🇯🇵 Japan
Japan, overland.
Japan is an extraordinary country for slow travel — 1,200+ michi-no-eki road stations, legal-to-sleep car camping, a thousand-year-old pilgrimage routes, and the best onsen culture on earth. And almost nothing written about it in English.
This is where we start.
Before you drive
Driving basics
Keep left, km/h, BAC 0.03%, no turn on red, IDP rules.
The rules every foreign driver needs on day one. Each fact cited to NPA, MLIT, or JAF.
Test yourself
Road sign quiz
Ten Japanese road signs — citation per answer.
STOP is an inverted red triangle in Japan, not an octagon. Test the rest.
Customs & the border
Before you arrive
Currency, food, drones, medications, cannabis — every claim cited.
Japan's rules around prescription meds and cannabis are the strictest most visitors will encounter. Read before you fly.
Routes
First routes coming — Nakasendo, Shimanami Kaido, Hokkaido coastal loop.
Guides
First guides coming — shachuhaku etiquette, carnets for Japan, michi-no-eki primer, onsen-with-parking.