Hitchhiking in Hachijojima

I had 2 ideas for Golden Week 2008: travel around Japan hitchhiking or visit the Izu islands in the Pacific ocean.
Probably the lack of hitchhiking experience (cold feet) made me go for the 2nd option: Bryan & I went to Hachijojima.
Hachijojima is part of Tokyo but it takes 11 hours of ferry from Tokyo (or 40mn by airplane, our option).

Hachijo Fuji
One of the major attractions on Hachijojima is the hike to the top of the Hachijo Fuji volcano; a fairly short hike but up there, great views of the island and its surroundings.
The problem though was that we were not in the mood for biking to the hiking trail so we initially decided to walk (takes one and a half hours said the hosts of the minshuku we were staying at). We eventually decided to give a go at hitchhiking and it did not take very long before someone stopped and offered us a ride.

Akira-san
Akira-san was the name of our driver; he was super friendly and offered to drive us around the volcano before dropping us at the hiking trail start point. We were grateful! Little did we know about how friendly he was indeed. Not only did he take us to 2 observation decks, buy us milk, introduce us to his middle school friend but he also offered to pick us up after we were done with the hike. Nice!
It got a little weird when after the hike, he offered to take us to his friend’s tea house for a coffee/cheese cake break. But we thought that the guy was just very friendly…we seem to have lost this ability in our countries.
When 4pm came, he was very sorry to have to go back to work; we were happy to finish our hitchhiking experience.

Airport encounter
The next problem on an island with 8800 souls is that everyone knows everyone. When on the following day, we decided to head to the airport for an early flight back home due to heavy rains & winds, we freaked out when our hitchhiking friend showed up too…..He had called our minshuku and heard we were at the airport. Then what to do when all the flights end up being cancelled and Akira-san offers us another day of adventures? Freak out & hide! We tried that for a while but eventually decided to face our responsibilities and told him to “leave us alone.” Of course, we used much more diplomatic words, our Japanese is that good!

Are we the problem?
Later that day, we ended up going back to our minshuku for the unexpected additional night (no airplanes left the island that day) and talked with our host about this adventure. She was super nice about it and just said that Akira-san was a very nice guy who loved talking and meeting people. Have we become unable to appreciate friendliness? Sorry Akira-san!

- Nico

Come fly with me

Have you ever wondered if you were born in the wrong generation? Truly, the pokemons were not part of my childhodd but I would love to check out the interior of the ANA Pokemon airplane.

Does this fit in the "Only in Japan" category? Probably.

I remember seeing this airplane during one of my first trips to Japan and a couple of times ever since. I hope Pikachu stays "genki" and does not retire before I get the chance to fly with this one.

Now I know that there are 4 different plane design - 3 for domestic & 1 for international flights. Check it out, what's your favorite?

http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/flights/pokemonjet/design.html#dome

I vote for the International route one.

- Nico