Hey Japantravel,
I am currently planning to travel to Okinawa in mid of February and intend to stay for 3 weeks. As I want to explore the island I want to rent a car. But unfortunately it is very hard to find any offers for cars or they are very expensive (1000+ USD min). Are there any special website or ways to find good car rentals in Okinawa (Naha)?
Also as German I need a translation of my driver’s license from the JAF in order to drive in Japan. But as I saw it currently takes up to two weeks for a translation. Luckily I saw on the JAF website that you can apply online for a translation but when I try to access that it asks for username / password which I cannot find anywhere. Any recommendations how I could get my license translated faster? (It used to be only 1-2 days)
Thanks for all responses
2 comments
There seems to be a shortage of available rental cars and staff. That probably causes the high prices. Otherwise I had good experiences with Toyota rent a car.
As for the translation, it seems like you can only access the online service when you are in Japan (https://english.jaf.or.jp/driving-in-japan/drive-in-japan/about-dltas). Maybe you can bypass it with a VPN?
In 2020 I just had to walk into a JAF branch and they did the translation within half an hour. Maybe calling and making an appointment helps this time around?
You can just go to an office in Japan for the translation in Japan. Mine took about half a day.