All language subtitles for Joanna Lumleys Japan - E03 Shikoku, Nagasaki, Sakurajima, Okinawa

JOANNA: This is the last part
of my 2,000-mile journey,

travelling the length of Japan
from north to south,

with intriguing adventures
and fascinating people

across its hundreds of islands.

I'm leaving Honshu,
which is the biggest of
the four principal Japanese islands,

and going down to Shikoku,
which is the smallest.

It's got 4 million people,
so it's not exactly tiny.

And from Shikoku,
it's over 1,000 miles

to the southernmost tip of Japan,
an archipelago of Pacific islands.

Look at this view.

We'll see great cities
and stunning landscapes.

Oh, that's a beauty.

I'll reveal Japan's
most ancient secrets...

..and some of its most
modern achievements...

..and we're starting here
on this amazing bridge,

built between Honshu and Shikoku.

It's absolutely bristling
with superlatives.

Listen to these s-st-statistics,
if I can say the word properly.

1,991m long,

282m high,

which makes it the longest
and the highest suspension bridge

in the whole world.

Come with me to Japan.

Yay. (GIGGLES)

(GONG TOLLS)

It's sunrise on Shikoku...

(MONKS CHANTING PRAYER)

..and across the island,
monks perform a ceremony
dating back to the 6th century.

35% of Japan is Buddhist,
and all over the island,

thousands of white-clad,
faithful pilgrims can be seen

making their way between
the 88 temples along the route.

I've never been
on a pilgrimage before,

but with these delightful outfits,
I think I feel the calling.

David-san? Oh, hi!

David Morden has lived in Japan
for 25 years,

and he's going to point me
in the right direction.

The journey takes you on...
How long, how far away?

It's about 1,200km... Ooh.
..so it takes a while
to get around.

You've done it, of course. Yes.

How many times? Just once, really.
Just once? (LAUGHS)

The pilgrimage is to honour Shikoku's
most famous son Koubou Daishi,

who lived here and brought
Shingon Buddhism to Japan from China

in the 9th century.

Before I follow
in the great man's footsteps,

I need to dress appropriately.

I might have to put something else
on, but I'm loving this already.

I can hear my voice
echoing up underneath it.

Do I need a staff?

The staff represents
the embodiment of Koubou Daishi,

so it's important to get
the right one.

I think that would be a nice one.

Or do you think I should have
a more Buddhist colour?

I think I might go for one of
the rich Buddhist colours.

I've now changed my mind.
I'm not gonna have that one,
I'm having this one.

No, I'm not, actually.
I like the colour.
I'm not gonna have that one.

I think I want long sleeves,
don't you? OK.

It doesn't look very smart,

I think I look...
I don't look very good.

What do you think? What do you think?

I'm now kitted out with
all sorts of pilgrim paraphernalia,

fully equipped to experience
temple No.1.

So, a lot of people
put the staff here.

Some of these look quite old.
Often people forget them...

because you get very busy
with the incense and the candle
and everything.

I wouldn't forget mine.
I would never forget my stick.

Incense. Yes.

These huge lanterns
which have swastikas on them,

which, of course,
in the east, are signs of peace.

Right above us,
an extraordinary dragon.

My pilgrim hat won't let me see
exactly what he's up to.

He's got talons and the full moon.

As the end of your life
comes into view,

it, sort of, becomes late afternoon,
evening of your life,

you begin to think back
and you begin to try to ponder on

what's good and bad,
and what's it all about, Alfie,

and that sort of thing,
and although I've never made
a pilgrimage,

this seems like a good time to start.
I've got all the kit, for a start.

Well, off I go.

(SPEAKS JAPANESE)

Oh, you are wonderful. Arigatou.
Thank you so much.

(CLANGS)

I wonder if at the end of
my pilgrimage, I'll be recharged...

Gorgeous onions. They grow things
so beautifully round here.

..reinvigorated, reinvented.

This little pilgrim's way
sometimes comes through woods,

and it's absolutely stunning

just to get away
off the beaten track.

Whatever happens, I hope to be
a much, much better person
by the end of this.

(SPEAKS JAPANESE) Thank you.

(GASPS)

What I've already
learned along the way

is that you can be quite specific
about what you're looking for,

and some of the temples
have themes, like this one.

This is very beautiful.

I think that this temple
is, sort of, dedicated to childbirth

and procreation and so on.

I think this is where
pregnant women come,

and this is where they hang...

..their little prayers and wishes,
hope their dreams come true.

Most Japanese people combine Buddhism
with elements of Shintoism

to form a more fluid spirituality
rather than a defined religion.

There's quite a crowd here.
I'm going to make my way around here.

(ALL CHANTING PRAYER)

200,000 people complete
this pilgrimage every year.

Historically, you walked
the route on your own,

but these days,
whole busloads of pilgrims

choose to visit the temples en masse.

Are you doing the whole trip?
Whole trip. (GASPS)

Walking? Erm, with bus, actually.
And how long will that take you?

Erm, it's... It will take two weeks.
Two weeks. Mm.

This one is dedicated
to motherhood, procreation.

Yes. My dream... What did you wish?

I haven't, erm...
You haven't got a child.

Yes, so I asked him, so I hope.

I hope so, too. Thank you.
I think it will be good.

It's lovely to meet you.
What is your name?

Chihiro. Chihiro.

I knew I should have got
a short-sleeved shirt, I knew that...

I thought that I'd look...
But now I see how chic, you see.

Chic pilgrim. Not so chic pilgrim.

It's good to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Go safely. Thank you, you too.
And have that baby. Oh, I hope so.

Meeting such lovely people...

Staff in there.

..is already making me
feel good about life...

(CLANGS)

..and getting my book signed
at every temple

makes me feel positively gleeful.

It's got to be as beautiful
as anything you've ever seen
in your life.

What could possibly go wrong?

You can see my stick
has slightly changed.

Erm, the thing is that
I'm afraid I left it.

When you go into the temples,

you put your beautiful staves
and umbrellas, obviously, outside,

and then you pick them up and go out,
and I forgot to pick mine up,

and so my beautiful and important
embodiment of the saint,

which I was going to take home,
and wash, and give my best bed to,

has gone, and I've got
this bamboo one, which is...

..it's lovely.

I wanted an apron. I knew I should
have got an apron like this.
It looks so trim and nice.

Some of the temples
are in extraordinary places.

These excited pilgrims
are all trying to catch a glimpse of
the great man himself, Koubou Daishi.

He once spent
50 days up on this mountain

repeating a Buddhist text
known as the sutra one million times.

For my final temple,
I'm up and out before dawn.

(It's 5:30 in the morning.)

(DISTANT CHANTING)

(I'm off to hear
some pilgrim chanting.)

This extraordinary temple
provides protection against

those difficult years
that we all go through.

Here, the age of 33 is regarded as
being particularly unlucky for women,

hence the 33 steps.

You're supposed to put a coin
on every step,

but, I mean, the truth is that
I'm a little bit more than 33.

(MONKS CHANTING)

The monks perform these chants,
or sutras, every morning...

..while the chief monk
builds a consecrated fire

that's believed to have
a powerful cleansing effect.

(CHIMES)

(DRUMS BEATING)

I'm delighted to learn

that according to the Shingon
doctrine that they practise here,

enlightenment is not
some distant, unattainable concept,

but something achievable
in life today. It gives us all hope.

That was really lovely,
lovely ceremony.

I mean, apart from the chanting,
and the...

..the booming of the great gong
and the drum,

the drumming which
goes right through your heart,

and just while we were in there,
the sun's come up...

..and it's going to be
another perfect day.

Fujukoyuko is the 4th generation
of his family

to be a monk here at Yakuoji Temple,
and I asked him to explain

the significance
of the age of 33 for women,

and why it's regarded
as being especially problematic.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

I'm very old now, and I feel fine.

This is excellent. (BOTH LAUGH)

I've started again.
This is very good.

Fantastic. Proof that I have,
in fact, been rejuvenated
by this pilgrimage.

To come to Shikoku, and to follow
a little bit of the pilgrimage trail

has given me such a sense of peace,

of reconnecting
with the beauty of nature.

Secretly I wish I could stay here
for a little bit longer,

but I've got to go.

To get to my next island, Kyushu,

I have to go via Honshu,
where I jump on a bullet train

to whisk me the 400 miles
southwest to this fiery island.

I'll be flirting with volcanoes,
and messing about in big boats,

and speaking to humanoids.

(INDISTINCT ROBOT SPEECH)

Thank you. Taxi?

On my Japanese adventure,
I've reached the island of Kyushu.

It has great cities, busy harbours,
and active volcanoes to contend with.

I've also been recommended
a very discreet little place.

(ROBOT GREETS IN JAPANESE) Oh.

Hello, I'm Joanna Lumley.
I've booked a room-

(AUTOMATED VOICE)
Welcome to Henn-na Hotel. Yes.

I will confirm your check-in
information. Thank you.

Please proceed to your right
to complete the check-in process.
All right. Here we are.

Currently confirming your invoice.
Thank you.

Currently confirming your invoice.
Yes, I heard you, I heard you.
Thanks, darling.

Lovely. Please...
ROBOT 2: ..your receipt...
What? You're both talking over...

Please enjoy your stay.
I will. Thank you so much.

(SIGHS) Hello? Porter?

The Henn-na Hotel
is the world's first robot hotel.

Robotic porter available in A-wing.

It's run by robots to accommodate
the thousands of foreign tourists

now flooding into Japan.

Yamaguchi-san, the hotel manager,

is on-hand to explain
a bit more of the concept.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Robotic porter. 'Please put
your suitcase/baggage on the robot,

and put the chain around it.'
There we are.

There we go. Let's try to get there
before the evening, shall we?

This hotel staffed by robots
must cost a lot of money.

How can it make a profit?

Every room in the hotel has
its own personal robot.

Meet my new friend Churi.

Look at that little person.

'Let's talk with me.'
Here it is, how to talk.

'You...' That's me.
CHURI: May I help you?

Yes, Churi, please
can you ask the front desk

to bring me some coffee,
my little friend?

May I help you?
Yes, Churi, yes.

So, erm, Churi... I will sing.

Oh, what...? Will you?
(SINGING IN JAPANESE)

Oh, how lovely. (HUMMING)

You can bring some champagne.

You are going to sleep already.

I would like a bottle
of champagne on ice!

I said a half-bottle
but I now mean a full bottle.

Churi, will you get me anything?
Some, some...

I know you can hear me.
You're leaving again today.

I'm not leaving again.
I haven't even arrived.

I've had nothing to eat,
and I've had nothing to drink.

May I help you?

No.

(SINGING IN JAPANESE)

40 miles down the coast is Nagasaki,

a city that all of us
will have heard of.

Nagasaki has flourished
for centuries,

its high hills sheltering the city

and protecting
a natural deep-water harbour.

For early Europeans,
Nagasaki was one of the few places

the Japanese allowed trade
with the outside world.

The port and the city flourished.

Today, shipyards, warehouses, cranes

and colossal cruise ships
fill the skyline.

A fleet of muscular-looking tugs
is the life-blood

of this busy commercial harbour,
and I've managed to wangle myself
on board one of them.

Early the next morning,
I'm reporting for duty.

It's not yet 6:00 in the morning,

I'm down on the quayside,
and this is the tug I'm joining.

The Tomozuru,
and I'm all equipped and ready.

I've got my new...life jacket.

It's a new way of wearing them,
round the waist,

not over the top like this.
I think I can go on board.

It's only when
you get out on the water

that you can see the extent
of the ship-building industry

that still goes on in Nagasaki.

Dry docks, slipways -
this one belongs to Mitsubishi...

..but our job this morning is to lead
a Chinese cruise ship into port.

I'm honoured by Toshihiro Ide,

the owner of the company,
who is on-hand to explain the plan.

This is Nagasaki harbour. Yes.

We come from this point,
and come out...

And this is Chinese Taishan,
and we'll meet here.

There are two ships here -
one I can see very clearly,

which has got a red hull,
and the other...

..huge, coming in from the northwest,
is the Chinese ship, the Taishan.

We're leading her
the safe way into the harbour.

It all looks so beautiful.

I can imagine
what it must have been like...

to be those early traders,
because in this morning light,

you can just see the shape
of the hills, islands, rocks,

sun banging off the water,

sound of the wind,
and the slapping of the waves.

Terribly exciting.

Japan has been
in and out of recession

since the '90s, but in recent years,

tourism, especially
with the Chinese, is booming.

Japan and China are not
always on the best of terms,

so it's nice to see,
at least, a cruise ship

we're all blowing kisses
to each other.

You can just see now
how our little tug the Tomozuru

is nudging the Chinese Taishan
so that she's in the right position.

Now that's job done,
and we're gonna go back,

and I'm just gonna take over
the trickier bits of getting in...

I'll just take over.

(GIGGLES)

It was a pleasure
to be on the Tomozuru,

and arigatou,
and thank you so much.

Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you very much.

It was very good of you.
It was lovely. Thank you.

Today, Nagasaki is a bustling
commercial city...

but in 1945, its industrial output
was directed to the Japanese
war effort,

fighting Allied troops in
the bitter conflict in the Pacific.

The Americans decided to try to
end the war with nuclear weapons,
and on 6th August,

they dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people...

..but the Japanese leadership
still did not surrender...

..and so three days later,
a second atomic bomb was detonated

over the city of Nagasaki.

Three days after that,
the Japanese surrendered,

and World War II,
at last, came to an end...

..but the city of Nagasaki
had paid a huge price.

Shiroyama School, just 600m
from the epicentre,

was one of the few buildings
left standing

due to its concrete construction.

Today, it's still a school
and a living monument to peace.

A statue of an 11-year-old boy,
a pupil at the school

who lost his life
along with his entire family,

now stands in the playground.

It's very touching, because...

Hello. Good morning.
Hello. Good morning.

..not a single child has omitted
to bow to the little statue.

This bowing, it isn't something
that happens on special days.

Beginning of every single school day,
round they come...

..and just pay their respects
to peace.

Who is the statue of?

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Oh. Oh. Thank you.

Bye. (SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Oh, brooms, bring the other broom.
This broom's not working any more.

I love it. They're all concentrating
on the fact

this is the souls of the departed,
who were killed,

and there seems to be
no, sort of, acrimony.

It's just very sweet, and peaceful,
and respectful, but not sombre.

A section of the original school
has been made into a museum

commemorating that dreadful day
in August 1945.

Matsuyoshi Ikira was a pupil
of the school when the bomb dropped.

Today he curates the museum.

I'm Joanna.

And is this the school here?
(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

This tower is
absolutely destroyed, yeah. Phew.

Well, this was before it was bombed,
and then afterwards, nothing at all.

So, will you describe to me
what happened on that morning
of August 9th?

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Matsuyoshi was less than half a mile
from the centre of the explosion.

Incredibly, his family's half-built
shelter protected him from the blast,

and subsequently
from the harmful radiation.

I love the city of Nagasaki,
and it's good to see it
thriving again

after such an appalling episode
in its history.

I'm travelling 200 miles south
to the very tip of the island...

The third car.

..to the city of Kagoshima,

which sits under a smouldering
and very active volcano.

I'm on the Shinkansen,
or bullet train,

and speeding southwards across Kyushu
towards the city of Kagoshima,

which is over 300km away

and nestled under
the active volcano of Sakurajima.

It's taking me about 2.5 hours
to travel the distance...

..which must mean I'm travelling
at speeds approaching...

If 160 is...
If 8... It's 8 to 5,

so...160 would be twice...

Well, it's fast. Believe me.

Due to its many active volcanoes,

Kyushu is known
as the island of fire.

Japan sits on the junction
of four tectonic plates,

so the threat of natural disaster
is never far away...

..and three days after I passed
through this region, disaster struck.

A series of earthquakes
registering up to 6

on Japan's seismic intensity scale
collapsed buildings, ripped up roads,

and stopped all trains
running for days.

Tragically, 48 people were killed.

It's late by the time we reach
the city of Kagoshima...

..but even in the falling light,

I can see the ominous presence of
Sakurajima looming over the city...

..and early the next morning,

I'm on board a ferry
bound for Sakurajima.

You know, it's difficult to imagine
a more precarious place to live,

but 7,000 people choose to stay here

under the shadow
of this growling giant.

On the island, such is the threat
from debris thrown from the volcano

that all school kids
must wear hard hats

on their way to and from school.

They must sweep up volcanic ash
from the playground...

Piles of black volcanic dust,

headmaster helping, and to think
they do this every single morning.

..and they have regular
evacuation drills.

(MAN SPEAKING IN JAPANESE OVER PA)

JOANNA: Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, run, run,
run, baby. Come on, let's go.

This is a volcano drill.

So, why would anybody
in their right mind

want to live so close to
this smouldering brute of a volcano?

The answer lies under your feet,

in the incredible fertile soils
thrown out from Sakurajima.

Just get a bit of a clue
of what I'm gonna find up here.

Sakurajima is famous
for its super-sized radishes.

The current world record radish
was grown here,

and weighed in at over
a back-breaking 31 kilos.

Toshikiyo Murayama is the third
generation to farm radishes here.

This is fantastic.

Look at that. Wow.

Why do these radishes
grow so huge just here?

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Rains down pumice stones, yeah.

The pumice stone in the soil
traps air and water,

which promotes
really good root development,

and makes for some gigantic radishes.

This one?

Murayama-san, how long
have you been farming here?

Yeah, OK.

(Not as easy as it looks.)

OK, OK. OK, OK?

Not brilliant, OK,
but, sort of, not bad.

(GRUNTS) Oh.
Oh, that's a beauty.

(STRAINING)

That's more than...

That's up to there, but I can't
hold it much higher than that.

That's the beauty shot.
That's all I can do. Sorry.

This is hard work,
harvesting radishes.

Murayama-san, do you have a son?

Will he take over farming from you?

Yeah.

Yeah, let's do it.

Look at this dish of food.
Could anything look lovelier?

It's got radish flowers on the top...

shredded radish
or something inside.

That's gorgeous.

The offer of a radish lunch
did make me a little apprehensive,

but I was completely blown away
by what was put in front of me.

(GASPS) Look at this.

That's a picture. Could you ever
see anything lovelier than that?

I mean, look at this,
these are shreds of radish
which look like spaghetti.

Admit it - you want to eat that.

Well, I do, obviously.

Given its volatile nature,
there are teams of scientists

who are constantly
monitoring Sakurajima.

I'm joining Professor Keigo Yamamoto
on a flight right over the volcano.

Yamamoto-san,
when was the last big eruption?

Oh, last night.

Last night? I see.
Every day we have.

You have had eruptions
every week, every day. My gosh.

Oh, look, we're coming
round to the top of it now.

You can see the crater right there.

I can see now where
the smoke's coming...

Yes, another ridge inside the crater.

I can smell sulphur, too.

It's all apocalyptic,
it's absolutely fantastic.

Look at that.
Oh, that's extraordinary.

Just gorgeous.

Smoke coming out of
the fissures all around it,

and the sharp, sharp edge
from where it had blown its top.

It feels as if we're back
at the beginning of the world.

This is how the world was formed.

Yamamoto-san, thank you so much.
It's beautiful, isn't it?

It's "sayonara" to
the volatile, fiery island of Kyushu,

and saying "konichiwa" to the long
archipelago of the Ryukyu Islands

that stretch 700 miles south,
nearly all the way to Taiwan.

The people of these islands
are ethnically different

to the mainland people of Japan,
and maintained their independence
up until 1879.

My first stop
is the island of Okinawa.

I don't know why, but somehow
I imagined that Okinawa

would be a tiny tropical paradise...

..but it's mostly a city landscape.

It's been colonised by the Japanese
since the mid-19th century...

..by the Americans
since the end of the war,

but Okinawa has an ancient art
all of its own which started here,

which has gone on to conquer
almost every country in the world.

Karate was invented
right here in Okinawa.

It derives from the indigenous
martial arts of the Ryukyu Islands,

and it's called "karate",
meaning "open hand".

(YELLS)

It spread to the Japanese mainland

and the rest of the world
in the early 20th century.

(SPEAKS JAPANESE)

Higaonna-sensei is 77 years old
and a karate legend.

(SPEAKS JAPANESE)

He's black belt 10th dan,

and was once considered
the most dangerous man in Okinawa.

If I was beginning
today to learn karate,

what was the first thing I would do?

No, this strong, but very slow.

So, so, yes, some pull back.
Then that sort of way?

Right hand, left hand together.

Yes, so, so. Is that better?
Very good. Very good.

I can remember as Purdey,
in the New Avengers, doing that,

and also going past somebody,

pulling their foot
and shoving them over.

(SIGHS) Long-ago days.
Those were pretty much 40 years ago.

The island of Okinawa
was known around the world

for the terrible battle
that was fought here

towards the end of
the Second World War, 70 years ago.

The island had huge
strategic importance

and was the first Japanese soil
that the American forces
would set foot on.

At the Cornerstone of Peace monument,

I met Masahide Ota,

who, like thousands of young men
from the local population,

was conscripted into the army,

and made to fight against
the invading Americans.

When the American fleet arrived,
was it here?

American soldiers came in,
we were fighting there, you know,

along this sea shore.

American battleships were
all over the place, you know.

During the 88-day battle,
he deserted

and, with hundreds of others,
hid in caves along this shoreline.

He saw nearly all his comrades die,

but he overcame hunger,
thirst, and injury

eventually to emerge
and surrender to the Americans.

I was hiding in the cave,

no...no food, no water...

..always, "Today I will die,"
and "Tomorrow I will die,"

I've been always like that,
you know.

Even today I don't know
how many days

I was like that, you know,
so why I could survive?

So I said my purpose
that I had survived

was to guarantee, never again,

we will not have war.

After the war, Ota-san went on to
become governor of the island

and dedicated many years
to establishing this peace park

to commemorate the battle
and the thousands of Japanese,

Okinawan, and American soldiers
who died fighting here.

More than 240,000 people

names are engraved here.

Ota-san, this is the most
extraordinary place you have created.

Beautiful.

It's very wonderful that
you came from England.

That's so far away,
and I really appreciate.

In the south of the island,
high above the capital Naha,

lie the wartime Japanese
naval headquarters,

which are dug deep into the rock.

As the US 6th Marine Corps closed in,

large numbers of
young Japanese sailors

were ordered underground
to make their last stand.

All over Okinawa, there are
hundreds of graves and shrines

commemorating the dead
from both sides of the war...

..but here, in what remains

of the imperial Japanese
naval headquarters,

thousands of young men
made the final sacrifice,

but they chose
to commit ritual suicide

rather than surrender
to the American forces.

This network of tunnels,
carved from rock by hand,

now serves as a chilling memorial
to them.

The tunnels are as they were in 1945,

and you still get a strong sense
of all the young men

who fought and died here.

It's incredibly clammy down here.

It's got gutters with water
running down.

It's just ghastly, it's like...
it's like walking into a...

Well, it is,
it's walking into a tomb,

if you think of thousands
of young men,

thousands of young men
killing themselves down here.

When the tunnels were opened,
there were about 2,500 bodies
down here...

..and on the damaged walls, you can
still see the terrible evidence

of a group suicide.

"Wall riddled with a hand grenade
when committed suicide."

And this was somebody
killing themselves

and a hand grenade going off.

It must have been
like a charnel house here.

This goes up.

(SOBBING)

Oh, boys.

I find this so...

..so unbearable.

I mean, war is unbearable anyway,
but to think that people...

people felt so ashamed

about being taken captive
that they would...

Young ones whose lives
had hardly started.

It's so good to see
the open air after that.

I can't tell you how overpowering
it is down there.

It's just dreadful, I don't know,
there's something about...

It's, sort of, in living memory,
of course,

there are old people now
who can remember it,
particularly here in Okinawa...

..and it just shows you
how utterly ghastly war is.

God, what a ghastly place.

(SIGHS)

Anyway, it's peaceful now.

I'm nearing the end
of my long Japanese journey.

We've just travelled 300 miles

to almost the southernmost part
of Japan,

1,500 miles south of Tokyo.

We're going to an island
called Kohama.

There's a lovely group
of old ladies there

who have discovered
a different way of keeping young.

Maybe I'll learn something.

This remote coral island's population
is just 600,

but 33 of them managed to pull off
a pop sensation,

clinching a No.1 hit in
the Japanese charts of 2015

with their catchy little number
Come On And Dance Kohama.

Their group is called KBG84 -

"KBG", an acronym for
Kohama Grandmother Choir,

and "84" is their average age.

This is a slightly different version
of the ladies who lunch,

because here they all are, these
incredibly funky-looking people.

They are all 80 or more,
that's the only difference.

The ladies' pre-lunch grace
reaffirms their theory

about how to get every last
little bit of goodness out of life.

(ALL RECITE IN JAPANESE)

The girls made a video
of their No.1 hit,

and have since toured the country
to sell-out gigs...

..and we're all revving up
for another performance.

(ALL SINGING
COME ON AND DANCE KOHAMA)

Everybody on this little island
got in on the act.

I went off to meet one of the tiniest
but biggest stars of the group

to find out about
her secret of success.

This is the house of Tomi-san.
She's 92 years old.

Tomi-san... Oh.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Oh, Tomi-san. Arigatou. Thank you.

Tomi-san, tell me, how do you keep
looking and feeling so young?

And tell me the secret
of your energy.

Arigatou.

I didn't know these islands,
right at the southernmost tip
of Japan, even existed...

..but coming all this way
and meeting people like Tomi-san

has been inspiring,

and if at her age I have
half her energy, I'll be delighted.

We started this journey
almost a stone's throw from Russia,

and we're ending it
on this beach in Kohama,

practically within sight of Taiwan,
a journey of over 2,000 miles.

And this has struck me.
No matter how varied
the climate or the scenery -

the frozen, icy sea,
deep, snowy forests,

mild evenings
under the cherry blossom,

volcanoes, children's schools,
crowded cities...

..the one thing that has remained
constant is the endless kindness,

friendliness and courtesy of everyone
we've met in this fabulous country.

When I came here, I wondered
how strange and alien it would be...

..to our life in the western world...

..and, you know, now
it just feels like home from home.

Except for lavatories.
They're far better here.

subtitles by Deluxe