A couple from the land of the rising sun have dedicated their lives for the last seven years to hitchhiking around the globe.
Most recently, Asatoru and Akina Yamada have been travelling across Aotearoa since February with their 18-month-old toddler Waichi.
A social media post on Facebook on the couple’s travels amassed a huge amount of interest from New Zealanders who were happy to accommodate the couple on their travels.
“I’m 28 years old and my lovely wife Akina is 35, and our baby boy Waichi a year and half. I started travelling when I was 18 and I saved about $8,000 doing road construction and I saved that money and then I just took off travelling.”
The family has travelled to 25 places around Aotearoa mainly in the North Island and a few places in Te Waipounamu (the South Island).
Yamada says he first hitchhiked from Japan to Iran through Southeast Asia, and the Middle East via Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
First encounter with indigenous people
“It took me a year to hitchhike from Japan to Iran and then a man gave me a bicycle in Iran. I started bicycling from Iran up to Georgia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway in the winter time.
It was below 20, 30 degrees. I met the indigenous Sami people there.”
He says that was his first encounter with indigenous people in the world.
“They were really living happily with nature. I got inspiration from the Sami people, that I should go travel the world to see, to look for people who are living closely with the earth, which is more an Indigenous way of thinking.”
“You just work, go home, sleep”
Yamada says a much-needed lifestyle change was what they were seeking.
“For us, yeah, we both didn’t like the normal ordinary Japanese lifestyle.
You just work and go home, sleep. We saw so many adults just depressed in Japan and we wanted to live. The curiosity, we just wanted to see other different cultures, and how other people live and what they eat.”
On the couple’s intagram page @tribalhobos their biography reads - “Our goal is to inspire people to travel, learn about different cultures, promote unity to humanity and to prove that there’s always kind people around the world. We have hope.”
Five-day stay with Hokianga nurse
Margaret Hall (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua) from Hokianga was one of the many kind people in Aotearoa who helped host the young couple on their travels.
“I actually saw a post that somebody else had posted on Facebook to say, similar to what I had said, if you see this couple travelling .I’m a nurse up here at the Hokianga, a community health nurse. I was on the ferry coming back and I spotted them on the ferry.”
Hall says one of her other colleagues had picked them up and they were returning from Mitimiti.
“I came from Mitimiti and he saw them, picked them up and got them on the ferry. I spotted them and they said they were just going to be hanging around Rāwene, so I offered them a room at my home.”
She says they stayed five nights with her and her whānau but what caught her attention was that Akina looked quite exhausted.
“And she was because she’s still breastfeeding so, I just encouraged them to stay as long as they needed to replenish themselves, to stock up on some good kai. And so, yeah, that’s what I did for them, made them kai and left them to fend for themselves during the day because I had to go to work.”
‘Nicest country to visit’
Hall says that Asatoru had declared he wanted to be the youngest person to hitch hike to the North Pole. He made it, did all of that, lived with the Eskimos. They taught him how to survive and then he started cycling around the world.”
She says what was nice to hear was them saying that the world is a kind place.
“I heard that and I thought, ‘oh, wow, that’s a nice thing to say.’
I wouldn’t have thought it was, but what do I know? I haven’t been anywhere.”
Hall says they said New Zealand was the nicest country they have visited and Mongolia was the second-nicest country.
“While they were with me, I’ve been doing a course with Rereata Makiha and learning about how to harvest seeds and when to plant and learning about the stars and our natural environment.
I included them in that learning with me and they loved it. They loved it because it’s pretty much what they’re all about.”
She says even though she offered the couple a room in her house, they still put their little tent up and slept in their tent.
The couple has also done the same at their final host family’s place in Manurewa by setting up camp in their backyard.
Yamada says his decision to travel to Aotearoa was a personal decision due to good memories made spending two years living here in East Auckland and also a special place for his parents too.
“My parents met in Queenstown when they were young. My dad was bicycling around New Zealand and my mum was working in a hostel but they’re both Japanese and that’s how they met.”
The family’s final day at the Slade family home will be Monday, April 8, and then they continue their travels with Papua New Guinea next.
Yamada says they felt the best way to describe the people of Aotearoa who have been warm, and welcoming towards them during their travels is, “Mi casa es tu casa. My house is your house.”
