ozsnowbum

i havent booked my flight yet as usually i wait for the cheap jetstar deal. the past couple years ive arrived december 18. thanks for the info about minami soma and adatara kogen, i will check that out for sure. looks like an easy drive east from minowa.

cheers mate.

yep cool thats who im going with. what did you do in terms of powering electronics? i have bought an inverter but im not sure if thats capable of powering a laptop. did you open your windows while you slept? whats the deal with ETC cards? where did you do laundry? any other car issues i need to be aware of?

goz, who did you hire your van through?

thanks guys. toll roads arent a huge concern, but id obviously like to avoid getting stung with like $50+ tolls like in europe. are there any must see things along the way? i like ghost towns and was wondering what the deal is around the exclusion zone. how close can i get to namie? also im taking my split with me for backcountry in hakkoda and tenjin but im not that familar with any other areas that have easy to access backcountry. ideas?

my only small concerns are finding places to park and sleep. i know resort/hotel carparks are fine as ive seen/talked to others that have done that. are seicomart/lawson/711 carparks ok to sleep in? the other thing will be finding onsens to bathe in but i see that the bigger resorts tend to have onsens around. i hear that tolls are expensive in japan? any idea of what this kind of trip would add up to?

Hey, long time lurker, I thought I'd post and ask for advice on my plans next season. This will be my 4th season in Japan and I've always dreamed of doing a bit of cardanchi around honshu. I am landing sometime late december. My plan is to hire a toyota suceed or probox from Toyota @ 120000yen/month for 2 months and drive up to aomori and then back down to nagano hitting as many resorts as I can and then probably spend my final month around hakuba or thereabouts. I'll probably stay in a hostel once or twice a week and the rest of the time just sleep in the car and shower at onsens. I'l