So I picked me up a Sweedish boy...

Eimi · March 23, 2010, 06:36:32 PM

So an interesting thing happened to me yesterday...

I was just sitting at my desk working when a lady from the international affairs office walked over to my coworker and I and said "There's someone who just showed up at city hall who speaks no Japanese, only English, and they're looking for a homestay... could you talk to them?"

In walks this rain-soaked 22 year old Sweedish man. He had been trying to find the person who he had contacted through Couch Surfing to see if he could stay with her. I knew who he was talking about, but she was out of town, so he said he'd just go sleep in the train station that night. Well, of course I couldn't let him do that, so I told him he could stay with me.

It turns out this guy saved up his money for a year, took a year off school (he's a computer programing student) and his goal is to WALK from the southernmost tip of Japan to the northernmost. He's already been walking for three weeks, but it will take him six month to get to his final destination!

Given the chance do you think you'd ever do something like that?

Noola · March 23, 2010, 07:47:15 PM

Take a random stranger home or walk across a country?

Eimi · March 23, 2010, 07:54:04 PM

Well, either, I suppose ;)

Noola · March 23, 2010, 08:40:20 PM

Well, I've had people I've never met in person over to my house to spend the weekend before, so, that's kind of similar. Maybe. LOL

But I'd love to walk across a country! Assuming I could afford to not work for however long that took me. LOL It sounds like an awesome adventure.

Eimi · March 23, 2010, 09:05:52 PM

Yeah, my family is always picking up stray people. Usually we know them or someone else knows them, but it's not that strange for me to invite someone home randomly.

There's an 88 temple course around Shikoku island that a friend of mine took once. It took her 60 days. I actually asked to be placed in Shikoku when I first came to Japan because I wanted to try that! Maybe someday I'll do it...

But one thing I really want to do is take the Orient Express or the Trans-Siberian railroad across Russia. I think it takes a week...

Paula · March 23, 2010, 11:26:18 PM

Too lazy to do something like that (Walk across country).

emma · March 24, 2010, 12:26:10 AM

I would love to get as far as I can across europe without flying. I started working it out the other night. I can get a ferry to that will take me to France or Holland or Belgium, and if I can figure the trains out right, I could get as far as Copenhagen, or Vienna, possibly into Poland.

Amanda N · April 01, 2010, 01:56:41 PM

Actually, it sounds like an interesting idea...

Noola · April 01, 2010, 01:57:40 PM

Quote from: "Amanda N"Actually, it sounds like an interesting idea...

Picking up a Sweedish boy or making a cross-country adventure? ;)

Amanda N · April 01, 2010, 02:24:06 PM

The cross country adventure. I already picked up a Swedish boy. ;-)

Chelle · April 06, 2010, 08:55:11 PM

ive got a swedish boy thats 25 but he happens to still be in sweden at the moment. *sigh*
Hes been to ireland, norway, finland, and i think thats about it actually. not a traveler.

Id LOVE to have met yours though Eimi. Wish I knew where he was from.
I used to live in Stockholm and Lulea. I have friends in Malmo, Umea, Helsingborg, Uppsala, and Stockholm.

and yes emma, you can get to vienna by train

actually farther since I made it to Linz. Past that, I don't know. I took the train from brussels to london. And trained from Brussels to amsterdam. And brussels to frankfurt to salzburg to linz (i think it was salzburg where we switched).

Eimi tell him-
"Hej! Hur ar laget? Jag heter Eimi och sprak lite svenska."
heh...