c199b88e_Hitchhiking_in_Japan_Log__Highlights_of_trip
[Date] 08/10/07 to 08/20/07 [Destination] Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Ogaki (Gifu), Toyoto and Nagano [Distance] 1310KM [# Vehicles] 24 [Highlights of trip] 
Noriyuki & Tomoko, who took me from Owari-Ichinomiya PA to Kyoto Station. A chartered bus of ladies who sell imported bottled water from Hawaii. They took me to a parking area near Toyota city. Man with two seater sports car who took me to Matsushiro PA near Nagano city. This was the longest trip with the most cars travelled in since keeping records from August 2003. I had to take some public transportation to save time in crowded city areas, but the total cost over the ten day period was only about $20. Had I taken public transportation the entire trip, it would have cost roughly $300. The toughest part was waiting for cars under the hot summer noon day sun in some of the hottest areas of Japan. God had mercy on me and I didn't have to wait too long for rides. The first day I travelled to Okazaki City in Aichi Prefecture to meet my good cyberspace friend, Brazilian Silvio, a Christian whose ancestors are from Germany. We have been in contact for nearly a year by email but I didn't even know what he looked like before we met. I stayed two nights with him and his Japanese wife and helped to fix their laptop PC installed with the free (free as in "free lunch") cutting edge technology Fedora 7 Linux operating system. Noriyuki and his girlfriend Tomoko took me from Aichi Prefecture most of the way to Kyoto Station. I visited friends in Kyoto and Osaka. A mother with her young son and daughter took me from Otsu PA near lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, up to Yoro SA. She said she became a Christian in her early 30s after a Korean lady in her neighborhood told her about Christ! Her husband later became sick from cancer and died, but she said that he received Jesus as his Savior two weeks before "graduation!" From Yoro SA I hitchhiked to Ogaki city in Gifu Prefecture to visit my friend Philip from Gibraltar. He introduced me to a fascinating book he picked up from the library, "Mother Tongue, The English Language" by Bill Bryson. The temperature soared up to 41 degrees C (106F) in parts of Gifu the very next day! A lady in charge of a chartered bus full of passengers on the way to Shizuoka offered me a ride. This is not very common and only the third or fourth time I was ever offered a ride in a bus. She offered me a nutritious Japanese style box lunch called obento, and a bottle of imported water from Hawaii that she sells. I'm pretty sure she's involved in a network marketing type of business. A man with a foreign passenger took me to Shiojiri City in Nagano. It turned out that the foreigner, a young man from France, had also been hitchhiking! I was therefore the second hitchhiker the driver picked up that day. In my recollection this has only happened once before in all my years of hitchhiking.
Hitchhiking in Japan Log
Highlights of trip