In article , Colonel Legno
wrote:

Thank you Gerry Scott-Moore

We are leaning to driving, and will certainly post our experience, but
we are in the early planning stage for a trip for next summer, so that
feedback will be some time in coming.

You write, relative to jumping in the car and going, "I don't think it
would work like that anyway." Why not?

In the US the open road is mine because I can speak the language and
read the signs. Not so in Japan. I have very crude abilities in both.
Nancy and I have only recently graduated to going into restaurants that
ar missing all: Plastic food display, English-language menus,
English-speaking wait-help. We actual have enough navigational skills
to do this in Japanese.

But as John described, many rustic restaurants won't be identifiable as
such. Nor will much else. It may be interesting but it certainly won't
be a jump-and-go situation.

With respect to interacting with others, it seems that one can do it in
a variety of ways, be it stopping in a food shop or filling the gas
tank or stopping at the quaint little temple that John W conjured up in
his post. But I take your point, that if one is in a train compartment
(do they have those, or are they seats in rows; that makes a difference
in our experience) one has the opportunity for some extended
conversation while going from point A to point B.

Rows. But mostly we get acquainted standing in lines, waiting for
trains, on the trains and so forth. In all cases we have at least
minimal interaction as part of getting the job done.

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