We Traveled to the WORLD'S SNOWIEST CITY (back in Japan!)

Did you know Japan is home to the top two snowiest cities in the world? Kara Angel. Together, these two cities average more than 42ft of snow per year.

This might be the most extreme weather I've ever experienced.

And over the next four days, we are going to be visiting both of these cities as well as squeezing in a few turns at the country's top ski resort. Snack time. I love snacks. Because what could be better than fresh powder? Followed up by hot ramen and sake.

I just lived my perfect day.

In case you're new here. Before we dive into the series, we just need to take a moment to explain why this trip is such a big deal to us and why Japan specifically holds such a special place in our hearts.

So back when we first got married, we saved up $35,000 and a whole bunch of frequent flyer miles to travel the world for one year. And it was that one way ticket from our hometown of Nashville to Tokyo that straight started it all. Back in January 2016.

Almost exactly seven years later, we are back in the city that started it all. And it's all thanks to this YouTube channel and each and every one of you who watch it. We could not be more grateful.

It is surreal being back here. If our younger selves knew that that first flight that brought us here was the start of this journey to over 100 countries and the best job in the world that we're still still getting to do today.

Okay, so this trip means a lot to us. Sorry for the savvy intro. Let's go to Sapporo.

Welcome to Sapporo, Japan. According to the Internet, this is the second snowiest city in the entire world, receiving over 616ft of snow per year. We're starting our journey here because we've made it just in time to catch the last day of the Snow Festival, which I honestly know very little about. So let's go check it out together. Based on the amount of people who are here, I would say this festival is a pretty big deal. So it seems like the main attraction of the festival are these very intricately carved snowmen that are placed all around the big park in the middle of town. It's quite impressive compared to the snowman that I used to build when I was little. And now we're going to see if we can get to the top of this big TV tower to get an aerial view of the entire festival. Being up here really gives you a new appreciation for just how big this festival is. Can you feel it moving?

Yes.

This whole building is shaking.

This Is going to be a long walk down.

My first warm vending machine drink. Oh, it's snowing. Something just fell on my head. I'm so excited. It just feels so good on my hands.

So, Mike, the writer of our daily travel newsletter, the Daily Drop, and he put a fun fact in there the other day that I didn't know, which is that if you stacked all the vending machines that are in Japan side by side, they would stretch from Japan to Hawaii, which is kind of mind blowing.

There is a designated smoking area on the north side of San Jose.

I'm going to be honest. I've been a little bummed this morning because we flew all the way to the other side of the world to visit the world's snowiest city, and it wasn't snowing, but now there are big, beautiful flakes falling from the sky. It wasn't, though.

You were in a funk.

It wasn't even forecasted to snow today. But I guess that's what happens in the second snowiest city in the world.

I paid $5 for a potato and a piece of newspaper.

Literally just a boiled swee potato out of a minivan.

I feel like you didn't make this sound very good. I think this is the best sweet potato I've ever had.

It's amazing.

I love this. They're so cute. It hurts.

I have no idea what's going on.

Fun fact. The Olympics were held here in 1972.

So the main reason that we came to Sapporo was for the snow festival. But as soon as I started doing my research, I got way more excited about this place. This is ramen Alley, and it is exactly what it sounds like. An alleyway filled with a bunch of tiny ramen shops.

Is this a vibe or what? There are probably at least 30 ramen shops in this alleyway, and each one of them only seats, like, six to eight people. We actually came to this one last night. We were so tired, but we just had to come get something to eat before we went to bed. And it was 10 out of 10. I don't want to go to one that's, like, completely empty. Cause, like, is there something.

I don't know. This is such a big decision.

It is.

You only get to eat at Robin Alley twice.

Three times if we come back for dinner. Ooh, what about this one? Oh, she just closed. She just closed right in front of me. Okay, we're sticking to what we know. We're going back to our tried and true. Hi, we're back. I don't Know if he remembers me, but he's smiling.

So this is what we got last week night, the spicy miso ramen. But today you get two.

Two butter corn.

So Sara is known for their miso ramen, but we keep seeing this butter corn cheese ramen. It's called saro style. So we're taking a risk even though it sounds pretty strange. So that's the miso paste. We think these are the sprouts. Those are the noodles.

Thank you.

Wow, that is a giant bowl of bro.

I don't think I'm a man, honestly.

It's like Americanized ramen. It's not bad. It just kind of takes away from the other ramen flavors that I love.

I would recommend that restaurant. I would not recommend the butter corn ramen. I'm sure all of these are great, but that one has tried it too. Twice now. Does that make sense?

No.

Include twice now.

We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering through one of the longest outdoor shopping malls I have ever seen. And of course, Nate had to drink a Sapporo beer in Sapporo. So we made a quick stop at the brewery where it's named.

I think we're both still jet legged.

I think we're out of shape.

I really committed to that fall. This bed is not that soft. My Mao Kinkashu.

Kara from the future here. How cute is my robe? It came with my hotel. And how cute are the Starbucks cups? In Japan, they have flowers for spring. Is this anywhere else? Just Japan? The matcha is also better in this country. Real quick, let me say a big thank you to Better Help for sponsoring this video. First of all, if you find yourself needing someone to talk to about anything that you're going through, please consider giving therapy a chance. I promise you're not alone in your struggles, and therapy is such an awesome tool to help you get through whatever you're going through. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy platform, and it's 100% online, which means no matter where you are in the world, you could have access to a licensed professional therapist to talk to whenever you need them. The way it works is first you answer a few questions about yourself, and then Better Help will match you with one of their 30,000 therapists who can best meet your needs based on the information that you share with them. Then you can start communicating with them in whatever way you feel most comfortable, whether that's via text, phone call, or you can schedule a video chat. Plus, they make it easy and free to switch therapists if for Some reason it's not working. So if you're ready to join over 3 million people taking charge of their mental health, you can get 10% off your first month with better help if you use our link in the description below, which is betterhelp.com K&N. That's better. HP. Okay, back to the video.

Good morning from the Sapporo train station. Yes, everyone is still doing mask here. Believe it or not, we did manage to pull ourselves out of bed last night and go see the lit up ice sculptures. There's proof.

It kind of reminded me of the snow hotel. It said all the ice sculptures were set up in the middle of the street and they were free for everyone to enjoy. This morning we have just picked up our train passes and today we are traveling two hours south to a new city by train. Niseko is supposed to be home to one of, if not the best ski resort in all of Japan.

Thank you.

So this is a very nostalgic meal for me. Last time we were here every morning I ate at Mr. Donut because it was the cheapest and most American option that I could find in Tokyo. I'm trying to lay off the donuts, but. But you know, for the memories.

Oh, look at how much snow is on those roofs.

If we make this next train, it's going to be a miracle because that last one was delayed. And if not, we waited an hour and a half at the train station.

After standing for two hours, shoulders are shadow of strangers. You finally.

Oh my gosh.

Home sweet home.

Look at all this space.

This is by far the biggest room we've ever had in Japan. I think the plan for the rest of the afternoon is go find some food and sort out rentals for tomorrow so that we can finally go skiing in Japan. Also, we've been here for like two seconds and we're already talking about just canceling the rest of our plans in Japan and staying here the rest of the time. It looks so amazing.

I love it here. I love it.

I love it.

I love it. I love it. Good morning.

What a way to start the day.

Look at that.

It's better if you walk this way. I can't see walking that way. Turn the camera around with your eyelashes.

Walking into the snow.

This was on our 5 minute walk to coffee. Worth it.

We've never seen SK outside of the US before. We really only ski like three times ever.

I hope we still remember how to do this.

I don't even remember how to clip into my skis. I should have practiced on the ground.

Oo coming in hot.

Everyone around us is in danger right now. You just got to commit. There you go. I do not think life could get any better. Right now. We are skiing in Japan. It's snowing. She's still got it.

We have found some deep powder.

Snack time. I love snacks.

Look at that. It looks like a frozen volcano.

So cool. What is that?

It's so deep.

This is so fun.

How cool is this chair lift? There's a plastic cover so the snow isn't hitting me in the face. Perfect conditions for a snack. That's not where my snack is. This is my favorite snack in the whole world. It's basically rice wrapped with seaweed, but it's magically packaged in this plastic in a way that the seaweed and the rice are not touching each other until you unwrap it. We fell in love with these our first time we came to Japan in 2016. If we haven't said about a million times already. Okay, let's go get some more.

The real reason we fell in love with them is because it's what we could afford. They're super cheap. They're like a dollar fifty at the convenience store.

It really has a spot. You have no idea.

Look at this for winter wonderland.

One minute the sun's shining, the next minute it's dumping down snow. This ski resort actually gets over 400 inches of snow every year. We ask our taxi driver yesterday if it had snowed the day before, and he laughed and said, it snows every day here.

Crazy.

How beautiful is that.

To work?

We are not in shape for this.

You gotta get out of the habit of groaning when we sit down.

That's the difference between us seven years ago and us now. Kara was comparing photos of us the first time we were in Japan, and she said, we are actually growing old together.

We look old still snowing. Sapporo is the second snowiest city in the world, but we're classifying city as any place that has over 100,000 people. Neco is only home to about 5,000 people, so this doesn't classify as a city, but it actually gets way more snow. Like twice as much snow as Sapporo. Kara's going to risk her life just so you can appreciate just how big this pile of snow is. Pascal.

Pretty sure they wrap all their trees in this grass to keep them from falling over because of the weight of the ice.

It kind of feels like I'm living in a Dr. Seuss book.

Oh, it's so big. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that. I have been thinking about this moment all day. Like, from the moment I woke up. We were at a ramen restaurant, and I'm in love with it. We came here yesterday, and we're here again for the second time. They have completely vegan ramen and the thickest, most beautiful noodles I have ever seen. Look at this broth. It has chili oil.

Got ultramate my throat.

I think I've just officially lived my perfect day.

That makes me want to cry. Love ya.

We are exhausted, and every single muscle in our bodies are sore. So yesterday, we hobbled our way onto three different. Different trains. And last night, we finally arrived in Omori. The sun's peeking out now, but for the most part, it has not stopped snowing since we got here. This was the view from our hotel window this morning. So in addition to snow, Omori is also one of the largest fishing ports in all of Japan. This is where some of those crazy expensive bluefin tuna come from.

So this morning, we've come down to the local fish market, and if you like fish, this might be one of the coolest, coolest culinary experiences in the world. Oh, doesn't open automatically.

Okay. So we think the way that this works is you buy a bowl of rice here at the front, and then you buy tickets, and then you take your bowl of rice around the fish market and trade in your tickets for whatever fish you think looks the best. So it's kind of like a build your own poke bowl, but it's the freshest it could possibly be. Arigato. All right. It was 2,000 yen for this gigantic bowl of white rice and a bunch of tickets. I paid two tickets for the rice, and I have no idea how much the fish cost. So we'll see how much we can get with eight more tickets. Lunch kit. Lunch kit. Salmon. I recognize that one. Can I get this tuna?

Okay. I liked that. That was fun. Okay, which other one should I get? What do you think? Put on the. You like that one? You like that one? Yeah. Okay, I see. Yay. I got you. Yay. Okay, how many tickets? Two. Two. What a steal. Yay. Yay.

Eggs. Okay. Why not one egg?

Oh. Oh.

Oh, my gosh. This is the most fun thing we've ever done. Hello. Okay, she's interested. What do we think? Do we like clams?

Yeah, go for it. It's a scallop, I think.

Let's get one of these.

All right, so far we have tuna eggs, my bestie's favorite, and a scallop oh, my gosh. Seaweed. How much is this one? Can I pay with tickets? One. Oh, steel.

Yeah.

Get some green onions with it. No way. Is that garlic? And we're cooking it. Oh. Oh, it's a seaweed soup.

Yes. And it's only one ticket. This is awesome. Oh, she's coming to set it down for me. All right. That's what he must do.

Thank you.

Two tickets left.

Whoa, look at these sea cucumbers. Got some fish heads, some crabs. I don't know what kind of fish those are. Squid. Hairy crab that looks like brains. But it has to be seafood, right?

It has to be guts.

I think I draw the line there. So it seems like only some of the vendors are selling for the rice bowls. There will usually be, like, little one or two, but these all have prices on them, so I don't think we can put any of these in the rice bowl.

Oh, I like this. Look at this presentation. Everything's in a silver bowl. I love what you've done with the place. We don't have any salmon yet. What do you think? Is salmon good? Let's do it.

Lovely. Oh, it even took off the little garnish for me.

They keep trying to sell the guts. Yeah, I think those shrimp look really fun.

I got. There you go. My last two.

I love him. He's my favorite.

If you come to the fish market, you have to come to this guy's stand.

It's brunch time. I don't know why they're adding it. Now I get to eat. All right, I'm going to start by sipping my miso soup while it's hot.

We've been eating primarily plant based taste these days, but when in Rome or Japan, I feel like I have to have the tuna first just because of where we are. Here we go. Freshest tuna I've ever had.

Somehow in this country, the fish doesn't taste fishy. It's honestly one of those things that it's hard to go back to the US and enjoy sushi after you've been here. It's kind of like a curse, but I. I am so happy to be cursed right now. Now I'm gonna try the one that my BFF told me to get the mystery fish.

The fish just melts in your mouth. Okay, scallop time.

I think I'm ruined forever. I, from now on, only eat fish at fish markets. Look how orange this salmon is.

Mmm. The salmon might be the best. Fun fact, the very first time we came to Japan, I read in a guidebook that you're never supposed to put your chopsticks in your rice like this. You're always supposed to lay them on your bowl. I have no idea why and I don't know if it's true, but I only do this now so I don't look like a tourist.

Hello.

Where are we going?

Mount Hakoda. We are riding our first bus in Japan, and it's not quite as straightforward as the metro. I am about 70% sure that we're going to the right place right now. And 0% sure what that guy was saying.

100% sure that he is a very happy man. Love this country. It's the funniest thing. It's like we know three words in their language and they just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And it's so clear that we don't know what they're saying. They just.

Thank you. I got. Look at this wall of snow. It is almost as tall as the bus. Well, that bus ride ended up being a great sightseeing tour of the world's snowiest town. And now we have made it to Mount Hikoto, which is home to a phenomenon that only happens a few places around Japan called the snow monsters. Now we just have to figure out how to get to the very top.

Okay.

Because of the fog, we cannot see the scenery at the moment. The wind near the top of the mountain is getting stronger, so service may be be suspended. You may not be able to stay for a long time. But is it okay? Okay. Taking a risk.

Okay.

Nice. This one's in a aluminum tin.

Hot green tea. It's so good.

Check out this gondola. It's huge.

Wow. Look at the chains and the poles.

Everything is just completely frozen.

This is nuts. Oh, my gosh. It's so white.

The snow monsters are basically just trees that are covered in snow. But it only happens really high up in the mountains here in Japan. And there has to be a lot of moisture. And so the freezing cold wind freezes the moisture onto the trees. And that creates, like, the frozen base that all of the snow just grabs onto. And then they just turn into these white pillars. This is the top of a tree. You can see the branches. There's proof that this is the tree. I read somewhere on the Internet that you didn't need snowshoes to come up here, but not true. That gym advisory view was wrong.

Ugh.

I think my eyeballs are freezing.

Ah. I feel so conflicted. This is so cool. And this is why we came here. But I'm so cold. I Want to go back inside? I just want to look at him through the window.

This might be the most extreme weather I've ever had experience. This is kind of amazing. We'll see you next week. There'll be a lot less snow. We're gonna check out the bullet trains in Japan. Before you go, we wanted to let you know that we are giving away another trip over at the Daily Drop. This is for five nights in the Caribbean at the Fairmont El San Juan.

In addition to five free nights, you'll also get $2,000 to cover your food and drink costs. And we're throwing in an additional $1500 to cover your flight.

It's completely free to enter. Just click the link in the description below to learn more or scan the QR code here on the screen while you watch the bloopers.

My expectations was that this was gonna be like, a magical, like, Narnia vibe. And instead it was like survival. I look like the tree monster. It's like my branches are frozen.

My head is stuck with.

I'm glad you didn't lick it. Take it off.

We got some hand sanitizer, actually, that says water. You just put water on my hair.

Don't be pointing down the hill when you strap your second one in.

I told you I was rusty. I would just like to point out that the first time we were in Japan, we had one camera that could fit in my pocket. Now we have a gigantic camera. And whatever all this stuff is, I'm not carrying this because it's cute. Somehow we have just more stuff. We're going to Skiing in Japan. Skiing in Japan.

GoPro. You better work today. Kara's pep talk seemed to work with the orcas, so I thought, give it a try this morning.