The mother of a 25-year-old man was stunned to see him arrive home after he was declared missing for several days. When she last saw him he left his hometown of Sendai to attend a national trading card game competition in Kitakyushu city on Aug 23.
However, when he never made his return flight on Aug 25, she got worried. It turned out that her son was robbed of his wallet and mobile phone and spent the following 11 days traveling back to Sendai on foot. Upon his return the son said, “I never wanted to make a fuss. I’m sorry to everyone I inconvenienced.”
After the card game meeting ended, he was too late to catch his flight back to Sendai. Without a way back, he took to the streets so he could find an Internet cafe to spend the night in. As he was searching, he was approached by another man who demanded, “hand over your phone and wallet.” The son complied and the man ran off with the items. Luckily, the son had kept an extra 2,000 yen tucked in his shoe.
At this point most people would go to the police or maybe use the money to call home. This man did neither and proceeded to walk back home himself. “I used the 2,000 yen I had hidden in my shoe and bought bread and water to fight off hunger,” he said.
Eleven days and 1,400 kilometers later, the son arrived on his doorstep to a stunned mother on Sept 5. Her first thoughts at the sight of her lost son: “I was shocked and I thought I saw a ghost. I’m really thrilled he’s back, and I’m very sorry to everyone who was worried.”
When the news broke, netizens spoke up as one and asked, “Why the hell didn’t he contact anyone?!” We can only assume that either he truly didn’t want to bother anyone (including the police who are paid to be bothered in such cases), or perhaps he was up to something else that he didn’t want the police or family catching wind of.
Either way, he’s home safe and it’s a happy (albeit weird) ending. As an added bonus he was able to hold on to a very important trading card in his collection throughout the mugging and journey, and in the end that’s what really matters, isn’t it?
Source: Yomiuri
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Sword-Wielding Father Kills Man in Street Fight -- 31-year-old man from Sapporo arrested for beating his family with a bat -- Man Arrested on Suspicion of Giving Kids a Paper Route
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104 Comments
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CrazyJoe
Amazing feat!
wildwest
What a take of adventure, there is a book or a movie in this I'm sure.
justbcuzisay
This makes me very sad to read:
slumdog
I am glad he is okay, but something about his behaviour strikes me as a bit odd.
felix88
Or may be it's just what he wanted to do all along and the incident was just a push he needed, and he may get fame out of this, no publicity is bad publicity.
LiveInTokyo
He never bothered to think at all. Caused his mother and everyone else connected with him a great amount of needless worry. He got rolled for his stuff once, which means it could easily happen again and something even worse might have happened. Plain silly.
majikayo!
Bit suss. Mum deserved a phone call if he's living at home and expecting him back. Selfish if you ask me.
Francis Urquhart
Stupid man!
DudeDeuce
I heard the mugger "demanded" his wallet and phone, by knife or just words?
Graham DeShazo
What an idiot. Go to the cops. Call collect. Reissue the cc (if he had one). It's what adults do. Obviously zero social skills.
ratpack
Japanese people would see this as 'inspiring gaman....never give up in the face of adversity'.....and a whole lot of other stuff. I simply see this as stupidity and an enormous lack of common sense. Anyone with 1% of brains would've simply walked into a koban.....problem solved.
Jack Stern
It's sad but true that there are many Japanese who fall into this simplistic character of not wanting to cause any problems for others. A kind of "Forest Gump" syndrome. It may be related to being over protected as many are on this country.
Bartholomew Harte
Poor lad must have led a sheltered life!
Deplore
Recognizing the stupidity of his actions doesn't preclude you from admiring his single-mindedness.
StormR
Simpleton perhaps.
wtfjapan
“I never wanted to make a fuss. I’m sorry to everyone I inconvenienced.” and this is one of the reasons nothing changes in Japan. People are too worried to speak out or for themselves, so the people in power just keep treating them like the minions they are. until people stand up and protest in large numbers and aggressively (non violent) then the people up top dont need to take any notice and Japan will continue to fall into insignificance.
pochan
I just find this story a bit difficult to believe. No one can walk that far that fast
Dennis Bauer
He must've kept his brain in Sendai, what a smartypants
Elbuda Mexicano
Maybe he was just trying to get ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olyimpics?? Or maybe he is just too stupid to go to the police and report this crime so the J cops can call his family and he could have flown back, my guess he has some mental problems.
Wakarimasen
Sounds like an imbecile to me. Or this is all madeup.
Airion
I researched a little to find out how far a healthy person could walk in a day. At 3 miles (4.8 km) per hour, walking 24 hours every day, you could cover these 1400 kilometers in 12 days. For a lot of reasons, this isn't realistic.
Moderator: It is a true story.
Gaijin Desi
Keeping her Mother in mind, this men the dumb ass definitely need a kick on his ass.
nikkeiboy
A 25 year old man that lives at home with no apparent job and attends trading card games across the county would be considered odd in my book. My two junior high aged boys grew out of training card games a few years ago.
Disillusioned
Do you really believe this? Anyone robbed of their wallet would go straight to the flops! Just a trading card nerd trying to get attention. He was robbed and walked 1,400k in 11 days and lived on 2,000 yen? He magically kept 2,000yen in his shoe? It's all BS!
Moderator: No, it is not BS.
nath
They said the same about the guy that stole a bike and went cross-country.
I can clear 7km(4miles) an hour easily at age 45 as I had previous training( hiking & military),
It is doable if he didn't carry a heavy backpack.
oikawa
He can't have been walking the whole time.
Airion
At 7km per hour he would have to walk at that pace for an average of 18 hours a day. He wouldn't have anything else to do other than walk and sleep a little, but it would be quite the physical feat for someone who had no plans to do so, and do it with only 2000 yen for provisions.
It's more likely there's more to the story, such as some hitchhiking mixed in.
davestrousers
For 24 hours a day for 11 days? That's close to the kind of pace we're talking about!
nath
Airion.
Sure if he kept to the major roads.
Still a show of strength and determination and hence kudos. I did my military survival training.
Airion
Imagine the blisters he'd get and how difficult it would be to keep up the pace day after day. This trading card game collector probably didn't do your survival training.
Possible, yes. Plausible, I think no.
nath
Davetrousers.
Sure read the various survivor stories for the last centuries and you might get an Eye-opener to humans ability in extreme situations.
davestrousers
1400 kilometers is the distance you get on google maps for driving directions. So we're also supposed to believe that he knew this route (he handed over his phone to the wallet inspector remember), could actually walk along all these roads, expressways and bridges, made no mistakes, and kept this pace?
nath
Again driving is not walking direction, plenty of old trading routes that are shorter, and he wouldn't get blisters after 3 days.
The old routes are barely patrolled but well known.
Time to think differently, more ancient.
ReformedBasher
Amazing feet!
CrazyJoe
He should have gone to the cops and explained his situation and called the mother. The mother could have made a wire transfer to Fukuoka train station and the station would have issued him a ticket back home.
oikawa
Average walking speed is, on flat ground, unhindered, in clement weather, 2-3 mph (4-5 kmph) and Japan is certainly not flat in a lot areas, quite apart from the fact that this would still too slow and would require him to be awake continuously for 264 hours which in itself would be a record for not sleeping!
From a fitness trainer,
So, no. He did not "walk" from Kyushu to Sendai.
betterdays
Assuming he wasn't sleeping at all it means he walked 5.3km/h everyday!!
danalawton1@yahoo.com
That is unbelievably sad and a reflection on society and culture overall in Japan. All the time we read stories of people that die of starvation in their houses and apartments in Japan... lonely people that felt to ashamed to ask for some basic help. His mentality that he did not want to bother anyone actually resulted in quite a bit of emotional anguish for his mother.... what about her.
gaihonjin
Yeah, I'm calling b.s. There is no possible way this guy walked across nearly the entire length and breadth of Honshu with almost no food in such a short amount of time.
Airion
Considering there's a good chance he made the story up, I wouldn't use this to analyze Japanese society and culture.
nath
Previous posts those are for untrained people or those without a goal.
I have seen a mother lift a 1.8 ton car to help us get her daughter out and much more, don't underestimate what a human pushed to the age can do.
Humans can do great feasts.
sincerely999
I am sure that he was very shocked by mugging, and maybe he felt his own responsibility seriously for coming back home safely. At that time the most safety way for him was "walking". I think he just wanted to punish himself.
nath
Age/edge correction.
Myself had 250kg bike semi-break my angle, still got it up right and rode it home for 18km.
Meguroman
Smells fishy on many points. How many people in Sendai hide cash in their shoes when they travel domestically? Does he have a job (must not care, if he does)? Why wouldn`t he take a local train and have his mommy meet him at the station? So he was "declared missing" and his picture was distributed but no police ever enquired during his ill-equipped 11 day walk in the heat of summer about his condition as he traipsed along the backroads from Kyushu? It all possibly makes sense when you realise he is a 25 yr old attending a trading game card competition that far away. Nerd holiday gone wrong.
Cortes Elijah
Obviously he is not telling the truth or he is completly stupid.
nath
Watched bikers push their rides home for miles, different breeds to many and covers all.
How many walked home after 9/11 or 3/11 rather than give in and sit with their hands in their laps?
This separates people.
sastroboy
Pity man.. if in average the speed for quick walking can reach 6km/h, then he must walked 21hour per day to complete his mission going home. Sleepless, restless, eatless.. or maybe the press just blow the news off, which he might take some kms by bus using his last 2000jpy and did the walk on remaining kms.
nath
We don't know the condition he was in my guess wasn't all to great.
Again way too many assumptions here
ViennaSausage2
Has to be some mental issues going on here.... Nonetheless, good to see he is back home safely with his family
nath
OK, downvoters, try to push start a 240kg CB750C uphill on your own, battery dead and there is an immobiliser/alarm.
Would love to see it. I did and mad the meeting.
nath
Simple math contradicts traders from history. ;)
As they as based on modern stats and not historical facts. Our ancestors but us to shame.
overchan
Maybe he got the train with the money left. No way he walked all that.
habidaccus
Yeah, he may have worried his parents a bit. But what an awesome trek. Worth it. Who does this sort of thing this day and age? I don't think there's anything stupid about this. On the contrary, saying you walked 1400 km...how many other people have had such an experience. And I don't mean that he should use this for bragging rights, rather he should be proud of taking what was probably an eye-opening journey. It's an experience that all the haters here wish they could do themselves. "when you judge others, you don't define them, you define yourself".
Viclovesdrama
I wonder if this is a new urban myth because I had heard a similar story from a friend mid-August. Her friend apparently walked home 3-days after losing his wallet and not being able to use his bankbook. He also survived on a few 1000 Yen.
all4faj
Can you even walk from Kyushu to Honshu? I mean is there a foot bridge?
nath
Tried it, little Is impossible to a man with determinanitation, was told that after 5 days sans food.
This is what the Marines, SAS, etc train for.
Ah_so
I think most of us are agreed that walking 127 km/d with only 2000 yen to provide calories is pretty unlikely.
I suspect he may have "borrowed" a few bicycles along the way. With a bicycle the near impossible suddenly becomes quite easy.
LSpiro
This is nonsense and he deserves only suspicion, not praise.
Exhibit A: At average walking speed it would have taken more than 11 days if he never stopped to rest or sleep. In order to account for the sleep he needed he would have had to have been running for most of every day. In the middle of a record hot summer. With no vending machines for multiples days in a row in some cases. And no food at all, because water is more important.
Exhibit B: He kept 2,000円 in his shoe. He expected that whatever the true reason for his travel could go wrong, and it was not a card game.
Exhibit C: Traveling 1,400 kilometers for a card game.
Exhibit D: His only excuse is that he didn’t want to make a fuss. But letting his mother worry to death, causing so much stress that literally years were taken off her life, is okay? That’s not a “fuss”?
Sorry but Exhibit B is the killer. Who has ever heard of anyone ever keeping extra money in his or her shoe without expecting that it would be needed? The fact that the money was there in the first place is almost as good as hard evidence that he was up to no good in the first place. That is the real reason he didn’t want to make a fuss at the expense of so much stress for his mother.
L. Spiro
Open Minded
As everyone is speculating let's play for fun too.
In my opinion he did not go to Kyushu and spent good time with friend - or whomever - next door to his house.
Hiyodori
More information from a Japanese newspaper article at: http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/topics/news/20130906-OHT1T00198.htm
The claimed distance is 1300 km, of which he walked "most" (ほとんど) of it over 11 days.
His bag was found on the street in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka on 8/26, and contained underwear, his return air ticket, etc.
He was able to get some hand-outs at places like Michi-no-Eki (local farmers markets).
There was contact between Miyagi police and Fukuoka police regarding his disappearance, and the bag that was found in Fukuoka. Police are investigating.
spahnmatthew
I admire this man's personal responsibility and grit in the face of adversity.
That being said, he should have at least called his mother to tell her his plans for returning home without her help. In addition, if he filed a police report, maybe there would have been a chance to catch the bandit.
A friend of mine likes to carry a "throwaway wallet" filled with small bills and some canceled credit cards in the event of a mugging. At least this man was streetwise enough to stash some cash in his shoe.
lucabrasi
The calories are important. An average man needs about 2,300 a day just to live. Add the number of miles walked, with only ¥2000 for food... he must have lost about 12 kilos in eleven days. His mother wouldn't recognise him. Great diet, though. It'll be on all the wide shows tomorrow.
Cos
Is this a crime now ? At 26, he's a big boy. Why the fuss ? I do like him. I don't call for rescue just because I missed the school bus. My family don't worry. They are realistic people that understand that traveling can be... imprecise. All of us taken together, we've missed flights and trains, something like 100 times over the years, and it's not always possible to call or give news. As my father puts it : "When you can't call... that happens. If you were dead, in a coma or abducted, probably someone else would call us.".
I kind of agree. OK, the distance is a bit long for only 11 days but that's nothing compared to the story of the 60 yr old guy that was 4 months lost in the Andes. He didn't say he walked "all the way" but "most of it". He was given a few lifts in cars probably. I think the average person can walk and run 40 km a day on consecutive days. Most people never had to, never tried. If it's only 1 or 2 days, 60 km a day is doable. I've done that a number of times, either long hikes with backpacks or commuting to another town during a lasting train strike, and I'm averagely fit. So a trained young man can do his 100 km.
What kind of spoiled brat has never heard of it ? I'm a very optimistic girl. but I always keep a few banknotes or 500 yen coins -depending on distance. They are hidden in clothes. It's whenever I go more than 20 km away from home. I started at the age of 11 and the true reason is I "lost" my wallet just before I started. Then a number of times over the years I have needed the cash. Some day the super high tech paying card can let you down. I don't do the shoe, but why not ? The Nikes already have a pocket under the "tongue". I've carved pockets inside belts, double bottoms of bags, inner fabric of coats and I've added waterproof pockets inside swim wear.
oikawa
Cos
A trained young man can do 100kms over consecutive days and then that's it, or are you saying he could have done 100kms over 2 days and kept that rate up? That would still only make 600kms in 11 days, with another 800kms to go, which is precisely why most people are saying this is horse manure as that's more than "a few lifts in cars" compared to what the article states, which is specifically "man walks 1400 kms in 11 days".
LiveInTokyo
Seems really strange doesn't it. A lot of people call Japan a safe country, but if that was the case why would he hide money in his show. I wonder if this story will work out like that one about the woman who didn't want to go to work so she tied herself up to make it look like someone broke into her apartment and did it.
Ali Khan
if you ask a Japanese for two options: do you like to say hello to a stranger or to climb mount Everest, he would choose the second option. communication with a stranger is a difficult thing for a Japanese, shy is cute is taking a big toll on this nation. This boy is the prime example of the same misery. a simple "hello please help me" can solve many problems even some times may save a life.
Serrano
I don't believe the guy walked 1,400 kilometers in 11 days.
ChibaChick
You dont want to worry anyone, so you disappear off the face of the earth for 11 days causing everyone no end of worry.
Not the brightest pixie in the forest, this one.
ThonTaddeo
It wouldn't surprise me if the story is mostly true, but that the man is hiding some things that would hurt him. Maybe he got on a train for some of the journey and didn't pay the fare; maybe he "borrowed" an abandoned bicycle. Sneaking onto the JR in particular would shorten the journey by quite a lot.
badman
My Magic 8-ball said it was definitely a lie, therefore it must be so.
CrisGerSan
I am very much impressed by this wonderful young man, i am glad he is home safe and he has set a fine example of fortitude for others in a time when people are prone to ask for help before doing what they can. I am sure if he reached the point where he could not go on he would have asked for assistantce but I am proud of him for making it home on his own.
He is an adult, and made his own choice. I say we should honour that. I am appalled frankly at the negative, suspicious and mean attitude of many here, and applaud the moderators for sticking by the man and his story. Good for Japan Today, bad for those who have lost all faith in humanity, I suggest they may doubt themselves. There is no call to be so unkind. He is a fin young man and Japan should be proud that it still has such strength in people that many other nations never had.
JTDanMan
If true, strange story.
ChibaChick
1400kms in 11 days. Thats around 127kms a day. At an average walking speed of 4mph he would have been walking for on average over 21 hours a day. For 11 days. In this heat. Sorry. Not buying it.
JTDanMan
1400 km ÷ 11 days = 127.27 km/day
127.27 km ÷ 8hrs = 15.9 km/day
15.9 km x 0.621371 miles/km = 9.88 miles.
Easy.
sfjp330
Why don't somebody like NHK or other media offer him $100,000 for a documentary, and let him walk 1400km in 11 days to where he started and let him prove himself. If he does, he can collect. He probably forget to tell you that although he walked between hitched hiked cars, most likely he hitched hiked most of the way. He is telling everybody he walked almost 130km (80 miles) per day for 11 successive days in humid heat at only $2,000 yen in his pocket.
Marilita Fabie-Fujisawa
Weird story? In this day and age? He reminds me of Onoda, the Japanese soldier who didn't want to surrender in the mountains in the Philippines after the war broke unless given orders by his superior.
oikawa
JTDanman, a fit man might run a marathon at 6 or 7mph, and you're expecting him to massively exceed that at 9.88mph, do it twice a day, and keep it up for 11 days. You're either trolling or you haven't realised what your figures mean.
Serrano
@JTDanMan - Your math is a little flawed. You were OK up to 127.27km /day, but that's 79 miles/day, not 9.88 miles. Can you walk 79 miles every day for 11 days?
Alphaape
This guy didn't think to just go to a hotel and flop instead of wandering the streets looking for an internet cafe? Everything about him just reeks of "freeeter" or more likely a hikikomori. What I find amazing that this guy could get mugged on one street in Kitakyushu, yet the rest of Japan he had no problems walking in, probably at night too.
This guy would be the perfect safety official at TEPCO. He doesn't want to make any trouble, so everything that comes across his desk would be in standards.
LSpiro
Cos
I don’t think the fact that I have never had a knife held to my throat or a gun to my head qualifies me as a spoiled brat, and if it does, what a sad state of human-kind.
Cos
Then the facts are that you have never been robbed and just lost your own wallet in order to decide to start harboring money in false locations. So people who have not been robbed and can keep track of their own wallets are spoiled brats, I guess.
Sorry but it sounds as though losing your own wallet as a form of making you put 2,000円 in your shoe is a fairly rare occurrence, especially when you live in one of the top-8 safest countries (http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/travel/8+of+the+worlds+safest+countries+to+visit-273960.html) and the 6th least-dangerous (by rate of homicide) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate) country.
And at the end of the day, let’s face it. Putting money in your shoes is not a normal thing to do. It happens only under 4 conditions:
1: You’ve lost your wallet, as you have done. 2: You’ve been robbed in the past and been forced to think of such a contingency plan in fear of a re-occurrence. 3: You are crazy enough to believe you will be robbed, which can only happen if you assume it will become true thanks to your own dealings with shady people, and at the same time including #4- 4: You’ve not been robbed, but by some miracle you are smarter than everyone else so you just so happened to figure out what everyone else who has been robbed has been missing, but not only that, you do it every single day of your life, keeping the world’s dirtiest, smelliest, most rotten horrible 2,000円 in your shoe all day every day through sweat and cold and record temperatures.We know that #1 and #2 do not apply in this case.
4 is stupid. The only way it is not stupid is if you are intelligent enough to guess on which day (or just week) you will be robbed, but anyone with that level of intelligence would have gone to the nearest Koban or otherwise somehow contacted authorities.Not walked 11 days and 1,300-1,400 kilometers while the culprit used the same time to completely get away.
We’ve clearly established that this person is a total idiot and a nutcase (for not calling his mother to let her relax) on top of it. He is in no possible way capable of pulling off #4 by itself, except by literally keeping the world’s most disgusting money in his shoe at all times, which in itself could almost be believable if he only did that.
But no. It’s just as you said. You can hide money in many places, but the shoe is the last place you would think to use due to to exactly that. You yourself said you have not thought about using your shoe, and for obvious reasons. You’ve just proved his guilt.
If he was like you, he would alter his clothing in advance to hide the money without soaking it in disgusting sweat. He is not like you. He has never been robbed. But he knew he was getting into shady business. He was smart enough at least to realize he would be robbed if things did not go down well, but since he didn’t have as much time to think and prepare, his shoe was the only idea he had. Besides, it would just be 1 day, so not so bad right?
Anything you keep in your shoes is no longer usable. You would never select your shoe if you think you will actually need to access that money. You’d hardly even want to touch it yourself after only 3 days, let alone hand it off to someone else. In this heat it would be so soaking wet you would’t even be able to put it into a vending machine and get clean change.
Keeping money is his shoe was obviously not a long-term contingency plan—he obviously only did it for this event.
The guilt is clear. I hope he is thoroughly investigated, they find out about whatever he was doing wrong, and they prosecute him.
Dejan Tolj
@Francis Urquhart you don't understand the cultural difference, so don't call him stupid man.
Dejan Tolj
According to google maps this is accurate: 1,304 km in 270 h or 11.25 days walking.
mobyindisguise
Am I the only person here that has done the maths. This guy apparently walked 1400km in 11 days thats 80 miles a day for 11 days. Assuming he is a super athlete then the SAS or Navy Seals should be talking to him. 3 marathons a day for 11 days in a row? Am I such a twat to therefore assume that he is lying? Has everyone reading this "news report" accepted the "facts" on face value without even thinking about the logistics of such a feat! Dont forget that this guy was attending a card conference, therefore pretty much a bit of a geek (I know what I am talking about, I consider myself to be a bit of a geek and I used to trek maybe 20-25km a day in my youth, but 125km in a day? I dont think so!) The guy doesnt deserve the praise and adulation that he is getting, the question should be what was he really up to in those 11 days? Whether his mum or the police need to be investigating that is another matter.
gokai_wo_maneku
He is a true Otaku, with Otaku super powers.
StressLevel
Wait, he walked on FOOT, like the news says?he spent 11 days? if u do the math, thats 127 kilometers per day, its tecnically possible, but we are humans and not robots, so with low money to buy food, he would have not energy to run, and with few hours of sleep to prolongue the walk, he would have lost his way of exaution, so my guess is that he walked 2/3, and the rest he used some kind of transport, (theres many ways to free ride on things), he probaly lost his money or wasnt really robbed, thats why he didnt go to police...
I'm A Monkey
He is lying. Thanks for the mathematics, everyone.
bass4funk
What's strange to me is, the mother. She didn't notice something after a day or two? Why didn't she call the police and have him reported missing and they do a search for this kid, I would have done it. She was stunned? This story has a lot of holes in in it. Some things are not adding up.
oikawa
mobyindisguise
No, but you're the only person that hasn't bothered to read the comments.
davestrousers
And yet clearly unrealistic. I wonder if its a coincidence, that the man's claim of 11 days is equal to the figure that navigation apps such as google maps give based on a consistent average walking speed.
Scnadal.Lova
i have to say this guy has guts.
Sauron
Never mind the distance traveled on foot. How about surviving 11 days on 2000 yen?!
MapleG
The whole walking/distance thing may or may not be a red herring.
The guy does not how to use a phone and call his mother?. If my 20 something son went away for a weekend event or similar and was not back on the return flight as expected (and had not called) we would be freaking out at home. 11 days of worry for his poor mother? Wow.
Sorry, the guy sounds like total flake.
Cos
Many geeks run, even indoor. You know we have our computers on a treadmill.
That's what he said he did, that he "walked most of the way during 11 days".
Maybe he was robbed in a bar or a love hotel. But it's likely he simply didn't bother. If they steal my credit card or my official ID, I go to the police immediately, as I need the document to block and then renew them. Otherwise, that's useless. You can report it later and you do it only for stats as they don't investigate about stolen wallets, stolen charinkos, stolen doormats, etc.
Because he's no longer a kid. You can't report people as missing so easily. From what I get, that was not the first time he went somewhere without giving his precise schedule to parents. Maybe 11 days is a bit exaggerated. He probably expected to find lifts to arrive much earlier. As days passed, he should have sent a mail to some relative. Most people around would have done it for him with their cellphone.
JoiceRojo
According to google maps it is doable: the shortest route from sendai to kitakyushu are 1262 km by foot taking 261 hrs. maybe the guy was a true nerd and saw that in the cibercafe and decided that it was doable and decided to go on foot, so he didn't bother to call his mom or the police because he could have seen this as an adventure...
Rover
Or perhaps this young man is so indicative of his heritage that to inconvenience others is an even greater slight. It's funny because my Reverend and friend is Japanese-American and we recently had this conversation. All I'm thinking is - doesn't culture come into play here? I mean, I'm quite well traveled, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, and if I learned anything being an American on leave from the desert hitting 8 countries in 15 days it's that, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Ultimately, to understand the story of an individual member of a society one needs to understand that society.
Kyle Alpert
This is amazing. And the naysaying commentators are just further proof of how far beyond the Japanese are. Single minded determination, to protect the pride & peace of mind of those you care about... 'Head chala, nothing can stop me now'
This story is not about belief in others, its about understanding of your self. This is 'YAMATODAMASHII'. Thank you, Nippon.
TokyoGas
I don't know... That is about 127km per day. I sometimes cycle for exercise and 127km is a pretty good piece of ground to cover, which I rarely do.
Maybe the guy only slept 2 or 3 hours a night.
Gaijin Desi
poor guy must be frightened with something
Benny_the_Ball
I have walked 100K for charity and even being fit and with good shoes it takes 20 odd hours and one will get lots of blisters and pain in the soles of the feet - even with shoes designed for the hike! Need lots of food, changes of clothes, that is just one day! Also, how did he know the route? I imagine he did not walk along the 高速 nor navigate using the stars. How many Japanese people, or anyone for that matter, keep 2000 yen inside their shoe?
602miko
11 days wow trying to beat or wanted a record in guines books lol
oyatoi
This guy is the perfect template for the new age of austerity lite, an inspiration and an exemplar to all of us seeking to get in touch with our inner Basho. It matters not that he isn`t a true otaku, evidenced by his woeful ignorance of el cheapo travel using seishun 18 kippu, nor the fact that he probably spent a small fortune taking the Shinkansen from Sendai all the way down to Fukuoka. The mere fact that he said he did it (walk all the way home) puts him beyond reproach and cross-examination. In the lead-up to 2020, may we look forward to other wondrous instances of Japanese spirit triumphant in the face of overwhelming odds.