www.jamesjpn.net – Adventures in Japan

Happiness is not a destination, it's the vehicle you travel in.

First hitchhike adventure in 2010

Kevin and Yuriko

Jan. 10: I had to make an emergency trip to Oyama city in Tochigi prefecture to fix a PC. Oyama city is a good 270 kilometers from home. It was snowing this morning, not a particularly good day to hitchhike! In order to save time and avoid hitchhiking during the snowfall, I took a train to a station about 30 kilometers away from where I hoped to walk to the Sakae parking area on the Hokuriku Expressway. Later I found it was way too far to walk to Sakae parking, but a kind man who was going to Kashiwazaki took me to Ozumi Parking which was even better for me.

Snow piled up 3 meters next to a service station in Yuzawa

This winter Niigata has had 3 major snowfalls so far, about twice as much snow as was last year. The traffic moved slowly at points on Kan’etsu expressway due to the snow and following the snowplows at only 40 kilometers an hour. It promises to be a good season for the ski resorts. The mountain of snow in the photo on the left is way over my head or about 3 meters (9 ft.)

Kevin from America and his Japanese wife Yuriko took me to Komayose parking area which is just before the junction of the Kita Kanto expressway that goes east toward Oyama.

The last driver was Mohammad from Pakistan. Most Pakistanis who live in Japan are in the used car sales business, and Mohammad is no exception. He was quite surprised that I would hitchhike, and asked me why I didn’t come by train. I usually tell people it’s more fun to hitchhike. Mohammad was interested to hear my views of the world, and especially about American foreign policy. I told him that it’s easier for me to better understand politics and policy living outside of the U.S.A., but there are Americans living in America, albeit a small percentage (5~10%?) who have not succumbed to mass media mind manipulation.

Hitchhiking stats compared

The year is almost over and I probably won’t be going on the road again this month. Last night I added up the distances hitchhiked this year and they totaled to 19,530 kilometers. This is nearly 1000 more kilometers traveled compared to my previous record of 18,537 kilometers hitchhiked in 2005!

One of my goals for 2010 is to surpass the 20,000 kilometer mark.

I don’t travel by hitchhiking merely for the sake of traveling. Every time I go out it’s for some purpose, and often to visit friends and contacts to cure their Microsoft Windows ills. Thanks to the inherent security holes in Windows that lets in viruses, malware, and trojans, I’ll never lack for a way to support myself. Of course, poor practices of the end user have a big part of the blame too. That’s a big reason why I favor Linux. It’s practically idiot proof. The user cannot hurt the system, even maliciously, without root access, and no user of my Linux machine will ever have root access, only me, the administrator.

2 comments to Hitchhiking stats compared

Dai

February 8th, 2010 at 11:02 am · Reply

Wow, this graph is really amazing. Yes, hitchhiking is not only the best way to travel but also one of the best ways to bridge between people, communities and countries, I believe. You deserve a nobel peace prize.
I thought I may be one of those that is entitled to be in Japan’s hitchhiking hall of fame as the one who made 1st hitchhiking through Eurasian continent in 1963~64. But in comparison to what you are doing, I am nothing. So I shall keep my eyes on you and we will see what we can together achieve to help all of us make this world a better place to live. I really enjoyed our conversation on Jan.16th when you blessed my car by accepting my offer for a ride in Niigata.
James

February 8th, 2010 at 12:30 pm · Reply

Thank you Dai for your encouragement. It was certainly an honor for me to meet the first person to hitchhike from Japan to Germany! And that was way before I started hitchhiking in Japan!

New home member

Princess with her toy

December 13: I took an overnight bus from Tokyo to Aomori City and met up with Judy who gave me her Shih Tsu dog, Princess. Judy and her family can no longer give 6 year old Princess the care she needs after moving to a new house where dogs are not allowed inside. I offered to take care of Princess. She now stays clean and warm and spends most of her time in my bedroom.

1 comment to New home member

Tirzah

January 7th, 2010 at 1:26 am · Reply

Put her in a box and send her to meee!!! *melts*

“Global Warming” Is A Rothschild Scheme

Failed attempt to hitchhike to Aomori

The red line shows my proposed route to Aomori. The green line shows where I wound up -- in Tokyo.

My destination: Aomori city, northern Honshu
My mission: To bring back home to Niigata a Shizu dog from friends who are unable to give her the care she needs any longer.
My problem: Rainy weather in Fukushima prefecture
Reason for problem: I probably should have taken the slow but sure route to Aomori along the Sea of Japan where the weather was better that day instead of gambling on catching a ride on the Tohoku Expressway.
Result of problem: To escape the rain and possible health problems as a result, I accept a ride going the opposite way to Tokyo!

Details: It was cloudy in Niigata when I started off at 8:15 AM. I walked about 20 minutes to a main highway that headed toward Fukushima. The first vehicle was a truck that took me to route 49 and Agano City. The wind was so strong in Agano it was difficult to walk toward eastward, the direction I wanted to go. I had to lean my body in the wind to keep falling over!

Three rides later I got as far as Aizuwakamatsu City from where I hoped to get on the expressway with a car going to toward Sendai. It started to rain but not very hard and I had a good umbrella. After waiting an hour in the rain with no success (though there were plenty of cars with Sendai license plates passing by), I got discouraged and took a break at the local KFC. I debated on aborting the trip and returning back to Niigata.

After my break about half an hour later, I headed out again, this time to a different location just before the toll booths. I didn’t hold out a sign of my destination because I decided to leave the direction of travel in God’s hands and take the next car no matter which direction it would go to escape the rain.

A friendly man pulled up saying he would go to Koriyama City. This city is in the general direction I had hoped to go.

The rain in Koriyama is even harder than it was in Aizuwakamatsu. A police car pulled up and the two officers tell me I cannot hitchhike just before the toll booths at the expressway entrance, but they don’t mind if I do it before the entrance ramp on the normal highway. One officer then escorted me off the expressway after writing down some personal information about me. I don’t expect any future problems from this. The police are mainly looking for criminals or visa-ovestayers.

About 20 minutes later two men pulled up and offered me a ride. They were going the opposite direction I intended to go, to Tokyo. By this time the rain was so hard my attitude was “any old port in a storm” and so I accepted their offer. I’m sure glad I did because later I found that I could get a highway bus all the way to Aomori from Tokyo even cheaper than I can from Niigata though the distance is 200 kilometers further!

Though my trip to Aomori was delayed by an entire day, I was able to stay with close friends in Tokyo with the opportunity to meet other friends the next day. And the people who

December 2009 hitchhike adventure in central Japan

The red line shows my trip.

From November 30th to December 5th, I circled central Japan and reached my year end goal of 90,000 kilometers distance hitchhiked from August 2003. In 16 vehicles I covered 1420 kilometers passing through Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. This trip also broke my previous record of 2005 of kilometers traveled in one year.

An interesting person I met on the way to Tokyo was a man who lived in Iraq for 5 years during Saddam Hussein’s administration and 6 months in Iran during the the Shah’s reign. He is a soil specialist. He was driving a dirty truck and didn’t look like the scientist and specialist he turned out to be. He also surprised me with his good English. I asked him if he enjoyed his time in Iraq and he replied that he thought he would die several times! He often had to work in the desert suffering both heat and cold. He said that the mental attitude in that part of the world holds those who are robbed more evil than the robber!

Mother with daughter who caught the H1N1 flu virus

Laid back trucker

The first car was a lady with her 12 year old daughter. I asked why they were wearing face masks and the mother replied that her daughter just caught the swine flu! At that point I wanted to get out of the car, and especially so when she said she would take me to a train station which was a bit out of my way. But when I asked the lady to take me only up to the next major intersection, she replied that she would take me to route 8, a major highway going to the Sanjo interchange. I decided to accept her offer.

A truck driver leaning way back in the driver seat picked me up and took me to the interchange.

In Kawasaki city I pioneered a new way to get to the Tomei Expressway: Take the Denentoshi line to Fujigaoka and walk to the Kouhoku Parking area which is only about 1.5 kilometers distance from that station.

On the way to Kouhoku, it started to rain. At first it was only a fine drizzle and I hoped it wouldn’t get worse because I had no umbrella. I walked into a shop to ask directions and the shop lady, seeing I had no umbrella, offered me one. I was so thankful to have that umbrella later because it really started to pour when hitchhiking at Kouhoku.

Dr. Sato, a professor of medicine in Niigata University took me back home. It’s always interesting for me to meet highly educated men. We always have deep conversations about life, health, relationships, politics, science, the economy, etc., etc. No matter how erudite they are, or think they are, I keep up my side of any conversation with them despite the fact I barely graduated from high school. God gave me a marvelous education as a missionary with the Family International.

November hitchhike adventure to Aomori

University professor Dr. A. Kusumi who took me to Niigata from Hirosaki city in Aomori Prefecture

Again I went to Aomori city and back, 1060 kilometers, this time in 12 vehicles which includes two trucks. The highlight of the trip was to meet A. Kusumi, a professor who teaches environmental research at a university in Nagoya. I met him at the entrance of the Tohoku Expressway near Hirosaki. His car was packed with his belongings and at first he told me there was no room for me to sit. But after rearranging his gear I was able to squeeze my feet into a small space on the floor and sit in the front passenger seat. Dr. Kusumi was on his way home to Nagoya and said he would take the expressway all the way. I rejoiced knowing this would take me all the way home because the route passes through Niigata!

Dr. Kusumi became very tired after passing Sendai and stopped frequently at parking areas to rest. My home is about half way to his destination and I suggested that he spend the night as my guest. He accepted, took me home and met the rest of my family. I was so glad to return a favor to this kind man for taking me 550 kilometers back home for free and even buying me dinner along the way. Dr. Kusumi lived in Israel and studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for 3 years. (Click on his photo to have a closer look at his sweatshirt.) You can bet we had quite a few interesting discussions.

This trip took me over the 89,000 kilometer mark since I’ve been keeping stats from August 2003. I think I can surpass the 90,000 kilometer mark before the end of the year by making another trip. I’m planning one that will take me to Tokyo, Shizuoka and the Kyoto / Osaka / Kobe area, and this will bring me well over 90,000 kilometers.

Picked up by two Nichiren ladies

November 29, 2009: While hitchhiking to town I noticed a lady walking toward me from a distance with what appeared to be her car parked by the side of the road behind her. I correctly assumed she was going to offer me a ride. She had another lady friend with her who was the driver. They seemed a bit overly impressed to meet me which caused me to become suspicious.

I asked them, “Do you want to sell me something?”

“No!”

“Are you folks into some kind of religion?”

“No!”

They asked me if I had eaten lunch yet and invited me to a restaurant to talk. I accepted the invitation because I wasn’t in any hurry and knew it would give me an opportunity to share my faith with them.

In the restaurant I offered to give them two Activated magazines. As soon as I pulled them out of my briefcase, they turned them down. The only kind of Japanese who refuses to accept literature from me are people into some type of religion, and sure enough, these two ladies turned out to be Nichiren people, and their intent was to try to convert me!

Most Buddhists are very tolerant of other religions, and they have no problem toward Christians in general. The Nichiren sect is the notifiable exception. They will flatly tell you to forsake Jesus Christ and pray to their idol using their chant instead. Every time they chanted that horrible chant to me, I started to pray the “Our Father” prayer and told them that prayer works for me. To their credit, they did listen when I told them why Jesus died on the cross, and for what reason, to save all of mankind from sin.

Normally when a Japanese person invites me to a restaurant or coffee bar, they will pick up my tab. I fully expected this to happen but to my embarrassment I walked halfway out of the restaurant and was told I hadn’t paid my bill yet! Next time I’ll be more wary when a person seems overly interested in talking to me even though we just met. Either they want to convert you or sell you on some network marketing type of product.

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www.jamesjpn.net – Adventures in Japan

First hitchhike adventure in 2010

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