Discovering Nagasaki and The Rest of Japan's Southern Island w/ Forza Horizon

0:00 Oh my god, look at this.

0:02 Would you just look at it?

0:04 Would you just look at this scene?

0:25 Hey everyone, Lar Chan here.

0:26 We are in Kyushu.

0:28 Behind me is the Wakato Bridge.

0:31 We are in Kyushu, which is the lower main island of Japan,

0:37 and this is going to be part two of our series

0:40 that we're doing with Microsoft for Forza Horizon 6.

0:44 It's a really fun project that I've been looking forward to for a while.

0:48 Part one, we were up north, the northernmost part of Honchu.

0:52 Part two, we have this Civic Type R FL5,

0:56 which I'm excited about cuz I've never actually driven the FL5.

0:59 This one is 100% completely bone stock.

1:02 It does have winter tires on it, so that's going to be quite the challenge.

1:05 But today, we're shooting on this really historic iconic bridge,

1:10 and we're going to get some rolling shots to kick this project off.

1:14 Right.

1:14 Tomorrow I'm going to meet the artist that they're going to pair me up

1:19 with to do some exploring of this region

1:23 and also to check out some of their art.

1:26 The main reason behind us exploring Japan is of course Forza Horizon 6 takes

1:32 place in Japan and the map is a culmination of so many different parts.

1:38 There's the snow, there's the mountain roads, there's the city,

1:41 there's all of these things that are combined into this one thing.

1:46 For us, we want to take it a step further and we want to explore the real

1:51 culture here in Japan and show you folks as much as we can on the artist side,

1:58 on the car culture side, and of course, even the food.

2:01 We just want to do that much of a deeper dive.

2:03 That's why I'm so excited about this project.

2:05 This is so interesting for me to be a part of.

2:09 I like that they're using a C70 1635.

2:17 Pretty cool setup.

2:18 Let's change it.

2:19 It's uh shooting into the cabin.

2:23 Getting some shots of me driving.

2:26 Really cool setup.

2:40 Hey, hey, hey.

3:23 Wow.

3:25 Heat.

3:40 Heat.

4:03 Day two of our Kyushu spot.

4:05 We've driven maybe 3 4 hours out of Kitakushu.

4:09 We're deep into the island and we're going to do some canyon road filming.

4:14 I've always appreciated per front drive cars.

4:17 As many of you know already,

4:19 I have a Integra Taibar that I leave here in Japan as my daily driver.

4:24 And while that one is a lot of fun, it's only 197 horsepower.

4:29 It's NA.

4:30 It's high revving and it's a blast.

4:32 You can get on it all the time.

4:34 This car is an absolute animal.

4:37 It's a completely different monster.

4:39 I never could have imagined a front-wheel drive

4:42 car that's six-speed manual that comes with 325 horsepower.

4:46 So, this is a K20C1 2 L and it does have VTEC.

4:52 It is an absolute riot to drive.

4:54 So, can't wait to rip around in this.

4:56 Our Japanese artist Kazuhiza is going to be riding with me.

5:00 He doesn't speak any English at all,

5:02 so it's going to be a little difficult to build rapport with him,

5:06 but luckily we have some really good translators.

5:08 And of course, I have the translating app on my phone.

5:11 So, we've been talking already.

5:13 He doesn't know anything about cars or car cultures.

5:17 But the most important thing is he's willing to learn and he loves this car.

5:20 We just had lunch at this wonderful SOA restaurant.

5:24 I think it's called the Demon SOA restaurant,

5:27 but it's so quaint and it's so cute.

5:29 It was just so awesome to experience.

5:31 The interesting thing about these small places

5:33 is the fact that they can still survive

5:36 even though they're seemingly in the middle

5:38 of the countryside right off the canyon road.

5:41 The fact that they draw enough business in to stay in operation is really cool.

5:46 And it's a place where I think, you know, I may never come here ever again.

5:50 I'm glad I had a chance to experience it.

5:52 The food was so good.

5:53 But now it's time to go filming.

6:08 We just pulled off the road right here and I'm

6:13 looking over this valley and it looks so fake.

6:17 Like it it looks like a painting.

6:20 It doesn't look real at all.

6:21 It's beautiful.

6:25 Unbelievable.

6:25 So this is called the milk road I guess in the summertime or in the spring all

6:30 of this is green and it looks absolutely

6:33 amazing but already it looks so good right now.

6:36 So apparently that's city aso.

6:41 We are in the national park right now.

7:01 Look how perfect it looks.

7:33 Wa.

7:35 That's something, man.

7:50 Apparently, the Japanese version of the FL5 makes 10 more horsepower.

7:57 Maybe it's the tune.

7:58 Maybe it has to do with the fuel that you can get here.

8:01 The high octane fuel is way more octane than we get in the US.

8:05 So, it makes 325 horsepower from the 2 L K series.

8:10 This is based off the 11th generation Civic,

8:14 but the Civic Type R in general has been going for 20 years.

8:18 The first one was back in 1997.

8:21 A lot of people like to talk trash about this car,

8:24 but you got to love the fact that Honda has built something fun to drive,

8:29 relatively affordable, around 50,000 US, and it's manual.

8:34 It's six-speed manual.

8:37 Honestly, that's the thing that really makes it

8:40 so much more fun to drive for me.

8:42 Being able to roll my gears, being able to rev match, downshift,

8:46 it's kind of incredible to me that this has this much power

8:50 because with these winter tires on, it's spinning tires up to third gear.

8:56 Like, if I just roll on it in third gear,

8:58 it barely has enough traction to go straight.

9:02 While that may not be fun for a lot of people,

9:04 for me it's kind of fun just managing how much traction that I have.

9:08 I would prefer the stock tires on here.

9:10 I know they have a lot more traction.

9:12 There is a really, really good chance we'll encounter snow on this trip.

9:16 So, it's actually good that we have these winter tires on.

9:28 They got the Brits so bad.

9:30 Yeah, we're in.

9:31 They got him.

9:31 They got him.

9:33 You've absolutely.

9:36 I wasn't looking.

9:36 I was looking at Larry.

9:37 Oh, no.

9:38 I'm sorry.

9:40 I messed you up.

9:41 They didn't just get the Brits.

9:42 They also got Pepe.

9:45 He spent 400.

9:47 400 whole yen on the claw machine.

9:50 They got him so good.

9:52 Apparently, where we're staying is so remote that we had

9:55 to stop here at Family Mart 20 minutes away from the hotel.

10:01 Otherwise, uh there's no way to get supplies or anything like that.

10:06 So, we stocked up on stuff for the night and now we're going to head out.

10:10 Dude, seriously, that's just coming out of the earth.

10:17 That is so That is a big exhaust.

10:22 I'm heading to dinner, but just wanted to show you folks this.

10:26 We checked into a hotel that has onen, but my room has a private onen.

10:32 I'm going to show you folks this later, but how cool is this?

10:37 Two 86s.

10:39 We have I what I think is a Hakone because of the green color.

10:44 And then this is the one of the special edition 86s.

10:49 Just want to show you the view here.

10:51 Also, this whole town, it's like a volcanic town.

10:58 It's just a bunch of sulfur escaping the ground.

11:03 It's really, really cool.

11:05 Oh, hello.

11:07 Okay, we're going to dinner.

11:09 But I just wanted to show you this vending machine.

11:12 It's so cool because when the wind went this way, it was just covered in sulfur.

11:16 And I thought that was the coolest thing.

11:18 This is the main room.

11:20 I've made quite a mess, as you can see.

11:22 Here's the part that really blew me away.

11:27 So, here's like the shower bath area.

11:34 But check this out.

11:36 This is in the room.

11:40 Water directly from the hotring or heated up by the hotring.

11:44 It has a very intense sulfur smell.

11:48 What an absolute treat.

11:50 So cool.

11:50 Never been in onen.

11:52 First time and get to experience one in a private room.

11:56 Like it took so long for me to get used to the temperature.

12:00 The trick is I guess you take cold water with that bucket and then

12:04 you just scoop some cold water in there to uh make it to your liking.

12:25 I just woke up this morning and it snowed.

12:29 I'm still wiping crusties out of my eye.

12:31 And look at this.

12:34 Holy crap.

12:37 I didn't think it would snow this much down south.

12:40 It's like a winter wonderland down here.

12:43 The trees, everything.

12:46 The whole town.

12:48 Last night, this was all clear.

12:51 No snow at all.

12:52 What's crazy is like none of the cars in the parking lot have

12:56 their vipers up cuz no one knew that it was going to snow.

13:00 Look how beautiful this inn is.

13:07 This is like the perfect Japanese hotel.

13:09 Kind of a late start today.

13:12 The guys are going to pick us up and then we're going to film the FL5 more.

13:16 If it wasn't crazy enough yesterday to be

13:19 able to do burnouts anytime at any moment,

13:23 it's going to be even worse today.

13:26 Burnouts every single gear.

13:28 That hill is got to be so slick and it's so steep.

13:33 It's almost like you would have to go up it in reverse.

13:37 Okay, what are we doing?

13:38 So essentially you're just going to be

13:39 having a really nice lunch with each other.

13:42 I love that.

13:42 Having a little chat.

13:43 That's basically what we're going to be doing.

13:44 I think the best thing is if Kazahisa is sat here.

13:48 Yeah.

13:48 And Larry sat here.

13:49 Okay.

13:49 Which you do.

13:51 And then we'll have Ayami here able to do translations.

13:54 You'll be sat on the same side.

13:55 Oh, okay.

13:55 All right.

13:56 Sat on the same side just because what's been cooking,

13:58 you're just going to be enjoying.

13:59 Oh, perfect.

14:00 Awesome.

14:00 And then I've got some like prompts and stuff.

14:02 What I'll do is I'll run you through like what we want to get out of this.

14:05 But then again, if we get stuck, if we want extra things,

14:08 I've got problems for you.

14:09 Got it.

14:10 I love that you're enjoying that entire plate of sweet potatoes by yourself.

14:17 Looking very tasty.

14:20 I see that.

14:20 Look, look at it.

14:21 Look how many are left.

14:24 Oh my goodness.

14:49 Whoa.

14:55 Can't see anything.

14:58 It's so steamy.

15:03 So cool.

15:04 Getting owned by the steam these guys.

15:07 Uh-oh.

15:08 Lens is fogged up.

15:10 Uh-oh.

15:10 The food cooked by the earth.

15:13 Pretty darn good.

15:15 Not bad.

15:16 I was very surprised because I was thinking

15:18 that it would just be overwhelming sulfur flavor

15:22 because the sulfur smell is so strong coming

15:26 out of the steam machines or steam pots.

15:29 Didn't think it wouldn't smell like sulfur at all.

15:46 I I just need like a big hook to to come here right now.

15:51 Like that.

16:05 Heat.

16:06 Heat.

16:42 We went really deep into the mountains, 700 m up above sea level here,

16:48 and we had a chance to check out this really cool village.

16:52 All steam all the time, lot of sulfur smell.

16:56 It was so much fun.

16:57 It was so cool to see cooked some food with the steam coming out of the earth,

17:03 which was a first for me.

17:04 I think my favorite part of all of that was the fact that we had a chance

17:08 to shoot this car in the steam like

17:12 on the road where the steam is just coming out.

17:15 All this crazy geothermic activity.

17:18 It was absolutely beautiful.

17:20 I have to say that's a first for me.

17:22 I've never shot a car where the steam and sulfur

17:27 and all this stuff is just coming out of the earth.

17:29 I think it looks super cool.

17:31 Which means I have to remember next time I

17:34 get a chance to bring a car to Yellowstone,

17:36 I think it would be cool to shoot there.

17:37 We're going to head to Nagasaki.

17:39 It's about a 3-hour drive.

17:40 And then we'll just pick it up from there.

17:46 Heat.

17:48 Heat.

18:34 We're in Nagasaki.

18:35 First stop, City Overlook.

18:39 Second stop, Chinatown.

18:41 We're going to get some ramen and hang out.

18:44 And tomorrow, we're going on a boat with the vehicle also.

19:04 The guy set us up to eat ramen.

19:06 And I was expecting to go to a ramen shop,

19:09 but I wasn't expecting to eat ramen at a street cart.

19:14 This is really, really cool.

19:18 That is awesome.

19:19 Oh, cool.

19:19 They got the lantern going and everything.

19:21 I feel like this is something I've always wanted

19:23 to experience without realizing I always wanted to experience it.

19:26 But here it is.

19:28 This is so cool.

19:29 What a cute little ramen shop.

19:46 Heat.

19:47 Hey.

19:47 Hey.

19:48 Hey.

20:21 That's a wrap.

20:22 Well done.

20:23 Well done.

20:23 Well done.

20:24 That was great.

20:25 You got some fun.

20:27 That was fun.

20:28 You know, I just can't help but feel a little bit of emotional now.

20:32 Going into that experience, I had no idea what to expect.

20:35 There's something so beautiful about that.

20:39 Doing the same thing your entire life for 33 years.

20:44 70 years old.

20:45 He's one of the last three street vendors in Nagasaki.

20:50 And once he's gone, once he retires, they don't issue new permits.

20:56 Apparently, when he started, it was hundreds hundreds of street vendors just

21:00 like him that set up stalls every single day.

21:04 and he still is doing it 6 days a week because

21:07 of his age and because it's just a lot more difficult now.

21:11 He doesn't vend when it's too windy out

21:15 and also when it's raining or when it's snowing.

21:18 He only does it on clear days.

21:21 It's crazy.

21:21 It really is amazing to me that the dedication that he has.

21:25 His wife gave me some treats from Nagasaki.

21:30 So, just wanted to thank them.

21:32 I did get their address.

21:34 So, I'm going to go ahead and mail

21:35 them pictures because they don't have email addresses.

21:38 I'm going to mail them pictures that I

21:40 took of them together at their ramen stand.

21:43 What a crazy experience.

21:44 That was that was one of my favorite

21:47 all the traveling I've done to Japan 20 years.

21:50 I think the thing that really blew me away the most

21:53 when they asked me what I do for a living,

21:55 I told them I take pictures of cars every single day.

21:58 But then I started showing them pictures of the cars that I photographed,

22:03 the places that I photographed in Japan.

22:06 And when they recognized these iconic places, right, for example, Mount Fuji,

22:11 even just their hometown here in Nagasaki, it clicked right away.

22:14 Like they got it.

22:15 They understood it right away.

22:17 They knew what I was doing.

22:19 And how excited they got and the smiles and the cheers that blew me away.

22:24 I mean, I I couldn't help but feel emotional after seeing their faces.

22:28 It was incredible.

22:30 Plus, I have to say the ramen was so good.

22:34 Second to none.

22:35 I cannot believe it was only 650 yen.

22:38 That's 4 bucks for a bowl of ramen.

22:40 And it was so good.

22:41 If you're ever in Nagasaki, come to Chinatown.

22:44 He's just right off of this uh canal here,

22:47 right in front of Chinatown, the sign.

22:49 And hopefully you catch him.

22:51 Hopefully you catch him before he retires because he's been going for 33 years.

22:54 Who knows how many more years he's going to go for.

23:33 For this little segment, we are on a remote island.

23:37 What is this island called?

23:38 Huku Island.

23:40 Huku Island.

23:41 This is so cool.

23:42 We stumbled upon this shop that is

23:45 solely keeping car culture alive on this island.

23:49 Koshi Kuban, we're checking out his builds and it

23:53 really is incredible what he's able to do.

23:55 But his English is not so good.

23:57 So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk real quick around his shop

24:00 and tell you about some of the builds

24:03 and tell you about the history of this workshop.

24:06 First thing I wanted to point out is that he has a real RWB.

24:10 It's a named RWB from Nikki.

24:13 Nikkai has been here a couple years ago

24:17 and it's just so cool to see that this exists.

24:20 The 964 RWB is my absolute favorite.

24:24 So, it's super cool to see one that's so wild here.

24:27 Unfortunately, the engine is out and I

24:29 think he's doing some mid restoration on it.

24:31 Hopefully, this gets back on the road.

24:33 It's funny because a lot of times when

24:35 you hear people talk about RWBs, they say, "Hey,

24:38 this is the only one in Singapore or this is the only one in this island

24:42 or this place." I 100% guarantee you this is the only RWB on this island.

24:48 This R32 is really special because this is

24:51 something that he's building for his daughter.

24:53 The dream is to take this to the US to race in TX2K.

24:58 That's going to be absolutely insane.

25:00 So, he's going to go with the RB30 twin turbo setup and he's

25:05 going to build the engine here and it's going to make over 800 horsepower.

25:10 This thing is going to be absolutely nuts.

25:12 We got a Honda build here.

25:14 The engine is right here.

25:17 I suggested that he put a K series in it and he laughed at me.

25:21 There's a bunch of L series engines here.

25:24 He cut his teeth in terms of tuning and learning how

25:26 to build engines with L series as a lot of Japanese

25:31 legendary tuners do um because it is widely available and it's

25:37 what came on so many performance cars including this 240Z.

25:42 This S30 is one of his latest builds.

25:45 It is a L30 twin turbo.

25:50 It has a diesel crank, uh,

25:52 which allows you to get that, I guess, extra, um, stroke.

25:57 So, that's why it's a L30, not a L28.

26:00 But, it's interesting that he's doing a twin turbo setup.

26:03 I guess that's what he's known for.

26:05 And he built one many years ago and it was sold overseas.

26:09 I think it's in the US now, but that's kind of where he made his name,

26:12 buil building these quote unquote devil Z's.

26:17 And this one is going to be absolutely wild.

26:19 This Bluebird is uh for a local customer.

26:24 According to him, there's only about five or six

26:27 car enthusiasts on the island other than him.

26:31 And this is for a local customer.

26:34 And the local customer did a Google search

26:37 to see if the FJ20 engine would fit in this.

26:42 And for whatever reason, they figured, okay, it will fit,

26:47 but they're going to have to go with a rear radiator setup.

26:50 It's converted from fuel injected to carved.

26:54 And this is the predecessor to the SR.

26:58 So, this came on the DR30 Skyline.

27:01 He even made custom headers for it.

27:03 He made headers on his own for this car.

27:07 He did all the pie cuts and everything.

27:09 He does everything.

27:10 He does the body work.

27:12 He does the fabrication.

27:15 He does the machining in his machine shop in front.

27:19 But he not only works on cars, he works on motorcycles also.

27:22 They have this foldable spray booth that they

27:25 use when they actually need to paint cars.

27:27 So, let's check out upstairs.

27:28 This is the scene that kind of really blew me away.

27:32 This is so cool.

27:33 So, we have like some body panels from an older Ducati,

27:39 but there's just like a 964 chassis just hanging out here.

27:46 So cool.

27:47 I I'm assuming he used that pulley to get it up,

27:51 that pulley crane thing to get this chassis up here.

27:55 But so many cool parts, so many bikes that he's uh building.

28:02 It seems like he builds more bikes than cars.

28:05 A lot of the bikes that he builds are for local customers.

28:08 Of course, he has a Watanab wheel here.

28:11 Random parts all over the place.

28:13 Headers.

28:14 So many headers.

28:16 So many fiberglass parts.

28:19 Some parts for the Bluebird.

28:22 Look at all the headers just hanging out on the wall.

28:26 What a cool spot.

28:27 I absolutely love it.

28:29 It's just amazing to me what they're able to do on this tiny island.

28:34 So, we took a ferry 2 hours from Nagasaki to this island.

28:40 There's only 30,000 people who live on this island,

28:42 which is amazing that he can sustain this this workshop here.

28:49 But, I just wanted to show you the machine shop.

28:51 Everybody's all hanging out trying to keep warm.

28:55 I think this might be one of my favorite motorcycles of his.

28:58 That is so cool.

29:00 Beat Racing.

29:02 I absolutely love the livery.

29:04 It's so cool.

29:05 This is awesome.

29:08 Look how cool that looks.

29:09 Oh my god.

29:13 Bossuku style.

29:14 Real quick, I just wanted to show everybody what's outside.

29:17 This is the scene that we came upon

29:21 when we actually came here for the first time.

29:24 We pulled up on the street and I just saw the Pandem FC RX7 parked out front.

29:30 I knew this was something special.

29:32 How cool is it that this car is here?

29:34 He also has a couple cars in the back.

29:38 There's this really nice slammed SEMA that is uh his customer's car.

29:45 This poor Z31 that has seen better days.

29:49 Makes me wonder what he's going to do with it.

29:51 But right now, it looks like it's just storage,

29:53 outside storage, and maybe parts.

29:55 Look at those wheels on it, though.

29:58 Holy crap.

29:59 I figured I would just show you folks a little tour of this place.

30:03 Little I wouldn't say more in-depth, but a little different.

30:07 I did a full interview for the full Forza episode,

30:09 so make sure you guys check that out.

30:37 We had a pretty early morning from Nagasaki because

30:40 we boarded a ferry that was honestly so cool.

30:44 It was uh hydrooil.

30:47 Never been on anything like that.

30:49 It was fast.

30:50 It went up to 90 km an hour.

30:52 We were on the boat for about an hour and a half and we

30:56 ended up on this island of Fukquay, spelled F U K U E.

31:03 Fukquay.

31:03 We met a local tour guide and she's seriously so cute.

31:08 She's a curator for some of the local museums,

31:14 but she also travels all over Japan singing and performing.

31:17 She showed us around to a bunch of interesting places,

31:21 including where they have like pirate ruins,

31:24 like real Japanese and Chinese pirates.

31:27 Uh the ruins that they left on Fukuy Island.

31:32 She showed us some of that.

31:33 She also filled us in on a lot of history.

31:36 She did go for a ride in the Civic Type R.

31:38 And at first I was like, "Look, I'm going to just drive as slow as I can.

31:42 I don't want to upset her.

31:43 I don't want to scare her." But then she asked,

31:46 "Why are you driving so slow?" I was like, "Oh, really?

31:49 Okay." Like that?

31:50 And I, you know, gave it a little give a little gas.

31:53 Gave her the beans.

32:10 and she told us that she still rides a motorcycle to this day.

32:15 She rides a Honda motorcycle.

32:17 She has a set of leathers and she wears jeans, too.

32:23 And she rides this island and that's what she does for fun.

32:25 She says she doesn't get to ride in sports cars ever,

32:29 especially being on this island.

32:31 There's not too many car enthusiasts here.

32:34 As you guys saw earlier,

32:36 we found out that there's only five or six car enthusiasts on the entire island.

32:40 We're going to go to one last location

32:42 and then close out this portion of our journey.

33:06 Hey, hey, hey.

33:33 So, at the end of each of these projects,

33:36 we're showing the artist their art in the real world in some way.

33:41 Cuz as we know, these artists were commissioned to create

33:46 original piece of art for the game for Fortza Horizon 6.

33:51 So millions of people from all over,

33:54 whoever is playing the game, will see Kazahizu's art.

33:58 He said himself he never expected to see his art in real life.

34:02 When we run went around the corner here,

34:04 I saw it in the distance and I saw him glance over.

34:07 I basically took his attention away from the lighthouse because

34:10 I knew that once we rounded this corner right here,

34:13 it's a straight shot pointing towards the lighthouse

34:16 and that's when it was completely revealed

34:19 to him and he knew right away of course that it was his own artwork.

34:23 He just started tearing up right away

34:25 and he got really emotional and it makes sense.

34:27 You know, for me this project means so much.

34:30 I'm so proud to work with Forza,

34:33 with Microsoft, with Xbox, with somebody like Kazuhiza,

34:37 who's a smalltime Japanese artist who's trying to make a name for himself.

34:42 This sort of project really puts his artwork in the spotlight,

34:45 and the fact that so many people will see his artwork

34:48 also from these videos makes me so happy and he deserves it.

34:53 He's very talented.

35:26 Thank you so much for watching the behind

35:27 the scenes for this Fortza Horizon 6 project.

35:30 If you have not seen the video on the Fortza YouTube channel,

35:35 head over there right now and check it out.

35:37 If you want to support us, head over to camerasandcarculture.com.

35:41 My book, Life at Shutter Speed, is for sale there,

35:44 as well as t-shirts, merch, pins, diecasts, you name it.

35:48 Thank you guys so much.

35:57 Heat.

35:57 Heat.

36:07 Heat.

36:17 Heat.