Saturday January 28th 2023 - Renting car and driving to Sendai - Japan trip for work, day 7, not much walking

It's 6:45 pm as I write this and there is just SO much to tell.

Firstly, I finally slept well last night (Thursday night's sleep was ok too but the rest of the nights not at all good).  I gathered all the stuff I arrived with plus the many candy snacks I'm going home with and headed out of the hotel at about 7 am, a little earlier than I expected to be leaving. I thanked the front desk person for the wonderful experience and picked up the oh so vital for work itemized inventory.  One (of many) nice things about staying in a hotel in Japan is the lack of upcharges.  Every day I had 2 new bottles of water in my room, included.  Wi-Fi, just part of staying there no option or attempt to sell you 'premium' wi-fi etc.

Getting to Narita was awful.  Though I was standing at a platform that said Narita on it, I guess the first train that pulled up was not Narita bound but at first it was going North and seemed right so I had settled in for the 60-minute long ride and only double checked with the compass after several express stops later when I realized I was heading South not NorthEast as I should be.  The station I got out at was very JP only and absolutely nothing I could see said Narita or matched what Google maps was saying.  It was very aggravating. I eventually took a train back towards Shinagawa (wher I started) and eventually got on the Asakusa train that was a Narita Access Express train.  Their idea of Express and mine aren't really aligned well.  To be certain, it did (especially past Skytree) zoom though a lot of stations without stopping but there were 13 stops from where I go on to Skytree and only after then did the stops become express like and still there were 15 stops to go to Narita.  There is at least one faster trip to Narita but it is much more expensive and requires making a reservation.  Plus, leaving so early I thought I had nothing but time.  

Despite my mistakes and the realities of far-flung Narita, I DID make it to the airport right at 9 am which was my designated rental car pickup time.  I opted to have a McBreakfast first. That line was very slow and then it took probably 8-10 minutes to get the food after ordering.  I then headed down a few elevators to get down to the 2nd level where the Toyota rental counter is located. Unforately, what they don't really go out of their way to tell you at least on the English site, is that there is nothing there but a phone.  And that connected me to a 45 second long all Japnese recording then hung up on me.  I imagine the recording said in a long winded fashion 'the bus will arrive soon' and the signage said to go to bust stop 29.  I did, it was cold and soon I was joined by at first 2 others and eventually about 7 of us in total paced around outside in the breezy 33F degree  wind tunnel airport roadway thing for 30 miserable minutes.  Buses for Avis/National/Enterprise came and went twice.  A bus for some other company came and went. Then finally our Hertz/Toyota bus.  All the other people who waited less long than I did hurried onto the bus.  One couple had basically recreated the Beverly Hllbilles opening scene with their huge pile of luggage that completely filled 2 luggage carts.  I asked the driver if I could sit up front with him because the back of the bus was pretty well full.  The bus ride was pretty long, maybe 15 minutes.  Then I arrived at the gates of hell... I mean the rental office, having filled out a little information form as requested on the bus.  This cramped office was, by far, the worst hour of my trip so far.  There were SEVEN noisy children and about 15 adults from Thailand, China, India and myself.  There were only 3 parties in front of me and 3 counter workers but the process was unbelievably ghetto and slow.  About 25 minutes passed before I could take my stand at the counter of misery.

I reserved my car to go from Tokyo to Sendai, about 212 miles and 4 hours and 15 minutes without stopping. Of course it was all shows in KM.  Either way, some quick math revealed that despite the toll expressway, the average speed of this journey would be under 80 KPH, not very fast at all.  So I was eager to get on with it.  But the rental car guy tried at least 4 different ways to disuade me from daring to take a rental car to Sendai without winter tires.  I had considered winter tires when I made the rental (the cost is nominal) but decided that I was going on a toll road, staying downtown and seemingly unlikely to need (or want to deal with) winter weather capable tires for this short trip.  First he told me Sendai is a snowy region.  Then he pulled out a full page list saying Toyota would have no part of my liability if something happened because I chose to take a car without winter tires.  At one point I said if winter tires are required then fine I'll take a car with winter tires. But no, one of the many papers said it was not possible to change your mind on that without 24 hours notice.  Next came a map (seemingly an unlabeled mystery map that could have been anywhere) and it showed grey shaded areas where it was not advised to drive without winter tires.  Yukie had just taken the Shinkansen train to Sendai literally about the same time I arrived at Narita and she said there was a tiny amount of snow on the fields but the roads all appeared dry.  Next he hand wrote a little note saying he recommended I change my destination if possible.  I was pretty seething.  I get trying to save people from making a mistake but this was absolutely insane.  With one last passive aggressive presentation of the 10 day forecast for Sendai which he printed out for me he finally seemed resigned to allowing me to drive my rental can into a snowy ditch.  Even after that enormous snow tire production it still took a good 10 minutes to get through the actual transaction with passport and international driving permit checks, several forms to sign, verifying the cost, running the credit card and finally meeting outside to inspect a car.  It was now 11:30.  Two and a half HOURS after arriving at Narita.

With that enormous rant over, the actual car is, surprisingly, not bad,  It's a Toyota Corolla Touring. I'm not sure what touring means here.  In the US that's sometimes the top trim level but this car isn't luxe.  It's a middle of the road config I think. No alloy wheels but it has all the driving aids including radar cruise control.  No premium stereo (and oddly, no Car Play) but built in GPS.  It is a hybrid too and you can tell Toyota constantly improves their Hybrid Synergy Drive system.  The engine start/stops are very refined on this car. The engine noise is impressively hushed and the RPM's don't go roaring up at the slightest incline. Even more significantly, it is perfectly willing to stop the engine and drive on flat areas even at highway speeds.  Not being a plug-in hybrid, its ability to propel on battery isn't huge but even without trying to game it I ended up staying in battery mode during most of the city driving.  Overall, it's a perfectly capable and pleasant vehicle that does its job very well for the price point it should sell at.  Other than beeping a lot (lane departure, speed limit sign detected and a few other pretty frequent beeps I never could figure out), it drove pretty well. While engine noise was very well muted, road noise was booming on some rough pavement grains.  The stereo lacks any oomph or punch but doesn't sound uncontrolled or tinny. It's basically at least 'okay' in every way but not fooling anybody into thinking they bought a Lexus.

Astonishingly, the driving, even on the regular city streets, was SUPER easy.  I think going to Ireland with David many years ago somehow primed the pump. At the time, driving in Ireland was ulcer inducing for both of us.  But Japan has no roundabouts, no turns on red lights, no weird priority rules (like Germany), no high speeds (sadly) and a very calm driving demeanor.  

Despite being on a toll road (about 43 dollars, yikes) at least half the distance today was posted for a stupefyingly slow 70 KPH and the highest speed limit I actually saw was 80 KPH, still very slow.  However, it seemed like there was a lot of area where they displayed the same red circle on white background LED speed limit signs but no LED numbers were lit. And those sections were always on the widest multi lane sections and seemingly the speed limit was, I guess, 100 KPH.  Whatever the speed limit sign said or didn't say, the actual reality was not 'all Japanese people obey every rule to perfection' that the Internet says.  Trucks, Kei cars and a small percentage of normal cars went kind of sort of 70 - 80 KPH in the 70 zones.  About 1/2 of all the traffic (which was fairly light I think) went about 100-110 KPH regardless of what the signs said.  And maybe about 10% of the cars, at least sometimes, went quite fast, perhaps 130 KPH or more but I don't think people stayed at that speed for long.  And for most of the drive you couldn't because the road never went more than a few dozen KM it seemed without narrowing temporarily down to 1 lane each direction. Not for construction or anything lots of it was just never built with 4 lanes.  It was always divided and limited access but it was far from all 4 laned. Passing zones were frequent and much appreciated because getting stuck behind the 70 KPH people was very annoying.  And at NO point could you use the oncoming lane to pass.  It was always physically divided by at least big bumpy things and tall reflective plastic poles and often a cable or rail.  Sort of an odd hybrid of freeway and 2 lane road which those of us who are really road geeky call 'Super 2' roads.  Limited access, maybe wide lanes and shoulders etc etc but not multi laned each direction.  

I was mostly on the Joban Expressway which I'm sure doesn't represent every expressway and certainly not every road in the whole country.  But I can see why automakers brag that their cars are 'autobahn born or tested' not 'Joban born or tested'.  Driving here is pretty controlled and clamped down.  Still, after 6 days in a Tokyo hotel room and an office full of potential etiquette mistakes (plus long days and nights working), I was in high spirits today driving. I sang along with a lot of country songs, some Capitol Steps, some Weird Al and even a brief cry singing along with the too soon departed Leslie Jordan on 'This Little Light of Mine'.   I had a very satisfying and very Japanese experience at one of the many many service station/rest areas along the way.  Port cutlet with curry and rice.  So good, so filling.  Another one of those mysterious ticket vending things.  Even using Google translate I had to 'sumimasen' my way into asking a fellow customer for help.  The lunch, as with every lunch I've had so far this whole trip, came up in just a minute or two.  It's amazing how many difference places, from obviously fast food to seemingly really nice sit down places can whip out lunches for the masses so quickly.

The rest of the drive was the same.  Pretty slow average speeds but a lot of cool tunnels and one type of highway sign that I never would have predicted.  There were about 10 signs every few KM for about 40 KM showing the radiation dose being measured from the nearby melted down Fukushima plant which I think could be seen briefly along the coast.  It took several of them before I could figure out what they were indicating.  It used a combination of the greek (?) symbol for micro and the western abbreviation mSv which didn't immediately click in my head.  Very interesting.  And therer were 15 or 16 tunnels all of which are named and numbered by signage near the portals.  At least 3 were more than 1.5 KM and I think one was at least 3 KM long.  And of all the places they could have saved a lot of money, every single tunnel was dual laned and two separate bores.  I guess they wanted to get that expensive difficult work done right the first time.  Compared to tunneling ANY other expansions will be easier and less expensive to do later.

Ok, we've finally made it to arriving in Sendai. The hotel is lovely.  Only a handful of rooms on each floor, almost a boutique hotel.  I got to have 2 novel Japan experiences here already in my first few hours since arriving.  One, the parking attendant led me thought he somewhat touchy process of driving the car (which I had to do myself, they don't do it for you) onto the car robot parking machine.  I got to use the cool mirror folding button that all modern JP cars have.  And then very carefully creep (or in the case of most hybrids, lurch and stop, lurch and stop) into the very small box that closes after you exit and then whisks your car away on its little parking plate.  I said 'bye car' for the parking guy's benefit (he laughed).  The hotel has a public bath which, after asking questions at the front desk, watching a YouTube video then asking a few more questions at the front desk, I was finally ready to experience.  It was very relaxing and so very Japanese with the gender segregated baths, the pre-rinsing (which they talk about more as a warming up) ritual and then the post-soak rinse or full wash etc.  And all the little details of putting your skippers on the shoe cubby in the same numbered hole as you selected for your locker etc. It isn't overly complicated but it is most certainly not the Hampton Inn pool with screeching unattended children and people jumping in and out at will. It all has a certain ritual to it.

So.... That's my day so far.  Despite the horrid rental car saga which I'm trying to put out of my mind, the rest of today has been pure adventure.  And music.  And scenery... and new experiences from start to finish.  I might go find a little dinner now that it is after 8 pm.  Hopefully Saturday night in Sendai is not too late for dinner.