Searching for a Car Rental Company
While planning for our 4D3N Kawaguchi trip, we decided to rent a car instead of relying on the public transport. I have read that the frequency of the buses there is low and buses may be crowded, making it time consuming and inconvenient to travel around. This is especially true for our case, since we were traveling with our children and had several luggage to carry around.
Due to our rather last-minute travel plans, we could only start searching for a suitable car rental around 3 weeks before our trip. As I was searching the various rental companies in Kawaguchi, we discovered that the majority already had no available vehicle for our travel dates.
What Not To Choose – Check Reviews Before Renting
I did come across a small rental company with very competitive prices which were much lower than the rest. Just when I was going to make reservations with this company, I felt uneasy and decided to do a little more research. That led me to multiple negative online reviews about the company! Despite the cheaper upfront price, customers were complaining that the company had imposed high penalties over minor damages to their vehicle, such as scratches that were barely noticeable! This was immediately a red flag for us, no matter how cheap the prices were.
Car Rental Using Klook
Finally, we came across the car rental options offered by KLOOK. On the website, we just needed to enter the rental dates and location (type in ‘Kawaguchiko Station’) and the available car options were immediately presented to us! This was really convenient. We then chose the offer from HERTZ, a global well-known car rental company. We had rented cars overseas with HERTZ before, so we knew we could trust them. Strangely, when I tried searching for the same cars on HERTZ’s website, I was not able to find them. KLOOK probably had some exclusive partnership with them.
We were looking for a car that could comfortably fit the four of us and our luggage, so we chose the ‘Intermediate – (C) Toyota Corolla Sport or similar’ option. Although there were options for a larger vehicle, we decided not to. I would be unfamiliar with it, especially when driving on a unfamiliar setting in a foreign country. This could result in unnecessary risks.
The price was reasonable and we could finally rest our minds after making the reservation, knowing that we had finally secured a vehicle during our trip! I was expected to see a normal corolla car but in the end, they gave us Toyota Prius which was a hybrid hatchback car with a sleek design.
The total fare was 36,850 Yen, including a booster seat rental for our 9-year-old daughter. We had opted for the basic Collision Damage Waiver package since we had already bought a separate travel insurance that covered rental car damage too.
Note: Please remember to apply for your mandatory International Driving Permit.
Picking Up the Car
Upon arrival, we decided to have our lunch at one of the nearby restaurants first. It was almost 2pm then. Walking around the main town of Kawaguchiko, we discovered that most of the restaurants were closed at that timing or the available ones were unsuitable for us. Many visitors had arrived by bus like us and immediately took the local buses to travel to places of attraction or their hotels. By this weekday afternoon, the town was almost deserted. In the end, we decided to go pick up the car first and drive to other eating place for our lunch. I had to walk 7-10 minutes from Kawaguchiko Bus/ Train station to reach the car rental company.
- Rental Car Company: Toyota Rent-A-Car Fuji-Kawaguchiko [NOTE: We booked from Klook indirectly under the HERTZ and collected car from here. We were not able to book directly from the car company itself]
No Suitable Booster Seat
After the staff drove out our rental car, we inspected it together and we realized that the booster seat was too small; its size was more suited to a 3-year-old instead of my daughter’s age (9 years old). We then requested for a bigger seat but that was the only size that they had.
In the end, they helped to remove the booster seat from our reservation and asked for my credit card to make the refund. I was glad that they were able to do that at that time, but did not know that there were additional charges.
After returning to Singapore and reviewing our credit card history, we realized that beside the refund of the booster seat (1,500 Yen), there was also another additional charge by the car rental company to process the refund! It was due to the difference in currency exchange when the amount was converted from Japanese Yen to Singapore dollars. I was not aware that this would be charged as the company should absorb this type of fees since we did not accept the service. Fortunately, after explaining to the credit card company, they negotiated with the car rental company to waive off this fee.
NOTE: Please take note of this exchange rate issue in Japan whenever a company tried to reverse or cancel a credit card transaction (we encountered the same issue at our hotel too).
Driving the Rental Car in Fujikawaguchiko
The car was clean and we were satisfied with it. I connected my iPhone to the car (Toyota Prius) and used the car’s Apple CarPlay feature to activate the GPS. This helped us a lot with the navigation, since we were already very familiar with our own Google Maps app on the phone and we did not need to worry about language settings etc, if we were to use the car’s built-in GPS.
Having a rental car really made a huge experience in the convenience and freedom of exploring Fujikawaguchiko! We could not have imagined how inconvenient for us if we were to travel around with public transport, especially after watching the long queues of passengers trying to board the buses at the town’s bus terminal!
The roads were easy to drive on too, and other drivers were generally very friendly too. Parking is free and convenient, with ample parking space at the various places of interests. I would certainly recommend self-driving in Kawaguchi!
Scenic places we went which was helpful with the rental car
1. Sushiro Kawaguchiko BELL
It was already late at 3pm and most restaurants in the main town of Kawaguchiko near the station and bus terminals were not open. After googling, we found Sushiro Kawaguchiko BELL and went there for our first stop with the rental car. It was a great find as we really enjoyed the variety of sushi, desserts and the convenience of automated ordering from the tablet and subsequent automated delivery. It was also a bonus that when we alighted from the car after parking, we were greeted with a extremely clear view of snow-capped Mt.Fuji.
2. Momiji Tunnel
We could view beautiful autumn leaves here and take some instagrammable pictures . It was just a small roadside canal with trees planted along it but the array of colourful red and yellow was nice. We parked at a small car park for free and took a walk around it.
3. Oshino Hakkai
This was outside of Fujikawaguchiko, located between Lake Kawaguchiko and Lake Yamanakako in Oshino. This itinerary would not be possible for us to do without a car. We arrived there slightly before sunset and saw Mt.Fuji enveloped in an orange glow. It was also possible to stay until later at night due to the car.
4. Oishi Park
A rural park with gorgeous views of Mt. Fuji was totally on the opposite side of Lake Kawaguchiko to where our hotel (Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko) was. With a car, it took only 13 minutes to drive there.
- Read more about places we went to in Fujikawaguchiko on our rental car in post: 7-day Itinerary to Autumn in Japan and Fujikawaguchiko
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