oh chris we have outdone ourselves tonight  it has everything that you need ah tabasco  

salt and pepper and the rough guide of london  perfect for otters traveling in sightseeing  

and oh my god look at this okay i love bean  bags i haven't used one in like 27 years  

don't mind if i do oh this will be our  home for tonight let's kick back and relax

early the next morning we begin the second leg  of our journey heading three hours north east  

to furanol a region in the centre of hokkaido  famous for its rolling hills and picturesque  

landscapes and for some reason i've left pete  in charge of tonight's accommodation he hopes to  

surprise me with his choice because allegedly it  looks like kansas i just hope it doesn't involve  

any wizards or yellow brick roads so back  on the road 200 kilometers to foot in all  

from ottawa oh i'm excited i am a little  bit dubious because it's quite snowy today  

a lot of snowier than it was yesterday and uh it's  quite stressful driving in the snow yeah i can i

uh no but how far is it if i don't know 200  kilometers actually you thought so but you'd  

be wrong it's going to be about 230 kilometers  because i have found us a nice little detour  

oh god now look i know we're going to  my kansas theme accommodations and while  

you were checking out of the hotel i  found a nice little taste of the uk  

right here in hokkaido a taste of the uk picture  it now stonehenge right no i'm serious in the snow  

there's stonehenge in hokkaido we're  going no there isn't yep put it in your  

map here we go there is a stonehenge in  okido i think i'll bloody know about it

millions of years ago in england people dragged  rocks to a hill and stacked them for what  

purpose we don't know and now in japan it's been  faithfully and exactly recreated behold stonehenge  

of hokkaido this is ridiculous what is this pete  it's a cemetery a cemetery with a replica to scale  

of stonehenge look eerily like the real thing  albeit a lot newer and also if this was the uk it  

wouldn't be under a meter of snow i guess another  thing that gives it away that we're not in the uk  

are the two dozen easter island heads just  over there this is a really trippy cemetery

now i've always wanted to see the moai  heads of easter island albeit under  

slightly different circumstances  still it's not every day you can see  

40 replica heads to scale covered in face  masks and buried beneath the mountain of snow  

but pete has inadvertently led us to makomanai  taki no cemetery which is half burial ground half  

our exhibition and on the other side of the  field through the blizzard from hell lies  

the jewel in the crowd an impressive  if not slightly intimidating  

13 and a half meter buddha statue encased  in what looks like a postmodern missile silo

wow this is easily the most impressive  buddha statue i've ever seen really yeah  

what makes it so impressive for you i think that  the path all of three of the buddhas have like a  

reveal when you're turning the corner or something  but going through this concrete kind of pathway  

through the snow and then seeing this this is  one of a kind man designed by legendary japanese  

architect tadao ando who amongst other things  helped design the tokyo skytree the second tallest  

structure in the world ando's minimalist design  philosophy focuses on making his works blend  

into their natural environment and the buddha is  masterfully concealed by an artificial hill with  

only part of its head poking out like a sleeping  giant the hill is also covered by a hundred and  

fifty thousand beautiful lavender plants which  are now completely dead thanks to the snow with  

so many daibutsu buddha statues across japan uh  that date back hundreds of years all this history  

if you are going to build a contemporary buddha  like this it needs to be something impressive it  

needs to have a real wow factor to it and this  most certainly does this is well that's one of  

those incredible things i've seen and the snow  is definitely a big part of that the way it sort  

of blows across the buddha and the sunlight it  really is quite incredible no sarcasm required

driving through the snow at night is never  much fun and i'm relieved when we finally  

make it to pete's so-called kansas style  accommodation just as the night rolls in  

so after a long arduous drive involving easter  island statues stonehenge we're finally here  

at uh our destination right pete and what is it  what is this place it's a little slice of middle  

america it looks like a bond a ball of some sort  you are correct sir kansas kansas style barn wow i  

it looks pretty cool it's got a bit of a bit of a  stephen king vibe going i'm not going to lie but  

i'll take anything over being in the car any  longer wow this is this is pretty good look  

well i think you've you've outdone yourself  this time it's minus 12 tonight guys minus  

12 degrees celsius so it's very very cold and i  can't wait to get inside it'll be nice and warm

welcome to a classic kansan home complete  with everything to capture the majesty  

and quaintness of cans and beauty inside the  master bedroom two beds again we're sharing it  

well we're closer this time that's nice  over here you fool watch out for the table  

nice kitchen table with perfectly lacquered  and original wood a nice stove and a

knife we won't need that i  think and over here we've got  

please please chris please have a bathtub  well yesterday where we stayed well last night  

didn't have a bathroom no the standing shower  please guys yes yes yes we've got one buddy  

oh i'm excited all right more for me  and in here i'm assuming it's the toilet  

it's quite small that's right looks good  you have very high expectations for toilets

yes so this is it this is the classic american  home right out of the little house on the prairie  

i find it cozy i find it very comforting chris  what do you think of this place i need a drink

at last a much needed drink thank god what do we  got we've got cider yes and we've got beer like  

alcoholic beverage beer like alcoholic substance  what what the hell is that it's for you do you  

know what this is right it's the i've heard  it's tales of it it's this uh it's it's like tax  

cheaper so they don't have to make it officially  beer what is this yeah so in japan there's a tax  

loophole if you've got a low amount of malt you  can call it a beer-like substance but not a beer  

right so it tastes like beer it does and so this  is about 110 yen about 1.10 but real beer costs  

about 1.80 180 yen okay why is like 70 cents what  are we hurting for money on this trip you've got  

the thrills of beer at a race at a reasonable  price oh very crisp ow yeah it tastes like  

dog piss that's awful what do you recommend on  the kansas kansas cabin personally i love it  

it does kind of give me the vibe of going crazy  like we're in the shining or something but  

other than that it's like i've never  i haven't been home in like nine years  

this is a long time oh no i'm broke so oh no i  hope we find the shop where you bought this god  

forsaken mug the moment we arrive in wakanaway if  god forbid we arrive in wakanda you're gonna call  

natsuki and you're gonna find out which shop he  got this mugger yes i'm worried i'm terrified but  

i'm hopeful that this trip will all be worth it  so good luck chris and on to one hell of a journey  

tomorrow all right here we go well it's now day  three and we're on the home straight to japan's  

most northern point but we're just 200 kilometers  to go to wakana and cape sawyer pete is feeling  

rather worse for wear this morning i wonder why i  have to say that red barn was pretty magnificent  

especially in the morning like we arrived there at  night so we didn't really get to sit but woke up  

this morning went outside and the red barn kind of  contrasting the white snow is absolutely beautiful