Timeline for Japan cheapest way to travel? Is carpool/ride share common in Japan?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 17, 2016 at 16:38 | comment | added | Ali Awan | @ hippietrail vow thats too much, i should stick to other options besides car and motorbikes | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 16:27 | comment | added | hippietrail | @AliAwan: Really expensive! One time I noticed the toll price or counted the money the driver was handing over and it was equivalent to about $100! | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 6:02 | comment | added | Ali Awan | @ jpatokal thats really expensive, they charge acoording to mileage plus entrance fee | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 5:21 | comment | added | lambshaanxy | Tolls are about Y25/km, plus an entry fee of around Y500. They're run a bit like JR: regionally split, but all basically government-owned and operated to the same standards. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 4:31 | comment | added | hippietrail | @AliAwan: I don't know but it could be a good new question to ask. It will vary by kind of vehicle but I got the impression all expressways were run by one company. If you ask be sure to ask average per mile or km and say what kind of vehicle. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 4:13 | comment | added | Ali Awan | @ hippietrail every one says tolls are very expensive, how much an average toll cost in japan? | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 4:07 | comment | added | hippietrail | You can offer to contribute to tolls but you shouldn't insist hard if they say no as there could be loss of "face". | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 4:03 | comment | added | hippietrail | The other hard part is when your route changes expressway more than once in a shortish distance. For this you want a sign with a destination about 50km away on the expressway you want to be on. The name of an SA or PA is good if there is one. Sign in Japanese is best. Just drawing it can get attention and even a ride. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 4:01 | comment | added | hippietrail | I personally only had trouble getting out of Tokyo, not the other cities. That's because Tokyo has a special elevated expressway whose rest areas can't be accessed by any rear entrance. You can only get there by car or by locked staff entrances and the staff won't let you in. If you are a diehard hitchhiker you can hitch up an onramp onto this system to one of the service areas and hitch from there. Took me quite a few hours to do though, | |
| Sep 16, 2016 at 17:33 | comment | added | Armstrongest | @GeorgeY. The tolls have come down in recent years and there is almost always a parallel alternative route that locals take. Of course, you better know the roads or have a GPS if you're taking them. For shorter distances, assuming it's not rush hour, the alternative routes are almost as fast as the expressways, as the expressways speed limit is still quite low. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 19:57 | comment | added | George Y. | Thank you, amazingly useful piece of information! Would you mind creating another question and answering it yourself, so this knowledge could be easily found later? | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 9:52 | comment | added | The Wandering Coder | @GeorgeY. Yes. None at all. You mean something like this? go-etc.jp/english/expressway/index.html | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 7:18 | comment | added | George Y. | @TheWanderingCoder thanks for the information about discounts. Are they available to tourists, and how much Japanese one needs to speak to assess them? | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 0:41 | comment | added | The Wandering Coder | @GeorgeY. I'm by no means rich and I take the toll roads at least once a month (albeit the Tohoku ones are free for certain sections). Depending on the time of day and if you are a foreigner or not, can give you various discounts on your toll. | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 16:28 | vote | accept | Ali Awan | ||
| Sep 11, 2016 at 7:17 | comment | added | Fattie | fascinating @GeorgeY. thanks. i've never driven in japan. | |
| Sep 10, 2016 at 16:18 | comment | added | George Y. | @JoeBlow the tolls are so high that it is usually way cheaper to take a train than drive alone; only with three people in a car you might get even. Thus those who drive alone are either really rich (and this won't need/care about your contribution), or they're driving for business (and will thus be reimbursed by the company). | |
| Sep 10, 2016 at 5:23 | comment | added | lambshaanxy | @JoeBlow No, they're paying them anyway, a hitchhiker doesn't cost anything extra. | |
| Sep 9, 2016 at 13:18 | comment | added | Ali Awan | @ jptokal hitch make sense so far, never tried though | |
| Sep 9, 2016 at 12:52 | comment | added | Fattie | it's cool that you can hitch in Japan! would it be typical to contribute towards the enormous freeway tolls? | |
| Sep 9, 2016 at 11:47 | history | answered | lambshaanxy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |