IG: philliqvu
So this story beings with one of my old mates invited me to stay with him and his family in Osaka. My idea was to stay with him for a week and just live out of my hammock for my week in Tokyo with a planned stay at a cheap hostel so I could shower. Unfortunately this friend was extremely flakey and the day of, sa mid I should book a hostel.
Just wanted to emphasize that I was trying to save money because I really wanted to see how far I could travel until my money ran out.
Day 2 rolls around and he states that his parents aren’t home so I should book a hostel another night. I give him the benefit of the doubt but when Day 3 rolls around, he flakes on me again. Now I know that hostels in Osaka can be as inexpensive at 15 dollars but these were costs I hadn’t factored into my stay in Japan. I explained to him that if he couldn’t gurantee me a place, I needed to know ASAP so I could get a cheaper bus to Tokyo. (BTW you can snag a bus from Osaka to Tokyo for as low as 15$ if bought ahead of time. He basically kept assuring me a place to stay so I trusted him. Unfortunately it never happened so I basically spent that week either sleeping on the streets, or sneaking in and out of the hostels I had already stayed at late at night and leaving in the morning. My hammock plan didn’t work since I couldn’t find any private places in the city to set it up. By my 6th day, I was just pissed at my friend for not being honest with me and I felt pretty deceased living solely off Onigiri’s and Ramen. I was at a temple where I saw this family visiting and taking videos. I personally was so out of it with no desire to be social at all but I still forced myself to greet them. We began talking and surprisingly, I found out they are from Riverside, CA which is only an hour from where I grew up in OC. I told them about my world tour and ambition of seeing how far I can go with how much money I had left while apologizing for being tired and messy b/c I hadn’t been sleeping well. I big them farewell when suddenly the father takes out 10000 Yen (Basically 100 dollars) and pushes it into my hand. TBH I was shocked and I told him I didn’t need it. ( i really didnt. this trip was about being uncomfortable and living within my means) He talked about how he didn’t know whether he was contributing to my debauchery but stated we’ve how sometimes people need help throughout the struggle. He walked away and TBH I started tearing up because of this generous act. I got on my 15$ night bus from Osaka to Tokyo. My first night in Tokyo, I met these amazing guys at my hostel and who offered to hold my bags for me in their hostel while i slept on the streets for the next nights. They ended up becoming some of my best friends on the trip. We’d go on excursions together and at night, I’d just go sleep on the street somewhere. I only set up my hammock one time because it was basically raining everyday in Tokyo smhhh One night, I sat in a puddle on accident and couldn’t get access to my clothes until 7am. I was basically stuck with wet clothes in the cold for 5 hours.
Sleeping on the streets in Japan taught me alot so here’s what I learned:
There aren’t that many homeless people in Japan
Homeless People in Japan keep to themselves, and are still very respectful people.
You can’t sleep at the subway station at night.
Honestly by the end of that experience, I felt pretty invincible. I honestly felt like life could only get better than that and I lasted 2 weeks without proper hygeine, warm place to stay, and a bed. Really makes you appreciate what you have at home.
AloJapan.com