First Ride in Hokkaido: Hakodate to Noboribetsu

I traveled a little outside Hakodate to catch a ride to Noboribetsu, my first ride in Hokkaido during my trip from Kagoshima to Wakkanai.
I walk from the station to a point where I think I can get a ride …

All right so I’ve just arrived at this station in Hakone this is where the Shinkansen starts going towards Sapporo I didn’t know the Shinkansen goes to Sapporo yet I thought it just what the huh karate but you can get the Shinkansen here that’s the Shinkansen

Behind me and I’m so tempted just to hop on the Shinkansen and go to stop for oh it’s right there the guns it’s right there why don’t I just jump on you see it the green the green Shinkansen behind me why don’t I just jump on the

Train right there I can’t do that that’s cheating that’s cheating but I mean the station is brand-new it’s all the money coming from the Shinkansen this is the Shin ha code that day woke up Hokuto station Shin ha code that day Hokuto station that’s why I am right oh

That’s why I’m gonna hitchhike out oh look how beautiful that this the inside of the station’s you can see the Shinkansen symbol on the logo there it’s all brand new it’s a really beautiful station you don’t find such new things out here down there you get to see the Shinkansen

There’s the platform with the trains leaving towards towards uh one shoe going off to Tokyo but because it’s now the Japanese holiday it’s really crowded around here I’m going to be hitchhiking out of out of here there’s a convenience store according to the map that’s about a 10

Minute walk so I thought I’d walk with walk with you guys or you’ll walk with me the other way around and I’d sure it’s a beautiful day how stylish is this place for the middle of nowhere looks really nice this Shinkansen station stylish Ben joke a let’s check out the occupant real quick

It’s your wish you saw Jonah after a shaky looks like the caisson doesn’t have ah you got those famous ah thank you people are so friendly out yeah Tokyo I probably you know make people upset if you just bring a camera with this stick

On it and walk up to them and go hey when you got there but here so happy so I can’t get down this escalator fasten oh you can see such a nice day did you I don’t know what that lady at 7-eleven was telling me at how karate justice

Tonight it’s gonna it’s going to fund your shower and that should be careful kind of like a you know a fortune teller telling you things are going to get rough right now I don’t see it that way I just see a beautiful day it’s it’s not

It’s not it’s not hot it’s a little bit chilly if there’s a little bite to the air but it’s fresh it’s like a fresh fresh chill I don’t I don’t know how do you describe this weather it’s different all right whenever they make a new station they

Make it hard to get around there’s a lot of car rental places and I wonder if people took the Shinkansen from Tokyo and then they’re going to come here and they rent a car and then go up towards Sapporo maybe you should just hitchhike outside of the toyota rent-a-car that’s

It toyota rent-a-car place actually I’m absurd and to really consider that idea one guy who took me to Toyama how to rent a car and he picked me up on the way net he told me that he one reason that he picked me up is cuz he’s going straight to her Toyama

Station and he dropped me off pretty much at my hotel whoa cute mailbox and that little guy slightly creepy that’s not well I mean why what’s going on there why is this characters sitting on top of a mailbox very very very nice mailbox slightly creepy but I’m cool with that

Anything that’s out of the unusual is a welcome sight to me hello welcome come to supper welcome to Hokkaido come to habitat there and enjoy the sights ah there you go and send letters post-office okay there’s no other way for me to go except for this way so I figured this is going

To be the direction which I eventually walk to get to that convenience store off the highway I’m looking at the license plates you can see where these people are going unless it’s a rent-a-car Moodle Don it’s not so far from nobody Beth soon my destination today got a late start

Because I really slept in a long time I woke up at 8:30 which is sleeping in for me and I downloaded all of the footage off my three cameras it’s a red light I’m just gonna go so traffic yet it’s a beautiful area it looks like like

They’ve built this out of them in the middle of the desert the Shinkansen terminal the station is just built I think it goes on for like a hundred meters and then it just turns into farm fields stunning day look at that somebody doesn’t pick me up fast I’m gonna turn

Into a french fry out here so this station according to the bento lady opened up last year which makes sense I remember seeing the signs for the Shinkansen at the Sapporo Snow Festival last year saying that the Shinkansen was opening up and in fact they had a

Shinkansen display in snow so go back and see the only in Japan except for the snow festival video you’ll see some some Shinkansen made out of snow oh there’s another budget rent-a-car so I’m I’m wreck it I reckon I don’t know you want to make a bet let’s make a bet who’s

Gonna hoo-hoo what’s the money on somebody who picks me up who is a tourist who’s visiting Sapporo and with a Renta whoa man hula huh I’m a manhole air check it out look at that manhole cover it’s a Shinkansen so they’ve taken the manhole cover design made it into Shinkansen because

This is a Shinkansen town is that not cool or why so that’s the identity of this town Shinkansen that’s why I kind of really like these mobile covers because it gives you an idea of where of the identity of the city what’s it what’s it what attractions it has okay I’m going

To make sure that I’m going in the right direction so I’ve got this little stand here for the for the Osmo sometimes it falls over stay there the worst thing I can do is to go in the wrong direction there you are the worst thing I can do

So walking in the wrong direction and not not be able to get out of here I have two cellphones this is my old iPhone six-plus and I’m streaming on an iPhone 7 plus because the cameras so darn good on it Thank You Apple all right so according to this Google Maps there’s

That convenience store okay so go straight and then make a right here’s where I am it’s hard to sync of the glare but I’m now going to walk about 15 minutes that’s not even worth showing you it’s a chip right out here I’m going to walk

About 10-15 minutes to the spot and then start hitchhiking so Toby Toby if you’re watching and no you probably are cuz you know you always sort of watching yeah I’m gonna use the sign but I got to go out there Toby I got to first get to the place I can’t

Just start hitchhiking right here cuz no one’s gonna pick me up alright just you know relax Toby okay he’s always telling me you know I want to see the sign I want to see the sign okay see the sign man relax – here’s this time okay you want to see the sign

Toby they’re just freaking sign area is upside down okay all right Toby having a meltdown here – people are saying Toby relax Toby come on there’s trips a marathon it’s not a sprint you know I gotta get to the spot before I can use the sign Toby who’s

Gonna pick me up today it’s gonna be you Toby you need to come out here with your with your little car Toby or your little 1970 gremlin and sputter out here pick me up and then say you don’t have room for my luggage and then you’re gonna

Leave it behind that’s something you do Toby huh I’m just kidding kidding uh you know I’m all by myself out here on the road it wasn’t for Toby i morale would be even lower I’m not uh I’m not doing that bad just I’m just worried because it’s late

In the day it’s a little late in the day to be hitching and I just happen to bring way too much luggage I’m going I’m going too full all-out backpacker mode that’s when you you put your your day pack on your chest and you start looking like looking like a backpacker this is

What backpackers do they put they put their backpack the big one on the back and then on the front they put the day pack it’s hardcore I don’t know what backpackers don’t have a sign the backpacking 2.0 yeah I am glad at Yahoo joining me the one

Reason why I love to do these live streams because I don’t feel that alone out here okay I see the highway just I’ve come to the point where there’s absolutely nothing and I’m in the middle of a farm field like I told you I knew it I know it that’s the direction I’m

Going over there where that truck is going and try to hitch a ride so jr. we’ve got all this money to make this station and the station ends right there at this intersection turns into a farm field and if you were joining me about ten minutes ago we were in the middle of

A brand-new beautiful building town with like a whole new town even have manhole covers with the Shinkansen on it look there’s one right there and hole I have to shout that every time I see the manhole cover manhole look at that manhole cover sweet ride that dares Shinkansen a brand new paddle

Shinkansen hey in the distance is a brand new jr station see that shin Jaco dae-ho oh who got the name of the station they couldn’t just make it Shin Huck what up there I had to add me ha there’s another one right there I’ve already showed it twice I’m not gonna

Keep shouting man hole man hola I don’t know there’s something cool about Japanese manhole covers and that episode didn’t do that well on the channel I thought that it would be you know you don’t know what’s going to be a big show on the channel or what’s gonna be a you

Know do ok alright see here where am I yeah here’s the road just go straight and then veer to the right so remind me if I forget this go straight and then the first road that allows you veer to the right okay somebody tell me in like three minutes

Because I might forget I don’t have a very good memory you know when I was in in huh cannot day um three times somebody from Singapore stopped and said hi like they watch the show three times and I was just there for a couple of days yesterday at the tower in the park

Where I live steering from this this this star fort um really nice kid from Singapore with a couple of friends not Vincent hein got a picture with him the single course representing this morning three people from Singapore stopped me in the market to say hi made me feel really good

Come out here I’m Trever people that know me I like to get to know them too and that was really cool because people stop and say hi okay active nature in the middle farm field now sort of look at it gosh I got all that wind pushing through hook just massive

Island of al-qaida blowing birds chirping but not with the wind blowing in your mouth open sorry about the wind wind guard could use my forehead Toby’s fault the wind damn it Toby alright this is sort of interesting this is something I learned last time I hitchhiked in Hokkaido up here there’s a

Sign of an arrow pointing down do you know why that’s that’s the theory that’s there does anybody know why Toby you know why why it’s the reason why there’s an arrow pointing down is because there’s so much snow in this area that the arrow points the drivers in the

Direction of where the road is there’s so much snow here and for the plows to there’s so much snow here that yeah it’s probably the plot that that they can’t put just markers on on the sides of the road because the snow goes up higher than that they have to put arrows

Suspended like three meters up but today nurse now just froze beautiful day so the if I was making this as a regular only Japan up so I cut this part out you wouldn’t see me walking with all this luggage for two kilometres too a highway but yeah and that crows going

To town on that pole just mean the crows you digitally watching lab and for beautiful 480p because face YouTube can’t stream in high definition it’s too advanced for them YouTube if you’re watching clean up your act man you have to I’m right now on Japan’s fastest network maybe in the

World DoCoMo it’s faster than Wi-Fi you could stream this in 480p or at least in 720p but you choose not to and you’re making us all upset there’s people who distance absque Ribe from the channel because i didn’t have high definition videos see that YouTube look what you’ve

Done you encouraged me to live stream a live stream two people are leaving because you can’t you can’t get it into HD can you watch HD live now I bet you someone who YouTube’s watching push the button and said we better activate it or else you know it’s gonna be a massive

Meltdown okay check the map again alright it says I should make a right and I’ll be right at the intersection where there’s a Seiko mark alright Google Maps is awesome okay I’m gonna say something nice about Google the problem with Google Maps sometimes you look at the map and the road that looks

Like a major road is actually a dirt road that might be somebody’s somebody’s driveway so I can either go on the main road go straight here go this ways which is what Google Maps to tell me to do last time about what ah week ago was it a week ago Google no

No no yeah was out of fukui about ten days ago Google Maps told me to go through there was a road in the in a farm field there was no road it was literally a farm field I had to walk on a field it just we’re just funny to me because Google

Maps is absolutely absolutely way off I’m right now walking towards ah a Seiko Mart which is a al Qaeda convenience store and I can still just make out the station over there you see in front of me that’s the in the distance over there that’s the Shinkansen station so a lot

Of activity the amount of people are really over the next two days the amount of travel in Japan is going to explode because the whole country shutting down for spring vacation and I’m hitchhiking because we made 400 percent of the goal and Kickstarter and people were like you

Better do this whole country than if you will give you this money if you go out there and you make a DVD of the entire country don’t just stop and Huck what out there and I said okay I haven’t been home in over a month I haven’t been

Running exercise I’ve been eating really bad no you know what I’ve been eating really good which is the problem really good it’s actually like eating really bad because the good stuff is never quote-unquote good I would do air quotes but my hands are filled with stuff I

Wish there was a drone that could do all this work for me solar-powered just pop it up there we could do circles around me I bet you will have it in two three years very bad connection DoCoMo saying to me sorry if it’s pixelated right now YouTube’s telling me that the

Connection is bad I kind of believe it I’m getting away from the station so I’ll keep on streaming until I can anymore and if we cut off a live stream again from the hitchhike yeah if there’s a signal so the ferry would bear with me for a minute I’m just arriving at cycle

Mart which is a Hokkaido chain of convenience stores sake Kumar is only well there’s a few of them in Honshu in the main island but most of them are here in Hokkaido that’s right if the connection is bad it’s Toby’s fault because he’s he’s done something you

Know something with this so he’s always doing something Toby it’s always up to something have a mental image of what of what Toby looks like do you guys have you have any images of what Toby looks like you came many of you artists draw me a rendition

Of what Toby looks like send it to me I have an image of what about Toby’s like Toby’s actually a nice guy he’s not a not a bad guy but we need we need somebody to pin the bad stuff on and Toby yeah he commented at exactly the

Right time I hope the feeds better now I just walked through a farm field now I’m back on on asphalt all right I see approximately zero cars going Pepsi approximately zero cars going past this road all right there’s two this is gonna be this is gonna be a tough

Hitchhike oh no all right everybody’s going the wrong direction here’s the seco Mart the convenience store okay a lot of wind coming sorry and there’s the traffic going the wrong way people paulie’s one of these people could be my ride if I if I hurry up I’m

So tempted to get a coffee in like a big piece of pudding cake yeah ice cream then they got Hokkaido melon ice cream whoa should I get the ice cream or should I hitchhike ice cream er hitchhike Toby what should I do why am I asking

Toby so follow your heart my heart says ice cream but my heart is usually wrong follow my brain my brain says to hitchhike I can’t do both I can’t where am I going to hold the ice cream if but how am I gonna hold the ice cream and the sign

I’m gonna be like a and it’s warm enough that this thing’s gonna melt and in warp speed okay I see my first sign up there it says OSHA Mamba eighty sixty eighty seven kilometers for South Burroughs 260 kilometres according to that blue sign in the middle of the screen whoa this is

Going to be a long ride I have no idea that at that where I want to go is so far away some of the hitch I get this intersection I think let me walk up get a picture of that sign and then I’ll start hitching crazy Callie writes I wish I knew the

Metric system if you didn’t you wouldn’t survive outside the u.s. you only and I learned the story why the US uses the metric system or doesn’t use a metric system and it’s insane they had a chance to they had a chance to change it in the

19th century when the whole world was or the beginning of the 20th century and they decided not to because of a lobby because of lobbyists us are going to change the change to the metric system but lobbyists made them stop it’s hard to find a spot where they can pull on

The side of the road so I usually will scout the location and before I hitchhike I have to do some shots some photos for the DVD some video and in 4k so I start the hitchhiking I’m gonna just walk over to that sign just to get a shot of it

All the license plates are saying Jaco Duncan truck I have not ridden with a truck yet on this trip ah I don’t know where you are right now maybe in bed if you’re in the US or in an office somewhere right now I’m out here this is pretty much nowhere

Okay toe the fringe of Jaco doc day I’m going up here just to see the sign before I hitchhike you know when you make a DVD or you make a video you may get any video in general you need a lot of b-roll signs are the perfect b-roll

You should always have as many signs or little teeny things that you can find insert to give people the feeling of where you are right now and says here’s sopra 263 kilometers the other side Morty 25 kilometers an OSHA mumbay 87k OSHA Mamba all right I’m gonna go to my

Filmic pro app alright I’m back sorry I had to film I’m back again I’m trying to get a scope of what this area is like where it can people pull in and pick me up it’s not much of a shoulder there’s not much of a shoulder on this road so

It’s very narrow so I have to think where if somebody does stop how can they stop here they could pull in here it has to be well before this live traffic lighter after it there’s no real easy place to pull in there’s a place I can hitchhike

From about um it’s another 20 minute walk I’m not gonna buy the ice-cream somebody it’s right there – did you see the breakfast that I ate I instagrammed it the high Sendong it was massive I’m not I mean yeah I could can I eat the

Ice cream yeah should i no yeah no yeah [Applause] sort of lord this is gonna be a hard one all right I have to take the complimentary photos should I keep this live stream going or shy I stopped it it’s 30 minutes and caisson dawn yeah

Should I stop it I gotta take the shots of me hitchhiking before all right I’m gonna leave it going I’m going to take it off of that all right you guys again if you want to stick around stick around or you can leave the live live feed and come back

Later yeah I’m going to leave this on on the crosswalk here all right so this is the crosswalk sign [Applause] see there that’s where you you guys are sitting on top of this all right that’s how real the show can get stay there I gotta take gopher for a break

Get a snack I’m just gonna keep live-streaming and hopefully by the end of this someone will stop who knows it’s this doesn’t seem like the ideal place he’s not bad we’ll see okay I got to get my tripod out [Applause] uh Harry Lynn thanks for the super chat how did you enjoy Huckle day all right Harry I really loved it uh it’s a lot of lot of the tourists were from China not too many Westerners a lot of the tourists are from China a lot were from Singapore

That was nice to the Chinese tourists they have a bad reputation and I can see why sometimes especially when waiting in line they didn’t yeah it was hard just a different culture other than the tourists hunkered out they was great the food the food the food the food

Acqua birthday is I think has to be the place with some of the best food seafood in Japan everything and I sort of set up one of my next episodes with Abu asan who owns the fish up there he’s going to help me out with it with in episode I’m

Gonna make in the future okay so you’re going to be in this shot so when if you buy the DVD you’re going to see you right here on top of this yellow box and the scene I hold up the sign and I pray for someone to stop and

I take I take about 30 seconds in high quality video just just for an insert well the wind is really hard wind is really really strong blowing my um my sign like sail on a boat you construct stop Okay that’s enough for that scene ah [Applause] right there right there oh no no no that’s hard because Why does it do that sometimes a setting on the gh five it resets and then I don’t know what the heck why the heck the settings are different again I just this camera just came out about a month ago so I’ve been using this for a month

The GH five so it’s a wonderful camera it’s just I wish it was more dependable because the settings it’s not anything I’m doing I’m very used to this camera from using the gh4 for a couple of years with the gh 5 man little things it’s always about

The little things the gain on it is not I want it completely all in manual I never want any auto on my videos but oh well I’ll figure it out when I get to nobody better so every time I start I take a shot for a minute

And then I set the GoPro because the GoPro is very easy to work with except the GoPro 5 it’s all touch menu and I don’t like the touch menu I just want to push the button with the settings that I keep and go but they put so much stuff

In it things that people don’t use All right Toby happy I’m now hitchhiking ah so there you go Toby here’s your sign stop complaining all right there’s no cars coming it’s no cars coming really really quiet I don’t know where the car is gonna stop and pick me up let’s just let’s try and

See what happens for 15 minutes or so [Applause] and we come the cars you come to class [Applause] All right this is a horrible spot the more I think about it the more I realize this is such a horrible spot I just gotta be hold on I’m gonna like it kind of fine somebody might stop if as long as I can see the sign they’ll wonder what I’m doing all right

If I walk down the street this road more see here there’s a soba noodle shop on the around the corner that’s promising so there’s a soba noodle shop I can see it all right that’s a soba noodle shop and then there’s nothing there’s nothing for a long time and then

There’s an intersection then I’m pretty sure I’ll get a ride from okay all right there’s an intersection that I’m pretty sure I’ll get a ride from but this intersection is 41 minutes walking is if I leave now I get there two p.m. oh man really really this road is just not

Enough traffic and once I get to the intersection I bet your ride stops all right I’m going offline for 45 minutes or so I just don’t have much much faith in in in this road Toby did it there’s no 7-eleven around here clover okay it’s not a 7-eleven clover and if

You keep on commenting that that a 7-eleven you’re gonna end up like Toby okay it’s psycho Mart saycome our cycle Mart is not 7-eleven all right so I’m sort of holding the sign up I’m gonna try a little bit longer here [Applause] it’s just there’s just nowhere for

People to stop really there’s no place for people to stop look behind me we’re they going to stop they are nice people they’re smiling and bowing at me but they’re not not gonna stop there’s nowhere to stop all right I’m gonna I’m moving offline for a while

I guess I can just go offline and then come back on right so I’m not going to stop the fee but I’m gonna I’m gonna turn off the camera and just come back in like 40 minutes I don’t know what else to do yeah I just got I got to do the hike

Okay 40 minutes see you soon see on the road