Hitchhiking in Kyushu!

Over golden week I hitchhiked throughout Kyushu with a good friend of mine. Kyushu is much mroe tropical than Fukushima. At one point I felt like I was on the Jurassic Park island. At another point, I felt like I was in L.A. or California because there were wide open streets lined with palm trees. 

Ogre's Washboard:  Aoshima, Miyazaki

Along the way we managed to hitchhike 19 times, stay over at 2 peoples' houses and travel to all 7 prefectures in Kyushu. The people we came across were all extremely friendly people. It was amazing to find people who would go out of their was to help a complete stranger. This guy below took us to Mt. Aso (a live volcano) drove us around for a few hours, then called his friend who was an English teacher so we didn't have to speak Japanese all night. She had a husband and two delightful young girls. Then we went out to dinner with all of them, went to kareoke afterward and finally ended up staying over at the driver's house. 

Mt. Aso:  Kumamoto pref.

Overall, it was an amazing trip, which altered my perception a bit. These complete strangers did so much for us without expecting anything in return, and many of them would say, that it makes them feel good to help out other people. They were excited to show us their country and culture. It was a refreshing to see this sort of mentality, because in Canada hitchhiking is actually illegal!!