My husband and I always travel with our 2 children and usually rent a car no matter the destination -- because it's cheaper than say, 4 train tickets, and of course, more convenient. In 5 days, we hope to see as much of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka as possible. Is it totally out of the question to rent a car? If not, any companies to recommend? Thanks, Kamani

While it's possible to rent a car, I don't know why you would for city sightseeing or travel between the 3 cities.

In the cities, parking is seriously expensive...like 400 yen per 30 minutes and up. Traffic is bad, often gridlocked. The public transportation systems in all 3 cities are great and will be much faster and cheaper than a car.

Between cities, highway tolls will amaze you. I've not driven between the cities you mention, but the 3 hour trip from our home in Kanazawa to Osaka costs around ¥8000 each way, just the toll.

Gasaoline right now is at about ¥160/liter...it costs me ¥9000 to fill our car with gas, and that amount will get us to and from Osaka.

Car rental costs are not inexpensive. Even a compact car starts at around ¥8000 per day. Often, cars are rented in 8 hour blocks of time. Something comfortable for 4 people will be more.

Navigation is a challenge. We have a seriously high tech navigation system that reroutes us to avoid traffic or if we make a wrong turn, and is wonderful, but sometimes we still get lost...the roads are not named in most cases, addresses are systematic, but not in a system you will ever have seen before.

Traffic is such that you may not be able to go where you want to due to being blocked. Drivers are not bad, but the mindset is "me first" and no one will let you go unless the option is to hit you if they don't stop...you need to be passive aggressive in your driving in traffic. Being unsure of where to go makes it difficult.

There are rental offices in or near stations and airports, as well as local offices. Toyota, Nissan and Mazda all rent cars. Orix is a big company. Hertz, Budget and maybe Avis have either their own outlet or partner with one of the local outlets. An international driver's license is required.

With 5 days, I'd limit it to 2 places maximum...1 place would be more practical and enjoyable I think. But, if you must, 2 days in Tokyo and 3 in Kyoto is doable.

I'm with Kim on this... The train system in Japan is clean, efficient, easy, and more convenient than driving. If you need to go somewhere where there is no train, subway or bus, take a cab.

We have often traveled with our two kids in Japan and our train trips are part of the very fond memories.


On the other hand any auto trips (with Japanese friends) are sort of nightmare memories of traffic jams, parking hunts and road rage comments coming out of the driver's seat!

I agree that renting is usually more cost effective in the US but here in Japan where renting can cost as much as $100 ++ for a small sedan, you may want to rethink your plans.

We as a family of 5 prefer to drive around because of the cost but you have to factor in the language issue. Although there are more Highway signs in Romaji, most of the instuctions for traffic diversions & detours are still in Kanji & Hiragana.

KT & I are planning on a Kyoto trip for our 20th anniversary & there is just no way around taking the Shinkansen. The biggest discount I researched was 500 yen & that will have you get up at 4 AM to catch a 5 or 6 AM train. I'll pay the extra to make it there on my time.

We were in the city a couple of weeks ago & while we usually take the train in, KT had his equipment for the all day meeting. We were there for 10 hours, the auto ticket machine charged us Y9000. I don't think I will ever complain of the $25 parking I will need to pay in SF ever again.

Agree with Kim to keep your destination to 2 at the most as there is much to see & enjoy in each of the cities you mentioned. If budget is an issue, then staying put in one city could be another option.

I am not really trying to highhack this thread, but what about hiring a car outside of the main cities.

We intend to do most of our travelling by train, but were considering renting for about 5-6 days to spend in the area (in no particular order) Kiso Valley, Takayama, Matsumoto and Shirakawa-go. We would look at picking up and dropping off the car outside of a major city. I would also take my own GPS with me.

I should have also added to previous post, is there a good equivalent to viamichelin or mappy.com to use for Japan. I see both of those don't have Japan in their database.

We did hire a car on our second visit to Japan. For the first part of our holiday we had a Japan Rail pass and then hired a car in Fukuoka so that we could drive to Kurokawa and see more of Kyushu.
We hired through ToCoo
http://www2.tocoo.jp/?file=rentcar_inbound/main. We had a Japanese sat nav in the car and used it quite well considering we can't speak Japanese - my husband is Chinese though and reads Chinese so recognising place names in Japanese is easy for him. We found the car very useful and enjoyed having it for this part of our holiday. As with most big cities its not much fun to have to park/drive a car there and public transport is very good in Japan. Petrol in the UK is very expensive - so that wasn't a worry to us in Japan!

Shandy et al,

Thanks to other Fodorites help, we rented a car last summer for a family trip (also 2 small kids) but ONLY OUTSIDE of Tokyo. We took JR trains from Narita to Izu where we picked up a 1200c estate car. We ended up with a Nissan rental car via TooCoo. The rates were ok, but rental depots/office staff spoke absolutely no English.

Sat nav is great, though again the staff couldn't figure out how to switch the setting to English. We pretty much ended up following a Japanese family friends driving ahead of us as a navigator.

I can't recall the petrol but definitely cheaper than in UK (GBP1.1 per litre so about $9 per gallon). Though I do remember having to pay various tolls.

As others pointed out, we would never consider renting for sightseeing within major cities.

Thanks for everyone's posts. I have decided to do 2 days in Tokyo at the Sheraton Miyako and 3 days in Kyoto at the Westin. I hope those were good options. I will be using the bullet train and will probably be back for more advice.

One last question -- if Osaka and Kyoto are only 30 mins apart, couldn't I squeeze in 1 day in Osaka? I just can't choose between the 2 and Tokyo.

Gas (petrol) in Japan is currently around 150 to 155 yen a litre, which works at around 73p to 76p (UK: around £1.05 to £1.07).
You can easily make a daytrip to Osaka from Kyoto, but I wonder if it's worth it. Osaka is like Tokyo, a modern big city (flattened in wartime bombing) but with a lot less interest. While Kyoto with 1300 years of history (and no war damage) is packed with sights.
Do you have a special reason for wanting to see Osaka?

Not anymore. Thanks for helping me make that decision.