Irako & Toba & Nagoya

Hi all,

For this long weekend (coming one), I have the following plan:
1. Drive to Irako from Yokohama (Tomei).
2. Spend the night there.
3. Cross the bay (ferry to Toba next morning).
4. Spend some time there (Ise Shrine).
5. Drive upto Nagoya.
6. Spend the night in Nagoya.
7. Leave Nagoya for Yokahama (next morning).
8. Come back home

I am wondering taking expressway from Toba to Nagoya or taking local coastal road (rte 23).

Thanks for any suggestion and for guiding me on any sightseeing place on this Tobe to Nagoya trip (point #5).

Cheers,

Poolak

. . . you will be spending most of your time driving on this trip. Yokohama to Nagoya is maybe 4 hrs and toll on the Tomei will be around $100-130! The coastal road is too slow due to the stoplight. If you took the Shinkansen, it would take 1.5 hrs at most to Nagoya and 1 hr by express to Ise.

In regards to the Nagoya-Toba area: many, many things to see via car. I dedicated 3 days just to this area. I visited Iga Ueno for the Ninja museum, hit the 15-waterfall/salamander museum area further south, saw a dam, then headed east to Matsuzaka to eat the famous beef and see the few sites there.

Next day saw Ise Shrine for the 2nd time, then in the Toba area, visited the two-rock formation offshore (Meo-Iwa?), the aquarium nearby, a Spanish theme park, Mikimoto Pearl Museum, and took a boat tour at the southern tip. Stayed at a ryokan overnight (lobster cuisine), then took the ferry to get to Toyohashi area.

All these attractions are chronicled on the JNTO website. I rented a car 4 train stops outside Nagoya to avoid traffic/congestion and dropped it off at Toba.