🇯🇵. In this first part of a four-part mini-series, we set out from California to Japan to visit one of our daughters who is studying Japanese in Yokohama. Our other daughter travels with us and together we spend a few days exploring the Yokohama area.
Our student of Japanese and some friends accompany me to collect our rental camper van (she speaks fluent Japanese!), but our timing is epic and because of final exams she is unable to come with us on our 3-day excursion (coming up in parts 2-4), but at least she has the thrill of accompanying me on my first-time drive in Japan. Fortunately, I learned to drive in the UK and so driving on the left is fairly natural (like riding a bike). You can see how that works out in this video!
@four.wheel.travel:
Nuts Spinach:
The van we rented was a Suzuki Every Turbo AWD Kei model, with the pop-top camper conversion performed by Nuts Spinach.
More information on the Nuts RV Spinach and their other lines of camper van conversions (site is in Japanese but is readable using Chrome’s translator):
More information in the Suzuki Every (this car is sold everywhere and rebranded as everything, the Wikipedia page is fascinating and Every is an apt name indeed):
More information on Kei cars:
Camper Van Rental:
We used Camping Car Gate Tokyo who may be found as follows:
Haruki-san at Camping Car Gate was super helpful before, during, and after our rental and went out of his way to accommodate us. Highly recommended!
Suica transit card:
We found the automated toll payments essential, and over the course of 4 days only had to pay one cash toll. In Japan, the Suica (and PASMO) card is a payment card primarily used to pay for train fares but is also useful in other situations, including certain toll roads. We’d definitely recommend using either a plastic card (available at vending machines all over Japan) or a Suica app.
We used an app in the US app store called SuicaEng which worked flawlessly; however, I’ve read that the app is no longer available, and in any case is obsolete due to direct support of Suica in Apple Wallet (sorry, don’t know the situation for Google Pay, some light Googling didn’t return anything definitive looking).
Info from Apple on Apple Wallet support for Suica:
More information on Suica:
ETC:
The Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system is used for automated payment of tolls on expressways in Japan. From what I am told, it is possible to travel around Japan avoiding toll roads, but given our tight timeline, we opted for an ETC card. The card itself slots into a device in your vehicle, which is scanned when passing the payment points. The ETC card is not available for foreign nationals to purchase, and in any case, there is no point in buying an ETC system for a short visit, but if you’re planning on driving in Japan you should ask your rental company about options for ETC. Our rental company had no problem providing this for us, and while the tolls are a little pricy, the convenience and peace of mind were well worth it for us.
General information on ETC in Japan:
NEXCO links :
Expressways:
Taya Caves:
What I didn’t really get into on the video is that the Taya Caves were basically hand-hewn out of the solid rock by Shingon Buddhist monks. They are a maze of halls and galleries decorated with hundreds of rock-cut reliefs, picturing deities and other key Buddhist figures.
Tempting as it was to ignore the notices about no filming, and disappointing as it is not to be able to show these marvelous caves if you’re in the Yokohama area the Taya Caves are well worth a visit. Site in Japanese:
The giant statue seen briefly on our Taya Caves visit is of Kannon and can be seen from the Ofuna train station (and is within walking distance). Here’s the Wikipedia page:
Timestamps
Intro 0:00
To Japan 0:40
Yokohama 1:47
Minatomirai Area: 4:37
Seabass 5:30
Akihabara 6:52
Taya Caves 7:39
Camper Van In Japan 8:59
First Drive 11:36
Coming Next 17:27
Music used under license from Epidemic Sound
Additional music including the main theme by Steve Wetherill
#横浜 #campervan #japan #yokohama
AloJapan.com