My cousin Donna and I went "bum camping" in Japan with two folding bikes.
Bum camping means plunking your bum down pretty much anywhere and calling it a night.
Japan has less crime than we're used to and a tolerant attitude toward homeless people.
Their little blue tents are tucked here and there in parks and under bridges.
We figured "How hard can it be?".
At Nikko, we found a nice spot in the woods. In the next town we camped on an out-of the-way terrace in a park. That went so well, the next night we camped in a prime waterfront spot in Ueno park, Tokyo.
Donna's folding bike cost $60 at a "Cainz Home" hardware superstore in Japan. It's nice. Buy your bike there unless you're very tall or picky. Her sleeping bag cost $10 in a Japanese discount sporting goods store (sports authority I think). It's plenty warm. Remember when things were expensive in Japan? They're a lot closer to China than we are, and it seems like they get better stuff from there for less than we do.
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Bum camping means plunking your bum down pretty much anywhere and calling it a night.
Japan has less crime than we're used to and a tolerant attitude toward homeless people.
Their little blue tents are tucked here and there in parks and under bridges.
We figured "How hard can it be?".
At Nikko, we found a nice spot in the woods. In the next town we camped on an out-of the-way terrace in a park. That went so well, the next night we camped in a prime waterfront spot in Ueno park, Tokyo.
Donna's folding bike cost $60 at a "Cainz Home" hardware superstore in Japan. It's nice. Buy your bike there unless you're very tall or picky. Her sleeping bag cost $10 in a Japanese discount sporting goods store (sports authority I think). It's plenty warm. Remember when things were expensive in Japan? They're a lot closer to China than we are, and it seems like they get better stuff from there for less than we do.
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Signing UpStep 1: Cops Have Low Prestige in Japan
After we were fast asleep a crew of patrolmen woke us up with flashlights. Their gutteral exclamations indicated we were in a place not aproved for sleeping bums. Our Survival-Evasion-Escape instincts kicked in. We spoke to them in English.
This paralyzed them for two reasons:
1: They were too embarassed to attempt their English in front of co-workers.
2: Not knowing where each stood in Sempai order for English, it was impossible for any of them to take the lead. (Sempai is seniority in a mentorship structure. Two people can shift in and out of Sempai role as they engage in various activities depending on who has attained highest rank in the specific activity.)
They made various gestures seen in Manga comics and went away. We slept well for the rest of the night. Park Attacker Man seen in that poster also left us alone. (I'm illiterate now, is that really what it says?)
When I'm by myself I'm paranoid and stealth off somewhere to sleep invisibly. If I'm really paranoid I'll disappear even more, pitch a tent and sleep in the scrub a few yards off to one side of it. I'm told I snore like a dying monster, which isn't great for a stealth program, but oh well.
On this trip I had Donna to protect me, so we boldly camped like the great bums of old.
This paralyzed them for two reasons:
1: They were too embarassed to attempt their English in front of co-workers.
2: Not knowing where each stood in Sempai order for English, it was impossible for any of them to take the lead. (Sempai is seniority in a mentorship structure. Two people can shift in and out of Sempai role as they engage in various activities depending on who has attained highest rank in the specific activity.)
They made various gestures seen in Manga comics and went away. We slept well for the rest of the night. Park Attacker Man seen in that poster also left us alone. (I'm illiterate now, is that really what it says?)
When I'm by myself I'm paranoid and stealth off somewhere to sleep invisibly. If I'm really paranoid I'll disappear even more, pitch a tent and sleep in the scrub a few yards off to one side of it. I'm told I snore like a dying monster, which isn't great for a stealth program, but oh well.
On this trip I had Donna to protect me, so we boldly camped like the great bums of old.
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The signboard at Ueno Park is looking for the victim not a park attacker. It's too bad, his picture look terrible.
This is great, I'm from Africa and our currency isn't great so it would prob be the only way for me to see Japan. I just have one question, where did you wash / use the bathroom?
Thanx
A one-way trip from Tokyo to Osaka is about $150 according to this slick site (click on the "english" button).
Here's the JR Pass cost.
The bus from Narita(international flights) and Haneda(domestic flights) cost me about $30. I did some visiting in my old hometown (Akita) for a few days and didn't activate my train pass until I was ready to do a whole lot of train riding. There are some local non-JR train lines that don't cost the same as the Shinkansen, subways/masstransit that vary from city to city, and there's likely to be a variety of price/mile lines within a city. One thing that's cheap is beer. After I found out they cost $2 on the train I'd offer one to anyone sitting next to me. It made the language practice a lot easier. The pass made it easy to find camping, I'd pick a stop just outside a big city and get off there at night. The raised tracks of the station put a huge area out of the rain, and small stations don't have enough tenants to fill it up with stores. I've had a good nights sleep under a few of those.