Driving To Mount Fuji

[BENZO]

Hi guys I'm heading to Tokyo for the first time this weekend and am planning on renting a car and driving from Shinjuku to Mount Fuji. Being my first time in japan I have a few questions:

(1) Is it easy enough driving from Shinjuku to Mount Fuji? (2) What time should I leave Shinjuku to avoid traffic jams? (3) how long is the drive?

(4) what are the main spots to visit in the Mount Fuji area?

(5) what's daikoku futo like on Mon nights and the best time to check it out in the evening?

[NYTSKY]

Hi guys I'm heading to Tokyo for the first time this weekend and am planning on renting a car and driving from Shinjuku to Mount Fuji. Being my first time in japan I have a few questions:

(1) Is it easy enough driving from Shinjuku to Mount Fuji? (2) What time should I leave Shinjuku to avoid traffic jams? (3) how long is the drive?

(4) what are the main spots to visit in the Mount Fuji area?

(5) what's daikoku futo like on Mon nights and the best time to check it out in the evening?

Its a couple of hours drive. Have some cash handy as the tolls are killer.

Fuji Speedway is near the mountain, sometimes there are private drift and club days on.

Daikoku is hit and miss. Friday night and weekends are busier but usually closed by police if it gets packed.

If you go to Daikoku DONT miss the right hand lane that goes to the parking area!

[elrodeo666]

Daikoku is a funny place as usually Fri and Sat nights are the busy nights but you can get surprised and catch it good on a week night and even on a Sunday night.

Like Nytsky said around 2 hrs using toll roads to Fuji.

You wont need to leave super early but coming back on a Sunday will be a bitch ..period!!

It will be busy all around Fuji as its Momiji time (紅葉) Autumn leaves change colour and half of Tokyo will be out checking it out.

I'd go via Hakone and have a Dr Spock at Hakone town and continue up the mountain on Hakone pass and Hakone Skyline.

Great driving roads, heaps of fun and some great views and history.You can get across to Fuji from there and back to Tokes and into the hell traffic jam.

You could try come back along the coast via Shonan then to Yokohama and hit Daikoku from there.

Ask your rent a car joint to throw your navi into english which will make it easier for you..well sort of as you will still need to punch in address or place name in ping pong.

[NYTSKY]

I had a Jap GPS. All I needed to do was punch in a phone number of a place I was going to see....and bingo

[elrodeo666]

Hey Dave

Punching in the phone number doesnt always work on Jap GPS as sometimes it cant find the place and will just give you the general area of the phone prefix.

Thats when you will need to know kanji to punch in the address of where your going...

Most of the time punching in the phone number works but not everywhere has a landline and for example Fuji doesnt have a phone number.

Best way is check for a hotel or something nearby on the net and punch the number in.

Most rent a car places newer gps can be switched to english pretty easy but if the gps cant find the place using the phone number you will still have to punch it in using Japanese.

[suloh]

sounds like a good time..

[d0p3y]

English GPS is available as an option for most cars from Nissan Rent-a-car. I usually book through http://www2.tocoo.jp and pick up from Shinjuku Eki Nishiguchi outlet.

Hakone is a nice area to visit. I'm going to visit the five lakes area as well on my next trip.

As mentioned above, the phone number method can be a bit hit-and-miss. What I do now is work out where I want to go beforehand, look up the co-ordinates on Google Maps and then convert the co-ordinates to various formats (the GPS uses a different format to Google Maps, I can't remember which exact type at this moment in time) which so far has proven to be 100% accurate for me. I just make up a "to-do list" of destinations at home before my trip and then decide where I'm going to go on the day.

If you can't get the English GPS option, the Japanese GPS isn't too difficult to figure out (just look at the icons) but for the sake of 1000 Yen I'll take the English option where possible!

Oh, this may sound silly but it caught me out once - you can't input anything into the GPS unless you've got the handbrake on. If you're driving around and your passenger is attempting to change the route, wondering why the icons are greyed out and unselectable, the handbrake is the reason why.

Edited November 19, 2011 by d0p3y