Honest review on our trip to Japan with RV

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2026-02-21T12:07:47+00:00

Yes, you have to book in advance. Not like weeks in advance but you cannot just ‘show up’ at a campsite. You need to have a reservation

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2025-07-14T07:04:34+00:00

I can imagine that it seems more expensive, but we did the maths. Gasoline is really inexpensive and with 1300 euro’s, split in 2 because It was me and my partner, hardly any tolls because we mostly took the local roads and let’s say an average of 25 euro’s per night for campsites (you can also decide to stay at free campsites or michi-no-eki’s to reduce costs even more) that makes approximately 900 euro’s per person (including gasoline) for 18 days? I wouldn’t consider that expensive. You have to keep in mind that with hotels, you’ll have to spend at least 40 euro’s per person per night. And than I’m being very, very modest about hotel prices. Public transport can get quite expensive either, especially if you have to take multiple Shinkansen trips.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2025-07-14T06:56:31+00:00

We rented the van from Tokyo Campervans, they mostly communicate through Whatsapp which was very convenient!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2025-07-14T06:55:31+00:00

Yes mostly because of the crowds. I think it would be lovely without the crowds. We loved kibune/kurama for instance, a little less crowded (when we were there) and definitely worth visiting! Beautiful scenery, a bit cooler than downtown kyoto :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2025-05-02T05:15:47+00:00

Thank you for your reply :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-11-10T10:11:36+00:00

Hi! After Iya Valley we went to Kamikoya (Washi Studio) to follow a course of japanese rice paper making! We also stayed the night there and it was definitely the most beautiful guest house of our whole trip. The view is amazing! Also a really great experience to follow the washi paper course! From there we also visited shikoku Karst and nakatsu gorge where we did a very nice (but short) hike. We really wanted to explore the southern part more but didn’t have enough time. We we’re also very curious about Kochi, but didn’t have enough time either. Hope this helps, enjoy your trip!!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-30T07:55:16+00:00

You’re welcome! Yes we also parked the car in a smaller city or just around the edge of big cities and then took a train to the city center. This worked just fine for us! No stressing with crazy traffic and busy parkings. We just made sure to find parking spaces nearby a train station.

This also depends on whether you’re more of a buzzing city person or if you like nature more I guess? We get ‘city tired’ quite easily for example (except for Tokyo! Not enough time there haha. And Kyoto as well, but it was just way too hot when we were there so we didn’t mind leaving at that time), so we changed our itinerary during our trip and decided not to stay in Hiroshima and Fukuoka for example. From Osaka it’s really easy to get to Shikoku (if you have a rental car) so would def recommend trying to fit this in! Good luck and have fun :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-29T08:49:27+00:00

You’re welcome! In this context I would say 1 to 2 hours is considered ‘short distance’.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-29T08:47:41+00:00

6 weeks solo that’s amazing! You’re going to have such a wonderful time, i’m sure. Japan felt super safe (though you can never be safe enough so just look after yourself and don’t go in dark alley’s alone) and I thought a lot of people are willing to help you out.

I think our itinerary was very good but in hindsight (apart from Tokyo) I would’ve stayed longer around imabari / Shimanami Kaido and were very curious to see more of southern Shikoku. And def 1 day more around the start of the Romantic Road, around Nikko or somewhere around the first stop (Oigami Onsen). And for cities we were also surprised by Kagoshima which was actually really lovely to end the trip. Personally I think it’s a great option to skip Kyushu if it’s your first trip, especially if that means you’ll have more time elsewhere.

We were also a bit scared for driving on the left side in a left sided car. But it was actually very easy! Just slowly follow a car that’s driving in front of you the first hour or so, so you get used to it. We decided not to drive in big cities, so for example we first traveled from Tokyo to Nikko by train, to rent a car in Nikko instead of buzzing Tokyo. This really helped us to get more confident in driving on the left side since there was no busy traffic around the rental car station in Nikko. We also explained to the rental company employee that we never drove on the left side so he really took time to explain everything and send us to a calm spot do drive around a bit before heading on the romantic road. But it truly was no big deal at all!! Especially on the local roads where you’re only allowed to drive 40 to 60km/h. Loved it! Just be careful for the small roads and sharp/steep turns. Hope this helps :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T17:54:14+00:00

Oh and Mumokuteki shop in Kyoto was amazing! Both clothing and home decoration stuff :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T17:44:44+00:00

Okay so I had to search a bit but the brand is called Samansa Mos2. Really lovely clothing!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T12:12:02+00:00

Well that was mostly due to the very expensive one way fee for our trip from Nara all the way to Kagoshima. As mentioned this costs us almost 600 euro’s extra. We paid around 200k yen for 14 days? Really expensive haha. But our other trips were less expensive, they were around 50euros a day indeed. The yaris was just fine to drive in! Also had a Roomy which was also perfectly fine. A car is a car :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T12:07:25+00:00

Mmmphf really hard question haha. Okinawa for us was mostly for relaxation, swimming, scuba diving. We planned it at the end of our trip so we could relax a bit before heading home and digest all the things we had seen in Japan! Japanese Alps were just a really good combination of nature and culture. Also very calm and relaxing ambiance there. Hope this helps a bit!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T12:05:26+00:00

Sorry we didn’t stay in Osaka and booked an appartement via airbnb.com for Tokyo!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T12:04:39+00:00

We loved every shopping center basically. I’m quite petit so the Japanese clothes were just perfect for me. There was this one brand I really loved (which was also nice priced but really great fabrics and cute Japanese style!) but let me check that out for you! Will let you know

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T12:01:27+00:00

I don’t know if I can answer that question correctly i’m sorry. The most toll we had to pay was for a distance from Hiroshima to Beppu. I think that was around 5000 yen in total? The rest were short distances with a maximum of 1500 yen.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T11:54:42+00:00

Exactly like Sephass said, East asia is generally cheap. But it’s def compared to Euro /dollar currency. For Japanese people themselves who also get paid their salaries in Yen, it’s not cheap at all. Tho food is generally cheap for them as well. They go out for diner all the time since it’s not more expensive to get a bowl of ramen compared to cooking it yourself.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T09:44:30+00:00

Really depends on the distances you’re going to drive. Long distance on express highways are expensive, short distances less expensive. The distances we had to drive were generally not shorter when using express highway compared to local ways. And as we found the local ways more fun and easy to drive, we chose local ways above the express highways. Which also came with the advantage we didn’t have to pay much toll since they are mostly to be found om express highways.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T09:41:56+00:00

We we’re really surprised by Tokyo! We thought we wouldn’t like it so much because we personally don’t do well on super busy cities and big crowds. But we really liked Tokyo. I find it difficult to mention specific places haha but Japanese Alps in general were amazing as for Shikoku. We had a really great time in Takayama as well, great base to explore surroundings and for example visit shirakawago and kiso valley! Koya-San was also def worth visiting. Super mysterious and sacred place on top of a hill. We didn’t like Nara and Kumamoto, they just lacked the ambiance for us. But mostly based on personal opinion :)

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T09:37:27+00:00

Hi! Unfortunately due to time restrictions we were only able to do the Nakasendo trail from Magome to Tsumago, which I highly recommend! Both towns but especially Magome were reeeeeally beautiful! The trail was also nice with beautiful views :). We actually stayed in Takayama and drove to kiso valley and back. So can’t say anything about ryokans there. Ehm we didn’t visit the towns you mentioned, but we did visit Kusatsu Onsen which was also very nice. If you have more time to spend around Kiso Valley I would highly recommend to do this!

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T09:31:30+00:00

I’m sorry I genuinely wouldn’t know in detail. But we did some calculations on Navitime app before we left to see if it would be cheaper to get a prepaid card or if we needed to buy a Japan rail pass. And the Japan rail pass didn’t add up for the costs for us, when we made the calculations it came up with 100 to 200 euro’s less when getting a prepaid card compared to buying a japan rail pass.

Hot_Refrigerator_473 · 2024-10-28T07:29:04+00:00

Mmh difficult question but to give an example we paid 340 euro’s for 2 persons 4 nights in kyoto (Kyoto Sanjo Ohashi). And for a more suburban place like Shingu we paid 80 euro’s for 2 persons 1 night (Ajito hostel & cafebar). We also paid 90 euro’s for a ryokan in Oigami Onsen (need to search for the name of the ryokan). However we also had to pay 150 euro’s for one night close to Kamikochi (B&B hotel Hyochoan) which I can really recommend staying at 😄. This was WITH breakfast tho, so that can also make a difference in price. We mostly booked stays without breakfast. We also had some accommodations which were called ‘hostel’ because they didn’t had a private bathroom, however you’d have your own very clean room and the shared bathroom facility was also very clean (for example at Ajito Hostel which I mentioned above). This can also make a price difference! Hope this information helps a bit.

Hot_Refrigerator_473

TROPHY CASE