Need som advice regarding transportation

So me and 5 friends are going to Japan in April and the plan is to go to Tokyo (maybe 5 days), Kyoto and Hiroshima. We will be in Japan 15days total.

We would also like to see the countryside, mt Fuji and stuff like that.

What would be the ideal way (cheapest/most convenient) of travelling?

- Rent a minivan, is that a feasible option? How about gas price, parking in the cities, traffic jams?

- Rail pass, red that it could be cheap but can you use them also in the cities?

 

You could hire a minivan but it would cost about 12,000 for the first 24 hours and then 9,500 per day. It would also cost 140 yen per litre of petrol and you'll probably get about 10km per litre. So you'll be spending another 30,000 on petrol alone.

A JR pass for 14 days will cost you about 41,000 yen, although you can use this on all JR trains except the really fast ones of the Nozomi and Mizuho. You can't also take non JR lines (with a few exceptions that won't affect you) nor metro so if you go to say Kyoto then you will be paying some money to get around. It is probably the best way to get around as getting from Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima to Tokyo would cost you abiout the same as a JR pass.

Technically the cheapest way would be to use an 18 kippu ticket as you could probably travel from Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima to Kyoto and back to Tokyo on a single ticket (and just pay for local fares), although it would take the best part of a day to get from Tokyo to Kyoto and would require 4 changes (i did it a few years back, was quite fun as I made a jounrey of it and took frequent stops but I was travelling from 7am from a small town in Tochigi to arriving at my hotel at 11pm...), although Kyoto to Hiroshima would only take 3 changes but you would get there in just over 6 hours. All thos for 11,000 yen, although you would need to buy the ticket at the end of march and just it before mid april...

Hope that helps.

 

If you want to kill yourself, rent a minivan. Petrol is expensive and Japanese don't know how to drive.... or designs cities/roads. Get the JR Rail Pass and get drunk on the train. Thank me later.

 

This, from my limited experience.

(though driving in Japan is fun in a "novelty" kind of way)

 

Where are you guys driving? I know that sometimes the Europeans and Americans have difficulty with driving on the correct side of the road. Personally I've had no probelms driving in Japan, the only time some idiot nearly hit me was an American (as he decided it would be a good idea to shout abuse at me before he sped off) not looking where he was going when he did a left turn in front of me.

 

I spend about an hour on the road each day on my bicycle, and each day is a fight for survival. I encounter a gaijin driver about once a week.

 

I have had no real problems driving in Japan. Tokyo is frustrating more than anything in terms of making progress in jams, getting ticked off by police for crossing orange lines when you need to be creative and generally pedestrians being idiots.

Hakone is great to drive as are some of the nice windy roads around Lake Biwa, and I have some great memories of driving around 2AM and seeing the streets come alive with stupid custom vans and the like.

The only thing that stressed me was the precision parking that is occasionally asked of me. I would be the first to admit I am not the best driver (and I drive very infrequently these days), but some of the Japanese spaces for residential places are an exercise in geometric precision...

Saying all that I have now sold my car though and have never been happier. As for this topic. Don't hire a van or burdon yourself with any responsibility unless you have a Japanese fluent on board - you are just asking for trouble. There are only a handful or thoroughly interesting places up in the hills that I have needed a car to get too, so unless you have someway specific in mind I just wouldn't bother.

 

deffo look at getting a JR pass, and depending on the journey look at coaches too.

I go to Japan about every 18 months and always have a 7 day pass so i can spend a week in kyoto / osaka. Some places are just a quick to get to by coach but cost half the price, so keep that in mind for shorter journeys.