highway rest stop

hitchhiking in japan is tricky. your best chance for a ride is hitching one at a highway rest stop, so i took a train to the outskirts of hiroshima, bought some food and walked a while until i found a flight of stairs leading up the highway. i was already completely sweat through when i got there, thinking i would be in a climatized car soon, but this time, i wasn't as lucky.

i stood in the scorching heat for almost two hours and had to take a break in order not to pass out. i then followed the advice from an online blog and tried to talk to people coming out of the store directly, but that didn't work either. after half an hour more of standing by the highway exit, i was finally picked up and dropped off at another rest stop one or two hundred kilometres further.

it was getting late, so i had already scouted out my place to set up camp for the night when i figured i could stick my thumb out for a couple more minutes. to my surprise, it paid off big time, because a young guy in a camaro stopped for me and agreed to take me with him, and into the sunset we went. i actually fell asleep from exhaustion in the car, but woke up when he pulled over for a break.

i took a breather outside and discovered that the rest stop actually had a perfect grassy area, quiet, dark and conceiled, so i decided to say farewell to the guy and stay there for the night. finally after a long, long time, i got to have one of my beloved "in-the-tent-watching-a-good-movie"-evenings again.

the next morning, i got myself two sandwiches and got right back at it. this time, i found a piece of paper and made a little sign to help me. luckily, it didn't take long for a small truck to pull over, and after a quick pit stop in the driver's home village, we finally rolled into osaka.Read more