Part 1 • 2016 • episode "Part 1" • Joanna Lumley's Japan

Category: Travel

Joanna begins a 2,000-mile journey across Japan in Hokkaido, where she meets one of the most important animals in Japanese culture, the red-crowned crane. She arrives in Sapporo during the middle of the annual Snow Festival and meets members of the local indigenous community, before travelling into the Fukushima exclusion zone and taking a bullet train from Nagano to Tokyo.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Joanna Lumley's Japan • 2016 • 3 episodes •

Part 1

Joanna begins a 2,000-mile journey across Japan in Hokkaido, where she meets one of the most important animals in Japanese culture, the red-crowned crane. She arrives in Sapporo during the middle of the annual Snow Festival and meets members of the local indigenous community, before travelling into the Fukushima exclusion zone and taking a bullet train from Nagano to Tokyo.

2016 • Travel

Part 2

The actress flies over Tokyo in a helicopter. The city was bombed extensively during the Second World War, so almost all of it is a symbol of the post-war economic boom that saw Japan become the world's second largest economy. While in the capital, Joanna heads out to a nightclub to see a Japanese girl band and witnesses the largely male audience perform almost as much as the artists on stage. Later, Joanna travels to the Kiso Valley to walk the Nakasendo Way, an ancient route that once linked Tokyo to Kyoto, a place best known for that most famous of Japanese traditions, the Geisha.

2016 • Travel

Part 3

The actress heads to the island of Shikoku hoping to gain a better understanding of Japanese Buddhism. She then takes a bullet train to another island - Kyushu - where she finds the Henn Na Hotel, the world's first robot hotel. At Nagasaki, she visits Shiroyama Elementary school, one of the only buildings to survive the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. Joanna then travels to Sakurajima, one of the country's most active volcanoes, before heading to the islands of Okinawa where one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War was fought.

2016 • Travel

You might also like

People

Simon catches up with the people he met, including a Burmese undercover human rights campaigner, a homeless woman living in a Hollywood railway bridge, and a 10 year-old boy he met working in terrible conditions in a glass factory in Bangladesh.

S1E1 • Incredible Journeys with Simon Reeve • 2021 • Travel

The Lakes with Simon Reeve

The Lakes with Simon Reeve

Simon Reeve travels through the glorious Lake District and breathtaking Cumbria, revealing the secrets of this iconic part of Britain.

2021 • Travel

The Loneliest Country In The World

The Loneliest Country In The World

Where is the population in the world the smallest? What countries have the least people? It’s not the size that matters, and with countries, that is often the case. Some of the least populated countries in the world are also the wealthiest in terms of personal wealth and gross national product. And some of the larger nations have problems equally as huge to address. Some of these smaller countries are thinly populated because they are super-difficult to get to or sit in some of the world’s harshest regions. Some simply get by on one or two key industries and foreign aid. Some were used as strategic bases during war time. Some are playgrounds for the rich and famous. And one is reserved for holy activities. Today we take a closer look at the smallest of these nations, in this episode of the Infographics Show, The Ten Least Populated Countries in the World.

The Infographics Show • 2018 • Travel

East Transylvania

East Transylvania

In Transylvania, Charlie's awed by a restored medieval clock tower, samples artisan cheese and donkey milk, and visits a theme park in a salt mine.

S2E1 • Flavours of Romania • 2023 • Travel

Everest: Conquering the Death Zone

Everest: Conquering the Death Zone

The stories of mountaineers who have reached the summit of the world's tallest mountain, including a look at the dangers of the low oxygen levels at high altitudes. The programme examines the factors that allowed Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's 1953 expedition to succeed where so many had failed, and reveals how the Sherpas, who work as porters and guides for expeditions, have a physiology uniquely adapted to surviving at high altitudes.

2021 • Travel

From Texas to southern Mexico

From Texas to southern Mexico

Simon travels from Texas to southern Mexico, meeting a woman who risks her life to take supplies to migrants stranded on the Mexican side of the border in Reynosa, one of the country's most violent cities, which is dominated by a powerful criminal organisation. He also ventures into the rainforest to explore the Maya city of Yaxchilan, and meets the modern-day descendants of this civilisation, who are increasingly marginalised and treated as second-class citizens.

S1E4 • The Americas with Simon Reeve • 2019 • Travel