Testing testing one two, testing testing
This life where I'm from video is sponsored by Skillshare.
Hello world trains in Japan are awesome
Look at this cute little one. Look at this fast one
Look at this futuristic one, but there's a lot you can miss out on if you only stick to where the trains go
So that's why I rented a car and spent the whole day driving around only to pass on through a building for a few seconds
Did I rip off this idea from 'Only in Japan'? Yes. Yes, I did
Thanks for the idea, John
But I can't credit him with the whole idea because the inspiration for driving actually came from watching Michaela's video
a lot of people ask questions about how they can explore deep Japan and really the best advice I can give you for that is
to get your international license
I rent a car when you get here because I think like no matter where you're staying whether it be Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya
Or Kobe or Fukuoka. Just getting in your car and driving up to the mountains is always going to be a rewarding experience
especially on a beautiful day like today
Honestly after watching that I thought hey why not get in the car and go out and explore?
I had always had a driver's license in Japan and a father-in-law's car I could borrow but since trains are so convenient in Tokyo
I've never really used it beyond though once every couple month trips to stock up on cheese and bacon at Costco and yes some good
Old Canadian maple syrup and even then sometimes I just take my bike
However, recently, I've been starting to get out of the city more and there are lots of great things
You can easily see and do if you have a car since I know a lot of your watching from outside of Japan
You might want to know if you are even allowed to drive here
Sure just get an international driving permit
You can get one in most countries and many of them including Japan will recognize it
Every country that has a color in this map has a system in place
I was going to talk about renting cars and I'll get to that but it's kind of boring
So let's go for some driving in the countryside plus it gives me the excuse to use some of my drone shots
And
Of course while drones are cool. I thought it necessary to capture the experience with the GoPro as well
It just took me a bit of time to get set up
But once I finally figured it out it was smooth sailing from there
Well, that was good while it lasted
Construction will always get you even when there's no one there. Like no other drivers. No workers even but seriously in my humble opinion
Driving in the countryside is the best reason to drive around Japan. Not only can you go to places tourists don't often go
Wow
You can also have fun figuring out whether roads are one way, or two way
Hint in the countryside roads are almost always two-way no matter how small
Luckily for me. Most of my encounters didn't involve having to reverse and simply required edging over to the side of the road
But there is that one time which I don't have footage for that
I have to reverse up a hill to let someone by but I do have some drone footage of the area
Those were fun times fun times indeed
As much fun as playing chicken with oncoming traffic is I usually preferred it when this happened
But just a word of warning when this happens
It doesn't mean you're suddenly on a one-way street
Thank you very much brother
Okay, so back to some serious stuff how to get a car it's easy you can rent it
honestly, just Google car rental Japan and you'll find lots of websites where you can do, so
Now this is one of those situations where it's don't do as I say do as I do. Now, let me explain.
I did a search in English for rental cars in Japan and I came up with stuff, but then my wife decided like hey
I'm going to search as well. And this is what she found Rakuten travel and pretty good prices
This is actually about two thousand yen cheaper than what I ended up getting
However, if you do the same search Rakuten travel but switch it to English mode
This is the type of price you'll get so significantly more money for the same type of cars and I did compare
so this is like
Suzuki Wagon Honda Fit this was like the compact class Nissan March
They're significantly more expensive than what I actually paid from my car
so if you have the ability to go to the web in Japanese
I suggest trying that for the rental cars and the rental car agencies
They all handle and deal with things into English so you should be ok
But for a compact car expect to pay around
4000 to 6000 yen per day. A nice thing is that you can easily get a car from airports or near major train stations
When I arrived in Okayama Airport this sign was waiting for me
I've never had this happen before and I know it's the name the car company and not mine
But I asked if I could take a picture. So there you go
I then proceeded to get in the shuttle van and this is actually a picture of a different car company just so you know and
after a short ride, I was dropped off at the car rental place where I signed the paperwork
Basically, you do a quick visual inspection of the car sign your life away and then off you go now
I'm going to use my drone footage once again to cover up some boring. Talk. Can you get a baby seat?
Yes for a small fee. Does it have English navigation? Yes, most places do. Automatic transmission?
yes! winter tires? extra! four-wheel-drive?
extra. insurance?
Basic is free, but you can pay for extra special coverage
If you like. ETC card?
You can rent one and you almost certainly want to but what's an ETC card? That you'll find out later
Let's drive around the city a bit the city is generally the worst type of driving you can do in Japan
It can be busy confusing and parking can be expensive if you're going to be staying in cities
Especially near major areas. I wouldn't recommend bringing a car take this as an example
I was driving to Okayama, which is not a major city in Japan
it's around the 20th largest but still nonetheless decently sized with the population of 700,000
Parking the car near the center was nearly the same price that paid for my capsule hotel
Don't tell anyone but I paid 2,800 yen for this place, but I'll tell you all about it in another video
But yeah parking a few streets over cost me 2500 yen, since I'm talking about parking
Let's get into that section of the video in Japan most generally parked by backing in
It's much faster when you're trying to make a quick getaway
Unless you're locked in like this. Yeah while making this video
I wanted to record the little gate come down
which I successfully did after having my credit card rejected and thankfully having the
2500 yen that it cost a park available in cash on me. Alright, I'm free
Unfortunately, I took too long packing up and that shot I showed you. Yeah, it's not supposed to lock you in like that
Don't worry 100 yen later, and I was free. Once free, I went to the highway which is why I needed the ETC card
So here we go
Well now I got it so try to put it in
The wrong, wrong way?
(Machine: Volumn Level 1)
Take it out.
(Greg whispers) Oh that's the way!
ETC card is short for electronic toll collection card. Many of Japan's highways are tolled. You technically don't need a
Toll card to go through you can pay in cash but using an ETC card lets you bypass that hassle
Also, if you're renting a car you can get unlimited passes. So check that out if you're going to be driving lots
I'm fairly sure. I could have benefited from getting one
Driving on the toll roads will almost certainly add up to more than what you might spend on gas
Anyways, here's how the toll gates work. If you have an ETC card, and it's properly inserted into the machine
Go through the purple lane if you don't or if you're unsure go through the green lane
The green lane is where you can pay a machine, paying an attendent, and your ETC card will also work there
So if you somehow haven't inserted your ETC card correctly
I'm not seeing this because I've ever done this but let's say if you didn't insert your card correctly
It's a lane where stopping is expected and you can get some help
Just to be sure and once you go through the gates, you're on the highway, which is generally pretty great in Japan
The roads are well-maintained the drivers are generally half decent and you can cruise along happily the speed limits vary
So look at the signs posted to see what they are but 80 km/h (50mph) seems to be a fairly common one
Since Japanese drive on the left-hand side of the road you'd stick left when normally driving and then move over to the right when passing
Left slow, right fast. Now just because there are posted speed limits. It doesn't mean people always follow them
I've never had any issues going with the speed of traffic in the left lane where I find people will normally follow the speed limit
Or go perhaps 10 or 20 kilometers (6-12mph) above it
If you follow the speed of traffic in the left lane, you should be fine
And because my stats tell me that 32 percent of you watching are in the United States 80
Kilometers an hour is like 50 miles an hour now if you're on city streets and don't see any speeds posted
Especially in small streets around housing. The default speed limit is 30 kilometers an hour, which is like 20 miles an hour
I'd strongly recommend sticking to the speed limit as it's very common to find people and bicycles
Travelling around in the middle of it in the small city streets of Japan people rule the road, not cars
but back to the highway I like driving on it, but it's the interchanges that I'm not so fond of
Six different roads. What in the world do you do?
and I think I
Don't know am I on the right way? I think I'm on the slower Road now ten minutes. No, I don't know
And now I'm a toll gate slowing down
this is
How does that is like insane for to me
Hey like, you take one wrong way, and it's all over for ya
Google Maps, while good, gets it right like 90% of the time
Why am I not going towards Osaka City? I don't know. I don't know. I think Google just messed me up
I told me to go right when I should have gone left
because I saw the sign for Osaka City and I thought to myself let's go Osaka City, but
Ha I didn't trust my instincts on this one and now I'm screwed and Google
I don't know if you can look at the maps. Can you look at the maps?
See it says I should go left but I'll see there's nothing there's nothing left. I'm stuck. I hear Navi time is better
So if you can read Japanese, perhaps try that, or just the in-car navigation system, but I've also had issues with in-car navigation
Because of outdated maps so I tend to use Google Maps and then get angry at it when it inevitably
leads me the wrong way and
Another thing, when you're in tunnels, which there are a lot of, your GPS will cut out
Besides the interchanges highway, driving is kind of uneventful which I think is a positive when traveling at high speeds
On the other hand when traveling at low speeds. Well, maybe it's better to not be driving at all
When you get tired of driving on the toll roads
You can pull over to a PA or an SA which are short for parking area and service area
These are pull-up points that don't officially take you off the toll road. I've never seen such concept in North America
So this is how it works the PAs are more like big lots with bathrooms some vending machines and maybe some quick serve restaurants
Service areas on the other hand have all that plus full restaurants places for your dogs to stretch your legs gift shops
It's all in one organized complex
Just as a lot of people find out that Japanese convenience stores are a lot better than the ones back home
Go get the specialty ice cream everywhere you go. I think you'll find the same thing with these service areas
Nice bathrooms that you don't feel afraid to use decent food and then overall pleasant experience
So we're gonna try some Momo ice cream peach ice cream
Ain't bad. Ain't bad.
Now something that makes sense now
But really surprised me was that when you hit up one of these areas there can be an almost carbon copy on the other side
My wife was telling me that some go to both sides to compare the food
If you watch us just for a little bit you can see the point in my flight where discovered the mirroring of the service areas
What like really there's one two, two two service areas. Yeah
So this was a regular service area, but I heard stories
Okay, my wife told me but there are some destination ones as well as in people specifically drive to a spot just for the
Service area and that's how I ended up driving into this tunnel the fourth longest underwater tunnel in the world
Popping out of the tunnel
I found myself on this artificial island called Mihotaru, which translates to Sea Firefly. From there
You can see Tokyo Bay go shopping and check out the "Kaze no Tou", Tower of wind
That's a big air intake for the whole tunnel system
This is in fact the real blade that they use to cut the tunnel that I just drove through
Unfortunately and
Understandably, there's a drone ban here. So no shots of this from overhead. However, I thought this shot was cool
So enjoyed for a few moments
But over here at Ehime there was no such ban. Before driving over this beautiful bridge I flew over it
This was taken from another rest stop and this was also unique in that
It was also a beach. I wondered why no one was swimming. It was October
but in this part of Japan the temperature during the day got up with the mid 20s, which again
I'll convert to American. So somewhere in the 70s. This little crab guy seemed happy enough. I was considering taking a quick dip
I did have my swimsuit packed just in case but then I found this sad little guy. Yep
I didn't need any run-ins with jellyfish. So no swimming for me that day.
I did lots of driving over five days, but only ever had to fill up twice
I filmed a bit about filling up gas but essentially depending on where you are
You'll get self or full serve if you don't know what to do. There's attendants
So I'm sure they'll help you with your card in paying
Just remember that gas tank positions and levers might not be where you think they are
So keep that in mind when pulling in but something I did think to highlight was the car wash.
So it's automatic one in Japan car wash moves around you. You don't need to wash your rental cars
I want to be completely clear. I only did this to film the short segment
Parking is also something I did just for you because like I mentioned earlier parking in the city can be no fun
That's why when I was in Osaka. I was surprised to find this on street parking so easily
Oh come on. You got it? Yep.
Okay, so 300 yen ticket for 60 minutes of street parking in Osaka
Oh come on
Doesn't like my 100 yen
Yes, there you go, baby. Give it to me. Ah, that's what I saw at the other car. Okay, cool, Peel it
And then stick it, okay
Wait a sec
like this no like
What oh
Okay, I got it. I got it
see
you just
Peel out this. Oh my god. I did it so horribly
Yes. Okay. Look
Here we go. Oh, yeah. Hey, how's it going?
Hey
Toby do you know a coffee shop around here?
The coffee shop just need it quick to go coffee because we have to get back on the road. I think if you go
Yeah
Well I just arrived here so I don't know. No we neither, we just arrived here. It's my first time in Osaka you make a video about Osaka?
Yeah driving in Japan. Oh driving, so we just drove to Osaka and now we're driving back today
Yeah, and so we gotta like drive back. So I'm just getting coffee to stay awake and then doing that. Yeah
Okay
Yeah, sure. Sure, man, cool
All right
Sorry, I have to keep the footage in because it's rare for a viewer to actually recognize me and say hello
So hi, Toby, sorry, I was in a rush for coffee because we really had to get coffee and go back on our three-hour ish
Trip to Okayama
Elizabeth is no help and then like hey, what do we do now?
Seriously, what am I do where am I going?
Here's like we're like in Mario Kart right now. It is yeah. That'll be so perfect too.
Oh yeah, this section was supposed to be about parking. Now. This parking was really all for you
Yes, this is one of those automated car park buildings. Let's just check out what happens
And yeah, that's all that happens your car automatically gets rotated into the tower of parked cars
It's all pitch black so my camera caught nothing
I have some more cool footage to show
So please stick around but I want to pause the video briefly and say thank you to the sponsor which you would think would be
Some Japanese rental car agency or even the toll highway system, but no, it's Skillshare
If you've been enjoying the title sequences with the fancy looking graphics well
That's thanks to what I learned from watching Jake Bartlett's 'The Ultimate Guide to Kinetic Type in After Effects' course, but hey
Maybe you're not into motion graphics and more into starting your own business
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Okay, so let's get to the goal of the whole trip
Which I teased at the start which is this, at this point in time
I was feeling relieved worried and excited all at the same time
Okay, like is it is it 600 meters 400 meters? Is this it? This is it?
Okay, dude, don't mess this up. Come on
Come on, Bobby. Okay. I'm just driving like nice~ and~ easy~ thru the building.
Yes, the light is beautiful
Get it
We're going through the freaking building and that is it. That is the building. But let's see. Oh look at this view
That is a pretty cool view though. Look at that tower
That is cool. Oh
Yes, I like this train yard over Osaka station over there
Well, this is a cool path though. I gotta say
This is a cool path to take
Yes, I visited Osaka just to do that it was cool though, but I'll have to go back properly on another day
I want to ride that monorail
Also, thanks Bobby for helping me out so much during my time in Okayama
And for also not screwing up the shot. Bobby actually has a YouTube channel as well, which I'll put a link to in the description
Now I started off the whole video talking about how you can get to places driving that you can't get to by train especially
Outside of Tokyo, but I think driving around Tokyo once can be a fascinating experience
For example, you can drive through the grounds of the imperial castle, you know, just casually motoring gone through the Emperor's personal gardens. I
Quite enjoy the contrast of new and old Japan
Another thing you can do is cross over the famous Rainbow Bridge
You can see a lot while on a train, but you can also get some different vantage points in scenery when traveling in a car
Although you can also do that on a bus tour which would actually give you a better vantage point, but I digressed
So yes trains in Japan are cool
I even made a whole video where I did nothing but travel around in them for a day
But if you have the opportunity going out and about in a car can be equally cool. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye
What's driving like where you're from?