r/JapanTravel • u/Most_Slip299 • 14h ago
Advice US-Solo Japan ,7 Cities, 1 month, rented a car -ReCap trip of a lifetime
Just came home from one month in Japan. Active US senior traveler, Non japanese speaker, solo.
I decided to rent a car. I've never flip sides of the road before I learned to play follow the leader pretty quickly. Google maps mostly and the cars GPS map helped a litttle
The local train system's pretty easy once you figure out that you need to know the big cities that are in the direction you are going. They will be listed on the signs in English. That's really the only directional indicator you will have. It's very similar to New York. Subways. Trains will hide in the direction you're going and your stop will be in the middle someplace , The only exception is trains marked Rapid Transit (they are Express trains going from point a to point b) If you happen to miss your stop or go in the wrong direction (which happened to me) it's a simple fix. Just get off at the next stop and wait for a train going in the direction you want to go (usually the opposite track straight ahead of you as you exit) You don't have to get a new ticket or even talk to anybody. You just get off and wait. There will be one along some time, they run every 15 minutes, half hour or hour. (Btw everything is in military time)
Warning, I do not think this applies to the shinkansen or bullet train (just local), it would be more complicated in that case. I carried a large single backpack along with a small day pack clipped to the shoulder strap on moving days until the last few days of my trip when I added a small rolling suitcase carry-on size to pack gifts in. I thought it was going to be a problem on the train but it was not. Carry-on size fits above your seat on many trains. I only had all three when I was doing big moves. So I did not have my backpack day pack and rolling local trains but once and even that it wasn't terrible. That allowed me to not have to pay for extra luggage space on the shinkansen.
I drove about a thousand miles over three separate car rentals. The rental process was easy (had to get an international driver's license before I left ) the rental companies are very efficient and I found usually at least one person was reasonably fluent in English. I rented Toyota in Mito, Toyama and Himeji. My longest drive was from Himeji to Hiroshima and returned the car in Kyoto. I used Google maps 98% of the time and the car GPS just as reassurance. I didn't bother with map codes. I just entered in the physical address of the places and Google did just fine. (Car vent clip) Also helped keep me stay in the correct lane at very complicated intersections. My hairiest moment was Hiroshima at night in the rain with my GPS glitching out. At night in Hiroshima and probably most big cities, the taxi cabs take over. Japanese cordial driving disappears with the Sun, I've driven in New York City times square area and it's that level. During the daytime it was perfect. I had no issues. So my personal survival rule was no night driving unless I absolutely had to. Getting fuel was easy and complicated. Japan has full service stations and self-service. Full service was a no-brainer, self-service he had to work a little bit but it wasn't too difficult to figure out.
Google AI was indispensable, it helped avoid a lot of issues, but just know that in multi-level situations it cannot tell what floor you're on, even if you tell it may still send you on a wild goose chase. Allow yourself a lot of time. If I had an important thing like train departure time that I had to keep, I made sure that I went and verified before hand. I will bet Google had me walk 3 mi out of the way in total during my whole month. Speaking of which, I walked almost 175 mi during that time. So 2 or3 mi isn't that big of a deal it was just a part of the adventure. (Suggestion. Do a little prep walking before you get to Japan)
Not speaking Japanese wasn't that big of a deal most of the time, again, most of the time. I was in some pretty rural areas and that was when it became a bit of an issue and of course Google translator was glitching out on me at the same time. Really not that big of a deal but it did happen.
In the area surrounding most of the big cities everybody just about can speak and understand a little English. I learned from Japanese friends that they learned English in school but it was to test not to fluency. Many of the general customer service people had much better English skills. I do know some Japanese not even enough to survive but a few words and few rehearsed phrases?. They were very, very helpful. Do not underestimate their value. The Japanese people also really appreciate any effort that you can make to speak their language, I thought it was kind of fluff when people said that, but it is really true you can see it in their faces.
It's kind of like any big city, people are busy and don't really have much time unless they're relaxing at a restaurant or park even so, they're still very cordial and helpful. I met and got to know a ton of very, very nice people, from Japan and many countries. Hung out ate together and even reconnected and explored with a couple people. I will say though that if I heard English spoken I would usually speak to those people just lite conversation, but some of those turned into some pretty good friendships. Recommend putting yourself out there π― worth it.
Stayed in Grandvia's and Jr Hotels at the train stations mostly. Very convenient affordable but not necessarily cheap.(Location dictates price). Depends on your personal budget. I would say 100% see if they have washing machines. I stayed in one hotel a Grandvia that only had laundry service and what I paid to have 3 days worth of laundry done would have bought me two. Really nice meals. I was kind of shocked until I received the laundry back. It was packaged like it was brand new in plastic wrap hangers. I had the idea that I was going to be able to re-wear clothing. Maybe at least 2 days but that was not possible, almost everyday I was head to toe sweat. Even on cooler days it seemed very humid and it was last week of September till the third week of October.
As far as clothes go, I wore mostly t-shirts and light travel type pants also a couple really packable dress shirts (I wore a couple times) and a fleece and base layer but I never used them. I did the Tatiyama Alpine route and expected cold temps at altitude but it was warm enough that a packable raincoat was more than enough.
I didn't buy any clothes there. I am a us extra large and the only thing I needed was a raincoat and I was able to find a roomy one. I did buy shoes normally I'm a size 91/2 to 10 and I was able to find them fairly easily. I'm not so sure I would have been able to find clothes that fit. JP sizes run really small and when I was looking at raincoats the largest size they had in many brands would have been like a small in the US. I also bought my daughter some jeans. She's only 5'6 The problem I had was her legs are longer and it was really hard to find jeans that fit her. I did find some at a store called Zara. So I guess don't expect to be buying a lot of clothes for yourself if you are extra large or tall. But in all fairness I was trying to Japan exclusive so that limited me.
I did a couple hikes while there and checked their difficulty. I don't know that the rating should be trusted using US information. Much harder than I expected. I had walking sticks (had to pack in checked luggage on the way home) and AI recommended that I didn't need them. Completely false, One example was Mount Shoshu, lots of ankle, rolling rocks and roots even on the main trail. (which I chose not to use, ) It was completely worth the hike though. If you are that type of traveler, 100% plan a couple at least. I think the rating is based on a baseline of the surrounding area or something like that. I have hiked in Hawaii and Western United States and I will say that they were some of the toughest trails I have hiked. Much more technical than advertised and seriously rapid altitude gains. I am far from hardcore hiker but I do enjoy hiking a lot. I wore a pair of OnClouds as the only shoes I took and bought a pair of Skechers slip-ons. With all the walking I got hot spots and I needed to change out shoes every couple days so that I wouldn't get blisters. They were far from optimum for climbing but I couldn't fit hiking boots in my luggage. I made it work.
They have extremely streamlined customs and declaration process. Everything's linked to your passport. (When I was there only a few places use the old system)
The only apps I really relied on were NHK n
Works for weather, earthquake and events. Google AI, Google maps (make sure you download the area you are going ) Google translator, yen to dollar.
This post is already too long. I hope this is helpful to somebody (and coherent). If you are thinking about it I would encourage you to go. I am already planning on going back and this was my first time. Only thing I will change, is fewer cities, now that I have an idea of what I liked.
Happy trials