Originally Posted by
ajGoes
My visit to Kamakura was with American expats who were living in Tokyo at the time. They lived in Japan for several years and, although he took driving instruction and may have even taken the exam, neither of them got a license. We had a great day's visit to the cave shrine, the Kannon, and the Great Buddha, along with a wander along the beach and lunch in Kamakura, just on foot and taking the train from Tokyo. To me, driving would mean isolation from Japanese culture, hassle with parking, tension from driving in a foreign environment on my wrong side, and a lot less enjoyment. I've experienced that in the UK and would always avoid having a car where other transportation is so easily available. OTOH, I've had some great experiences in rural England and Wales that were only possible with a car.
I might think differently if I had the prospect of a longer trip in rural areas of Japan. But I wouldn't want to drive anywhere near Tokyo.
^^^. Our experiences and thoughts are exactly the same as yours. We've rented cars on many trips to the UK so we could explore rural areas. Very rewarding. But they were all multi-week rentals that allowed us to get a feel for driving on the "wrong" side of the road (getting out of London was always the hardest part!). We've also rented a car in Jamaica - only other "wrong" side driving (same general experience with less traffic - worse roads and worse drivers).
We have also rented cars for multi-week driving trips in Italy - France - Spain - Germany - Norway - Denmark and Israel. Even driving on the "right" side of the road is no bargain if you're not familiar with local driving habits and customs. We almost "bought it" a couple of times.
Also - there's the language issue. We did all of these trips pre-GPS. And there is no non-English speaking country where all road signs are bilingual with English being the second language. I happen to be a good navigator - but I can't navigate when I can't read the road signs at all because they're written in an alphabet I can't read (like in Israel - Egypt and Japan).
I also don't think GPS systems are perfect. I've read some funny stories about truck drivers in the UK getting stuck between stone walls on rural UK roads as a result of following their GPS systems blindly. Also - no GPS system can tell you about current detours as a result of things like road works. You have to be able to read the signs. Our last trip to visit my brother in Scottsdale Arizona (not exactly an exotic destination) - our GPS got bent out of shape because it didn't realize that a new portion of a highway system had recently been completed. It kept telling us the end was near if we continued our drive off the cliff into the middle of the desert
. I can turn off the friggin' GPS and follow the road signs when I can read the road signs. Can't do that if I can't read the road signs.
FWIW - it was worth it to us to explore the places we did explore by car. But these were primarily longer trips. And we couldn't have gotten to the places we saw without a car. We also made cost/benefit enjoyment/relaxation calculations on each trip when it came to renting a car and driving ourselves versus hiring a car/driver. For example - in Egypt - we elected to go with a car/driver for 3 days in/around Cairo as opposed to renting ourselves. Getting around on our own would have been much too hard. We did the same thing in the Jerusalem area (not as crowded as Cairo but kind of nuts driving for someone from out of town - the countryside in Israel was a lot easier as a DIY venture). And - although we never considered renting a car in Japan to do anything - having Mr. Doi as our driver/guide in Kyoto was great. When you're been a navigator for a long time in countries other than your own - it's nice to go into "semi-retirement" and let others take care of things
. Robyn