Car for use during ski season?

4 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Car for use during ski season?**

   I’m doing a ski season as an instructor in Hokkaido over this winter and was just wondering what my options are for either renting a car long term or buying a car while I’m over there for getting around?

   I will be on a working holiday visa and living in ski school accommodation so I’m not quite sure where I stand on being able to buy a car.

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2. What are you going to need the car for? Hokkaido winters are pretty harsh, how much have you driven in snow? There may be days or more where you just can’t drive because of the roads anyways.

   Understand that it’s quite a bit of hassle to buy a car. You’re going to need a parking spot(this is checked by the police and confirmed that you can use it), register it for your ownership, pay insurance and then a few months later have to sell the car. You may not even be able to buy one without a Japanese Drivers License. You’re looking at probably a month at the minimum to get that, then another month to sort out the car stuff(yes it can take that long).

   Public transportation is great in Japan. Between that and short term rental, you’ll be better off without the burden of a car.

3. Also if you’re working for any of the major ski schools, most likely you’ll be living in dorm style housing and they’ll have some shared hi ace style awd vans that everyone with a international license can drive.

4. Also, try checking out buses! I just looked on Google Maps and it appears there are four buses from Rsusutsu (that may not be your area, but just a guess) into Sapporo every day. That’s if you wanted to venture out to the city at all.