Hitchhiking in Japan: Kirishima National Park
7th and 8th of May, 2025.
As we walk and look for a place to eat (which we cannot find), we are approached by an enthusiastic and friendly man, who introduce himself as a police officer. “You look lost” – he says – and laughing start to extend his help in his good English. And we tell him that, as it has been difficult to find Japanese people who can speak English. We also tell him about we just being looking for some food, but as we passed a supermarket back there, we’ll simply go back and do some groceries shopping. We also tell him about our plan to camp in a very nice place where there’s a farmers market, huge and nice bathroom facilities, and a flat green grass area for our tents. It’s called Roadside Station Ebino, and I think it’s made also for campervans and trucks to stay overnight. There’s a kind of Tourist Info right by it, called Outdoor Station Ebino, which is also a coffee shop. The police officer is a bit unaware of that, but seems happy to get some new information. Later on, when we are already there and a police cars passes patrolling the area, we joke with ourselves that’s our friend police officer checking on us to see if everything is OK.
As we had seen the place which we are camping before hand, it’s fine to just pitch our tents when we come back and it’s already dark. Plus, the area is well illuminated. We walk to a 7-Eleven which is just around the corner from a gas station, and have our dinner there, as we got some instant noodles.
When we are back, I can finally clean myself up in the bathroom, like washing my feet and arm pits by the sink, plus I wash my socks. Next morning, I wake up a bit earlier than Miles as I have planned, so I can also wash my hair. Laugh. There are quite a few women coming to brush their teeth, as we see a few campervans and trucks parked overnight. Funnily enough, I think that Japan is the place where I’ve seen more women travelling with their companions in trucks. Why’s that?
After getting all packed, we get hot water for our coffees at 7-Eleven and have our breakfasts there. The farmer’s market opens only at 9 a.m. and we want to leave before that. We walk a bit to outside the town for hitchhiking, towards the National Park. When we are still on our way there, Makiko stops by us and ask: “Do you want a ride?”. Yay! Yes, please!
Makiko is a farmer and she tells us that her dream was to one day pick up hichhikers. Again? She is the second woman to tell us that. Who adorable this people with such beautiful and caring dreams. She is going to her farm, which is only half way to the National Park, but we tell her it’s OK for us. Makiko’s farm is the biggest one around this area, as she tells us. She is super sweet and friendly, and we take a photo with her when she drops us off in a hot spring place.
I ask for some drinking water here (luckily, because at the NP there’s none, only selling machines) and then we wait for quite some time until somebody finally pick us up. There are actually very few cars passing by.
Mieko is an adorable seniour lady, and she seems a bit indecisive about taking us or not at first. But that’s just at first, because once we get in the car, she realizes that we are truly good people, so she becomes very comfortable in our presence. She has a super cute purse with a fox on it, and an adorable hat. Mieko is going to the NP for some reason which we don’t understand, but she drops us off at the parking lot. We take a photograph with her and she also wants one with us from her phone, and then she leaves.
We drop off our backpacks in front of a big shop and start our hiking towards Lake Onami. It takes almost two hours to reach it. The trail is marked but in a non sense way. There’s a board with different trails available, and each one of them has a different color. We take one of the blue trails (dark blue) but it’s marked with pink stripes on the trees. The problem is that there is a pink trail but on another direction.
The hike is easy but almost all the way uphill. It’s through the woods but as it’s not dense vegetation it’s all good. We couldn’t see any wild life, in neither way, which is very weird. The view of the lake from the top is gorgeous! You can go around for some time, to the right side (the left side is closed), and you will arrive to a kind of viewpoint in only a few minutes. I’m not entirely sure if you can go all the way down, as we didn’t have much time to explore it, the reason being the fact that we were confident we could still go and explore other sites in the park. We couldn’t.
When we get back, it’s near 17.00 hours, time when everything around will close. We make a plan of eating something “for dinner” first, so we can get hot water, and then going to see another smaller lake, and the crater, before looking for a place to camp, as everything is a small walk distance. We try to get some hot water in a groceries shop. The one with a small cafe in the second floor, and a small info area with banners and stuff, which is basically the first building to your left when you are walking into the NP, coming from Ebino. Here, we meet the first very rude Japanese man of our travels. One and only! He tell us we cannot get hot water for free, we must buy something from the shop. This really makes me crossed and I tell him he’s a mean person just before we leave. Miles and I then try in the other shop, to the right side, a huge place which is a mix of souvenir shop with local specialties and food. Here, we encounter a completely opposite person, a very nice and caring man who super kindly help us out a lot. Yay!
When we start walking towards the crater and lake, we notice a warning sign by the road. So the road is actually closed but we haven’t noticed before, or simply thought it was closed for the cars. No, it’s closed for everybody during the weekdays. What? The crater and the other small lakes can only be visited during the weekends, by any means of walking, cycling, motorbikes or cars. I cannot believe it! Therefore, Miles and I realize that there’s no purpose camping up here then, as we would have very little food / water for breakfast, and decide to hitchhike back down to Ebino, where we can camp again in the same rest area as last night, where we have everything we need.
But now we must hurry, because almost everybody has left already, meaning almost all the cars are gone. As we step on the road and start hitchhiking, a couple slow down in their driving, not really sure if they should stop or not. Miles and I make fun of this later, as it seems that they were afraid of us, and pretty much simply just wanted to keep on driving. Luckily they don’t! They listen to us and after looking at each other, they decide to help. I’m really glad they did that, not only because we could get back to Ebino in no time but also because, as they were a bit afraid and skeptic at first, they could change that approach completely afterwards, when they finally meet us and interact, showing a very kind and nice side of themselves. They got super excited by the end, happy to take a photo and to have met us. This means than, most likely, they will be more open to help / pick up others in the future than they before of meeting us, and that makes me very happy. Yay!
OK, so now back “home” we make our camps and go to 7-Eleven to get some food. We make a plan of watching The Wild Robot on my laptop, as I liked very much the first time I watched and would like for Miles to see it as well. We use one of the tables for all our stuff and charging devices, as there is an extension right by it, and Miles also has one. I have some pop corn and coffee while Miles has a cooked meal. Everything is just fine. Everything would be just so different tomorrow morning…
10 Years Around the World 