Jaunted

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Japanese Tom Hanks Moving On Up

Mexico City International Airport's most famous (and only?) resident Hiroshi Nohara has moved out after spending 117 days in Terminal 1. Absconding with a mysterious woman known only as Oyuki, the now-clean shaven tourist is shacked up in an apartment in the Distrito Federal according to the newspaper Reforma. Oyuki says she invited the traveler to her place so he could sleep in a real bed.

Nohara's actually left the airport once before--to tour Azteca Stadium--but this time, he says, he's not going back. His tourist visa is set to expire in March, though how (or if) he plans to leave Mexico then is still unclear.

Though Nohara seems to have found his place in an unusual way, vacation rentals were a big trend in 2008, with families trying to keep lodging costs down and single travelers looking for crash pads that were big enough for Parisian dinner parties. The titan of the short-term rental space is HomeAway.com (and its offshoots), but different countries have their own local sites, Frugal Traveler Matt Gross reports, like Pap.fr, Kamernet.nl, Vivastreet.it. And of course there's always Craigslist, which now has a version for just about everywhere. Including Mexico City.

Related Stories:
· Man Living at Mexico Airport Has New Home [AP, via Google]
· Lessons From the Frugal Grand Tour [NYT]
· Japanese Tom Hanks Can't Get Enough Of Mexico City [Jaunted]

[Photo: China Daily]