How to travel in Japan

Renting a car in Japan

Renting a car in Japan was easy, at least in Tokyo. One thing that I found to be different is that I was unable to use the usual apps and websites (i.e. Expedia) to reserve the car in advance.

Instead, there is a rental company at every major metro station in Tokyo (usually an underground office), where I was able to hop in and get the car on spot. You can also reserve it in advance at this link (Nippon Rent-a-car).

In order to rent and use a car in Japan, you do need the International Driving Permit (IDP) – North American and European driver’s licenses are not recognized (this is true for most countries in Asia).

While the public transport in Japan is amazing and easy to get around, I loved the independence of a car, especially on my trip to Mt. Fuji.

When you rent a car in Tokyo, most roads outside of the city have tolls, which add up in cost quite quickly on a day-long trip. Using side roads to avoid the tolls pretty much trippled the travel time. Afternoon highway travel to Tokyo was full of jams, just like any other major city. Driving inside Tokyo was not particularly difficult.

Commuting on public buses

I have used public buses in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara. They are extremely efficient and abundant. It is very easy to use them without any need for any prepaid cards. Actually, all the buses required cash. You hop in and when you wish to leave, just pay the driver with cash – I found this making the travel a little bit more difficult as I had to always have cash available. The inner-city bus  cost is very minimal, around $1-$1.50 per ride.

Trains

Just like buses, the trains are very easy to use and there are so many of them.

For most of us tourists, Shinkansen is the obvious thrill. I was surprised how many there are. There are Shinkansen trains between Tokyo and Kyoto pretty much every 20-30 minutes.

I was trying to buy the tickets online in advance worrying if I would be able to get them at the station and that the online tickets come with a discount. The truth is, it is super easy to purchase them at the station in a vending machine and they were cheaper than online (ca. $95 for train from Tokyo to Kyoto). It is very easy to grasp the train ticket buying in a machine, which is very similar to whether you are buying a Shinkansen ticket, or regular train. I found that most regular train station do not allow using a credit card, only cash, to buy a train ticket. When buying a Shinkansen ticket at the train station, there is an English-speaking person helping the tourists purchase the ticket.

When you purchase your Shinkansen ticket, just head to the platform, buy some hot drink from a vending machine and line up at the number corresponding to your train cart number.

There are 3 types of the Shinkansen train depending on how fast and luxurious they are. I used the slowest (still very fast) to save some money. I still enjoyed the ride very much.

JR Pass – Do you need it?

I was initially contemplating buying the JR Pass, which gives you access to pretty much all the trains for a period of time (7 days). It is very expensive, in my opinion. I very quickly found that during my ca. 10-day stay in Japan, I would not be able to fully take advantage of it and justify the cost. All the local trains, buses, and subway are very inexpensive in Japan – it truly typically costs only around $1-$2/ride and even out of town cost of the train was very inexpensive. Unless you are zipping through Japan in Shinkansen almost every day, JR Pass is an overkill.