The film shows the journey of a young man with a guitar who goes hostelling in Japan. He meets lots of new people and aims to be as sociable as possible, as well as trying new things. Along with activities at the hostel, he also takes part in trips to the beach with other hostellers, fishing and eating dinner with a family who live nearby, and working on a local farm. Title card - ‘Japanese Youth Hostels Inc. Present’ Title card - ‘The Friendly Journey’ A train goes past. Inside the train,...

The film shows the journey of a young man with a guitar who goes hostelling in Japan. He meets lots of new people and aims to be as sociable as possible, as well as trying new things. Along with activities at the hostel, he also takes part in trips to the beach with other hostellers, fishing and eating dinner with a family who live nearby, and working on a local farm. Title card - ‘Japanese Youth Hostels Inc. Present’ Title card - ‘The Friendly Journey’ A train goes past. Inside the train, a backpack with a ‘JYA’ logo on it is shown in the luggage rack. A group of young people are sitting inside the train carriage; one of them looks through a booklet, whilst another looks out of the window. A young man walks into a restaurant where he is enthusiastically greeted by other people. He chats to another man, making plans to go hostelling. Title card - ‘[In Japanese - loose translation] Travelling is my friend’ (Likely relates to the English title - ‘The Friendly Journey’) The man is shown walking in the sunshine, carrying a guitar and also a backpack. He walks up to a Japanese youth hostel. Inside the youth hostel, the man hands his membership card over to the warden at the reception desk. He also greets the girls who are also waiting at the reception desk. In a communal area of the hostel, groups of people are shown socialising, reading, or playing table tennis. The man enters the communal area and walks up to the dorms. In the dorm, he greets other youth hostel guests and sits down on a bunk. Hostellers are shown eating food in the communal dining area. The man chats to other people at the tables, particularly those from other countries. In the common room, the warden hosts a talk to a crowd of people about the geography of the area, showing slides of photographs on a projector. Another young man plays an acoustic guitar whilst the crowd of hostellers are sitting around the communal room in a circle, clapping and singing a song together. The main character of the film joins the man with the guitar, with his own guitar, and sings another song to the crowd of hostellers, who are all clapping and singing along. The hostellers all retire to their bunks, saying goodnight to each other in the corridor. An exterior view of the hostel shows the lights in each room being turned off one by one. The man and several other hostellers are shown hiking up a mountain path. At the top of the mountain, the hostellers all wave and call out in delight towards the bottom of the mountain. The man plays his guitar at the top of the mountain, whilst his fellow hostellers are sat on the grass singing along to his song. Some hostellers are shown walking and admiring some historical sites of interest. Some of them crouch down with a camera to take a photograph. A large group of people have their photograph taken together. Crowds of people are shown in the street together near a large storage of bicycles. A group of hostellers cycle together down the road. A group of people put up a hand-made Hello Kitty banner. Large groups of people are gathered on some nearby grass. Large groups of people are shown enjoying time in the sea, on paddle boards. The young man is laying on the beach by himself, sunbathing. A view of the sky shows the clouds. The man is shown walking carrying his guitar through a countryside allotment and wooded area. He stops to help an elderly lady push a cart full of vegetables up a hill. At the top of the hill she thanks him and gives him some sweetcorn; they part ways. The man carries on back down the track. The man runs along the shoreline in a celebratory mood. The man enters a youth hostel and walks from the reception area to the communal area. A girl catches his attention and he goes over to talk to her and her friends. More hostellers join their group as they chat and play card games. The man is shown sitting on a lower bunk bed, writing a letter [in Japanese]. The man is seen silhouetted against the sunset outside, playing his guitar. The man is shown walking down the road with his guitar, and he notices the woman who gave him the sweetcorn from the previous day. He runs over to greet her. The man is then shown on a boat on the open water, fishing with the woman’s family. They lower nets into the water, and pull them back onto the boat, revealing many fish that had been caught. The man sits at a small dinner table with the woman and her family, enjoying lunch with them; they all chat over food. The man is shown looking out of a train window. The train arrives at a station, where the platform staff are waiting. The man steps off the train and onto the platform. The man is shown reuniting with friends, shaking hands with them and excitedly greeting them. Someone is shown cutting some wood. The men from the group of friends are shown erecting a tent outside a youth hostel. A woman (the warden’s wife) is shown feeding the sheep outside the youth hostel. The sheep run around her as they take the food from her. Two children approach her and take over feeding the sheep. The warden’s wife enters the kitchen inside the youth hostel where the other girls are preparing food. She shows them how to do some of the cooking. Rice can be seen being washed in a basin, vegetables are chopped and grated, a gutted fish is washed under the tap, and food is then laid out in preparation for serving. A farmer rushes into the youth hostel and speaks to the warden at the reception desk. The warden gets his coat and follows the farmer out of the hostel, along with the guitarist. A cow is shown laid on the floor of a barn, clearly in pain. The farmer and the warden are sitting down at the back end of the cow. The guitarist watches on from the doorway, as the cow gives birth to a calf on the barn floor. The cow licks the newborn calf. The guitarist, the warden, the farmer, and other farm staff watch the cow and calf as the calf tries to walk. The man is now shown working on the farm, pushing a cart and feeding the cows. He then washes the cows with a sponge and water. He jumps back as one of the cows scares him. The farmer shows the man how to milk a cow in the barn, including using the pumping equipment. The man and the farmer are shown herding cows in a field, by clapping at them and walking them in a particular direction. A tractor and a hay truck are shown on one of the fields. The man is shown gathering hay with a pitchfork from the field and passing it to the farmer on the truck. Another farm staff member does the same. The man is shown laid down on top of the hay on top of the truck, as the truck drives down a road. The man and the farmer are shown leading a cow each through a field whilst chatting to each other. In the hostel, someone chimes a triangle (instrument) then shouts out to the other hostellers. All of the hostellers in the hostel are gathered in a circle in a communal area whilst the warden is standing up, giving a speech. The warden sits down and and the man with his guitar stands up and plays a song. The rest of the hostellers begin to sing. The man is shown walking down the street with his backpack on and holding his guitar. Credits ‘English Version Produced by Sorel Films’