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Japan is mental. The epitome of work hard, play hard.
And no-one, in Japanese history, was more hardcore than your Samurai warrior.
Tough, obedient, and excellent to have around at a Sunday roast. Little more leg please.
Perfect.
So when 20th Century Fox rang my boss and said "Do you want to send someone to learn
to be a Samurai because Wolverine's coming out on DVD and it's all set in Japan and that?"
I put my hand up and bravely said yes. I'll go on a press jolly to Tokyo.
But only if there's drunken Karaoke, and bullet trains. And an extensive whiskey selection,
and swords, and Wolverine claws, and the green power ranger. And corn juice. And there was.
So I went.
Welcome to Tokyo we are 27 floors up. And the other thing I've got to show you is in
the bathroom. No, it's not that, that'll wait for a different video. This, aaw yeah. This
is a Japanese super toilet. And when you sit on it it's got a heated seat, it gives a little
courtesy flush when you first sit on it, and as you can see here it's got a front and back
douching option. For freshness in all areas. And you can adjust the pressure on that too,
which is really quite wonderful. But anyway, I'm not here in Japan to show you views and
toilets. I'm here to become a Samurai warrior.
We are feeling and looking, I think, remarkably Japanese.
But if one's to be a Samurai one can't simply wear a girls kimono in a hotel bathroom. That's
just called "Saturday". One must achieve enlightenment through prayer, so we hit Tokyo's Zojoji temple,
which was build by the Tokugawa clan - real, proper Samurai.
But it turns out this temple does more than ensure your spiritual wealth.
So this wall of paper behind me, these are actually prayers that people come and they
tie up on the Shinto temples. They don't just pray for good health, though, or the health
of their family, it's slightly more mercenary than that. They also pray for good stocks
and shares, a nice pay bonus and occasionally, apparently, more enlightened boyfriends and
girlfriends. Isn't that sweet.
And then it got weird.
This may look like a Buddhist prayer ceremony. It is. But I wonder what they're praying for.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Yup.
Well that was enlightening. But a Samurai needs a sharp weapon as well as a sharp mind,
so it's off to the suburbs on a bullet train to meet one of the most famous men in the
world when it comes to making really, really sharp things.
So in the spirit of trying everything Japanese this is buttery corn juice. It's hot.
Japanese trains look like robots!
Corn water. Still lovely.
This is the workshop of Mr Yoshihari deep in the suburbs of Tokyo. Now Mr Yoshihari
is one of the world's most celebrated swordsmiths. He has won every award going for his beautiful
blades. And what they do in this workshop - and a series of apprentices, as you can
see, are stoking the fire right now - is they take lumps of pig iron like this - incredibly
heavy - and they forge them into some of the most astonishing pieces of artwork.
This is a standard Katana and you can see from the... I don't know if you can see this
but there's a pattern along the blade which looks like hills or treetops or clouds. And
that's the tempering pattern where the steel is hardened. And you can tell from the pattern
on it who has made it. And if you turn it this way and look down the blade it's so fine
that your eye can't actually make out the blade itself.
And a sword like this apparently is three million yen, that's about $30,000. they take
about 100 days to make. And I'm going to be incredibly careful with it when I put it down
because if I drop it I'm in trouble.
Well we've got our weapons, we've focussed our minds, now it's to the dojo to learn the
true way of the Samurai. With a training montage.
That's quite enough of that.
And with just a little hair gel to properly Wolverine myself up...
Uncanny.
First step, removing the sword.
Next, swingy swingy sharp thingy.
Slick.
Then put it away without cutting off your own hand. No, without... No. Wrong.
Our first Samurai duel, recreating one of the fight scenes from Wolverine. Here's what
it should look like...
And this is what we got.
Once again, uncanny.
Could I make a Samurai, do you think?
Yes! And you look like a Samurai.
Thank you!
Thanks green power ranger slash Hugh Jackman's stunt co-ordinator. Inow feel like I can return
to London defending the honour of my master. And stuff. The Wolverine's out on November
18th.