Hiring a automotive in Japan is an effective way to discover the nation at your personal tempo and itinerary. Listed here are some tips about the way to rent a automotive in Japan and what to anticipate.
We love driving ourselves round after we journey. It provides us that feeling of independence you may’t get with a tour and even relying solely on public transport.
We determined to rent a automotive on our latest journey to Okinawa in Japan’s sub-tropical south. Okinawa doesn’t have a lot public transport and taxis could be fairly costly. The truth is the worth of every week’s automotive rent was the identical as a return taxi trip from our resort within the north of Okinawa Island to Naha Island within the south.
For all these causes, we determined to rent a automotive in Japan. It turned out to be the very best factor we might have completed.
Take a look at our publish on the way to win at automotive rent.
Listed here are the issues we realized from our expertise we expect will allow you to for those who resolve to rent a automotive in Japan too.
Automobile rent in Japan is comparatively cheap, and the roads are nicely maintained and secure. Individuals obey the street guidelines right here fairly strictly despite the fact that there aren’t as many freeway cops seen as different nations.
Right here’s our publish on driving safely in Japan.
Worldwide driver’s licence
You’ll want a world driver’s licence to drive in Japan. It is a registered certificates to say that your home driver’s licence is legitimate and also you’re in a position to drive in different nations.
You don’t have to take a take a look at; you simply pay for the licence out of your nation’s nationwide auto affiliation as a part of the 1949 Geneva Conference. Nonetheless, Belgium, France, Germany, Monaco, Slovenia, Taiwan and – sarcastically – Switzerland would not have this settlement.
Reserving a automotive
We booked our automotive on-line earlier than we left Australia. There are many automotive rent corporations in Japan; most of them supply providers in English.
When you’re choosing up a automotive from the airport, be sure to discover a rental firm that has a free shuttle service.
Choosing up your automotive
Within the workplace, the employees will undergo your rental settlement and paperwork. They are going to ask to your worldwide driver’s licence, home driver’s licence and your passport.
They will even offer you an enormous quantity details about the automotive, the street guidelines and the native space.
After you’ve signed for the automotive and chosen your insurance coverage degree (we risked it and didn’t take the additional cowl as our journey insurance coverage covers a variety of rental automotive stuff).
Subsequent the employees member will in all probability level to the place it is advisable go to gather the automotive… after which go together with you to it to examine it. They’ll go around the automotive checking for current harm the identical as you do with all rental vehicles.
Be sure to get them to arrange your automotive’s GPS – ours was set in Japanese at first, and altering it to English was complicated even for her!
Japanese GPS methods
I don’t know if that is regular, however our automotive’s GPS didn’t work by road addresses or locales. It labored by ‘map references’ – no matter that’s – and telephone numbers!
I truthfully don’t know what you do for those who don’t have the map reference or the telephone quantity.
Parking in Japan
Parking in Japan is difficult. There’s no such factor as free road parking right here away from procuring centres, supermarkets and vacationer websites.
When you get a parking ticket, it is advisable pay it or the rental firm has the fitting to positive you! The rental firm could be very clear about what the parking tickets seem like and can present you an image of 1 whenever you signal for the automotive.
There are even parking metres that include clamps! You park over the clamp, a bar comes up beneath the automotive and whenever you go to depart, you pay and the bar drops once more. Scary stuff – as a result of for those who overlook to pay, the clamp will principally rip the underside of your automotive out!
Getting gasoline in Japan
Most gasoline stations in Japan are full service, so that you simply keep in your automotive and somewhat fella comes out and pumps the petrol for you. There are often 3 sorts of petrol out there: diesel, premium and common – inexperienced, yellow and purple pumps.
The attendant will in all probability try to get you to pay with money, however you don’t need to. Be persistent for those who’d favor to pay by card. They are going to be capable to do it.
You may even attempt asking in Japanese: “Credit score Card wa tsukaemasuka?”
Returning your rental automotive
Often it is advisable return rental vehicles with a full tank of gasoline – although we’ve had ones the place we needed to return the automotive with the identical quantity of petrol as after we picked it up.
If you replenish, be sure to maintain the receipt from the gasoline station. The automotive rental firm will need to examine it whenever you hand your keys in.
Driving in Japan is mostly a nice expertise. I might be much less eager to drive in different nations in Asia, however in Japan the street guidelines are very clear, the drivers are (principally) well mannered and cautious, and it’s fairly simple to work out the place you’re going.
Automobile rent corporations
There are many rental corporations in Japan – it’s form of overwhelming. There are some which are fairly clearly for locals solely, however most are completely satisfied to load to ‘gaijin’ too.
Our suggestions for automotive rent corporations – and that is solely from what we’ve skilled and isn’t sponsored – are Europcar for a world firm, and Instances Automobile Leases for a nationwide one. These guys appear to be affiliated anyway.
We hope this has inspired you to drive in Japan. It actually does open up this fascinating nation extra.
When you’ve pushed in Japan or have extra tips about hiring a automotive there, please tell us. It’s all the time good to listen to extra from you.
