Hello there!
We are planning to rent a car for visiting the Nakasendo Trail (Magome -> Tsumago), Takayama, Shirakawa-go and dropping the car off in either Kanazawa or Toyama.
We’ll start the trip early in Nagoya. Where does it make sense to rent our car? We’re thinking either Nagoya or Nakatsugawa, but we’re not sure..
We would have loved to just use busses and trains, but the trip from Nakasendo trail to Takayama takes too long to fit into our schedule – renting a car fits in better. :p
Anyone done anything like this or have general tips for us?
4 comments
So, from my experience:
1) Make sure you have an international driver’s licence before you go, and get it early as sometimes it can takes ages to get to you.
2) Make sure that the rental either includes/has a way to bill you for highway tolls- I know there are cash only lanes but if you don’t know how to read Japanese it’s super easy to get stuck in the tag only lanes and fuck me is that stressful
3) Not gonna lie- I found the whole process super difficult as I didn’t speak Japanese- luckily I was with my Japanese girlfriend who handled everything because 100% I wouldn’t have been able to negotiate everything. Perhaps some research on particular rental companies (and maybe even an email) to check that they will be able to communicate with you in English would be best.
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I don’t know enough about the specific area or about your time frames to recommend where to rent the car, sorry- but hopefully the above helps.
The bigger the branch the more likely they are used to tourists which will make the whole thing much easier. Somebody might speak a bit of English etc.
Get an etc card, there are some highway exits in Aichi that are etc only. Also you’ll get the weekend and night discounts. Cash you always pay full price.
Since you have to pay the one-way fee anyways I would probably rent in Nagoya. It’s kinda annoying to get to the trailhead with public transportation. Toyota has lots of branches, I’ve rented from the one next to the main station and they spoke a bit English too.
We did exactly this in spring this year. We picked up the car in Nakatsugawa and returned it in Kanazawa, stopping at Shirkawa-go and Takayama in addition to Magome/Tsumago. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip. Didn’t catch Toyama this time around. We went with Toyota rental cars for all our rentals. ETC card is a must!
I’ve rented with Orix (Ichinoseki, Hachinohe, and Koriyama 2x) and Budget (Kuwana and Koriyama)
My Japanese is crap, so it takes a little longer to pick up the car than it would in the US (I averaged around 20-30 minutes with no line) but it is 100% do-able even if you are not fluent in Japanese.
You might want to figure out if a CEP Pass will pay off.
[https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/page/?id=91](https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/page/?id=91)
I have not personally used a CEP but I have used a TEP. Spoiler alert, it did pay off both times. The first time I used a TEP (2019) the office seemed super confused and I had to show them the webpage with the info. The second time July (2023) I put in my rental car request that I wanted to get a TEP Pass along with my ETC Card rental.
Rent an ETC card regardless of whether you get CEP. You can see the person’s post on this subreddit complaining about not being able to easily find expressway entrances that took cash and weren’t ETC only. Don’t get into that position, rent an ETC card.
Make suer you know what your drop-off fees will be and expect them to be at least 10,000 yen. Renting a car in Japan is rarely about saving money and more about saving time and hassle.
Even if your tank says it is on Full, go to a gas station near the rental car return office and fill up the tank and keep the receipt. Japanese rental car companies are much more careful about this than US rental car companies. If I rent a car in the US and drive only 6 miles so the tank is still on Full, the car company will be fine with it. The same is not true for Japan. I speak from experience.
I tend to use the free English GPS system on most rental cars. You use the telephone number of the destination to find it. I have had problems with the systems (especially this past trip to Japan) but when they work, it’s great.
Speed limits in Japan are low. It’s actually sort of nice when you don’t know where you are going.
Make sure you know where you are parking your car. I tend to rent cars in places where parking is free.
Americans tend to park with the front of the car facing into the spot and the back of the car facing out. The Japanese are the opposite and they always want you to back into spots except at some rest stops on expressways. Hotels, shops, and attractions though prefer that you back in.
Good luck!