We just finished a 30-day trip around Japan and thought I'd share our experience. We were there from mid-May to mid-June. The weather wasn't exactly ideal, we had some beautiful sunny days, but mostly rain and quite a lot of fog. We also managed to experience a heat wave, a typhoon and a tsunami warning within those 30 days 😅. Unfortunately, this was the only timing that worked for us because of our jobs, so we made the best of it.
Car rental:
We rented a Nissan Caravan from Japan Campers for 29 days and paid 335,000 yen.The people at Japan Campers were super friendly and reliable. Communication was always easy and their English was excellent. The van was in top-notch condition and everything worked perfectly for the entire trip.
Fuel was around 165 yen/litre on average and we spent approximately 83,000 yen.
Toll:
We rarely used toll roads. In Google Maps we selected "avoid tolls", but not "avoid highways", because quite a few highway sections are free. At the end of the trip we owed the rental company exactly 10,000 yen for ETC charges.
Sleeping in the van:
We slept in the car every single night and only stayed at roadside stations / michi no eki 道の駅. This saved us a huge amount of money on accommodation. We never had any problems sleeping there. In fact, locals do the same, and we never felt like we were doing something unusual or unwelcome. Almost every michi no eki we used had a toilet that was open 24/7, which made things very easy. We didn't use campgrounds because for our purposes the michi no eki were more than enough.
Parking in cities:
We obviously couldn't just park overnight anywhere in cities, but paid parking was surprisingly manageable. With a little searching, we often found parking for around 500–1,000 yen per day even in relatively large cities. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto were a different story, of course. One important thing: read the parking rules carefully. Most parking companies charge by the hour but have a daily maximum, so the actual price can be much lower than you might initially expect.
Driving:
Before the trip we were a little worried about the narrow roads, especially in the mountains, but in the end, it was never really an issue. Japanese drivers are incredibly good. They were patient, polite and predictable everywhere we went. In 4,200 km of driving, we never experienced road rage and, strangely enough, I don't think we saw a single person aggressively overtaking another car. Not once. Some mountain roads were extremely narrow, but we just took our time and everything worked out.
Ferries:
We used ferries three times during the trip, all three were perfectly on time, we didn't need to book in advance and the language barrier wasn't an issue at all. They required the vehicle registration documents and passports.
Money: We exchanged a large amount of euros into yen at Narita Airport at the GPA Currency Exchange Shop. Surprisingly, this turned out to be better than exchanging through my bank in Austria. The spread was around 1.5% from the official exchange rate and there was no commission.
Onsens and tattoos and shower:
Both my wife and I have large tattoos, so we assumed onsens would basically be off the table for the whole trip.
Surprisingly, we still managed to visit three:
We were very happy about this because we honestly didn't expect to get to experience an onsen at all. For everyday showers, we joined Anytime Fitness at the Narita branch for one month. This allowed us to keep training and, more importantly, have regular showers all over Japan.
I also wore gloves and long-sleeve shirts at the gym because of my tattoos.
We also got a Kaikatsu Club manga café membership. The registration process was extremely complicated as foreigners, but the staff somehow managed to get us registered 😂. That gave us another option for showering despite the tattoos.
Laundry
There are coin laundries everywhere. We deliberately didn't bring much clothing and just washed everything regularly. It worked perfectly and saved us from carrying around a huge amount of stuff.
Food and michi no eki
One of the things we really enjoyed was stopping at michi no eki and trying all the local food and products.
We found locally produced food, regional specialties and all kinds of weird and wonderful snacks. We also tried things like walnut-miso dango, local ice cream flavors and plenty of food we had never seen before.
Drone
I also registered my drone with the Japanese authorities beforehand. I believe the registration cost around 900 yen.
During the trip I always checked the official Japanese drone map before flying and only used it when there were no restrictions in the area.
I had absolutely no problems with it during the entire trip.
Overall
Traveling around Japan this way was absolutely fantastic for us.
The biggest advantage was the freedom. We could change our plans constantly, follow the weather, take random mountain roads, stop at a michi no eki whenever we wanted and stay somewhere completely unexpected.
Looking back, though, the pace was probably a little too fast. We only realized this after getting home. Japan has so incredibly much to offer that it sometimes felt like we were constantly moving on before we had really had the chance to "deep dive" into an area.
My personal favorite part of the trip was Kyushu, especially the Mount Aso area, and Ozu in Kochi.
And yes, we were never scammed by anyone. Not once.
If anyone is considering doing Japan by campervan, feel free to ask anything. I'm happy to share what we learned!
Photo 1 - The route
Photo 2 - Katsuyama Castle Museum
Photo 3 - Kyushu rice fields
Photo 4 - Tottori sand dunes
Photo 5 - Bishago sister rock
Photo 6 - Beppu hells
EDIT: Since many of you asked it, PM me for all the pictures covered in the first picture “The route”