It was time to go back to Tokyo where we started our road trip. We had to return the car by November 16th.

Check out an interactive map of the places I visited here. I will update this map as I continue my journey. This post is about day 8-14.

One day, we drove from Morioka to Sendai, didn't see much of Sendai, and started driving towards Tokyo very early in the morning. We arrived at the rental car return at about 2 p.m. We had to pay about 140€ in highway tolls (which was a bit more than we expected). In total, we paid 630€ for car-related stuff for 9 days:

• 400€ for the car itself
• 140€ for the highway tolls
• 60€ for fuel - fuel was only 1€ per liter in Japan, and they gave us a very fuel efficient hybrid car that consumed only about 4l/100km
• 30€ for parking - much cheaper than I expected since we stayed in Sendai and Morioka and parked right at the hotel in the middle of the city.

Before we started the trip, we debated if we needed winter tires. Since we were going up north, and snow can fall as early as November in some regions of Japan, we were really unsure if winter tires would be necessary. Luckily, we ended up not booking a car with winter tires, as it was not necessary at all. Winter tires alone would have cost us another 200-400€, depending on the rental company.

We drove about 1200-1400km (did not write down the exact mileage).

After the car stuff was done, we went to our AirBnB. This was the first time after 9 days in Japan that I took a train of any kind. It was also my first time in Tokyo on this trip.

I felt right at home in Tokyo!

We went shopping, had dinner and then I met a friend at Skytree.On the way to Skytree, I saw this plant shop that caught my eye. I love these totally chaotic but beautiful places in Japan.Finally, we went up to the Skytree to see Tokyo at night. After coming to Japan so many times, this was my first time going up Tokyo Skytree and it was a beautiful experience. Behind the river, you can see the highway that we just came down a few hours before when we entered Tokyo from Sendai.We had some food and beers and Mikkeler Kanda, which felt strangely European in a good way.

I took the train back to the AirBnB around 10pm and was a bit shocked that the buses had already stopped running (it was Saturday night). Tokyo is very village-like sometimes.

Two Days in Tokyo

I spent two days in Tokyo shopping, visiting a friend and doing some sightseeing, but I didn't take any photos to share here. Tokyo is stressful. Getting from place to place takes a long time.

I had a few more stops planned before I went home.

The trip I planned was Nagano - Matsumoto - Takayama, which I found recommended on various Japan-related sites as a solid choice if you want to see some places off the beaten path.

Nagano

Nagano is a quite run-down city with not a lot of appeal in my opinion. Wide roads, a bit dirty. Nagano also has a subway system but their entrances look like stuff from a horror-movie (and this is in the center of the city!). I decided to not stretch my stay for too long and left early on the next morning.One thing I really liked about Nagano: The cafes and restaurants. I found the best coffee in Japan in Nagano, made by a lovely old lady. It was delicious! The picture above was taken at that cafe. See wanderlog for more info.