakimasu

Mmm so good

The broth has a really simple flavour

Like a light soy sauce... kinda tastes like chicken broth

That's so good. Great for the winter for sure!

Nice and warm and filling

I'm excited for this one, I love desserts

Especially traditional Japanese desserts and mochi!

Let's try it!

Oh wow it's really squishy!

There's red bean paste inside, can you see that?

It's really soft! Like you took a daifuku and melted it a little bit

and made it really squishy

It's really good

Well that's it guys, it's time to go home

I hope you enjoyed Tono Furusato Mura with me

I had a great time!

It was a really interesting experience

I learned a lot about traditional Japanese farming culture

and I got to eat some really really good food!

So if you happen to be in the Iwate area

Which you should be! If you're coming to Japan

I really recommend that you come up here

Definitely check out this place because I had a really great time

They've got lots of cute stuff that you can buy for souvenirs and stuff

So also check that out

Thanks for watching guys and I'll see you soon! Bye!