I was thinking about doing a month in Japan, either in March or April. While I generally prefer to not plan too much of my trip, I got the impression that when it comes to Japan, planning ahead is a good idea.
Part of my attraction to Japan is the car scene. The cars, the race tracks, and the drifting. I would like that to be a big part of my trip. While I’m in the country, I’d also like to see some nature, learn about the history, and get to know the culture.
The plan so far is to land in Tokyo, and leave from Fukuoka.
Looking around Reddit, I have a list of places I could go see that are car related:
\-Shikoku Automobile Museum
\-Toyota Automobile Museum
\-Daikoku PA
\-Akihabara
\-Toyota Megaweb
\-Toyota plant tour in Toyota city
\-Tsukuba Circuit
\-Suzuka Circuit
\-Mazda Museum in Hiroshima
\-Fuji International Speedway
\-Glion Museum/Showroom
I was hoping to plan a trip around those things, combined with hiking in the nature, or looking at some historic sites/temples. But, I’m not really sure where to start, and thought maybe I should stay in Tokyo for most of this trip, or maybe just the first half of it, with several of those places can be reached with a train, so I can do a half/full day trips.
I was also thinking about Mobility Resort Motegi and Ebisu circuit, but that would mean going up toward Utsunomiya.
A few people mentioned Fun2Drive, which sounds fun, although I do worry about driving on the other side of the road. Also considering maybe having a drift lesson.
You can say I’m looking for advice on how to plan, how many days I should spend in Tokyo, and weather or not I should move between different neighborhoods in that city (I plan on staying in hostels/capsule hotels for the most part). I figure if I have a rough idea of what cities I’m going to be in and in what part of the trip, I can then look for stuff to do in that area that aren’t car related. Also it would be cool to watch a sumo fight, if any take place during that time.
5 comments
I don’t have any experience with anything you’re looking to do but since you’re looking for a car-centric trip have you considered waiting until the fall so you could go during the Japanese GP?
Toyota Megaweb is gone – due to lease renewal/redevelopment. https://soranews24.com/2021/12/30/goodbye-megaweb-downtown-tokyos-coolest-car-museum-is-closing-for-good%E3%80%90photos%E3%80%91/
Thank you for posting this, I’m looking into the exact same thing and it seems like at least from what I’ve found there isn’t a lot of information available in English on car-related things that you can do there.
Nagoya seems to be an absolute must for this trip.
I only know the locations of Fuji speedway and Suzuka for obvious reasons, but after checking some of the other spots and realising Toyota city is literally next door to Nagoya you have to go
It’s Japan’s 4th biggest city, and very often overlooked since its not really an attraction heavy hotspot but thats slowly starting to change
I’ve done two trips pre-covid that were very car centric. By far my favorite activity is Daikoku when it’s not being shut down by the police.
I’ve rented a car with Fun2Drive (NSX), Omoshiro rent a car (supra), toyota rent a car (gr86) and some other random economy cars. Its totally worth it to drive around, do some amazing mountain roads..especially if you are a fan of Initial D you can go where some of the tracks are based.
I’d like to add the Nissan history museum to your list and subtract Toyota Mega Web as that has permanently shut down.
Check out the events at the race tracks, I got to attend the big GTR festival at fuji speedway and saw some drifting at Ebisu.
Don’t forget to get an international license if you decide to rent a car.
The Toyota museum is totally worth the detour. I didn’t get to check out the Mazda museum so I cannot comment on that. You can tour the lobby of Nissan HQ and Nismo building if you are in to that.
Akihabara is also worth it but if tou are going for video games it will be expensive. I bought my games elsewhere but enjoyed the shops and the arcades.