Car Rental Experience

TLDR: despite initial challenges, renting a car in Japan significantly added to the sites we could visit and cut wasted time.

I just returned from Japan and wish to share my car rental experience. I was hesitant to rent a car in Japan because, as an American, I don’t have experience driving on the left side of narrow roads. However, I was able to acclimate fairly quickly. Renting cars added to our Japan travel experience by allowing my spouse and I to set our own time table, do more during a day, and enable us to go where travelers don’t usually go. Despite many thrills, I didn’t have any serious mishaps driving a rental, but I admit that I was lucky.

We rented cars twice: for a one day trip from Tokyo to the Lake Kawaguchi area, and for four days in the Aomori area. We rented from Toyota Rentals both times, and had positive experiences.

My first experience driving in Japan was the four kilometers from the rental office to my hotel. I chanted the mantra “stay on the left side” over and over, and arrived without problem. My biggest challenge wasn’t staying on the left side, but remembering that the turn-signal stock are on the right; I constantly turned on the wipers instead. It helped to have a navigator keep an eye on traffic and monitor Google Maps.

Getting initial driving experience in downtown Tokyo isn’t for the faint of heart. We started driving at 4 AM to avoid traffic and quickly got into trouble. I missed an expressway entrance, turned around, and then due to low lighting and inattention, turned right onto opposing traffic lanes. Meiji-dori Ave is a four lane road with a wide medium, so what I thought was the #1 lane of a two lane road (because of virtually non-existent street lighting) was the #3 lane of a four lane road. I quickly realized my mistake and again turned right onto opposing traffic lanes. Thankfully, there wasn’t any traffic on the streets at that early hour and an important lesson was reinforced: right turns in Japan are like left turns in the US; you must cross oncoming traffic lanes to execute.

The thrills didn’t end there. Google Maps had us entering expressways, exiting onto streets, turning us around, and then re-entering expressways again. After a while, we realized that Google Maps was confused because the expressways were double-decked over regular streets! Google Maps didn’t know which level we were on! Google Maps confusion also reigned when we returned to Tokyo. There are long tunnels in and out of downtown Tokyo; some with interchanges in them. If you don’t know were you must exit before you enter a tunnel, Google Maps may freeze and not give you the information. While in a very long tunnel, I missed my exit and ended up somewhere that required a long bridge over the bay to return.

Yes, driving in downtown Tokyo during rush hour is memorable. One time as I was closely following a car across an intersection, the light turned yellow and then quickly red. I was only 1/4 of the way into the large intersection when I realized it was Shibuya Crossing. Fortunately, I was able to back to the limit line before the uncountable herds of people crossed. Another time, Google Maps directed us to a gas station. Only, it wasn’t a gas station; it appeared to be an oil change place or car wash. When we apologized to the attendant, they pointed up. It was a gas station, only the gas nozzles were suspended from the ceiling!

The 4-lane highway from Tokyo to the Fuji area was lightly trafficked and narrow; I’m glad I rented a small car. Speeds were slow, but drivers habitually sped 20 kph over the speed limit. I had a tendency to keep to the left side of a lane; a habit my spouse nervously reminded me of. Tolls were frequent, but Toyota Rental included a transponder that allowed us to cross without paying (while paying a consolidated toll bill when the car is turned in; a toll total).

Despite our problems in Tokyo, I followed Google Maps religiously, even though it’s directions were sometimes confusing and it often took us through narrow neighborhood streets. While driving in mountainous Aomori, I was amazed that narrow roads didn’t dissuade tour buses; they occupied their lane and more. Sharing a narrow road without a center line was normal in most areas of Japan. You would just veer into the walking lane a little, or slow down or stop if the walking lane was being used. It wasn’t unusual to see cars parked in a lane of a narrow street with hazard lights on, requiring cars to drive around into the opposing lane.

Getting my international drivers license was embarrassingly easy; I just applied for one through the Automobile Club of Southern California and paid a $25 fee. Studying downloaded basic Japanese rules of the road and traffic signs helped. Cars rented for about $90/day, including the maximum rental agency insurance. While fuel is expensive, I drove slow in a rental with great gas milage (my 2nd rental was a hybrid), so fuel costs weren’t significant. I drove about 650 kilometers over four days.

While some of what I just wrote may seem off-putting, it really wasn’t, once you got used to it. It was fun to experience a different driving environment, and this driving privilege allowed us to investigate POIs as we came upon them, and change our itinerary on the fly. We weren’t at the mercy of public transportation schedules, slow speeds, and fixed routes. It was a great experience that I recommend for others.