Q Shoe Guy

Last weekend I had my cousin and his wife come to Tokyo for a visit ! Perfect guests, they stayed at a hotel , and on days that I could I wandered around with them. On the weekend I decided I would use the car, and drive around a bit. I must say that I don't usually drive around the city, and only use the car to escape ! What really surprised me was the ease of parking and the relatively low price, even in the main districts. There is of course exceptions to every rule, if you are driving about in Hiroo and want to park at the Hiroo Plaza, think twice. What should have tipped me off to the astronomical price was the gaggle of parking attendants wearing gloves, doing everything from pressing the ticket machine button to guiding you safely into your spot in an otherwise empty parking lot. Not quite 2 hours of parking and 4,000 JPY (more expensive than our meal). I will never line up for Belgian Frites again !

Pickles

You went to that frites place on the shotengai? Was it any good? Just the idea of lining up gives me the shpilkes. I showed a picture of Smidgen to somebody who used to work with your cousin. She was in stitches.

Q Shoe Guy

They were pretty good in their own Frites sort of way ! It was a different cousin , this one looks like his famous great uncle ! My parents keep relaying bits and bobs about your former boss , my how the mighty have fallen !

Pickles

He wasn't my boss, but that's just a technicality. He's having trouble getting out of the litterbox in the morning?

Q Shoe Guy

Seemingly.......but I wouldn't hold a tag day for him yet ! Sorry for confusing that he was the boss ! When you you come to town next perhaps give the frites a try in the evening , the line was about 10 mins.

5khours

Tokyo is absolutely the easiest big city in the world for driving and parking, but recently the parking guys have gotten smart. They buy all the coin parking lots in a given area and then jack the rates up to 1200 yen a hour. Geographic monopoly. Smart... but pisses me off.

Where's the Belgian Frites place. I've never seen it. I'm not a fan but the dog might like them. He's getting bored with croissants and paninis at Segafredos.

Speaking of lines, what's with the pancake place on Koto Dori. There must have been 50 young women lined up there today.

Q Shoe Guy

I will assume you are either talking about the Clinton Street Baking Company or the Apple Pie place ? Clinton Street isn't too bad , and they take reservations ! Apple pie is corporate garbage, there is one in Sendagaya also on Gaien Nishi ! The Belgian Fries place is on the shotengai opposite AU or was it SoftBank !

Pickles

Just watch out at "For Dog" Segafredo. Always carry your gaijin card there, you never know when la migra is going to sweep and round up all the Middle Eastern illegal overstayers they didn't pick up during the Great Iranian roundup a few years back.

As for the pancake place, don't know that one, but I thought this moronic "Hawaiian pancake" BS was already yesterday's news. I guess not. The stupidest ones are the ones in the Gyre building and the one on Omotesando close to Harajuku station, across from the Coop Olympia.

But I am at peace with this. It's been years since I've decided to stop trying to understand the natives and their ways. Weirdest people in the planet, for sure. It's like quantum mechanics, just makes things so much easier to accept the reality and not ask too many questions.

gnaget

The craziest coin park is one in Ginza. I think it charges 60 yen per minute or 3600 yen per hour. We had dinner with a Japanese couple at a restaurant near it and he had parked at a meter. At one point I commented on the odd parking restriction in Ginza for meters. They prohibit parking from 21:00 - 01:00 if I recall correctly. He suddenly becomes quite pale and then decides to call the police. A long discussion ensues, which is not surprisingly inconclusive, but he decides to go out and move his car. This was toward the end of the meal. Then we exit the restaurant and he had parked at this coin park. It was Friday or Sat night and not surprisingly there was maybe one other car in this quite large coin park. I don't understand their business strategy.

In any case, I don't quite understand the reasoning for the Ginza meter restriction. Other areas like Shibuya prohibit parking from 20:00-07:00 when the meters are not operating. I guess this could be linked to that it is a busy area. But the same is in effect for upper Meiji Dori in Jingumae, which is a quiet area.

Any ideas?

In Ginza otherwise I usually find a meter during the day. If you know that you will purchase something in a department store then you can get free parking and I located some good garages for 200-250 yen per half hour. The really cheap one couldn't take my car. I think it weighs it.

In Daikanyama there is free street parking on Sundays and after 7 pm, and the garage in the Tyler Brule complex has free parking after 7 pm and possibly on Sundays/holidays.

Another annoyance with parking meters is that you cannot just put 100 yen (if it allows 1 hour) in the meter if you have a quick errand to pick something up. Not sure the reasoning for that.

5khours

I see you haven't figured all the invincibility cards. International Driver's Licenses and Dogs cause the police to become dysfunctional. You should have one or the other with you at all times.

Also, you have to realize that the Japanese are social/sensual beings. Being logical is a pathology.

5khours

Don't ask me. I'm on the Metro Police's Department's list of 10 Most Detested Parking Violators. I loved the old system where when they asked you to sign the parking tickets you could just tell them to FO. Parking violations are bloody mundane these days. Not at all Japanese.

cardesigner2000

Always wondered why there were so many street parking places in Shibuya after 20:00 thinking it was free after that time. Is this only Shibuya or other areas as well Have managed to put just 100 yen in the meters and it was good for 20 minutes, maybe depends on location (Azabu Juban and Shin Okubo K town)? Good to know about the free street parking in Daikanyama. Spent 1750 JPY for parking there just the other day. My Cube is often too tall for many garages, which is odd considering all the big SUVs and minivans driving around.

jib71

No. I was caught out by the same assumption many years ago in rural Japan. This being rural Japan, there was a ton of free space to be had, but I dutifully left my car at a meter after hours ... I came back to find a large plastic label strapped to my side mirror, which only the police were authorized to remove. Naturally, when I visited the cop shop, they took the opportunity to inspect all my documentation and quiz me thoroughly about my habits. I was admonished not to drink and drive (?!) ... I wonder if they still do that?

In the UK, if a sign says "Parking: £2 per hour - 9am to 9pm" the norm is for parking to be free of charge outside of those hours. In Japan, apparently, it means no parking outside of those hours. The same person probably designed the ATM system.

5khours

Just to clarify. If metered parking is available during certain hours, then it is strictly speaking illegal to park outside of those hours. However, you will not get ticketed except in spots where it's clearly posted as no parking during the non-metered hours.

No guarantees on this, but I have pretty extensive experience and it has been confirmed to me by numerous omawarisans.

Additional Caveat - This only applies to Tokyo. The Barney Fifes of Japan are unpredictable.

jib71

Yes. This was in the mid-1990s, Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. While failing to apprehend the gangsters and religious nutjobs who were killing their way through the decade, the police were singularly effective at clamping down on the dangerous foreign element in town, who would frequently and willfully hang around with a suspect attitude ...
IIRC there really wasn't any explanation that parking was prohibited outside of the assigned hours. The local Barney Fifes considered it obvious that if parking wasn't explicitly permitted, then I was breakin' the law. I didn't make the same mistake again.