Originally Posted by
gnaget
You can definitely beat the Shinkansen by car point to point. Let's take Hakuba. You can go Tokyo to Nagano quickly but you have to get to the station in Tokyo, which is time confusing and not practical with equipment. And then it is a slow bus ride from Nagano to Hakuba and then at your destination it can be a hassle to get around.
FWIW, that's not "a car beating the shinkansen". That's "a car beating the shinkansen plus a bus and some walking". That being said, I'd still take a car to Hakuba, Shiga Kogen, or other places that are decently removed from the railway network -- especially if I'm going with more than two people.