Photos of People That Have Picked Me Up Hitchhiking in Japan

Photos of People That Have Picked Me Up Hitchhiking

      Once I was hitching at a highway rest area and the police stopped to tell me in Japanese, "(Hitchhiking) here is dangerous". As I always do with the police, I smiled and pretended not to understand a word of Japanese. (Hitchhiking Japanese is just about the only Japanese I can speak, as it is.) I very politely said I would be OK and tried to send them on their way quickly. Of course, a couple of minutes later, a van pulled up with a bunch of young people and they excitedly wanted to take me to the next town where it looked like there was going to be a party. Regretfully, I was going a different direction. As the van pulled away, I thought, "Dangerous?"
      So here are some pictures of the many dangerous people in Japan that have picked me up. The four nuts in the last couple of pictures might be dangerously wacked out of their minds, but they were great fun.
      In some instances these are photos of the back seat passengers--such as the children, obviously--but it is noteworthy to include them as they are part of the decision-making process of the driver ("Hmmm, my three precious little daughters are in the back seat of the van. Should we stop for that large, scuzzy, gaijin backpacker on the side of the road?")

Demonstrating fine hitching form

This guy couldn't drive me, but he
wanted to help so he hitched for me.

Follow the foot

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