Japan Driving Experience: The Nippon Rally

Twelve nights across central Honshu, self-guided in convoy, from Tokyo to Kyoto and back in a Japanese sports coupe.

This is the four-wheeled version of the operator’s Japan tour, and the car choice is the right one: a lightweight rear-drive coupe tuned for enjoyment rather than speed suits Japanese mountain roads better than anything faster would.

Tokyo opens it for three nights in the city centre. The route then leaves the neon behind for the forested peaks of the Japanese Alps, through narrow river valleys and scenic passes, past Shinto shrines, hot spring spa towns and villages that still show their Edo-era bones. The Yamaha and Honda museums fall along the way. The north coast follows at the Sea of Japan, with driving on the sand shore, then south past Lake Biwa to Kyoto and Nara. The return to Tokyo runs the Pacific coast with Mount Fuji as the backdrop.

Three nights in a Western-style Tokyo hotel, four in four and five-star hotels with character, four in Japanese-style onsen hotels and one in an authentic ryokan, ten days of Toyota GR86 or similar rental and operator guiding are all included. Late October and mid-May are the departure windows, which is correct for the mountain roads and the colour. Thirteen days with a ryokan and four onsen nights makes this as much a cultural trip as a driving one, and the mix of Western hotels and traditional stays is sensibly judged rather than gimmicky. The operator’s page gives twelve nights against the eleven recorded here, which needs reconciling before publishing.