This is an article I wrote at the end of August 2005. It was on my old website which is no longer on-line and I am therefore re-posting it. After reading it again, I found numerous typos, corrected them, and am therefore re-posting it to the home page. I hitchhiked from Niigata City to Matsumoto City in Nagano, then to Tokyo, and then back to Niigata in 3 days, a … Continue reading →
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5There are photos below the text. On Friday, June 21st, I turned 74 years old. I’m thankful to my Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, for reasonably good health at my age, normal blood pressure, no arthritis, and no diabetes as my father had, and for being completely off medication of any kind. And I’m especially blessed to have a ministry of sharing God’s truth, His Word, and the true views … Continue reading →
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5Today, June 4th marks the first full year since my wife Tess and I moved from Guam to the Philippines, now the third country I lived in outside the USA for more than one year. There are so many unusual sights here I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world that I thought the regular visitors of this website might like to see them too. One of the most inconvenient … Continue reading →
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4Through Facebook Messenger, I had a strange conversation with someone calling herself Shirley who I believe is either a scammer or an AI chatbot or a combination of both. Why do I think so? Please read the conversation and tell me what you think. I saw you mentioned an interesting topic on facebook and I would like to hear your views and opinions. Sure. What topic are you referring to? … Continue reading →
I posted this article on my old website on kt70.com/~jamesjpn 20 years ago. It was hosted by my friend Kengo Tahaha for free. A few years ago he told me he would stop paying for the server. Only today, Dec. 9, 2020, I realized I hadn’t copied it to this website. “Murmansk (Russian: Му́рманск, is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far northwest part … Continue reading →
On June 20th, 2019, just after I took my father-in-law to his home in Piga Subdivision from the Dededo Senior Citizen’s Center on the island of Guam, after turning right onto the main road of Chalan Koda, I saw a car ahead that was stopped about 50 meters from the intersection. I drove around the car on its left and then saw a man standing in the middle of the … Continue reading →
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4On May 5th I flew to Guam from Osaka, Japan, to meet my bride Tess for the first time! She met me at the airport together with her father, her neice and nefphew, and her brother Joey and his wife. I put an engagment ring on her finger at the airport in public, and strangers applauded us! The first two nights we had to stay at a hotel at $75 … Continue reading →
My days of hitchhiking in Japan are over. On May 5th, 2018 I will start a brand new life in Guam with my bride! The chart shows the distances I traveled by hitchhiking since I kept records, a total of 258,500 kilometers. I estimate the total distance hitchhiked over 20 years from March 1998 to be 350,000 kilometers. You can see a detailed breakdown of the people who picked me … Continue reading →
This is another adventure I had on my old kt70com/~jamesjpn site which I am reposting. It occurred from April 27 to May 7, 2005. I had two consecutive hitchhiking adventures, the first to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, and the second to Nagano. The total distance traveled in the 19 vehicles that picked me up was about 1750 kilometers or 1095 miles. This was during the period called “Golden Week” in … Continue reading →
Another oldie goldie adventure from my old website I am reposting. On April 30, 2004, I hitchhiked 500 kilometers from Niigata city to Nagoya, the 3rd largest metropolis in Japan. It was the second day of “Golden Week.” Below is a brief description of what Golden week is all about: The Golden Week is a collection of several national holidays within seven days in the end of April and beginning … Continue reading →
With another man also hitchhiking! His partner with him took the photo. Due to popular request I have complied a list of tips and lessons I learned over the past several years hitchhiking in Japan. I think the basic tip is to use common sense and have the attitude of, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Get to the a good intersection of the highway that has a nice … Continue reading →
In the summer of 1997 I needed to leave Russia and St. Petersburg for a visa renewal trip. Rather than make another visa trip to Helsinki in Finland, I opted for neighboring Estonia instead. As you can see on the map below, the distance from St. Petersburg to the Estonian capital city of Tallinn is not much different than from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, Finland. And as you see from … Continue reading →
On July 31 1996, Yanek from Belarus, Angela from St. Petersburg and I traveled overland by bus from Murmansk to the remote village of Teriberka. We went to visit our friend Marina who was a student we met in Murmansk. These two areas are circled in red on the map below. The distance is a bit more than 100 KM or 60 miles, but it took 5 hours by bus … Continue reading →
I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, from August of 1994 to October of 1997. It was known as Leningrad during the time of the Soviet Union. Many people who don’t live in St. Petersburg still call it Leningrad! At least they did during my stay in Russia. But I don’t remember a resident of St. Petersburg refer to it by the Soviet name. They are proud of their pre-Soviet history … Continue reading →
On September 17th, 2016, I hitchhiked from the crossroads of Route 345 and Route 7 near Gatsugi Station in Murakami City in Niigata Prefecture all the way to Aomori City in a single car! This is a distance of about 400 kilometers or 250 miles. I am 66 years old at the time of this post. The driver’s name is Hiroshi who lives and works in France as a chef … Continue reading →
On March 4th, 2016 I hitchhiked 100 kilometers or about 60 miles to the city of Tokamachi. It is a city in the midst of hills. The Shinano River which is the longest river in Japan flows through Tokamachi. It’s called “Shinano” for that was the old name of Nagano Prefecture which is its source. But in Nagano Prefecture the same river is called Chikuma. The first driver was a … Continue reading →
