Originally Posted by
IMOA
That's the point, you can take the train to takayama but from there you can hire a car to get up into places like shirakawa-go, kamakochi etc where a car is much more convinient and often cheaper than the buses. Some of my most enjoyable experiences in japan have only been possible because we hired a car and got off the tourist trail.
I agree with IMOA that a car is useful mainly in the most rural areas.
Driving in the cities makes no sense whatsoever. Traffic is so bad that I'll even take the subway or commuter trains in preference to the buses anytime.
If you wnat to drive in rural Japan, take a train to a central location in the area where you want to drive and rent a car locally.
The roads in the Japan Alps seem to be made up entirely of hairpin curves, judging from what I experienced on a bus trip from Takayama to Shinshimashima.