The itinerary for our trip.

Mark and I are about to set off on our first ever trip to Japan. This isn't a 'normal' holiday, whatever that is, but it's a trip of a lifetime that involves a pilgrimage to so many of the things we love about Japan. 

Since we first met back in 2001 through our love of Japanese cars, we've always dreamt about visiting Japan. Now it is about to become a reality. 

For us this is undoubtedly a special holiday and really, we preferred to spend our savings on this over getting married! 

So here's an idea of what we've got planned. 

We fly to Narita and then get a limobus to our hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We are expecting that if we have any energy we'll head to Akihabara which is otherwise known as 'Electric Town' which is famouns for it's many stores selling all manner of electro-geekery. Mark is going to buy me a bigger camera lens for my birthday there and he is quite keen on going to a Maid Cafe. His idea not mine of course! 

I'll give it a go, if they serve alcohol that'll work I think! Then we have another day in Tokyo to do some more exploring, I am thinking stuff like Megaweb, but we'll see how we get on. 

The next day we take an early train from Shinjuku station which is renowned for being the busiest station in the world. Our train is in the middle of the rush hour! Should wake us up then, I think. 

We bought a week rail pass for 'green' class which is first class, so we can use it to travel all around Japan. We will be heading to Nagoya and the Toyota Museum. It has three floors and quite a collection of cars. 

From there we take a train to Hiroshima the following day where we will be visiting the peace gardens. It is of course the first city in history to have an atomic bomb dropped on it in 1945. We are going to look at all the artefacts and history regarding that there. 

Next it's a Kozomo train which is the fastest bullet train (185mph) to Kyoto which is the old capital of Japan. We are in a traditional 'Ryokan' hotel which should be interesting. We'd have liked longer here to get all the cultural stuff and perhaps a Maiko tea dance, but we have to leave the next day so the plan is to get there early to do as much as we can in the day we are there. 

We have a long journey to Yokohama the next day to pick up the hire car which is of course a GT86. Then a 100 mile drive to Gunma for our hotel for the night. We have a Ryokan hotel booked there as well and the hotel is on Mount Haruna and has hot springs, so I think we'll be relaxing there after a busy day. 

Mount Haruna was immortalised as 'Mount Akina' in the cult anime series, Initial D which tells the story of a Tofu delivery driver in his AE86. Unbeknown to him he has been trained by his father to be a racer and race the downhill at Mount Akina and is soon competing everywhere and winning everything in what most consider to be an uncompetitive car. 

This is of course the same car as mine, so there's a lovely link here. It also happens to be near to where my GT86  was built and we had hoped to have a factory tour. What we got though a friend of our's hardwork is a factory tour of various Subaru's. We'll have to see if we can persuade a peek at it when we are there. 

Following that we have a drive over the mountain roads all the way to Lake Yamanaka which has a view of Mount Fuji. We have another hotel with hot springs there, so more relaxing I think is in order. 


From there it's over to Yokohama where we are staying for our final six nights and is a base out for day trips to Tokyo and likely Hakone for more good driving. We will be going to Super Autobacs and we will look at visiting some tuner garages. We are of course going to 'Eight-Six' day at Fuji Speedway on the 3rd August. 

We had hoped to hire an AE86 and a Hakosuka from 7 Tune under their, 'Initial Drive' offer. But this has proved very hard to sort out and I am still not sure if it will happen. We shall see. 

There is so much to do and see, I just know we are not going to be able to fit it all in, but we are really looking forward to trying all the food, Kobe beef being a must and also trying the sushi bars and well anything we find really.