JOURNEY ACROSS JAPAN: Day 5 - Is Japan's Biggest Theme Park ACTUALLY Good? (Yes) | Diary (Patreon)

I awoke in Amsterdam in the rain.
Then after a few moments I realised it wasn’t in fact Amsterdam, even though the weather was fairly accurate.

Huis Ten Bosch is a gigantic theme park one hour north of Nagasaki, though “theme park” doesn’t do it justice. It’s a genuine slice of the Netherlands, with operation canals and windmills, brick streets and architecture that feels like the real deal.

Heck there’s even real Heineken, which Natsuki was delighted to sample firsthand.

I’ve seen Natsuki ecstatic a fair few times on this journey so far, but never to the extent that he was today, as he wandered and pedalled his way through the town.

Yes that’s right, you’re able to rent bicycles here - one of which seats 4 people. While Natsuki and Joey pedalled like maniacs behind, I sat up front taking it all in with the camera, astonished at the attention to detail. (And admittedly, sitting there enjoying the ride while they did all the work).

Today’s challenge involved making postcards of Natsuki, and the backdrop of Huis Ten Bosch proved very lucrative in making it appear as though he’d temporarily fled Japan.

And though we could have spent all the day at theme park having fun, Journey Across Japan isn’t about fun, so we boarded a small boat which took us half an hour out into the sea, to a small abandoned island that time had forgotten.

Not to be confused with Gunkanjima (aka. Battleship Island), which we’re visiting tomorrow, Ikeshima was a much larger island with a few dozen people remaining. 

Once home to almost 10,000 people, today most of the island stands as a ghost town and a reminder of Japan’s once booming coal sector.

Dozens of apartment blocks which have been left behind for as long as 20-30 years, have been completely and utterly consumed by the flora and fauna. I say fauna, because the island is inhabited by hundreds of feral cats, who are fed scraps by the last remaining locals.

- Locals we never actually saw.

It was a real glimpse of what life on Earth might look after the apocalypse - especially the cats. And I have to admit, I enjoyed exploring the island even more than the Dutch theme park, due to the sheer diversity in the crumbling architecture.

I can only hope they don’t plan to bulldoze any of it, as it really gives the island a sense of character that it’s otherwise lacking.

Of all the episodes I’ll soon be editing of Journey Across Japan this is the one I’m probably looking forward to the most (closely followed by the rap video one from two days ago).

I look forward to sharing it with you all in a few weeks. But before that, onwards to the last day of our trip.

We’re finally off to Nagasaki!