A 25-year-old man who has been reported missing by his family surprised his mom when he showed up at home, 11 days later after walking some 870 miles home, as reported by Rocket News 24.
The man, who was attending a playing card convention in the city of Kitakyushu, Japan, claimed that he missed his return flight to his hometown of Sendai. When he was looking for an Internet cafe, he was robbed of his phone and wallet.
Luckily, the man had hidden 2,000 yen (US$20) in his shoe. Now, you and I would use this money to call home, but not this man! He decided to buy bread and water and set off to walk home instead.
Eleven days and 870 miles later, the deeply tanned man arrived at his home to find his distraught mother, who said, "I was shocked and thought I was seeing a ghost when he arrived. I'm just thrilled that he is back and I'm very sorry to everyone who was worried about him."
When asked why he didn't call the police, the man replied, "I never wanted to make a fuss. I'm sorry to everyone I inconvenienced."
Now, naturally, a lot of people are skeptical (you can't cover 870 miles completely on foot in 11 days - not even the world's top ultra-marathon runners could do that - so there's plenty of speculation that there's a lot more to the story), but don't let that get in the way of the important thing about this story: the man reported that the trip wasn't a complete disaster. He was able to find a rare card to add to his collection, which the muggers didn't steal.
Walking 870 miles for that rare card? Totally worth it for this hardcore fan!
After that I would recommend the Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson (or Mr. Blowfish if you will).
(what the fuss?!)