Car rental: how do you do it?

So, we are travelling to Japan including in September Because of our reasonably tight budget, I tried to book all accommodations myself, which is not really a problem at all. But.. we tried to find a travel agency who could book a car for us for a few days, but that doesn't seem to be an option in the Netherlands. Which results in us having to book it ourselves (which may or may not be a problem ?)

Is it advisable to arrange for car rental ourselves? I can imagine there could be some (language) problems if you encounter any problems during the rental period (why we are used to renting through a dutch agency on previous travels)

We are planning on using the JR Pass for the most part of our trip, but are hoping to rent a car in:
- 2 days Lake Kawaguchiko (maybe pick up at Odawara since we are coming from Yokohama)
- 3/4 days Wakayama region (travelling to Koyasan, Hongu + 1 night undecided)
-2/3 days Japanese Alps (travelling to Takayama 2nights, Matsumoto and maybe Yudanaka)

We would like to rent a car, to go to places where the public transport gets to difficult and because we assume you get more freedom to stop and go when ever and where ever you want.

So what are your thougts on renting a car yourself? Do you have tips and tricks? Are there any cons to renting a car in these areas?

Thanks in advance!

https://www2.tocoo.jp/en/campaign/index?campaign_id=994&utm_source=toc...

https://www.jalan.net/rentacar/

It's pretty easy-we've done it a couple of times. Just pick your company-I'm sure either of the suggested ones will be fine-and go from there.

We picked up a car in Matsue last year, the hire office used a phone interpreter to make sure we understood the insurance terms. The time before that the agent spoke fluent english so we did the insurance thing direct with him. They will also set up the satnav for you. Usuallly you can put the phone number of the destination in and up will come the directions.

Random thought: if you are picking up and dropping off at different places, watch the fee, it can be expensive.

And a bit of unasked for advice: I doubt that I'd choose to drive around in Kawaguchiko, particularly on a first visit. Not that I've been there but I understand it's very busy and parking etc can be difficult. Perhaps others who have travelled there more will know more about it.

Have a wonderful time in Japan!

Hi!

I just rented a car for my first time this past trip. I ended up renting directly from Orix because they were near the station I was arriving in and seemed to have a decent rate. I paid a little extra for a service that would help should I have any issues. They were cheaper than a few of the comparison services I tried to use and some of the services didn't offer cars at my preferred pick up station, Ichinoseki.

Just be aware that if you rent a car in say Takayama (Gifu-ken) but drop it off in Nagano-ken (where Matsumoto and Yudanaka are) you're going to be paying a 10,000 yen drop-off fee, unless you can find someplace that doesn't charge one. I looked into renting a car to get from Takayama to Matsumoto in 2017, and the fee was 10,000 yen.

As we rented at mostly smaller stations, no one there spoke any English and I had to use a translation program at times. It did slow down the rental process, it took on average about 30 minutes once I found the rental car agency until I was driving off with my car, but all the staff were super nice and went above and beyond. In Koriyama, they inserted my ETC card for me and programmed in my first destination for me, giving me the option of taking the expressway or local roads to save money. In Ichinoseki, they also inserted in my ETC card and helped me find my first destination when the phone number failed to turn up the location I wanted.

I ended up really enjoying renting a car and I definitely would again. But I would also make sure the car really is going to be cheaper. I spent about 16,000 yen for a 2 day rental+2600 yen in gas. That included a 2 day TEP Pass for tolls and paying for extra assistance and insurance just in case. There are buses between Takayama and Matsumoto (and then trains between Matsumoto and Nagano from whence there are more options to Yudanaka.)

I'm not really sure why you would rent a car in Odawara. It's probably faster to go from Yokohama back to Tokyo and take a bus from there to Kawaguchiko. If you wanted to rent a car there I could see that and then just drop it off before you continue onwards to where-ever you plan to go. It's around 1.5 hours from Odawara to Kawaguchiko, so I'm not really sure you're saving that much time or money over backtracking to Tokyo. And again unless you backtrack to Kanagawa-ken you're getting drop-off fees (ignoring all tolls you might have on your route.)

Good luck!

It seems you are generally more used to organize your trips with the help of a travel agency. Which is totally fine, but I think that many people do most of the organizing themselves on the internet.

For car rental if you search in the internet many different companies will come up. I personally ever only used Toyota rental cars, as they were less strict on the requirements on the driving license (time since obtained).

Apart from the advice that PPs already gave, I�fd say to check exactly what are the requirements for your driving license. It varies by country of issuance. Eg with a German driving license it�fs not an international driving permit but a specific translation that i need which one can obtain in Japan. If your driving license is Dutch the rules might be different. You may need to obtain whatever you need BEFORE arrival in Japan.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Everywhere on your list has good transport (trains/buses).
Taking a car is not much cheaper than trains/buses and as you have a JRP, you really are not saving anything, but spending extra.
Car travel in Japan is slow - seriously, really slow. Even using the toll/express-ways it takes a long time to get any serious distance, and for smaller roads, the speed limit is often 40km/h for the 100km from Takayama to Matsumoto takes 2 1/2 hours. You are going to waste a lot of time driving.
Parking is a pain - there is no on-street parking, and finding places to stop means finding a parking space/building and paying for that too (I'm ignoring service/parking areas along the express-ways). And then, if you have a car over-night, more parking.

I've rented a car in Japan once to get to a specific place in Kyoto (Autopolis race track back in 2013), and the only other time I needed a rental was to move a desk across Tokyo. For all of the weird and obscure places I've been in Japan, and taken people to, all doable without a car.

Use ToCoo if you�fre nervous about the language barrier. They have English support line and an English booking interface.
Take your phone when you pick the car up, and film the process of entering a destination in the satnav so you remember what buttons to press even if they can�ft get you a satnav that has English instructions.
For me, I agree with PP up to a point about public transport being great and being the preferred option, but I find that car hire is useful in rural places. Wakayama, for instance, where a car means that you�fre not waiting around for the fairly infrequent buses or trains.

I don't know what the parking would be, but another good place in Wakayama is Urashima Onsen which has a huge onsen inside a cave that overlooks the pacific ocean. It's also a quick drive or bus to one of the shrines as well.

Hi!

I often agree with @JapanCustomTours, but I admit, though it cost more, I really found it easier with my particular plans to have a rental car.

You can take the train from Koriyama to Ononimatchi and then walk ~1 km to Licca Castle. I've done it many times. However, the train between Koriyama and Ononimatchi is once an hour at best and sometimes even less often. It really sucks to miss the train because it means either spending an extra hour + hanging around the castle or trying to find someplace walkable to explore in town with all our purchases. We also had hoped to go to the Abukamado caves but were running late and that has no public transport. You need to pay a taxi from the station in which case you cover the rental car costs. I went into it knowing it would cost more than my covered JR ticket on the local train, if we only did the Castle, but I would do it again in a heartbeat now that I've done it once.

We also rented a car in Ichinoseki and went to the Michinoku Hydrangea Forest. Again, there is an infrequent bus from Ichinoseki that is not timed to any of the shinkansen and Ichinoseki Station is just sort of dull and the hour wait doesn't really give you enough time to walk some where and make it back to the station. We also went up to Osarizawa thanks to reading about it from @Mfedley. We had hoped to go cherry picking as well, but couldn't find the farms in the sat nav. There were free shuttles from our accommodations in Hanamaki to the JR Hanamaki Station, but the shuttle ran at specific times only and missing the shuttle meant being trapped since both, especially Airinkan, were quite some distance from JR. The 2nd hotel was the pits, but I would happily go back to Airinkan. It was lovely. Plus driving on the Tohoku Expressway, we got to see tons of bear warning signs we would never have gotten to see otherwise.

There are many places in Tohoku with infrequent bus service where just having a car is helpful. I would never go back to Osorezan without a rental car or on an organized tour.

For OP's Itinerary, I could see renting a car in Kawaguchiko depending on what they wanted to do. But I wouldn't rent it from Odawara, I would take public transport to Kawaguchiko first. I could definitely see renting a car in Wakayama-ken. I would probably bus it from Takayama to Matsumoto and then possibly rent a car in Matsumoto to drive to Nagano and Yudanaka and then return it in either Yudanaka or Nagano since at least with Orix and in the Tohoku region there were no drop-off fees if the car was returned within the same prefecture. So I could have rented in Morioka and returned in Ichinoseki with no fees. If that holds true across the board, It is faster to drive from Matsumoto directly to Yudanaka. I can't speak for price and whether it saves you money, but sometimes saving you time makes it worth it. They can use the CEP Pass site to calculate out tolls and see if a CEP Pass might be worth it, I would definitely rent an ETC. I paid 324 yen for mine and it made life brilliant.
https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/cep/en/

thnx all for your reply and advice!

To explain some things:

I am aware that renting a car will not save money, and probably wil not save time.

We are used to booking a car upfront through an agency, because of all the horror stories 'they' warn you for with complications with damage, insurance problems and additional cost they want you to pay. But maybe that's not really a thing in Japan (or anywhere else for that matter)

I was planning on picking up and dropping off in the same place to avoid those fees. So Odawara for example, was because we are coming from Yokohama and going to Kyoto after. We then only have to take trains and not busses to go from Yokohoma to Odawara and then to Kyoto later. But I am also considering renting a car in Kawaguchiko for 1 or 2 days and drive around the Five Lakes Area.

The main reason to rent a car is the feeling of being less dependant on timetables, routes and planning. So we can just go when we want to go, stop where and when want to stop, take photographs if we spot somehing special. We are used to doing road trips (and book accommodation ourselves), and in our daily lives hardly ever use public transport in our own country (the Netherlands) Maybe we are a little bit spoiled :)

So maybe it will not be the greatest idea for all the places I've mentioned. I will re-read all of your posts and make a decision. Thank you all a lot for taking the time to respond.

@rkold - I wasn't saying that a rental car isn't a good idea for some places, and you obviously have been to some interesting spots. like There are many places in Tohoku with infrequent bus service where just having a car is helpful. I would never go back to Osorezan without a rental car or on an organized tour.
, as the timetable isn't very convienient (but still an interesting place to visit.) But in my travels I have not needed a rental to get to a lot of pretty obscure places (and I include the trips my staff do around the Kii Peninsula in that).

I was observing that for the OP they could do their locations without a rental car, but maybe the planning/logistics are tricky for them and they can swap trains/buses for a private vehicle.

@JapanCustomTours,

I'll admit my own experience on the Kii Peninsula has been in Kainan and Tanabe. So I can't really speak for buses vs a rental car.

Osorezan is amazing. I used public transport though and missed the bus and had to wait 3 hours for the next one. I should have just paid to go back in the temple and used the onsen again. Instead I wandered around outside and came very close to begging a few of the US Military families from Misawa if they would just please take me to JR Misawa Station. (This was a decade ago, so the shinkansen ended in Hachinohoe.) I would not go out without my own transport ever again. You also need a rental car to visit Jesus' Grave and a car really makes visits to Towada City and Towadako easier because the bus schedule is limited for both.

Going back to OP and their question regarding expensive minor damage to a rental, my friends who were living in Tanabe at the time did get dinged on their rental car for some sort of damage. I was not there though so I don't know the details. I just know for me personally, I spent the time looking at my rental cars carefully and made sure all damage was marked at rental time and then just drove carefully and cautiously. I did pay extra for additional roadside assistance and insurance as I was not sure what my regular insurance covered.

OP I drive a lot where I live. I currently live in the countryside where there really is no public transport to speak of. So I get enjoying being on your own time table, but I also personally don't enjoy backtracking and spending money unnecessarily.

In the case of Odawara, if you were going Yokohama to Odawara to Hakone to Odawara to Kyoto, I could definitely see renting a car there. (though I feel like half of the experience of Hakone is taking all the different forms of public transit there.) The problem is from Kawaguchiko, the recommended route to Kyoto is a bus to Mishima Station. So going to Odawara will take you the same 1.5 hours as the bus to Mishima would and will drop you at Odawara a good 20 minutes by train closer to Tokyo than Kyoto.

I can't comment on the Kii Peninsula, because again my experience was mostly visiting Tanabe and Kainan so I used the Kuroshios, walked or biked.

For the Takayama to Matsumoto to Yudanaka. I don't know where you plan to go to post this, but you're looking at an 8 hour round trip without any stops between Takayama to Matsumoto to Yudanaka by car. I guess you could do Takayama to Matsumoto over night there and then go to Yudanaka, but if you want to return that rental car in Takayama you will still have a 4 hour trip going back. Depending on where you go onwards from Takayama you will also be backtracking. Outside of Shirakawa Go, Gero onsen, and maybe Nagoya, Takayama is not going to get you all that close to that many other places vs ending in Matsumoto or Nagano puts you a lot closer to Tokyo. Heck, Nagano puts you closer to Toyama and Kanazawa as well since they're all on the same shinkansen line and there are a lot more trains between Nagano and Toyama than Takayama and Toyama.

Good luck with your planning

Hello,

Still planning my trip, just wanted to respond to the last reply form rkold:

For the Takayama to Matsumoto to Yudanaka. I don't know where you plan to go to post this, but you're looking at an 8 hour round trip without any stops between Takayama to Matsumoto to Yudanaka by car. I guess you could do Takayama to Matsumoto over night there and then go to Yudanaka, but if you want to return that rental car in Takayama you will still have a 4 hour trip going back. Depending on where you go onwards from Takayama you will also be backtracking. Outside of Shirakawa Go, Gero onsen, and maybe Nagoya, Takayama is not going to get you all that close to that many other places vs ending in Matsumoto or Nagano puts you a lot closer to Tokyo. Heck, Nagano puts you closer to Toyama and Kanazawa as well since they're all on the same shinkansen line and there are a lot more trains between Nagano and Toyama than Takayama and Toyama

I'm rethinking the last part of our trip, which I planned on the idea of having a car, which I am now reconsidering. We are visiting some of the Rugby World Cup matches, which brings us to places on certain dates where we have to plan our travels around.

We are travelling from Hamamatsu/Shizuoka to Takayama, I booked an accommodation close to Takayama for 2 nights (our hotel is not easy reachible by public transport, so may still use a car there for 48 hours or book a different accommodation) and want to visit Kamikochi.

The initial plan was to go from Takayama to Matsumoto, stay for 1 or 2 nights, then to visit Yudanaka and stay one night somewhere around there before returning to Tokyo, where we stay for 2 or 3 nights before we fly back (also spending 3 nights in Tokyo when we arrive) We have a total of 5 nights between Hamamatsu and Tokyo to spend in the Japanese Alps.

Do you have any other ideas for the Japanese Alps? Skip Matsumoto? Since we are using the JR pass, travel by train from Takayama to Matsumoto maybe up to 4 hrs?
Is there any other route coming from Hamamatsu?

Hi!

Honestly, since I don't know your full itinerary, I'm not even sure if a rail pass is worth it. I love JR Rail Passes, but they are not always the most economical for every single trip, it really depends on the amount of travel you are doing and when you are doing said travel.

If you want to go from Takayama to Matsumoto, the best way is by bus. It's MUCH faster than trying to do it via train. From Takayama on JR you can either head south again towards Nagoya or head north to Toyama. The Toyama route is a lot less frequent, as I want to say there are only 8 trains that travel the whole distance a day and only 3 of those are Limited Expresses. Depending on what you want to do in Takayama you are going to be taking a bus.

I happen to really like Matsumoto. You can still do your original plan, you just want to take the bus from Takayama to Matsumoto vs. driving. Once in Matsumoto you can either rent a car there and drive to Yudanaka (and return it in Nagano, which shouldn't entail any drop-off fees but you would need to check!) Or you can take JR from Matsumoto to Nagano and then go from Nagano to Yudanaka. Your original idea of renting a car in Takayama and then driving to Matsumoto and Yudanaka is the issue because if you want to return it in Nagano you will be hit with a huge drop-off fee and you really don't want to back track to Takayama from Matsumoto or Nagano since travel from Nagano to Tokyo is MUCH faster (about 90 minutes.) and travel from Matsumoto is also faster to Tokyo.

Good luck!