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We are planning some trips to "Cheese Hotspots" in Japan using this new special price. (Perhaps that should be "Warmspots" considering Japan isn't too hot on cheese but it's all relative!)

 

I'm sure it will get lots of people out and about.

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I normally drive at 110 to 130 and I've never had a ticket. Ive done Kobe-Nagano about 20 times.

 

Officially, I thought the limit was 80km on highway though. Of course, anyone driving that speed would be inviting an accident due to relative motion. My wife sometimes hassles me to go around 90km and it feels like I am endangering the cars behind.

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I think it's only the mad speeders that get caught. I have seen quite a few being chased, often by "unmarked" police cars.

 

80 does seem very slow though, and it's mad when there are some parts that have a limit of 50!

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There's stretches of the Kanetsu that are 50, it's a laughable limit for an expressway.

 

One thing that gets me is when an expressway goes down to single lane like it does to the north of Niigata near Shibata. Get behind a slow dude on there and you are stuck. Taking the normal road in that area is sometimes faster.

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  • 3 weeks later...

With all these queues I'm seeing on the news today, cheap as it is ---- any fun?! Surprisingly haven't heard any moans from environmental types as well with this "lets drive long distances fever"

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We've used it twice so far. There was no apparent increase in the inaka-city-inaka direction on ordinary weekends. It might be different going the other way.

 

For an environmental point of view, I think the highways should all be free. Most of the damage is done building them in the first place. They are all built with 100% public money, so the public should be able to use them regardless of ability to pay. According to the rules, the popular ones like the Tomei should all be free anyway. The collected tolls have already covered the construction cost.

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I went to Nagano for golden week at what should have been peak time (friday evening up, last night coming back). Sure there were much more cars than usual, but the worst it got was crowding causing speed to come down to 80. I'd say it only took me about 20 mins longer than usual, which for a 7 hour journey is not bad at all. It seems the Japanese generally do their journeys really early (actual peak was tuesday evening) which clears up the roads for people like me who go at most the convenient time.

 

Somehow it cost 2500yen not 1000 yen though which confused me a bit, though still cheap.

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Nagano -> Miki Ono

 

Off the top of my head, I think several highways are used for that journey but the only ones I can remember are at the Kansai end: 'SANYO' and 'MEISHIN'. On Nagoya-Nagano there must be other highways but I don't recall their names. All seems quite random.

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Paying cash about 2 years ago it was around 13000yen. Then I soon got ETC and used the night discount which brought it down to about 7500yen. So 2500 is sweet, but I just wish it was easier to understand...

 

It is like the dainishinmei douro that goes along the coast from osaka to akashi. At some point you have to pay 700yen but it is not clear to me where the entrance/exits are. Also, when you go west-east theres a flat fee of 700, but coming back there seems to be two gates, one for 500 and one for 200. I gave up trying to understand it. Unless you go online I think it is impossible.

 

Another frustrating time I had on the highway was when I stopped at a 'Parking Area' (PA) just off the highway in Kusatsu (near Biwa-ko). I then found that it was impossible to get back onto the highway! It led me onto a new highway that went a completely different way to Nagoya. In the end I didnt lose much time, but it cost me more cos I had to leave and rejoin the highway in Nagoya so I lost most of my night discount. That was really unbelievable.

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