On Monday morning, we left our hotel at 10:30am to pick up our rental car that we will use for three weeks to explore Japan. I had booked a hotel near the airport since that is where we were to pick up the car. We took the free bus from the hotel to the airport, where we informed the car rental place that we were there and they sent a shuttle to pick us up. As we drove to the rental car place, we passed right by our hotel! We should have just asked the car rental place to pick us up at the hotel. 🫣 It cost us about 45 minutes, but whatever. It is what it is. 

We arrived at the rental car place and walked in confidently with our passports, German driver’s licenses and International Driver’s Permit (a translation of the original license into several different languages). The man working there asked us for a Japanese translation of our license. We showed him the IDP, and after some back and forth and the help of google translate, we realized that our IDP does not have Japanese and we, therefore, needed a translation. That could be done at the German embassy or a JAF (Japanese department of motor vehicles) office and could take up to a week. Eek. The man there recommended trying the JAF (usually faster) and the closest office was about 45 minutes away. We would need to take an Uber and the only way to get one that fits 6 people would be to get one at the airport. So back to the airport we went. We were able to find one pretty quickly and €115 later, we arrived at the JAF office. 

Right as we entered there was a table with multiple signs in English and Japanese explaining that they could NOT help translate drivers licenses. That needed to be done online. (We had tried to use the website while at the rental car agency but kept receiving error messages.) Two employees saw us enter the building and came over to help. They very kindly sat with us and helped us fill out and submit the two applications. The girls were also so patient and at one point, one of the employees brought out a snack for them. The employees said the translation should be ready the next day and that once we got the confirmation email, we could go to any 7-11 to print it out. Steffen then asked if they could recommend somewhere for us to stay the night as we wait for the email since we had planned on driving about 3 hours northwest that day. When they heard that, they told us we could call the central office and ask them to expedite the application. They helped us do that and the woman at the central office said it should be ready by the end of that day! We were very grateful and hopeful. 

We said goodbye and walked to a nearby 7-11 to get some lunch. We loved pursuing the shelves there and picked up sushi, a freshly made smoothie and some chicken nuggets in addition to the much-loved KitKats and other treats. While we were there, I checked my emails obsessively and the two translations arrived!! After a little more help, we were able to print the papers!! 

We decided to take the tram and train back to save some money. It was a bit difficult figuring out what tickets we needed, what train we needed, how to pay for the tickets, etc, etc but everyone was helpful and the girls were patient, and we finally made our way back to the airport (our fourth visit in less than 24 hours). The man at the rental car agency was surprised to hear that we were back at the airport, ready for our shuttle pick up, so soon! We arrived back at the rental agency a little before 5:00pm and drove off around 5:30pm. Only seven hours after originally arriving there!! While this was not how we wanted to spend our first full day in Japan, we were impressed with the efficiency and clear steps we needed to take and so grateful for all the help we received throughout the day.

We arrived at our little apartment around 8:00pm and have been making ourselves at home. The place is immaculate and has some fun features like a heated toilet seat and fancy gas stove. We found a grocery store and have been taking advantage of having a kitchen again after hotel living for 3+ weeks.

The area we are in is absolutely gorgeous, but I’ll leave that for my next post. Here’s a little glimpse from our hike today.