Japan is a great country for sightseeing and travel — if you can afford it. Transportation costs are at least double that of the USA. It costs around US $85 just to travel 300 KM (about 190 miles) by the “bullet train” (Shinkansen in Japanese). Want to save some doe and meet people? Try hitchhiking! I do and I love it!
I first came to Japan in 1972 while in the US military stationed near Tokyo. A couple years later I decided to become a missionary to the Japanese people and tell them about Jesus Christ. Missionaries need to “live by faith”. This also means to live within one’s income. I needed to travel the country to “preach the Gospel” but could not always afford public transportation. My partner and I often opted to hitchhike. We usually got to our destination that day, and if we didn’t, often the person that picked us up took us to their home where we spent the night and sometimes several days.
I wish I had kept a record of all my adventures hitchhiking in Japan. If I had, I would have a book by now which might have even been a best seller. LOL! At the very least, it would have made interesting reading for me in my old age. I will be 67 in June this year of 2017.
I define hitchhiking as getting rides from total strangers. Therefore it does not include rides from associates, friends or family.
What kind of people pick me up?
Kind people, unselfish people, people who care about others. Some are fond of Westerners, some study English and want to practice using it, some lived in the USA and want to repay the kindness they received from Americans, some have hitchhiked in their university days and understand people who do, some have broken hearts (often marital problems or broken love relationships) and wish to pour out their hearts to somebody, some are lonely, and some know they are prone to be sleepy driving on the expressway and wish to have someone to talk with in order to help them stay awake! Some drivers have correctly identified me as a Christian missionary even before I tell them so! They are usually the most open to hearing the Message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Bible than most Japanese. To meet such people and have an opportunity to share the Truth with them makes it worth all the discomfort of the hot sun, rain, wind and snow I sometimes face while hitchhiking.
How do I hitchhike? Read a page of tips I compiled!
Since August of 2003 I have been keeping statistics of my travels.
Forced to hitchhike due to heavy rain
Reading Time: 2 minutes July 29: I needed to go this day to Aomori city, 470 kilometers from my home in Niigata. It was … Continue reading →
Mr. and Mrs. Kudo take me to Aomori city
Reading Time: < 1 minute July 17 It was another day after rainy season. I walked a little over a kilometer to route 7 in Hirosaki … Continue reading →
Picked up by young mother with two little boys
Reading Time: 3 minutes Monday, July 18: From Aomori city in northern Tohoku I needed to go in one day to Noda city, Chiba … Continue reading →
Picked up by two members of the Akita Prefecture Parliament
Reading Time: 2 minutes July 15: Today I hitchhiked in 11 vehicles from Niigata city to Hirosaki city in Aomori Prefecture, a distance of … Continue reading →
Hitchhike adventures since the March 11th earthquake
Reading Time: 2 minutes I haven’t felt it appropriate to write about my adventures meeting people hitchhiking in Japan since the catastrophe of March … Continue reading →
Day 5 after the Japan earthquake: Hitchhiked back home
Reading Time: 2 minutes March 16, 2011: While in Kobe I joined a NPO project and worked nearly all my waking hours for two … Continue reading →
Day after the Sendai earthquake – hitchhike adventure from Tokyo to Osaka
Reading Time: 3 minutes Saturday, March 11, 2011: The morning after the major earthquake in the Pacific not far from Sendai, the largest city … Continue reading →
Niigata to Kanto – tramatic 4th 2011 hitchhike adventure
Reading Time: 4 minutes Walls of snow along road in Japan February 1, 2011: I started out very well with the first ride on … Continue reading →
Saitama to Niigata – 3rd hitchhike adventure 2011
Reading Time: < 1 minute January 25: Today in 4 cars I hitchhiked back to Niigata. The third driver would have taken me to Nagaoka train … Continue reading →
Hamamatsu City to Tokyo – 2nd hitchhike adventure 2011
Reading Time: < 1 minute January 24:Today I traveled in 3 vehicles to a train station in Kawasaki which is close to Tokyo. Two of … Continue reading →
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