Sendai to Aomori

To hitchhike in Japan is pretty difficult. Keeping in mind that the whole country is pretty urban with lots of highways, it makes stopping the cars more difficult and sometimes even impossible. The locals are not used to share a car with someone and also a language barrier makes everything more complicated… But I was determined to do it, or at least to try it. I read on the internet that the best way is to take few stops by bus towards your destination and try to catch a car from the bus stop or to get to 7/11 (local convenient store) parking near the highway and ask people there if they are heading towards your destination and can take you.

Had a big lough from our tries to communicate, Kaori was jumping on the seat, while I was trying to Introduce Lithuania only with body language.

After walking few kilometres round and round in Sendai looking for a path to get to the highway, and realizing that it’s just impossible cause everything is well protected from the pedestrians entering it, I ended up just asking some random cars near the exit tunnel if they are heading to the highway and can drop at the nearest 7/11. I was lucky to find some construction workers who were leaving and agreed with very confused faces thinking about what I wanted and couldn’t believe that I will really want to hitchhike. It started to worry me more. I was sure, it could take longer, but it should be fine.

The construction workers dropped me at the parking lot of the shop and here the challenge started. Were few scenarios in my mind: to go to the shop and ask people there if they can take me, wait in the parking area until someone comes from the shop, knock car windows for those who are inside or just wait near the exit of the parking for those who are leaving. “Ok, so leave the shyness aside, and start working…”. Entered 7/11, but realized that it’s a bit awkward to talk to people there so took the plan B and started asking people who were leaving already. Here we need to remember, that almost no one speaks English, they are shy and don’t know what is hitchhiking!

My first tries weren’t successful, most of the people just didn’t get me what I want from them, some just didn’t want to listen and looked confused. Was time for the plan C, I knocked a car window of the couple who were eating in the inside, they didn’t speak even a word in English, but somehow they understood my acting skills and pointing to the map and they agreed!!!

This fun journey proves me that language is not important to make friends, and real adventure happens when you are not expecting it at all.

Kaori and her husband were going for holidays to the north, the northern part of Japan and especially Hokkaido has many lakes and mountains, which is a very popular for Japanese to come for camping with families, or skiing during winter. To communicate with the couple was a big challenge, we both don’t know each others languages, so we used a lot of Google translator, we tried to act like would be playing charades. Had a big laugh from our tries to communicate, Kaori was jumping on the seat, while I was trying to introduce Lithuania only with body language. They tried to call their friends and asked to translate some words, but we understood, that we are losing lots of fun by it. What was the most memorable is that the whole journey we were “talking” and laughing until the bellies were hurting without understanding even a word! At some point I thought that we will have to stop cause was even hard to drive of the laughs.

The journey passed really fast. When we reached their holiday town, they dropped me at the train station to take few more stops to the ferry which I had to take, and when we had to say goodbye, I saw Kaori crying!!! This fun journey proves me that language is not important to make friends, and real adventure happens when you are not expecting it at all.

Understanding someone’s language is not important rather understanding there emotions and feelings. Yathish