Self-Driving in Japan

Having driven my big family around while we travel in Malaysia, Australia, the US, the UK and Taiwan, then why not Japan? Afterall cars are driven on the same side in Japan as my home roads. However, when asking around and checking online, 9 out of 10 people will recommend using public transport. i.e Trains and subway system which are renowned to be efficient, clean and safe. I spoke with my Bro-in-Law who had done his undergraduate college in Japan. He was the 1 out of 10 who said its actually quite easy ok to drive.

It’s like looking for information online, you only pick up things you believed-in and seek for assurances (unfortunately this bias is also one of the reasons why fake news propagate fast). That 1 out of 10 recommendation was enough for me to just book my car, and start planning for the trip – a lovely Honda StepWagon (2016 Spada).

Knowing Japanese Roads

First, the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, hence it’s a Right-hand drive system. But they were never a British colony (see my post on driving in Taiwan about the history of road systems), So how Japanese ended up joining the quarter of countries in the world that drive on the left side?

This practice goes back all the way to the Edo period (1603-1867) when Samurai ruled the country (same sword and scabbard deal same as UK before), but it wasn’t until 1872 that this unwritten rule became law. That was due to Japan’s first railway was introduced. 3 countries approached the Japanese government to help them build a railway system. These three countries were America, France, and Britain. In the end, Britain won out. In 1872 the first Japanese railway was up and running thanks to the British. A massive network of railways spread out from there, all of which were left-side running. Japan made their train networks projects priority over roads, So naturally, the focus on building roads followed the train’s conventions. If American or French railways had been built instead, Japan would probably be driving on the right side of the road today. Side note: when the US occupied Okinawa after WWII, they were made to drive on the right side. When it was returned, they changed back to the left.

Renting a car

A breeze. I got my car rental online from Scoot, and in turn through Orix Rent-a-Car. This time, I found cheaper insurance that provided full coverage with zero excess – Rentalcover.com. This gave me peace of mind, the only downside is that should there is an incident, I will have to pay the car rental company first (the excess based on the baseline coverage from ORIX), then claim from Rentalcover.com. I also chose the car I was familiar with, the exact same car I was driving back home. This reduced me the risk factor driving in a foreign land.

Cost-wise, an eight-seater car for 12 days, SGD$1500 isn’t really expensive, comparable with most cities. Picking up and dropping off at Kansai Airport was as easy as ABC, and pretty fast too.

Getting around

One feature of Japanese roads is that they are often narrow in the neighbourhoods. City driving is also quite easy. That is why Japanese cars were compactly built but yet maximised the interior for practical spaces. And these places were connected by National highway (tolled), which is almost always running endlessly on viaducts.

Traffic Signs and signals were international norms (intuitive graphics). And you only need to recognise a few Hanji characters to fully understand what the signs say. I read Chinese, so its a breeze after a while.

Navigation wise, although most car rental cars come with their built-in navigation systems, I find it hard to use even with the English versions. They use phone number searches instead of an address. I recommend Google Maps/ Drive. So far the maps were updated. The two main features that I need from Google maps was that I can do my research on places to go online using my “work” laptop and everything is sync to my phone which I used as a car navigator using Google Drive. Second, the option to avoid tolls, it will save you quite a bit on Yens.

Tolls

Besides city centres (say Osaka), the roads were built around their existing homes and streets from olden times, hence pretty narrow and single lanes. Japanese rail systems were very developed form the earlier days and were given top priority with public funds. So, to build national highways to connect places, Japanese regional governments have to borrow money to build them and Tolls were collected to repay those debts.

First, the rental car company will offer rental of ETC cards (similar to our ERP cards). noting that we might not need to be on highway often and there are manual modes of payment, we did not rent it. As mentioned, at toll junctions, there will be ETC lanes, as well as manual payment lanes. From Kansai Airport to Osaka, we passed several gates, which in the costs us up to 3000 plus Yen, not Cheap!

One thing to note. The entire viaduct stretch was covered with sound barriers on both sides, so it is like driving along tunnels, and since ours was relaxing self-drive with no time pressures, we chose to drive on their regular road moving around. only our last day back to Kansai airport from Uji, we spent another 3500 Yen on tolls. It would probably be cheaper if we take trains, but towing big luggage with 4 kids and an elderly, I am not sure I want to save the small delta.

Parking

Contrary to what 9 out of 10 online travel advice, parking is actually very convenient in Osaka. Being one of the bigger cities in Japan, I postulate that this will be similar in other cities, well except Tokyo perhaps. The general traffic during peak hours was relatively light compared with my experiences elsewhere. Even at popular tourist places on a weekend, i.e Osaka Castle, I found “cheap” parking spaces easily. Perhaps it was because everyone else took trains and tour buses, self-driving was rare. Indeed, when we chat up with a cashier and mentioned that we drove, she was like very surprised. Good thing, parking around the outskirts of the city is often free. If not, go spend some money at malls, you get hours of free parking.

There were several types of parking. The most common being “coin-parking” in public areas. Interestingly the lots were installed with a device that raises and stop your car leaving until payment was made. If you can’t read Japanese, it is going to be an issue, because you need to follow a set of instructions to pay. But once you have done it, you will be an expert already, everything was designed intuitively.

Basically, 1) to park, just drive into the lot, reverse-in. Note the parking lot number. The stopper will rise after a few minutes preventing your car from leaving. So adjust your parking within these minutes (kind of stressful, I know). 2) to retrieve, go to the payment machine, find the start button, punch in the lot number and pay via coins/notes slots. Observe the stopper come down, again, leave the lot within minutes before the stopper rise again. To reduce stress, I only load up my family after I drive the car out.

The second type was the gated type, in most malls and bigger carparks. like other countries, you enter the carpark through a gantry gate, often given a parking token. Take note that some lots are catered for small and short cars. Upon leaving, you drive straight to the exit, pass the token to the machine and pay through cash slots. Very often, I get free parking having spent money at the mall, one meal would suffice for that couple of hours free, just remember to validate the token at the cashiers.

The third type is the mechanised parking garages (multi-storey). Mainly in the city centre and popular places such as Dontomori. They will be an attendant there, so it is also a breeze to park and pay, having someone there to help. Nevermind the language. Gestures and a smile can complete the communication objective. Sometimes we use google voice translate. very accurate.

Cost-wise, I would seek those with a “daily maximum” parking. Meaning that I will only be charged that amount even If I park the whole day (which I often did). So far the most I paid for parking per “maximum” was 1200 Yen in the city. The rest were in a similar range and cheaper outside cities. Actually not a lot more compared to a few cities I have been to such as Brisbane, London and Singapore even.

Parking Violation

I have no experience in this. You just have to simply not park at private lots (clearly marked as “入居者专用” or “契约者专用”) and roadsides. But in the event of receiving a parking violation ticket, You will need to pay them at a police station. If you did nothing, the rental company will charge you 20000 to 30000 Yen per violation depending on the car type.

Just do it

Again, there was initial hesitation to drive in Japan especially with so many people advising against it. And as I posted earlier, driving is also an adventure for me. Besides, for a big family like mine, driving point-to-point is best instead of pulling luggage and walking long distances. As the following posts on my trip, we took advantage of these to visit places, less frequented by tourists. So if you are reading this because you are also considering, then I would say just get a car and go. Also, it was not exceedingly expensive. Amortised per day and by 7 people – although slightly more than taking trains, the convenience, comfort and interesting place we got access to, more than made up for the delta.

gobassky