c199b88e_Hitchhiking_in_Japan_Log__Highlights_of_trip
[Date] 06/06/08 to 06/10/08 [Destination] Osaka, Chiba (Tokyo area) [Distance] 1385KM [# Vehicles] 21 [Highlights of trip] 
This is one of the longest trips I ever hitchhiked in such a short amount of time. I went from one corner of Japan to another, first southwest from Niigata on the Sea of Japan to the second largest city of Osaka, and then to northeast to Chiba which is the prefecture on the eastern side of Tokyo. During this trip I took notes of the arrival and departure time from each point. This way I'm able to calculate more accurately the average waiting time. On June 6th the first leg of the time, I set out to see my friend in Osaka which is roughly 600 kilometers or 400 miles from home. This is twice the distance that I normally hitchhike in a single day, and so I knew I had to pace myself. The city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture is about halfway, and so I set my goal to reach it by 3:00PM at the latest. I arrived at an expressway rest stop near Kanazawa by 1:45 PM! It took ten rides to get to Osaka but the average waiting time for the next ride was only 14 minutes. I left home at 8:50 AM, walked twenty minutes to the main road, caught the first ride at 9:20 AM, and was taken to the very neighborhood of my friends house by 6:20 PM. In ten more minutes I walked in the door of my friend's house spending not a single yen in transportation costs. He didn't expect me till after dark! Today was perhaps one of my best records to travel such a long distance in a relatively short amount of time. Of course the most fun part of the trip was talking to the people who picked me up. Among the 10 drivers who picked me up, one man was a university professor of sociology who spoke excellent English. I thoroughly enjoy meeting highly educated people because after becoming a Christian and learning so much from the Bible and God's Truth, I now have something to teach them. Before becoming a Christian, I used to feel intimidated in their presence. One 60 year old man told me he learned to fly like a bird from only a year ago! He flies a motor driven glider for an hour at a time 1000 meters or 3000 feet over lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. The motor is a 300 CC gasoline powered engine strapped to his back. He said that no license is required to fly it. One lady who stopped but didn't pick me up drew me a paper sign in Japanese to show my destination of Osaka. I accepted the sign but didn't use it much. I find that if my destination is relatively far away, people are less likely to stop after seeing the sign rather than if they didn't see it. My best assets are always faith in my heart, a smile on my face, and my thumb pointing in the direction I want to go. I noticed this year more drivers are asking me to buckle up my seat belt when sitting in the backseat. Recently there has been a nationwide campaign to cut fatalities by requiring people sitting in the back to buckle up. The first car on the second leg of this trip on June 10th was a young mother with her 3 year old daughter sitting in the back. She said that she has been learning Gospel music, and so it was a perfect opening for me to talk to her about Jesus. She dropped me off at a parking area near Kyoto at 10AM. Tae When I woke up this morning I knew I had to leave Osaka but still didn't have any idea where I would wide up that evening! I prayed and told God I would go where He leads me. I wanted to visit my other friend in Kyoto, but he and his family were out of town that day. I thought to go to the Nagoya area, but none of my contacts there anwered the phone. I remembered that friends in Chiba asked me to visit because they needed my help to fix their PC problems, but I orginally had no intention to go there this trip because it's on the other side of Tokyo and nearly the distance I traveled the previous day. However I decided to call them anyway. This time I got an answer. They rejoiced to hear from me and asked me to come. Where God guides, He provides. In only a few minutes, a young man going all the way to Chiba picked me up! This is perhaps one of the longest distances I traveled in a single vehicle when hitchhiking, about 500 kilometers or 315 miles. The next evening on Monday I first heard about the killings the previous day. I was shocked to realize that I had taken the exact same road the previous day only hours after a 25 year old man with a lust for murder in his heart drove a rented truck into a pedestrian crowd and killed 7 people an an area of Tokyo known as Akihabara, the electronics center of Japan, a place I've been to countless times. Japan is still a relatively safe country to live in, but the recent string of indiscriminate knife killings are nothing short of appalling!
Hitchhiking in Japan Log
Highlights of trip