Colonel Legno wrote:
hello Gerry Scott-Moore, and Harlan, thank you for the informative
replies.

Interestingly you have both weighed in on NOT driving. Yet some of our
best experiences in Europe (and England and Australia, where they do
drive on the left (sheesh!) have been when we got out in the country in
a rental car. Can anyone weigh in on the positive side of driving in
the countryside in japan?

I've taken many trips in the Japanese countryside by car, and love it.
For one thing, there are all the same 'good' reasons for driving as in
any other country, so I probably don't need to go over all of those. But
here's an example of something you can gain by driving in Japan that you
can't by train. Picture yourself going down a highway in the
countryside, fairly mountainous. Suddenly on your left you see this log
cabin, US style. It's a coffee shop, so you stop in. Later on you're
driving and there's this small, tiny temple off to the side; you'd never
know it's there if you weren't driving, so you spend a few minutes to
maybe eat a picnic lunch or snack there. Later you see a little
restaurant; it's Japanese home cooking, a local's place, and while there
are planty near the train stations, *this* one is in a small town that
is miles from the nearest rail line, much less station.

Certainly you'll need to familiarize yourself with as much Japanese
(reading, if you can) as possible. But if you're riding a train and see
a really cool place that you'd like to see, you often can't unless it's
close to a station. All rail stations have parking; but they don't all
have cars you can just walk up and rent.

John W.