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→Personal Experiences
== Where to hitch ==
It is almost impossible to hitch out of [[Tokyo]] or any large Japanese city by waving your thumb on the [[Tokyo/Ginza|Ginza]]. Thus, to get out, you have to find the places where drivers going out congregate, which in practice means '''service areas''' (サービスエリア ''sābisu eria'', '''SA''') or '''parking areas''' (パーキングエリア ''pākingu eria'', '''PA''') on the large toll expressways (高速道路 ''kōsokudōro'') connecting Japan's major cities. As you might guess, service areas are larger and better equipped than parking areas, but surprisingly few Japanese are familiar with the difference so it's easier to label them all service areas. Japan has left-hand traffic, keep that in mind when looking for your first spot.
* Update 2010: I mostly hitched Japan hopping from Convenience Store (Lawson/7-Eleven) to the next one, and I absolutely think it's the best, especially for short-distance hitching or for getting started at the edge of a city (yes, even large ones). There is always enough space for cars to pull over next to Konbinis, and a decent parking lot; and there is always a trademark sign, meaning that Konbinis are meant to be easily spotted while people are driving, so be smart and use them to draw their attention to you too. The Japanese stop an insane number of times during a trip, and it's always at a Konbini, to buy food, drinks, take a leak (nearly all road Konbinis have a toilet), making a call, or even for nothing! If your driver is going to buy drink/food for himself, it's absolutely certain that you'll get some too. [[User:Gutuater|gutuater]]
* Update 2018: Disagree on big cities being impossible. Tokyo might be impossible but everywhere else is plausible. Have hitched out of cities by waving my thumb, there's a longer wait though. Agree on the use of convenience stores. Alternatives, if necessary, include McDonald's with drive-throughs, restaurants with parking lots... You want a place where a driver can legally stop their car long enough for both of you to decide if you're going on their vehicle. [[user:Snowballsakura|snowballsakura]]
* Update 2024: We ONLY got picked up at Service/Parking Areas. Really nowhere else. We were most successful when people could see us for a very long time, so not at the exit but in the middle of the area. Also, we weren't taken anymore after leaving the main highway between Tokyo & Kyoto. Waited for hours on parallel highways, unsuccessfully. People who might take you are not a hurry. So take the time to exactly discuss where they'll drop you off (preferably at a SA/PA with 1000+ Google reviews).
A useful rule of the thumb (pun intended) is that if you can get somewhere on a train for less than 2000 yen, hitchhiking the distance is unlikely to be worth the trouble. For destinations around Tokyo, such as for [[Mount Fuji]], [[Hakone]], [[Nikko]], hitchhiking is unlikely to be worth the trouble... until you actually get there, that is. All three regions have expensive local transport but plenty of unhurried tourists driving about, always a good combination for the hitchhiker.
*Comment: The biggest thing I found wrong with the hitchhikers guide to Japan. I '''rarely''' got good rides in the morning, in fact, my ride/wait ratio was much worse with 20 minute waits for 20 minute rides in the mornings vs 30-40 minute waits at night for 2 hour rides. I would always use morning to walk around, explore my locale, then start hitching after noon. I got most of my best rides in the early afternoon and right around 17:00-18:00. Hitching after 20:00 takes a lot longer, but often you get '''really''' good rides out of it. I would '''not''' suggest waking up early for rides. [[User:Traceoftoxin|traceoftoxin]]
*Comment: In Japan, I've never hitchhiked in the early morning - always in the afternoon, and occassionally at night. Still I've never waited for more than an hour (usually 10-30 minutes) and I got some long rides, too: from Fukuoka to Kagoshima, or once (at night!) from Tokyo to Kyoto. [[User:MatsumotoJoe|MatsumotoJoe]]
* Comment 2024: We were never taken after 4/5 pm, despite good spots & waiting for hours. Same place in the morning we were usually taken within 15 minutes.
If the weather is bad, it's best to give up hitchhiking for the day and figure out something else to do. A sodden figure standing forlornly in the rain with his thumb out is not a pitiful figure in Japan, he's a dangerous lunatic.
* Comment 2024: Pouring rain may be a problem, but we hitchhiked quite succesfully during rainy season as long as we sticked to Service/Parking Areas & mornings/midday.
If hitching out of a tourist spot (Nikko for example where I hitched to Utsunomiya) you can still catch rides a little later on with the day tourists heading home. As long as it is still light you still have a fair chance of getting a lift later on in the day. The early morning rides I found were in a rush going to work etc so didn't have time to stop for me whereas the tourists are in no hurry.
[[User:Anaimlesshitchhiker|Anaimlesshitchhiker]] has written some tips on hitchhiking Japan on [https://anaimlesshitchhiker.com/2017/12/11/hitchhiking-japan-some-tips/ -an aimless hitchhiker ]
Oddly, the opinions on this particular HW page are very polarized, so I want to add some of my own experiences. For the record, I am a 27-year-old, tall, thin, white, American male. I hitchhiked here for two months from mid-September 2024, with a 48 L rucksack and a sleeping pad tied to the top, and enjoyed it immensely. Fall is a very nice time in this country, the weather is not too hot, tho there were some cloudy and rainy days, (which made organizing some longer treks difficult); seeing koyo, Japanese word for autumnal changing leaves, makes for beautiful drives anywhere.
In all, it was some of the best hitchhiking I’ve done. I went from Tokyo to Niigata, down through Kyoto, Okayama and Hiroshima, circled Kyushu to Aso, Miyazaki and Fukuoka, then rode back north to Kyoto along the Sea of Japan for some incredibly scenic hitchhiking and camping. It’s ridiculously safe in Japan and I often left my 20kg backpack (minus valuables) near the start of mountain trails I hiked between rides with zero problems. The hiking in Japan (where mountainous terrain makes up ~70% of the country) is as good as the hitchhiking and you can successfully get lifts on national park routes with fellow nature-loving Japanese people, despite the roads a times feeling abandoned. Couchsurfs are possible in larger cities, but in smaller ones there are usually few hosts. And on that topic, I wasn’t offered a floor from any drivers. On highways, I found people drive about half the speed that they do in Europe, so covering distances is a bit slower here.
Wait times varied drastically, from three seconds to three hours. Usually, if it was a long wait, I was aware conditions were not in my favor (e.g. in the rain, trying to reach the highway from a random road, in a very remote area). Just as much, I also hitched at sunset from near trailheads, on the side of a prefectural road in the rain at dusk, and from a small PA in pitch black, all rapidly and for great rides. The best times are around commutes (7-10AM and 5-8PM), and I think hitchhiking into the darkness is something you need to do to be successful, strange as it may feel. (There’s no DST in Japan, so in general sun set early for me.) More than a few times, people were bored and just drove me for an hour before heading back home — I felt guilty, but they insisted. In Kyusyu I was lucky for days in a row: once catching five rides with a total of forty minutes of waiting; another getting a ride from Beppu to Miyazaki in a few minutes in a truck cot; a generous phone-line-layer took me to a campsite and called the groundskeeper to clarify there was space for me; and one last driver actually got me a job teaching English at an elementary school in Fukuoka. All this, paired with the best food in Japan. Elsewhere, outside Izumo a woman called six of her friends to be my next ride, so that, at the end, my next ride was actually waiting for me in a parking lot — brilliant.
Highways are certainly the most efficient, but I found the most memorable drives elsewhere. I saw four other hitchhikers on my trip, all japanese students. Two of them (who’d hitchhiked from Hakata station in Fukuoka to Kyoto station in one day; what’s up Miki!) and I had our last ride one evening from an SA outside Osaka together.
Michi no eki, PAs and SAs are your friend: exiting any city, I would search around the metropolitan area or along my ideal route for one. Oftentimes, 250¥ or a few hours on foot gets you there. They are much closer to civilization than in Europe or America, and michi no eki especially are frequented by local people as fresh markets or delicious restaurants. Camping there is probably not legal but many people sleep in their cars there on long trips, so in practice it is fine. Campsites are actually kinda expensive, maybe 3000-5000¥, and sometimes don’t even have showers. You get the same experience at michi no eki, but with probably eight vending machines, a cleaner toilet, and fresh local produce available from around 9AM, for nothing. Once, a friendly michi no eki manager offered me to sleep on the tatami there, I was given food by the street vendors there, and then a third employee drove me with his wife from Tottori to Himeji out of only kindness. All the while, an old man performed beautiful music on his lap steel guitar.
Friendly construction workers, truck drivers, carpenters, security guards, scaffolders, and other working class people made up most of my rides; but also young couples, mothers with infants, countless awesome old men. Japanese people are the most friendly and generous I’ve met in the world, and I found as the trip progressed and the kilometers I’d covered grew, people were more and more excited and often drove me even further than they were going. I was treated to meals more times than I can count, despite protest. Japanese people are often reserved — I found this changes as soon as you’re in their car — and, knowing their country is unbelievably safe, they seem to appreciate the sense of adventure, maybe one that they themselves are hesitant to embrace.
I studied the language only a few weeks before traveling and hitchhiking with a notebook proved an excellent way to learn the language. I recommend it. Some 95% of my rides didn’t speak english, some people say they cannot but are actually quite capable but shy. As such, learning a small amount (I find translators aren’t great, especially with rural dialects) will prove beneficial. I don’t think it’s nearly as difficult as the world makes it out to be, just a bit of getting used to. Overall, great hitchhiking here. — [[User:vinteuil|vinteuil]]
*UPDATE*
Wow don't things change!!! Managed to hitch from Niseko down to Joetsu in 2 and a half days, retracing my steps. Meals bought for me, received money three times and an onsen experience😁. Didn't wait longer than an hour and average waiting time was 20 mins, that included hitching in dark and moderate snow with ski equipment. Finally a truck stopped for me, but wasn't going my direction. From Joetsu I hitched to Osaka on the same day (9 hours and 4 lifts) and offered lift direct to airport. Waited at service stations on expressway for 15mins average, no police showed up...relief. No public transport was used on return leg to Osaka from Niseko, except for ferry. No signs were used after Niseko, for whole trip signs were not used 95% of time, just the thumb. I only know three words in Japanese and hitched all over country twice with no problems. I used convenience stores, expressway service stations, expressway on-ramp/entrances, petrol stations and bus stops to hitch as well as shoulder lanes (not many) and never asked for a lift, just left it to the good ol' thumb😁
I used manga cafe when in towns as they are cheap and do good night rates (1800 Yen for 8 hours in a cubicle where you can lie down, use internet, free shower and free soft drinks). Brought back memories of 2016 trip 😁. Camped out in some towns behind buildings in quiet areas, even when snowing, with no problems.
After Niseko, I was dishevelled, smelled funky due to shoes and had more gear, yet I had much more luck hitching even though theoretically it should have been the other way around...go figure!!!
* UPDATE 2024 *
Had our personally worst hitchhiking experience in Japan. Waited long hours & were then often taken for just a few km or to the wrong place. It worked very well though after we developed some rules for ourselves: Only hitching at SA/PA with at least 1000 Google reviews, being extremely visible to people who stopped (not exiting cars), discussing our exact destination before entering a car, not even trying after 4 pm, and always staying on the main route between the biggest cities. We then met very nice people & had a lot of fun. Still mixed feelings about the experience: It usually took 3h to get to a SA/PA, which made hitchhiking very long.
== How to get in and out of cities ==