From Tokyo to Kyoto and back. In one of the safest countries, hitchhiking might be thought-about a cheap and secure various to the expensive bullet train.


You'd by no means normally drive from Tokyo to Kyoto. It might probably take something between six and ten hours, relying on the time of day and holiday visitors, and it isn't low cost, as you'll pay on common 10,000 yen one-means on the toll roads. A lot quicker and easier is the bullet practice (Shinkansen) at round and a half hours, which can set you back approximately the same amount as for those who drove (factoring in fuel money). In fact, in case you are travelling as a gaggle or family, then the automotive turns into more economical.


All my friend and I knew at the time was that we didn't personal a car, we couldn't afford the train, but we really wished to visit the previous capital metropolis, Kyoto. It was the beginning of Golden Week, so we figured many people could be travelling by automotive to go to their kin outdoors of the metropolis. What may go flawed?

A Can Do Kanji Angle


First cease the night before was a one hundred yen store to purchase a whiteboard and marker pen. a hundred yen outlets could be found all over the place in Japan, and though they're brimming with tat, most of that tat is of a reasonably high standard. They are often nice locations to pick up low cost souvenirs; simply hold the worth firmly below your hat! Daiso is among the largest manufacturers, but mainly in the event you head in the direction of any shop that advertises itself as 'ninety nine' or 'a hundred' you will not go far wrong.

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This is Tokyo and that is Kyoto in kanji characters on your sign. Kyo means 'capital' as Kyoto was the capital metropolis of Japan from 794 until 1869, when Emperor Meiji moved his residence to Tokyo, which had already been established for some time as the political and cultural capital city of Japan. (This transfer made it extra official.) Kyoto is an anagram of Tokyo, but the kanji used is slightly totally different for every metropolis, as you'll be able to see from the links. Should you had been to write down the words how they sound, they might look more like this: Tou-kyo and Kyou-to, which explains the differences.


Early the following morning, with Kyoto writ large on our whiteboard, we take turns standing at the side of the road, thumb in the air and whiteboard held towards our chest. We stand there for forty minutes, smiling brightly on the dumbfounded faces hunched over steering wheels staring again at us, not stopping, and start to marvel if we've not made a huge mistake. Maybe we look too international? I have never shaved for a number of days, and my pal has the blondest hair and the whitest knees...

Akiramenai! - Never Give Up!

The reality is, hitchhiking simply isn't the performed thing in Japan, it isn't part of their culture. It would happen in additional rural areas, and youthful generations have been known to automotive-pool, however I believe that's more of a pal-of-a-buddy network thing. So we'd have looked misplaced, had we been Japanese. It also didn't help that we were stood on a busy but minor street, in search of somebody heading all the way in which to Kyoto, 200+ miles west of our current location on the outskirts of Tokyo.


We are about to throw in the whiteboard when my pal has a bright idea. Why not go to the storage over the street (the place a bunch of guys have been pointing and laughing at us for the past half hour) and ask them to vary our whiteboard for someplace nearer? Somewhere less ambitious, and make our method to Kyoto in fits and bursts? The Japanese, as a rule, are a pleasant and helpful people; so long as they can get the gist of what you want, they'll go to the ends of the Earth to help the bumbling gaikokujin. 'Gaikokujin' means foreigner, by the way, but you may probably hear the shortened version 'Gaijin' loads more. It is politically incorrect to use the shorter model (akin to shortening Pakistani I suppose) however there's some debate as as to if 'gaijin' cannot be used neutrally.

The petrol heads erase our try at Kyoto, take our pen, and write Yokohama Freeway (in Japanese, clearly). Much arigato-ing later, they watch from the forecourt as the thumb goes up as soon as more... and within ten minutes, we now have been picked up by a person in a van! He's on his option to Yokohama to deliver milk, and is comfortable to drop us on the freeway. He speaks little or no English, however he is incredibly jolly. After we clarify that our last vacation spot is Kyoto, he leans back, traps the steering wheel between his knees, and rewrites Kyoto in sweeping caligraphy on our whiteboard. Screw the fits and bursts, we reckon we'll be much luckier on the freeway.


The Yokohama Freeway isn't someplace you need to be waiting for someone to select you up! For security, I might suggest a slip road. We're dropped in a small lay-by, and moments after waving off the milkman, the police whizz by, switching on their siren at the final minute to point their annoyance. We watch as they pull off at the subsequent junction, and the scene from Jaws concerning the sharks surrounding the usIndianapolis sailors flashes in my thoughts: I think about the police circling again to take one other bite. However what's this? Within minutes of being dropped off by the milkman, we're picked up by Shinji, driving house for the holidays. And we're on our approach!

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Shinji is a quiet, unassuming salaryman, going to spend the holidays together with his household in Osaka, which is simply past Kyoto, on the coast. We chat for a while, his English is sort of good, but mostly we spend the journey staring out of the home windows on the passing countryside. He takes the scenic Tomei Expressway, which goes by Japan's model of the Lake District, Hakone. Cameras are at the ready for Mt. Fuji, however she's hidden in a blanket of cloud as we go, unfortunately.


The service stations alongside the best way are as you'd count on, offering espresso pictures and cigarette breaks to weary travellers. In contrast to right here within the UK, nevertheless, they don't hike up the costs of products for no good reason. Shinji is shopping for and he's refusing to accept money from us. Certain, we're poor hitchhikers, but this is too much. He's having none of it, and because the journey progresses, and the silence within the automobile grows - we've fast run out of subjects to speak about in damaged Japanese and English - we feel responsible for not having the ability to entertain him in cost of his generosity. Each time we come to a toll, we undergo the motions of offering to pay and he flatly refuses.


Eight hours later and we're nearing Kyoto. Shinji's generosity knows no bounds. At the last minute, he decides to make a diversion and drive us right into the center of town, even supposing it will now price him one other toll payment. He drops us in Gion, the famous geisha district, we adorn him with the only payment he will take, a lot bowing and arigato-ing, and discover ourselves stood outdoors Yasaka shrine at eleven o'clock in the evening, clueless as to where we are going to spend the night.

Plan Forward

Tokyo is a 24-hour city. The more tranquil, be-templed Kyoto is not. In reality there was a metropolis planning rule in Kyoto - I'm undecided whether or not it still applies - that McDonald's eating places could not use the garish purple and yellow design, and needed to adopt a brown coloration scheme that did not jar with the city. It's due to this fact sensible to book ahead, otherwise you may struggle to seek out lodging in the event you flip up at some ungodly hour as we did. These days, there are a couple of capsule lodges, but no ensures that they'll be open 24 hours. My friend and I ultimately checked in to Tojian hostel the subsequent morning (after walking round all night time), and for those who're travelling alone or with a pal, this is an reasonably priced place to stay. The website is naff, but do not let that put you off, it is an extremely friendly institution, an excellent place to meet fellow travellers, and ideally situated between the station and Toji temple, house to the tallest picket structure, a 5-storey pagoda, in all Japan. A perfect landmark for while you're drunk of a night and have lost your way...


I've rattled on a bit, haven't I? Okay, rapidly, when it came to in search of a carry again at the finish of Golden Week, we walked south to the Meishin Expressway, and had to decide whether or not to show left or proper, to seek out the closest sliproad. We turned left. If you're going to do that, you must flip right... We ultimately obtained picked up and taken to the slip street, having critically misplaced our means and ended up in a bamboo forest overlooking the city. And once more, as soon as we had discovered a great place for hitchhiking, it didn't take lengthy earlier than a pair returning to Saitami (simply north of Tokyo) picked us up. This time, they spoke very little English, but had been much more fun. She was an novice singer, and I spent a while writing down the words to the Bangles music Everlasting Flame for her to practice. Not from reminiscence, she had a CD! She additionally had a terrific voice, shame I can not keep in mind her name.


Again, they each went out of their manner to help us, this time truly dropping us at our respective doorways, again residence in Tokyo, before persevering with on to Saitama. This, after that they had bought us meals, shared their cigarettes, and utterly changed their plans - they'd meant to stop over at his mom's on the way in which home.

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