2014 Roadtrip (full set on flickr)



In March 2014 I got a driver's license. What better way to break it in than to go on an epic 10 day roadtrip in Japan with 2 other J-pop idol fans (Pollinic and Naruse)? Nevermind that it's driving on the wrong side of the road, how hard can it be?

Tentatively we had events in Tokyo and Osaka we wanted to go to. We've all been back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka a million times via Shinkansen, but have never taken the slow road and checked out what's in between. So that was the plan. Nobody got tickets to the Osaka event, so the original excuse disappeared, but the plan remained.

This was probably the most detailed pre-planned trip I've ever taken. We took a few glances at hotels two months in advance and realized that the cheap rooms were already disappearing, so we would have to book hotels early, which meant knowing in advance where we were going to be each evening. Not my favorite way to travel, but whaddyagonnado?

We collaborated from our 3 different corners of the world and put together a massive Google Doc with ideas, and whittled them down to figure out a route. We'd end up going Tokyo- Shizuoka- Nagoya- Osaka- Shikoku- Okayama- Kanazawa- Matsumoto- Tokyo. A trip that would turn out to have 2600 km on the road in all!

Pollinic doesn't have a driving license, but the plan was for Naruse to also get an international license. He didn't have much confidence in his driving but I figured it would be good with a backup in any case. Of course he didn't get one so I was the sole driver for all 10 days.

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I even bought a guide book, which I don't think I've ever done before...

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On to the story!