Kohei Nozaki's blog 

Last month I went to Tokyo by my car. It was a long distance of about 650km one way. It was good for me because nothing bad happened and I enjoyed it. The real highlight of the trip was a majestic scenery of Mt.Fuji. It took my breath away and made me take a few photos of it.

My car was fine, there was no trouble during the trip, and the fuel consumption was low. The car is old and cheap but the gas mileage was about 20 liters per 1km on the highway.

The trip took almost 12 hours one way. It took so much time because I strived to drive safe. So I kept in the slowest lane and had breaks almost every hour. Sometimes I felt it was tough but it was pleasant for me to drive to my favorite music and radio program recordings. And all the rest areas were good. These places were clean, and I enjoyed many good meals at their restaurants. I loved the Akatsuka parking area's fried oysters. I ate the dish 2 times during the trip.

Still, some difficult things happened, e.g. traffic congestions and driver fatigue in urban areas. Sometimes the traffic congestions tended to be terrible, especially in the evening. And it made my GPS arrival time estimation useless. The Metropolitan Expressway is extremely complex. Maybe I couldn't have made it without the GPS.

I used Shinagawa Intercity Parking, where I had reserved a parking space for 1000 yen. The very parking charge was 2000 yen per day. I think it was so convenient because sometimes it's hard to find a good parking space in urban areas (sometimes it is surprisingly expensive). I was able to reserve it easily because there is a lot of parking space. And there is a mechanical parking garage. So there's no need to worry about the car getting dirty or scratched.

And I used Rest-in Toki no sumika at Ashigara Service Area. It's in the rest area of the highway, so I didn't need to get off. It cost not too much, and I was able to make a reservation easily. It has a nice 24 hour hotspring and I loved it but sometimes it was too crowded. I used the regular bath in my room to avoid using the crowded hotspring.

Next time I wish to go somewhere I've never been to.