Spontaneous Volcanoes and the Great Hiroshima Reunion
One afternoon, boredom got the best of me, so I decided to visit a volcano in Kagoshima, not too far from where I was staying.
I didn’t even have to wait a minute before a man picked me up at the Miyazaki bridge. Not only did he give me a ride, but he also treated me to lunch and gifted me some green tea before dropping me off in Miyakonojo.
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About half an hour later, a father of three picked me up and took me all the way to see the Sakurajima volcano. We explored the area together, and then, incredibly, he drove me all the way back to Miyazaki.
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The Race to Hiroshima: No Internet, No Plan
A few days later, it was time to head north. I had a plan to meet my friend Àlex in Hiroshima. He would hitchhike down from Osaka, and I’d head up from Miyazaki. The goal was to arrive by evening, but there was a catch: neither of us had an internet connection. We had no way of knowing if we’d actually make it or how to find each other.
My luck held up. Within two minutes, a mother and daughter picked me up and drove me to Kumamoto.
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From there, a van full of an entire family took me even further. I spent the ride chatting, laughing, and watching anime on the car’s TV with the kids.
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By the time they dropped me off in Yame, the heat was brutal. I was practically frying on the side of the road. A guy on a motorcycle trip across Japan saw me and handed me a ice-cold Coke, and shortly after, another man, worried about the heat, brought me some tea. To both of them: thank you!
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After a long wait, two men drove me to Koga.
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There, I met a group of guys who were heading off the island of Kyushu and back onto Honshu. After a four-hour drive, they dropped me off in Miyajima at 8:00 PM. Finally, a very friendly couple gave me the last lift into Hiroshima.
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The Race to Hiroshima: No Internet, No Plan
They dropped me right in front of the Peace Memorial, one of the only buildings to survive the atomic blast. Standing there, in the silence of such a historic and tragic site, was overwhelming. I spent some time reflecting on what happened there, and I couldn’t help but feel deeply moved.
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I searched for Wi-Fi to check on Àlex, but my messages weren’t going through. He was still somewhere on the road. I waited by the monument for two hours, lost in thought. Then, at midnight, I looked across the river and spotted him—there was that idiot Àlex! We had both managed to cross hundreds of kilometers in a single day to meet in the middle of Hiroshima. It was spectacular.
We grabbed some dinner on a park bench and then went looking for a place to sleep. As we walked along the river, we saw something moving. «Is it a cat? No, a monkey! Wait, maybe an otter? No… it’s a giant rat!» Honestly, we still don’t know what it was, but given we were in the city of the atomic bomb, we joked it was some kind of radioactive monster and decided to find a safer spot!
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After scouting entryways and rooftops, we finally found the perfect «hotel»: a tiny shrine in the middle of the city. We rolled out our mats and sleeping bags. Goodnight, Hiroshima.
To be continued…