Hitchhiking Japan: Kagoshima to Nagasaki
[Music] [Music] Now that I finally eaten something other than just bread and peanut butter, I’m actually feeling good right now. I think I’m going to try and hitchhike out of Kagoshima just by holding up a sign that says north. Hopefully it gets me somewhere. my feet. Actually, the area above my feet where it connects my legs is kind of hurting and I feel really lightheaded right now. So, I might be coming down to something. I don’t know. Thankfully, the weather’s cleared up. It wasn’t supposed to, but it did. So, my stuff is drying out. So, hopefully hitchhiking goes well today. So, I just hitchhiked from Kagoshima to Sai. I had a really nice family that drove me way out of their way to get here. They picked me up in 2 minutes, bought me sushi at Conveyor belt sushi place, and bought me water, let me use the bathroom. They were kind of sick, so hopefully I don’t get sick. But yeah, this really helps me on my way to Nagasaki. I think I got to figure out how to hitch out of here though cuz this is the train station. I was trying to ask them to bring me to a roadside station, but I think this is probably fine for now. I just got to find somewhere to sleep here. Well, my ride apparently dropped me off like smack dab in the middle of Sai because I’m looking at this train station. Looks like the whole town revolves around this damn tra train station. But I’m going to have to find a place to hitchhike in the morning. I’m making my way to McDonald’s to try and use a charger and free internet to just download all the maps for all of Japan instead of just the selected regions I’m going to. There’s a lot of bridges in this area. And there’s this nice place behind the public toilets. So, I might sleep there. I got to say, walking around in Sai definitely has more Japanese vibe than Kagoshima did. Kagoshima gave off kind of like weird unique vibes, but this is kind of like what you see in one of the Yakuza games or whatever. I really wish I could walk around more, but my feet are killing me. It’s actually really hard to even walk to the 7-Eleven, not 7-Eleven, McDonald’s right now. I keep almost falling over because my feet the part where my ankles are around that area. My feet are just killing me from walking up to that Tao rock yesterday in Yakushima. So, I’m going to go to McDonald’s, wait for the sun to go down, then take cover under a bridge or something. Well, here’s where I think I’m going to sleep tonight. It’s behind a uh bathroom. It’s fairly dry. under the bridge would just draw too much attention. I think that no one’s gonna come back here or see me if I wake up early enough. So, yeah, hopefully tonight goes well and I can get to sleep. It’s currently 5:00 a.m. This is where I slept last night behind the bathroom. I got my bag and a garbage bag so then it won’t be seen as easily and look kind of like garbage. And this bivvie is kind of camouflaged with here. I got woken up by drunkards, I think, at like 3:00 a.m. Sound like they were going to come back here, but they didn’t. And I also heard someone speaking English talking about taking out garbage bags, but they didn’t come back here. It was really weird. But yeah, the train kept waking me up cuz it’s literally up there cuz the station is right over there. But I mean, the train stopped coming at like midnight. I think it’s going to start coming again at 6:00 in the morning, so I can maybe get an hour more of sleep. There was a couple mosquitoes that were biting me. But, I mean, overall, this place was a pretty good place to sleep. I’m going to try and hitchhike out of here at around like 6:30. It’s Sunday, so most Japanese people stay off. And hopefully that means I’ll get a ride pretty fast. It’s currently 5:30. No, 5:40 a.m. and I’m trying to walk to the Family Mart to get breakfast and I’m going to probably try and hitchhike from the Family Mart cuz I used maps to try and figure out how to get to Nagasaki. And that’s where it said that the road where the Family Mart is next to is the road that I should take to get to Nagasaki. So, there’s no one out right now. Really like the feel of this town. I’m going to probably just sit out there and just loiter for a bit while I wait for uh traffic to start coming about. Well, for breakfast today, spent 400 yen on this uh mushroom bacon pasta thing. I was going to buy something that was 500 yen, but this was basically the same price or same amount of food. I got to say, this town is like really nice. I really like this river and just the whole feel of this place. just I feel like Japan’s getting better and better the more I explore it. Oh, here’s where I’m trying to hitchhike from cuz I honestly can’t walk much further. It’s a national highway. I’m just trying to go north. Hopefully, someone stops here and gives me a ride. Well, some uh Japanese old guy picked me up. It was really nice. He uh drove me about 20 minutes down the road to here. Probably not the best place to hitchhike, but it’s along the highway. Apparently, the highway I’m taking goes to Fukuoka. So, I’m gonna have to go to Fukuoka, then Nagasaki because Nagasaki is that way. The old man kept saying that he went to Nepal and uh Mongolia and he kept going like that and I kept thinking that he went there for some kind of like sex tourism or something, but apparently he eventually finally said the word trekking. I was so confused though. I thought he was like some complete degenerate, but apparently he was like a cool hiker guy who hiked the Himalayas and he actually hiked Yakushima, too. So, I talked to him about that and about how I took the ferry and how he was really uh old and everything. It’s really hard to talk to him cuz his accent was kind of strong and my Japanese was terrible. He spoke basically no English. But yeah, I’m going to try and hitchhike from right there and get my way to Fukuoka. Yeah, this old guy really screwed me. Even though it was nice he gave me a ride. I’m literally in the middle of nowhere. The closest town of a gas station is 7 miles away. So, I might have to walk it, but my feet can’t take another 7 miles. I’m going to keep trying to stick my thumb out here, but I honestly don’t think I’m going to get any rides today. I might have to take the bus up north. But I mean, I don’t really want to take the bus cuz I’m trying to hitchhike my way up north, not take public transportation. Well, I just took the bus for 200 yen to get to a Mino Ekki, which is like a uh kind of like a service area. I should have more luck hitchhiking there. I didn’t want to take the bus, but I would have walked it. I don’t want to my legs right now, though. So, this is my safest option. and doesn’t really I don’t count it as not hitchhiking. I only went 2 or 3 miles down the road. So yeah, I’m going to try and get a ride from here, though. It’s a really pretty town, but it’s like literally in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t see any traffic at all. So, I’m going to try and hitchhike at this Mitino Noki. Hopefully get a ride up north, maybe to Fukuoka or something. I shouldn’t just hitchhiked on that road by the Family Mart instead of hitchhiking on the road by the Lawson. Well, about 45 minutes after I was at that Mi Noki roadside station by Akuna, I got picked up by an English teacher, which was nice cuz he spoke English, so I was able to talk to him. He’s pretty cool guy. And we talked for a while. He drove me all the way to Minam Mata, which was, I don’t know, like an hour’s drive away. So, I have 4 hours left until I get to Nagasaki. And I bought sushi and carrots. 560 yen. I thought I’d treat myself because the guy gave me 100,000 yen. No, wait, not 100,000. Gave me 10,000 yen, which is like 70 bucks. Pays for my ferry ticket and bus ticket, all that stuff so far. So, cancels out everything except for food expense. So, just thought I’d treat myself by spending 100 yen more on my meal. So, after waiting for like an hour at Minamata Minoki, I finally made it to Kikiui or something in Yamagata Prefecture. Oh, no. Kumamoto. I don’t even know. No clue really where I am, but I think that I might be able to get a ride. If not, I got woods to sleep in. So, yeah, my driver bought me this bread and some drink. And he also bought me uh lunch. So, yeah, I’m I’m living pretty good right now. Got 100 Well, yeah, 10,000 yen free food and more free food and a free drink. Now, I know never trust a drink that a stranger buys you, but he’s gone now. So, I think it’s probably fine if I drink it. I feel tired all get out, though, because like just hitchhiking all day just really wears me down. My left arm is kind of killing me from sticking it out to thumb down drivers. But, I mean, I am halfway to Nagasaki right now. So, hopefully I can get there by tonight or tomorrow. I think I’m probably going to get there sometime tomorrow afternoon. I don’t know. But hitchhiking is pretty fun. Talked to the dude in my broken Japanese. Said takan more than I could ever imagine. Cuz that’s really the only Japanese word I know. It means a lot. Say, “Oh, Japan has a lot of hills. Japan has a lot of clouds.” All that stuff. But yeah, a lot of fun. Hopefully I get to Nagasaki soon, though. [Applause] It’s a penis temple. Yes. Ah, very very large penis temple. Well, so much has happened today. I haven’t even been there. We’ll film it all. When I got dropped off at K Kikushui, I went and stood with my thumb out for a bit and this Japanese woman took notice of me and started talking to me. She said that she like tabu people and I thought that she meant she like trouble people. She was like one of those people that’s in delinquents and I was like, “Hey, I’m not a delinquent.” And she’s like, “No, I like travel people.” So, she started talking to me about traveling and asked me about hitchhiking. She stuck her thumb out for me, tried to get me rides. And then the local meat shop owner, the president of the meat shop came up to me cuz he saw that he was talking to me and he started asking me like what I was doing. And so I said I hitchhiked from Kakoshima all the way to Kikuchi or Kikushui. I can’t even pronounce the name of that freaking place. But and then he decided to just randomly give me a like meat stick thing. It was like a lollipop that was made out of a sausage. It tasted really good. And then these two other ladies saw me and they decided to buy me bread. So I got like all my meals for today bought for me by just random people who saw me sticking my thumb out. It took me about an hour to get a ride in Kikui, but it was a lot of fun talking to people. The lady was really nice. And then she went and found this motorcyclist guy. And the motorcyclist guy went and helped me find a lady who drove me to I don’t even remember where cuz when the lady drove me, she called her daughter who spoke English and her daughter went and asked me where I was going. I said, “I’m trying to go to Nagasaki.” and daughter met up with the mom at one of the roadside stations, which I didn’t even have time to mark because so much was happening. And they were helping me make the sign for going to Nagasaki. And then this guy sees me making the sign and he gave me a ride all the way to Yamuchi, which I I don’t even know where the hell I am. I’m about 30 km from Sashbo, which is near to the port that I’m trying to go to to go to one of the islands in Nagasaki. But yeah, I got a ride which was like 2 hours long. The driver who drove me spoke a little bit English which was nice. He apparently worked for Kors Beer and went to America. He took me to some like penis temple or something which was kind of weird. It was kind of funny. I knew they had them in Japan. I didn’t ever know that I was going to encounter one. But yeah, it was interesting. I’m dropped off here now. It’s cold as hell and I don’t know where I’m going to sleep cuz it’s freaking urban sprawl out here and I’m going to either try and hitchhike or find somewhere to sleep. But there’s almost no traffic. So, I think I’m going to just hitchhike. No, actually, I think I’m going to just sleep cuz it’s going to be worthless to try and hitchhike. I’m going to go get food at Lawson and then just find somewhere to lay down. and hopefully catch up on sleep cuz I feel like right now. Well, here’s where I slept last night. Mino Eki is over there. This is like some restaurant. I just kind of slept behind it. I don’t see anyone here, so uh I think it’s fine. I don’t think there’s any security cameras, but I slept pretty good. Feels better than sleeping on concrete like I did in uh Sai. But yeah, it was pretty comfortable. while I was freezing my ass off all night though. I could not sleep cuz well actually I could sleep but every time I would wake up I would be shivering but I’m not sick right now and I feel pretty good. So I think I’m going to go and do my laundry at the coin laundry down the street. You can’t see it from here but I’m going to do my laundry cuz it’s all wet and damp still from Yakushima. And then I’m going to go and try and get out of here. Well for breakfast I’m going to have a shrimp graten. I don’t even know what this is, but it’s the cheapest food they got at Family Mart that actually looks like it has something other than rice in it. Uh, no, actually Lawson. Sorry, not Family Mart. Lawson is uh has pretty terrible selection of food. It’s usually kind of expensive, but they have free internet, which is kind of nice. I think I’m actually starting to put on some weight from this that I’m eating. So, yeah, this uh saving money comes at a big cost. I’m probably going to be a freaking whale by the time I’m out of this country, but hopefully not. I’m at the uh coin laundry and I think I I actually have no clue how to operate it. They have a washer, but I don’t know where to get the soap. So, I’m going to hand clean my clothes in one of the bathrooms, probably in the disabled bathroom down the road. And then I’m going to put them in the dryer cuz it’ll probably be cheaper that way. And then I’ll know that at least I clean my clothes of soap. Well, I hand washed my clothes. This took forever. And it’s 6:11 and I’m trying to dry them off. I don’t think it’s going to dry in time. I’m going to try and hitchhike out of here by 6:30. Like trying to stand in the corner, hitchhike. I got this uh cardboard box from the Lawson down the road. And uh I’m going to try and write either west or SBO, the direction of SBO. So hopefully that works out cuz there’s not much traffic on this road at all. Like one, two, three. Yeah, no traffic in 3 seconds. It’s pretty bad. Just hoping that someone lives in Sasho or somewhere near there so then they can give me a ride down there cuz Sashbo is just down the road. Probably 10 20 minute drive. But people just like don’t want to pick up hitchhikers I guess. I don’t know. Well, here’s where I’m standing near Lawson. Got my sign. It says West Sbo. I can speak Japanese because I can speak a little. But yeah, so far no one’s stopped. I’ve been here for about 2 minutes. Hopefully, people stop. There’s somewhat decent traffic. So, yeah. [Music] In Japanese. Ah, yeah. I uh Evangelion Miki. Yes. My wife [Music] So I just got got dropped off this Lawson. After hitchhiking, I win half an hour and I got a sign or I shima. So, I’m going to try and hitchhike out of here. My driver was pretty cool. He liked anime. Told him I liked Evangelion. We karaokeed Quill Angel’s Thesis together. It’s pretty fun. He got me like 20 m down the road. So, hopefully this goes well. Well, I just got picked up by this lady and she’s driving me to Ishima. Well, not to Ekoshima cuz I have to take a ferry, but she’s been there, which is pretty cool. And she’s driving me all the way to the port city. So, I’ve just mainly been talking about the same exact things every time. What is your favorite song? Do you like anime? She likes the Monagari series, which is cool. I tried talking her about it, but my Japanese is so broken. I keep forgetting key words. cuz I got to really study on it. But I keep forgetting what the main words that I need to know are. I need to know the word favorite and uh the word I don’t even know. But makes it really hard when I’m missing some of these key words and I can’t fill it in with English. Well, I got dropped off in Konora. I I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing it right, but literally on the port for Ikushima. The person who drove me actually works in this port area as a flower seller apparently. And I was walking around trying to find food to buy cuz there’s literally no stores here except for this fish shop which has the world’s cheapest vegetables which is kind of amazing cuz they’re homegrown too. You would think that they’re like GMO and chalk full of like scientific crap that just like kill your body, but no, they actually look pretty good, but I don’t have a way to cook them. I might buy carrots when I come back though. But hitchhiking out of here is going to be absolutely hell cuz there’s no one here. There was an old man who started talking to me randomly, which was really cool. And uh he was telling me how his son was a robotic engineer and telling me about Nagasaki. He only spoke Japanese, so this is kind of what I could get the general vibe of what he was saying because I only know a little bit. But he was basically saying that there’s not much foreigners here at all. And I’m one of the first foreigners he’s seen in this area. So hitchhiking out of here might be difficult. The thing about small towns is either they don’t give a crap about you or they’re super nice and will drive you really far. So hopefully this is one of those small towns where the people are super nice, which it seems like that cuz that’s what’s happened so far. Anyway, my ferry to Ishima is almost here. I wasn’t actually going to Nagasaki. I realized that this area is not actually Nagasaki. I think it’s Nagasaki Prefecture. But yeah, after this I’m going to try and go to Coobe, but you can actually see Eigashima in the distance. It’s really pretty. So yeah, I think this concludes my hitchhiking journey for this leg of the trip. Hopefully I can make it all the way to Hokkaido eventually.
#trending #viralvideo #explore #travel #homeless #japan #hitchhiking Trying to hitchhike from Kagoshima to Nagasaki. (It went really well)
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