Well nearly, but being my first time driving in Japan it was still a challenge as I wasn't used to road signs, junctions and road layout. Also we instantly hit the rush hour and it was bad. Think trying to drive out of London in the rush hour or the Hangar Lane Gyratory!
The hire car is a base spec GT86 which is not available in the UK. It has none of the accoutriments that you would expect to find in the higher UK spec model which is equivalent to the top spec model in Japan. This is we think, the 'G Spec' on advice of a friend and this would make sense as we have seen low spec MR2 imports of this nature previously.
I will do a review of the car with more pictures when I get a chance, but really, think, no leather anywhere, everything is hard plastic.
Things that are different:
No cruise control
No xenon head lights
No digital speedo on dash
Dash itself is more basic and low rent.
No nice rear view mirror.
No lining on the inside of the boot lid.
No metal pedals
No USB on the sat nav/ICE unit.
No dual climate, just manual aircon
No nice trim items, like silvered air vent surrounds.
No stitched leather steering wheel and gear knob.
No exhaust trims, just a small looking exhaust pipe that looks lost
16" wheels with 205/55/16 tyres.
No keyless entry.
Indicator and wipers stalks are on the correct side, so indicators are on the right as they should be.
No auto lights.
No knee pads on door and centre console.
Dash has cheap looking plastic instead of mock carbon.
Seats are cheap cloth with no stitching or flashes.
There are probably a few more but more of that later.
It took use 2.5 hours to get out of Yokohama and the surrounding area. Unfortunately we were initially heading towards Tokyo. It looked like this:
It was hot too, but obviously we had aircon, so we kept cool. Eventually we got on the expressway and were able to make progress. This is a toll road that can be quite expensive. Think it cost around £25 or so. The driving in Japan is slow but generally polite. No sounds of horns beeping and when we did make the odd mistake and had to dive into a lane of slow moving traffic, pushing in was not a problem. Nobody got angry and people do tend to thank each other with a flash of the hazard lights.
The speed limit is 100km/h on roads with a central reservation like the expressway, but it seems that on a three lane road, lane three is for overtaking and the other two lanes are for 'traffic'. This results in people sitting in the middle lane for no good reason which tends to slow the pace of the traffic further. Even truck drivers do this. On dual carriageways this is a massive pain as you do end up undertaking a fair bit as some people seem to drive incredibly slowly.
Still, no matter, nobody gets annoyed or upset, so it's not a big problem really.
We got to our hotel in Gunma around 8pm after leaving Yokohama at 3.45pm. The total distance was 154kms (nearly a 100 miles). Not great going and I was shattered. Mark didn't get his International Driving Permit in time, so all the driving is down to me.
We were certainly relieved to get to the hotel and it as another Ryokan hotel. I should add the roads going towards the hotel were really steep and we were at some altitude by the time we arrived, but it was dark so we couldn't see anything.
The staff were friendly, though not much in the way of English was spoken. Still I managed to arrange breakfast and get everything sorted and then we headed up to our room. I must say it was a lovely room, bigger than our room in Kyoto.
The hotelier went to great lengths to get me a Yukuta to wear which was the right length. He came back with five of them, for a moment I thought he was going to ask me to try them all!
The Yukuta is akin to a summer Kimono and is worn by men as well as women, though the sleeves differ on women's Yukuta's being longer and with more flair. It is traditional in a Ryokan hotel to wear a Yukuta when you are in the hotel. Also in this hotel our shoes were off at the entrance and we were told to wear socks. This I guess is a nod to a Ryokan inn originally being as staying in someone's house so the same rules apply of removing shoes.
My car was valet parked as there was no parking directly at the hotel. The description says it all. Make no mistake this car is known as the '86' and people do know about Initial D and the older AE86 which I found out when showing people pictures of my cars.
It was late and we had grabbed a Starbucks at the services on the expressway so we just had a couple of beers out of the minibar, freshened up and settled down for the night.
We had a lovely night's sleep and I do quite like the hardness of the Ryokan 'bed' which is like a thick duvet laid on the floor.
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