Saitama Traditions - Tokyo's Scenic Neighbor

The best way to discover little-known sights, and make even familiar places feel brand new— is to go exploring by bicycle.

It's late autumn, and our road this time takes us to Saitama.

- Makes you feel like a kid again!
- This is such fun!

Despite being right next to the giant metropolis of Tokyo, a large part of Saitama is unspoiled nature.

And, it's home to people keeping local traditions alive.

We make them to last at least 100 years.
It'll be with the child their whole life.

It's a part of Japan full of family legacies.

Making this whisky became my mission in life.

Bountiful nature not far from the city.

Let's go!

Our trip starts in Kawaguchi, just over the border from Tokyo.

And over the bridge, here comes our cyclist.

Welcome to Saitama.

It's a beautiful day today.

The weather is perfect, not a cloud in the sky.

This is Michael Rice, from Colorado in the USA.

He's an all-round athlete who competes in international triathlons.

Okay, let's hit it.

The Arakawa River is 173 kilometers long.

For a full 90 kilometers, there's a cycling route along its banks.

Oh, there's a train.

So all these trains bring the commuters in and out of Tokyo.

This is the Saitama City suburb of Iwatsuki.

In this part of town, tradition is very much alive.

Wow. Yeah, the doll shops here.

This is a famous doll-making town, and Michael is taking us to a doll workshop.

Is that it? Is this it? Maybe.

Let me see what the sign says.

Kobo Ishikawa.

I think this might be the place I'm looking for.

Hello?

- I hear you make dolls here?
- That's right.

Ishikawa Yasuhiro's family started this workshop 60 years ago.

Wow! Come and look at this!

- This room is just full of dolls.
- This kind of doll is called Edo-kimekomi.

This style of doll has been a specialty of the area for 150 years.

They're given to children as a prayer for a safe and healthy life.

There are hundreds of stages in the making of each doll, a process that takes at least half a year.

The dolls are carved from paulownia - an ancient tree native to Japan.

Grooves on the body are lined with glue, and the costume is pressed into these grooves.

Adding layer after layer like this ensures the clothing hangs naturally.

We make them to last 100 years, so ideally
they will last a lifetime.

It's something you can give a child that will
accompany them throughout life.

The face is where a doll comes to life.

Multiple shades of ink give depth and contrast to the features.

The eyes are the main feature.
We paint over each eye about 100 times.

- 100 times for one eye?
- Yes. That's to make them to express all kinds of things.

From above, we see cool, almond eyes.
Look from below and they're smiling.

That's amazing.

Yasuhiro carries on this tradition alongside his father, Koichi.

He tells the story of how he decided to carry on the family tradition of doll making.

Granddad made this for me when I was born.

- I guess you take it out every year?
- Every year, of course.

Yasuhiro's grandfather Junpei was a famous master of this craft.

He made dolls for both Japan's imperial family and for the US president.

It made him so happy to see
his grandson follow in his footsteps.

That must have been great for him.

Yasuhiro was his last apprentice.

The biggest lesson Yasuhiro got from his grandfather wasn't technique, it was the importance of family love.

Dolls should bring happiness to children,
help them to have a good life.

I try to make dolls that will
always be there for the child.

I'm sure that's how granddad felt when
he made this doll for me.

Our dolls are vessels for parents
to fill with hopes for their child.

- Far more than just beautiful objects.
- Exactly. That's what we try to achieve.

Today, Michael will meet a guide who knows a lot about Saitama's central area.

- Hello there!
- Good morning!

- I'm Michael - we talked on the phone.
- Pleased to meet you.

His name is Norikane Takaki.

There are lots of little-known old back roads
around here. That's what I want to show you.

- Exactly the kind of thing I like.
- Great!

- Off we go!
- OK!

He takes Michael on a picturesque route through an area called Oku-Musashi.

Little by little, it's getting steeper.

- Oh, it's going to get much harder.
- This is tough.

This route visits some truly amazing spots that aren't really known except to locals.

Wow, this tree is huge!

They say it's over 700 years old.

- You can feel its life force.
- Perfect timing.

The yellow leaves are right at
their peak just now.

The golden leaves on this ancient gingko tree only last for about a week.

You don't have much time to catch this sight.

These days everyone zooms past on the highway,
going to places further away.

They forget there are places like this
so close to Tokyo.

16 years ago, when he was still working as a graphic designer, Norikane took up cycling for his health.

After discovering the beauty of Oku-Musashi, he cycled here at every opportunity.

Wanting to share his finds, he started giving tours of the area when he wasn't working.

- Go right!
- OK!

- The fallen leaves can be really slippery.
- Like riding on ice.

Riding in the Oku-Musashi area,
I always keep wanting to go further, explore deeper.

It's a really interesting place, so much to see.

- Feels like being a kid again!
- That's exactly right.

- Which way here? Left?
- Yes, left.

- Careful!
- Lots of roots here.

Let's stop here.

This is the highpoint of the tour - the Ranzan Valley.

Fall is the most beautiful season here.

I love the reflections in the water.

This place is really beautiful and it's so peaceful. It's so quiet.

And I can just hear the birds, and there's no other sounds.

I love this spot, especially in fall
with the red leaves reflected in the river.

Oku-Musashi is really the closest place
to Tokyo that's still largely unspoiled.

For cyclists, this is a paradise.

How long do you aim to keep doing this?

If medicine keeps advancing, I hope
I'll still be in the saddle when I'm 400 or so.

Crazy road.

Into the ice. Icy, icy, icy.

Today we're heading up into the Chichibu area.

It's a freezing morning in the mountains, but icy roads are no big deal for our adventurous cyclist.

Through the ice fields.

Looking forward to his next stop, Michael steps up the pace.

Looks like I found some whiskey.

This is what I'm looking for.

Chichibu Distillery.

- Hello!
- Glad you could make it.

- I'm Michael.
- I'm Akuto. Welcome to Chichibu Distillery.

This is Akuto Ichiro, master distiller.

Starting in 2017, his whiskies have won top prize five years in a row at a prestigious international whiskey trade fair.

Please, step inside.

What a wonderful smell.

That's the whisky.

- This warehouse has a very romantic feel.
- True.

I guess it's combination of the low lighting
and the scent.

There are 12,000 barrels in here, each filled with slowly maturing liquor.

The barrels are stacked on an earthen floor.

The earthen floor is a natural way to control
the temperature and humidity.

And it gives our whisky the taste of Chichibu.

The most important process is charring the wood of the barrels.

Charring the insides results in a very sweet,
vanilla-like scent.

And we get different tastes depending on
how we char the barrels.

Here he's charring the inside.

Akuto's family had produced sake in Chichibu since the 17th century.

But when his father was president of the company, business started to go poorly, and he was forced to let it go.

As Akuto was helping dispose of the remaining sake stocks, he discovered that his father had long been experimenting with making whisky.

Some of his raw whisky had been sitting
there aging for about 20 years.

When I tried it, I was fascinated
to discover a very distinctive and unique taste.

The world needs this, I thought, and I made
it my mission in life.

Deciding to learn the craft of whisky making at the source, Akuto went to Scotland to study.

In the search for his ideal flavor, he tried many different barrels from abroad.

But in the end, he decided to make his own from mizunara oak.

The first time I tried whisky aged in mizunara oak,
I was shocked by how good it was.

There's a special aroma and taste
you only get with this wood.

So I set my heart on mizunara oak barrels.

This is whisky aged in mizunara oak,
Japanese oak.

So different to regular whisky.

How to describe it?
A sort of oriental aroma?

It's often compared to the scent
of the incense burned in shrines and temples.

Right. A scent that will reach heaven.

It is very like the subtle smell of incense.

Whisky that could only be made here in Chichibu.

And no one was happier with the unique result than Akuto's father, who passed away last year.

At first, I thought I was helping to complete
the whisky my father wanted to make.

But it was the opposite.
Having his whisky helped me create this business.

I can't express how grateful I am.

When I showed him the distillery, he went
round and examined every corner of it.

And then he said:
you showed me something fine today.

I'll never forget the smile on his face.

Handed down from father to son, a burning passion for whisky-making.

Michael is now heading south, deeper into the mountainous part of Chichibu.

Okay, time for the train race.

This steam locomotive dates to 1944.

Lovingly restored, it's now used for tourist excursions.

See you everybody.

Another two hours' ride brings us to a restaurant with the ideal cuisine to pair with Chichibu whisky.

- Hello! Welcome!
- Hello! I'm Michael.

Ah yes, I was expecting you.

Here, one can taste the bounty of Chichibu's mountains.

Michael will try some local wild game meat.

- The bear meat is done.
- I've never seen so much fat on any kind of meat.

Try adding this special garlic sauce
to the grilled meat and the herbs.

First time in my life to eat bear.

It's tender. It's really delicious. I didn't think a bear would taste this good.

Delicious.
That's good.

This spot is fantastic.

And after the meal, what better than a glass of Akuto's whisky?

It's such a fine taste.

It doesn't get any better than this, especially in a place like this.

It will be a tough climb to Michael's final goal, a shrine high in the mountains.

Higher, higher, higher.

I think I'm almost there.

This is where the road ends.

This is as far as I go by bike.

The rest is on foot.

We made it.

Mitsumine Shrine, the end of our trip, was a site for mountain ascetics to conduct their rigorous spiritual training.

Deep in the mountains.

I didn't realize how deep Saitama was.

It feels to have finally made it all the way up here.

Looming out of the mist is the sacred peak of Mount Mitsumine.

It's been a very long ride.

That's really impressed me this whole trip are the people.

The people of Saitama.

I see these families carrying on their traditions, the fathers and sons working together.

It really reminds me of watching my father grow up.

And I can see that the people living here in Saitama are also preserving the ancient paths of their ancestors that have brought them to the life that they have now,

because of the way that their ancestors lived in the past.

And carrying on these traditions is something that I think makes the people of Saitama very special.

Saitama - where families still treasure their unique local culture, passed on from generation to generation.