Oh one other advantage of the new website: you can book specific seats! IIRC the other site doesn't do that.
After reading through endless pages here, I'll still ask a few questions. Planning on heading to Modarao in Jan 21. Family of 6 so looking to hire an 8 seater van. Whats the advice on a good pick up location in Tokyo? Is it easy to get out of Tokyo from Haneda or pick up somewhere in NW Tokyo for an easier exit? Any good car companies? I see ToCoo! mentioned and they have good options for us although can't look more then 6 months in advance. Lastly get GPS or use phone? Reliability etc Lastly are toll passes included? Do I pay per toll? or can you buy an unlimited toll pass? Thanks in advance to anyone that answers!!
If you hire out of Haneda, you don't need to go through Tokyo. You go via Yokohama (where I live), Bayshore route, Route 16, Tomei Expressway, Ken-O Expressway, Chuo Expressway. https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/...985881d06d!2m2!1d138.2785987!2d36.8582143!3e0 Or you can continue on the Tomei, and go past Mt Fuji. https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/...985881d06d!2m2!1d138.2785987!2d36.8582143!3e0 Use phone for navigation, but make sure you have a SIM or download maps first. You have to pay tolls yourself. From Haneda, tolls will be around 7000 yen one way.
As Sandy said, tolls can really add up. Have you looked into getting the shinkansen to Nagano and picking up your hire car from there? You will be much more likely to secure snow tyres in Nagano than in Tokyo too, and can avoid driving in Tokyo traffic. All the cars I've hired in Japan have a GPS built into the dash, you just need the hire company to switch it to English, or show you how to input the telephone number of your destinations. It's way too early to book cars at the moment, wait until November and you will start to see 'Winter Specials' start to come out - hold fire!
Far far far cheaper to Hire from Tokyo and pay tolls /petrol/chain surcharge than to catch shinkansen. *for any group larger than 3 people. You can buy discounted toll passes now for Exp that you'll use . Or alternatively the rental car shop will supply a ETC card. I use a combination of google maps and navi on the car for navigation.
Cheers @Froff Life Only train thing is is that theres is 6 of us so train fare is pretty hefty. Travel life advice is, don't have 4 kids its expensive or leave them at home!!
If you're coming from Haneda they will cover the majority (just the last bit isn't covered) of your journey (as per Sandy's route) You apply via your rental car shop. Most large ones will carry the NEXCO central expressway discount pass. *just to note. They aren't selling them at present due to covid. So finding pricing structure per day is a bit hard).
There are various passes you could choose from: Japan Expressway Pass It will enable you to use expressways in Japan as much as you like for a fixed price (only few expressway sections are excluded: Hokkaido, metropolitan Tokyo, metropolitan Osaka/Kobe and bridges between Honshu and Shikoku). Prices: 7-day Pass: 20,000 yen 14-day Pass: 34,000 yen Central Nippon Expressway Pass (CEP)- see below Price range: from 5,000 yen to 16,000 yen (its roughly 10,00 yen per day) Here https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/cep/en/service.html Larger map https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/cep/en/pdf/Routemap.pdf
Re car hire, our guests cumulative experience is that we have yet to have anyone hire locally and get a 4wd, even when they had booked a 4wd months in advance. The guys that arrived at 4am in a complete blizzard hired at Narita and got a 4wd with winter tyres. Also had another group get a 4wd from Osaka. Over the years we have had lots of scandinavians in 2wds. They cope but have been known to have the passengers push the car and then jump in once it is moving. We have at least 2 sets of chains that do not fit our cars that have been left by guests.
Interesting... 4 out of the 5 cars we have hired in Japan have been AWD. 3 of those were in Hokkaido though
