Joanna Lumley’s Japan

Joanna Lumley embarks upon the journey of a lifetime across Japan from the icy Siberian seas of the north to the subtropical islands of the south.

Joanna begins her 2,000 mile adventure in the sub-zero temperatures of Hokkaido – Japan’s ‘wild north’ – where she encounters one of the most important creatures in Japanese culture, the red-crowned crane. Heading south, she meets members of local indigenous communities, enters the Fukushima exclusion zone, sees Japanese snow monkeys bathing in steaming hot natural waters, and hops on board a bullet train to explore the modern metropolis that is Tokyo.

Further south Joanna is welcomed in Kyoto by the cherry blossoms at their peak, undertakes a pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku, and visits a school in Nagasaki, the site of the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan in 1945. Joanna continues to the islands of Okinawa where one of the bloodiest battles of WWII was fought, where the Japanese Navy made the ultimate sacrifice – committing seppuku (suicide, Samurai style) instead of being captured by the American forces.

Joanna’s epic journey comes to an end on the idyllic beaches of Kohama, home to a ‘girl band’ with an average age of 84.