From January 4 to January 8, I traveled to Osaka, Kobe, Hamamatsu (Shizuoka Prefecture), Tokyo, and back home to Niigata in 10 cars. The actual distance hitchhiked was 1386 kilometers. It was a snowy day when I began my journey at 8AM. My destination was Osaka, some 580 kilometers from my home in Niigata city. I had some serious doubts I would make it. Over half of my route would … Continue reading →
The graph shows the distances I traveled over the past 7 years in Japan by hitchhiking. Since I’ve been keeping records from August 2003, the grand total of distance traveled is 124,321 kilometers in 2338 vehicles. As you can see, I traveled a bit further this year than last. But the prognosis for 2012 will probably be less traveling. I have more work locally.
Continue reading →December 22, 2011: I was invited to attend a meeting in Tokyo of the NPO Leap High, 300 kilometes from home. It had been raining all day yesterday and today the weather forcast predicted the same, but by 10AM it stopped raining to the point I ventured outside and walked to the highway. Within 10 minutes I caught a ride from a man going all the way to Nagaoka city! … Continue reading →
September 19: Today was warm, bright and sunny, a very good day to travel by hitchhiking. I was on my way to Aomori city, about 480 kilometers from my home in Niigata city. It was imperative that I reach Aomori by evening because I had to travel further the next day to Misawa city, 70 kilometers from Aomori, and be there by 10PAM to do a job assignment. My motivation … Continue reading →
July 31: I was on my way back home from Aomori city to Niigata. I decided to take the Tohoku Expressway which passes through Sendai and Fukushima and the Banetsu Expressway from Fukushima to Niigata rather than the much slower Route 7 that runs along the Sea of Japan. Though the Tohoku / Banetsu route is 125 kilometers longer, it’s faster because it’s expressway and because most drivers are going … Continue reading →
July 29: I needed to go this day to Aomori city, 470 kilometers from my home in Niigata. It was raining hard. I attempted to take the very first train out at 6:16AM but after arriving at the station was told that all trains were stopped on that particular train line. When a rainfall reaches a certain level, the railroad company cancels all trains to make time to check the … Continue reading →
July 17 It was another day after rainy season. I walked a little over a kilometer to route 7 in Hirosaki hoping to hitchhike to my friend’s home in Aomori city, a distance of only about 44 kilometers. But most of vehicles consisted of city traffic and I waited what I considered to be longer than usual, about 30 minutes. A young man, Taiki Kudo with his one year old son … Continue reading →
Monday, July 18: From Aomori city in northern Tohoku I needed to go in one day to Noda city, Chiba Prefecture, a distance of around 700 kilometers. It took me one hour to walk from my friend’s house in Aomori to Aomori Chuo Interchange, the beginning of the Tohoku expressway, and it took yet another hour of waiting to catch the first ride. It was worth all the effort considering … Continue reading →
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2July 15: Today I hitchhiked in 11 vehicles from Niigata city to Hirosaki city in Aomori Prefecture, a distance of about 430 kilometers. The highlight of this trip was car #9 with two lawmakers of the Akita Prefecture Parliament, driver Obara Masateru and front seat passenger Numaya Jun who took me from Akita City to Odate City, a good distance of around 100 kilometers. They told me to call them … Continue reading →
I haven’t felt it appropriate to write about my adventures meeting people hitchhiking in Japan since the catastrophe of March 11th. People are still suffering and I want to do what I can to help those who are going directly to the disaster areas to treat people with Post Tramatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is just to say I’m still hitchhiking, people still pick me up, and I still need … Continue reading →
March 16, 2011: While in Kobe I joined a NPO project and worked nearly all my waking hours for two days to setup a new web site, Help Japan 2011, to help raise aid for the earthquake victims. The next day I traveled back to my home in Niigata partly by train but mainly by hitchhiking. I started off at Kanda parking area on the Hokuriku expressway in Shiga prefecture. … Continue reading →
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1Saturday, March 11, 2011: The morning after the major earthquake in the Pacific not far from Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku area, I accessed the Internet news and saw more horrific photos of destruction by the tsunami. A friend with whom I stayed with said, “Over 10,000 people were killed!” I began to weep but learned later he got it wrong. So far the number of reported deaths … Continue reading →
Walls of snow along road in Japan February 1, 2011: I started out very well with the first ride on my trip to Noda city in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo. The purpose of this trip was to attend a fellowship meeting at 7 PM. It was good weather and I left home at a very good time, just after 10 AM. Tokyo is 300 kilometers away but it … Continue reading →
January 25: Today in 4 cars I hitchhiked back to Niigata. The third driver would have taken me to Nagaoka train station, but because it was not too late, still 4PM with a hour of sunlight left, and because I would have had to wait 50 minutes at the train station for the next train, I decided to try to try to hitchhike a bit further. It was now the beginning … Continue reading →
January 24:Today I traveled in 3 vehicles to a train station in Kawasaki which is close to Tokyo. Two of these were trucks which is pretty rare seeing that only 6% of the vehicles are trucks and hardly any of them on the expressway. It was a fine day and I had a great view of Mt. Fuji.
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