*Note: All price conversions are current as of Fall 2014. If you are reading this after the fact, know that conversion rates change all the time and you may want to recheck them. This is the website I use to convert USD (and others) to JPY. Thank you!

I remember writing about driving in Japan before I came here. I didn’t want a car, I wanted to glamorously ride the train to work like you see in movies. But the trains here are anything but glamorous (the shinkansen being an exception, I think); they’re kind of expensive and very crowded. They also don’t get you all the way there; with a train there’s always some walking involved, and while that’s nice on a perfect sunny day, what about those typhoons blowing through or the stifling humidity in the summer? No fun! I thought having a car would be a bother, I thought it would be expensive. And I certainly didn’t want to drive on the wrong side of the road! Continue reading →