So you think driving in Japan is a cakewalk? Think again.
Getting out of the city
Chances are that you don't
live in the middle of rice fields, and a quick look on Google indicates
that it will take 1 hour and 10 minutes to reach that cool looking road
25km away. Nah, that can't be possible… It's so close, how can it take
so much time?
Think of
Japan like LA. Driving there means you're crawling most of the time.
Even when traffic is light, getting out of cities can take absolutely
forever due to the sheer amount of traffic lights. People also tend to
drive very, very slowly, which really doesn't help. In spite of this
general slowness, be ready at any time to swerve, avoiding some inept
driver who has no idea what they're doing behind the wheel of a car.
Highways
Now, you have a rough
estimate of how much your daily life in Japan will cost, but what about
longer trips? Like a road trip to spend a couple of days somewhere, 200
or 300km away. This is where your wallet will hurt the most. Any trip
that involves taking the freeway is insanely expensive, thanks to tolls.
Free
highways are almost non-existent in Japan, which makes any trip
egregiously expensive. When highways were first built in the country,
the Japanese government promised that once they were paid for, toll
booths would disappear and they would be free of use. That never
happened. Instead, drivers in Japan are stuck with huge toll bills.
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