9
edits
Changes
→Where to hitch
* 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.