Hello! By this point, if you've been watching along for awhile, you would've guessed that we love Japan's countryside and travelling by van 😄 We wanted to put all the info we've learnt over the past 4 years in one video to help you also travel this beautiful country in a campervan! Let us know if this is something you're interested in or if you have any questions at all!
Agreed - campervans are the way to go. Especially after the big hike to the JR Pass. My wife and I have used Japan Campers three times. Excellent service. The first time I used a small van and the last time we used one of their larger vans. Comfortable. If you have stayed in a Japanese hotel room you know that they are pretty small so an RV or large campervan is not so bad. You just have to make sure you know where the onsens, public bathhouses and showers are - toilets are everywhere. Because Japan is so safe, most are open 24/7
Love to hear that you've travelled by campervan so much in Japan and liked it! Agreed that an RV doesn't feel too cramped compared to the average hotel room here.
This was a great helpful video thank you so much. My husband and I have a motorhome in UK and are planning to come to Japan in December, we had not even considered this as an option!! But are now!!!
I'm not sure how much of an effort/cost it will be to get the motorhome over here and whether it's better than hiring a van over here for a short time. There's a lovely couple on TH-cam called "Tread The Globe" who did this recently, so I think their videos might have some good information about the process. But oh boy, it sounds like you're seasoned van lifers, so if you go this way, I'm sure you'll have a blast!
Great video. Thank you very much for the very practical and entertaining information. I have traveled with a campervan in other countries but not in Japan. But there is no doubt that it is one of the most prepared and pleasant countries to do so. Thanks again. All the best
What a lovely video, so detailed, and full of amazing information for campervanners like us. We are embarking on a 6-week campervanning trip to Japan in October, so excited about it, particularly after watching your video. We travel around the UK and Europe a lot in our small campervan and often stay in rest-stop, found via the "park for the night" app. I was wondering if you know any app that will help us find free rest spots? Thank you so much!!
So glad to hear this video is helpful for you guys! I can imagine there might be a lot of great English resources for travelling around the UK and Europe. I can’t say I’m aware of any equivalent app in Japan but usually we use the search term “roadside station” “michi no eki” or in Japanese “道の駅” in Google maps. This will show a whole network of free rest spots. Hope you guys have a fantastic 6-week trip! And if you have any other questions, just send them our way and we’ll try our best to answer them 😊
Hi guys brilliant video! Outside of visiting a major city hiring a motor home is definitely the way I’d like to see a lot of Japan. Thank you for including the phrases and little cards, as handy as translation apps are you can’t always rely upon a phone signal so having those printed off would make life so much easier. Now autumn is (finally) here and the heat has gone away have you had to make any major adjustments to living in the van or is it just a thicker duvet, etc? Thank you for sharing your experiences and advice with everyone. I really like that you get out into ‘harder to reach’ areas sometimes as you’ve shown some great off the ‘tourist route’ places that I now wouldn’t want to miss. Safe travels and best wishes to you both
Hello! So glad to hear you found it useful. We really enjoy helping plan and give advice when family and friends come visit haha so wanted to extend that out to TH-cam too. We're also so glad to hear you like watching about the lesser known places as we love sharing them 😊 Honestly, autumn has been wonderful so far. Way better than summer haha. We haven't had to change too much yet except sometimes use the diesel heater. It'll be interesting once winter comes though. We'd like to travel to some snowy areas so we'll see what happens then! As always, thanks so much for watching and commenting!
I love this informative Video!!! Always wanted to do a camper van but worried for all those requirements, rules, and spending. But getting courage for the infos you have provided. I love the country side!!! I can do those toilets anyday! Hahahaha. Thank you Aimee and Roy! Will watch again video with boyfriend later ... Thank you again ... And the editing it's good, but I still miss your old editing videos! Lol. Take care! Until the next video! Aloha from Hawaii.
Thank you for such a lovely comment! Glad to hear you love the countryside and are ok with the squat toilets haha! Our goal was to provide useful info to hopefully make getting a campervan here less overwhelming so really glad to hear you're getting some courage from it 😊 Thank you for watching!
I remember seeing your video "CAMPERVAN in JAPAN - Why you should do it!" last year, or maybe the year before that, but either way it stuck with me and we're finally renting an RV in Japan this year. Do you have a video on what to bring when going campervanning? If you do I can't seem to find it.
Oh my god! Let's gooooooooooooo! You guys are going to have an absolute blast!! I'm so excited for you! Hmm, we don't have a video about what gear to bring. I would say most of the campervan rental places offer the service to hire all the vanning essentials, like cooking equipment, sleeping gear (pillows/blankets etc), which I'd definitely recommend taking, because that means you really can just get away with only packing your standard travel essentials and not have to worry about such specific & bulky gear. Also - oh man, that video from years ago was one of our first videos. Thank you for coming back after going through that 😅
Hi there! Thank you so much for watching and your lovely comment! ☺️ We’ve popped that link down in the description. It’s the link to the Facebook group, within the Facebook group it’ll have the link the latest version of the shared Google Map, plus links to other resources and there’s also some pretty helpful posts/comment threads! Hope that helps! 🤗
Haha thank you! We can't take all the credit though. We hired an editor from a few videos back to help out as it was getting hard to keep putting out videos while both working full-time. He's been doing a fabulous job, so glad to hear you like the editing!
@@RoyandAimee That video was actually the main reason I decided to rent a van as well. Before that I was not sure if Japan is a good country to travel with a camper van. My trip will start tomorrow in Tokyo :) Thank you guys! Keep up doing these amazing videos :)
I'm curious what visa you are on to be able to live in Japan for 4 years? I want to vanlife in Japan too, but I didn't think you could get a visa for that long.
Hi there! We were first on working holiday visas, which as Australians, allowed us to live in and travel around Japan for 1.5 years. After that, we switched to working visas. So now we have our own van but we’re not living and travelling in it full-time. Usually just on weekends and sometimes working out of it during the week when work is slower 😊
Hey I just wanted to know If youv'e had any experience driving and parking the van inside major cities? Lets say I want to explore both the rural areas but also the main cities, would it be possible to visit them and sleep inside the van? Thanks!
Hi there! We have visited Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo while traveling in a van. It was a little bit of a hassle 😅 but not undoable. Each time, we made a rest stop outside the city our base and then caught a 30-40 minute train into the city to explore each day. We've heard of friends staying in coin parking lots in the city in their vans. It seems it varies lot by lot whether this is technically allowed. Some may have a sign saying sleeping overnight is not okay, while others should be fine if you keep a low profile.
Thanks a lot for the information. I stay in Yokohama. Any camper van rental company you know of where I can pick up the vehicle from the city (instead of from nearer to Narita airport)?
Thanks for watching! Hmmm, that’s a good one. We know Camgo Campervan runs their business from Machida City which is relatively close to the city. However, from getting quotes from other places we heard that some businesses may be happy to bring the van to a meet-up point in the city for an extra fee, but it depends on the business, so it never hurts to reach out and ask :)
You'll likely have to directly contact each rental company you're interested in and ask what they're capable of doing. That certain request sounds a bit difficult for smaller, independant companies, so my best suggestion would be to perhaps try companies that are bigger and possibly have more branches, perhaps Travellers Autobahn, or similar?
Ooh that's a good question. We've come across a black bear once while we were in our van and it crossed the road in front of us. It was at the end of this video: th-cam.com/video/5QIi0wm37PA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bG2rlzFXLqo61vlf Other than that, we actually haven't encountered any other deadly animals, no snakes or scary insects. Coming from Australia, it feels rather chill 😅
@@RoyandAimeeThank you for the reply! My friend and I are gonna do van trip from next month and since it’s summer,I was worried about the Japanese huge hornets haha
That's a fair concern haha. We've heard of them being around but actually never really noticed any ourselves. Hope you and your friend have a great van trip!
Hello! By this point, if you've been watching along for awhile, you would've guessed that we love Japan's countryside and travelling by van 😄
We wanted to put all the info we've learnt over the past 4 years in one video to help you also travel this beautiful country in a campervan!
Let us know if this is something you're interested in or if you have any questions at all!
Great video guys, Vanlife in Japan is the best ❤
Couldn't agree more 😆
Thank you so much for this video. I just booked a Jei Camper for 5 days and now just planning my route and stops etc
This was so helpful!
So glad that it was helpful! Hope you have a fantastic trip in the camper!
Agreed - campervans are the way to go. Especially after the big hike to the JR Pass. My wife and I have used Japan Campers three times. Excellent service. The first time I used a small van and the last time we used one of their larger vans. Comfortable. If you have stayed in a Japanese hotel room you know that they are pretty small so an RV or large campervan is not so bad. You just have to make sure you know where the onsens, public bathhouses and showers are - toilets are everywhere. Because Japan is so safe, most are open 24/7
Love to hear that you've travelled by campervan so much in Japan and liked it! Agreed that an RV doesn't feel too cramped compared to the average hotel room here.
Subscribed due to this video. So Helpful. Much appreciated!
Thank you so much! I hope you can get over here and enjoy the time of your life traveling around in a campervan!
I love this video, Aimee and Roy! That was so much fun to watch, especially the ending part!🤣
Thanks so much for watching Ken! Haha glad you liked the bloopers 😆
I recognized one of those vans!!! You two are killing it!!! Keep them coming out!
Haha! Could it perhaps be.... yours! 😂 Thank you for the super kind words!
This was a great helpful video thank you so much. My husband and I have a motorhome in UK and are planning to come to Japan in December, we had not even considered this as an option!! But are now!!!
I'm not sure how much of an effort/cost it will be to get the motorhome over here and whether it's better than hiring a van over here for a short time. There's a lovely couple on TH-cam called "Tread The Globe" who did this recently, so I think their videos might have some good information about the process. But oh boy, it sounds like you're seasoned van lifers, so if you go this way, I'm sure you'll have a blast!
Great video. Thank you very much for the very practical and entertaining information.
I have traveled with a campervan in other countries but not in Japan. But there is no doubt that it is one of the most prepared and pleasant countries to do so.
Thanks again. All the best
Nice! Really hope you get to travel by campervan in Japan one day then 😊 It'd be interesting to hear how it compares to other countries.
What a lovely video, so detailed, and full of amazing information for campervanners like us. We are embarking on a 6-week campervanning trip to Japan in October, so excited about it, particularly after watching your video. We travel around the UK and Europe a lot in our small campervan and often stay in rest-stop, found via the "park for the night" app. I was wondering if you know any app that will help us find free rest spots? Thank you so much!!
So glad to hear this video is helpful for you guys! I can imagine there might be a lot of great English resources for travelling around the UK and Europe. I can’t say I’m aware of any equivalent app in Japan but usually we use the search term “roadside station” “michi no eki” or in Japanese “道の駅” in Google maps. This will show a whole network of free rest spots. Hope you guys have a fantastic 6-week trip! And if you have any other questions, just send them our way and we’ll try our best to answer them 😊
Thank you 🙏❤️
Hi guys brilliant video! Outside of visiting a major city hiring a motor home is definitely the way I’d like to see a lot of Japan.
Thank you for including the phrases and little cards, as handy as translation apps are you can’t always rely upon a phone signal so having those printed off would make life so much easier.
Now autumn is (finally) here and the heat has gone away have you had to make any major adjustments to living in the van or is it just a thicker duvet, etc?
Thank you for sharing your experiences and advice with everyone. I really like that you get out into ‘harder to reach’ areas sometimes as you’ve shown some great off the ‘tourist route’ places that I now wouldn’t want to miss.
Safe travels and best wishes to you both
Hello! So glad to hear you found it useful. We really enjoy helping plan and give advice when family and friends come visit haha so wanted to extend that out to TH-cam too. We're also so glad to hear you like watching about the lesser known places as we love sharing them 😊
Honestly, autumn has been wonderful so far. Way better than summer haha. We haven't had to change too much yet except sometimes use the diesel heater. It'll be interesting once winter comes though. We'd like to travel to some snowy areas so we'll see what happens then! As always, thanks so much for watching and commenting!
This Channel is so cool!😍 I am planing a camping trip to Japan with my husband and 4 year old (than 6). The infos are so useful, thank you ♥️
Thank you! Oh man, you guys are going to have the time of your lives! I'm so excited for you!!
I love this informative Video!!! Always wanted to do a camper van but worried for all those requirements, rules, and spending. But getting courage for the infos you have provided. I love the country side!!! I can do those toilets anyday! Hahahaha. Thank you Aimee and Roy! Will watch again video with boyfriend later ... Thank you again ... And the editing it's good, but I still miss your old editing videos! Lol. Take care! Until the next video! Aloha from Hawaii.
Thank you for such a lovely comment! Glad to hear you love the countryside and are ok with the squat toilets haha! Our goal was to provide useful info to hopefully make getting a campervan here less overwhelming so really glad to hear you're getting some courage from it 😊 Thank you for watching!
Great Video! Thanks so much for the info, helped me and my partner out a lot for our upcoming journey south
So glad to hear that! Hope you guys have a wonderful trip!
What an awesone resource and great info. Thx
Glad you think so! Thank you for watching 😄
I remember seeing your video "CAMPERVAN in JAPAN - Why you should do it!" last year, or maybe the year before that, but either way it stuck with me and we're finally renting an RV in Japan this year. Do you have a video on what to bring when going campervanning? If you do I can't seem to find it.
Oh my god! Let's gooooooooooooo! You guys are going to have an absolute blast!! I'm so excited for you! Hmm, we don't have a video about what gear to bring. I would say most of the campervan rental places offer the service to hire all the vanning essentials, like cooking equipment, sleeping gear (pillows/blankets etc), which I'd definitely recommend taking, because that means you really can just get away with only packing your standard travel essentials and not have to worry about such specific & bulky gear.
Also - oh man, that video from years ago was one of our first videos. Thank you for coming back after going through that 😅
since you've visited almost all of japan, any camper van itineraries video?
Unfortunately no :( It's something we've thought about making for a while, but just haven't got around to it!
Very nice
GOD BLESS you both
Thank you for watching!
Hello! We will travel to Japan soon and were wondering about the link you mentioned 3:52. Can you pls send it? Thank you and great video!
Hi there! Thank you so much for watching and your lovely comment! ☺️
We’ve popped that link down in the description. It’s the link to the Facebook group, within the Facebook group it’ll have the link the latest version of the shared Google Map, plus links to other resources and there’s also some pretty helpful posts/comment threads! Hope that helps! 🤗
@@RoyandAimee Thank you sooo much! That is very helpful. Greetings from Berlin, Germany!
Your editing skills are getting better. Edit all my videos. lol
Haha thank you! We can't take all the credit though. We hired an editor from a few videos back to help out as it was getting hard to keep putting out videos while both working full-time. He's been doing a fabulous job, so glad to hear you like the editing!
Awesome video! ❤
Thank you for watching! ❤️
@@RoyandAimee That video was actually the main reason I decided to rent a van as well. Before that I was not sure if Japan is a good country to travel with a camper van. My trip will start tomorrow in Tokyo :) Thank you guys! Keep up doing these amazing videos :)
@@RicoHorn oooh hope you’re having a fabulous first few days on your trip! We’re really glad this inspired you to travel by campervan 😊
I'm curious what visa you are on to be able to live in Japan for 4 years? I want to vanlife in Japan too, but I didn't think you could get a visa for that long.
Hi there! We were first on working holiday visas, which as Australians, allowed us to live in and travel around Japan for 1.5 years. After that, we switched to working visas. So now we have our own van but we’re not living and travelling in it full-time. Usually just on weekends and sometimes working out of it during the week when work is slower 😊
@@RoyandAimee ah. Thanks for the response. I think I'm too old now for the working holiday visa and I'd prefer to not work if I can avoid it. 🤪
Hey I just wanted to know If youv'e had any experience driving and parking the van inside major cities? Lets say I want to explore both the rural areas but also the main cities, would it be possible to visit them and sleep inside the van? Thanks!
Hi there! We have visited Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo while traveling in a van. It was a little bit of a hassle 😅 but not undoable. Each time, we made a rest stop outside the city our base and then caught a 30-40 minute train into the city to explore each day. We've heard of friends staying in coin parking lots in the city in their vans. It seems it varies lot by lot whether this is technically allowed. Some may have a sign saying sleeping overnight is not okay, while others should be fine if you keep a low profile.
Thanks a lot for the information.
I stay in Yokohama. Any camper van rental company you know of where I can pick up the vehicle from the city (instead of from nearer to Narita airport)?
Thanks for watching!
Hmmm, that’s a good one. We know Camgo Campervan runs their business from Machida City which is relatively close to the city. However, from getting quotes from other places we heard that some businesses may be happy to bring the van to a meet-up point in the city for an extra fee, but it depends on the business, so it never hurts to reach out and ask :)
Can I rent it from Tokyo and drop it off at Nagoya airport?
You'll likely have to directly contact each rental company you're interested in and ask what they're capable of doing. That certain request sounds a bit difficult for smaller, independant companies, so my best suggestion would be to perhaps try companies that are bigger and possibly have more branches, perhaps Travellers Autobahn, or similar?
@@RoyandAimee thanks! We also found out that the additional fee is high 😁
I have a question,have you encountered any deadly animals or insects during the trip? Like in the wood or something…
Ooh that's a good question. We've come across a black bear once while we were in our van and it crossed the road in front of us. It was at the end of this video: th-cam.com/video/5QIi0wm37PA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bG2rlzFXLqo61vlf
Other than that, we actually haven't encountered any other deadly animals, no snakes or scary insects. Coming from Australia, it feels rather chill 😅
@@RoyandAimeeThank you for the reply! My friend and I are gonna do van trip from next month and since it’s summer,I was worried about the Japanese huge hornets haha
That's a fair concern haha. We've heard of them being around but actually never really noticed any ourselves. Hope you and your friend have a great van trip!