Hello all,

Just got back from the land of the rising sun a week ago, and had such an awesome time, we're already planning to come/go back again next year.

This time however, we are going to go to Shiga Kogen (we originally planned on going there this year, but went to Furano instead.)

My question for the boards is: Are there any can rental places in/near Shiga Kogen area?

At the moment we're looking at renting a car, probably from Toyota Rentalease, however I don't know where the nearest office to Shiga Kogen is.

So if there are any car rental places nearby (Toyota or not) can you please let me know...

Thanks peeps.

Sven

We hired a car this Jan from TooCoo. We picked it up in Tokyo and dropped it off in Nagano. They are an agency that link with car hire companies so give them a try.

Did you find that it wasn't too bad PBD? I know most of the city highway signs are in English as well as jap, but how was it getting there from Tokyo? Not too difficult? What was the price like with the ETC included?

Sorry to pick you brains, but I'd like to know if it's any cheaper to do this than have 4 people Bullet Train-ing to Nagano and bus to Shiga...

Sat nav was a bit tricky - the staff at Tokyo airport could not speak English but they did key in the phone number of where we were staying. Then came the option of a number of routes and I think the one we chose had the heading "slowest way there, no tollways". Took forever but we had a great day which we will always remember.

We did not use the car then until we drove to Hakuba and again the sat nav caused us another interesting day. The guy at our lodge thought he had programmed it for us to go via the snow monkeys but we ended up in Hakuba at our accom without a hitch or our planned detour.

The rest of the trip we just used maps and the highways which were clear. Tolls were pretty pricey but split between 5 of us ok.

We are going back next Jan and flying into Nagoya and will look at car options vs train for 4 of us to go to Shiga Kogen.

The car was handy for carrying gear, buying food, a definite plus for Hakuba to get around but once we dropped it off at Nagano we could relax more.

Thanks pbd.

Fortunately I have a friend in Tokyo, who if worse comes to worse, I can ring him to get directions.

It still sounds like driving from Narita to Nagano is the go.. I found there is also a Nissan Rentacar place in Iiyama (near Nakano, about 10km from Shiga Kogen as the birds fly..) So I'll check the possibility of dropping the car off there and getting a bus back from Yudanaka, because I don't really want to be on a bus for 70mins.

Now all thats left is to decide who to rent from... a Nissan Dualis is sounding ok, or the other option is a Toyota Corolla Fielder (AWD Corolla wagon). Doing it this way will save about $250, which will always come in handy.