The crew
Three blokes, six nights, no rest days.
The planning committee
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An oldieAli · Leo · Fadi
Mon 12 – Sun 18 October 2026 · Tokyo · Hakone · Osaka · Kyoto
Three blokes, six nights, no rest days.
The planning committeePrevious formAn oldieFlights — Ali & Fadi. China Eastern, order 1143-431-471. Out Sydney Sun 11 Oct 21:30, into Narita Mon 12 Oct 12:50 (17h20, 1 stop). Back Narita Sun 18 Oct 16:55, into Sydney Mon 19 Oct 10:00 (15h05, 1 stop). A$1,275 each.
Leo is on his own flights — over earlier for work.
Hotel, nights 1–2. APA Hotel Higashi Shinjuku Kabukicho, 2-19-14 Kabukicho. Three single rooms, in Mon 12th from 15:00, out Wed 14th by 10:00. A$812.34 total, about A$271 each. Free cancellation until 10 Oct.
| Nights | Where | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 12 – Tue 13 | APA Higashi Shinjuku Kabukicho, 3 single rooms | Booked |
| Wed 14 | Tokyo — Shinjuku or Shibuya, near the GT-R return | Book now |
| Thu 15 – Fri 16 | Osaka — Namba, walkable to Dotonbori | Soon |
| Sat 17 | Tokyo — for the Daikoku pickup | Book now |
Wednesday and Saturday are the ones to lock early — mid-October is peak autumn season and Shinjuku fills up. Osaka can wait a bit, but the Friday is a Friday.
Omoshiro Rent-a-Car's Noda head office is the pick. Six R35s on the fleet, plus four R34s, two R33s, two R32s, a Supra RZ-S and an RX-7 Type RS — 87 cars in total. The reason it wins isn't the price, it's one line in their terms: “there is no mileage limit for our service”. Everyone else caps you, and a Fuji-plus-Hakone loop is about 380km.
| Option | What we get | Each |
|---|---|---|
| A. Omoshiro Noda 9-hour course RECOMMENDED |
10:00 to 19:00, Hakone. R35 Black Edition, 485ps, four seats. ¥41,000 + CDW ¥4,400 + ETC ¥550. Noda to Hakone is 170km / 2h15, leaving four and a half hours on the Turnpike and the Ashinoko Skyline. No mileage limit. On a clear day Lake Ashi gives us Fuji without the 300km round trip. Car back the same night, so Thursday's train stays clean. | A$174 |
| B. Omoshiro Noda 24-hour course if Fuji is a must |
10:00 Wed to 10:00 Thu, ¥58,000. Kawaguchiko and Hakone, no mileage worry. Two costs: we're back at Noda at 10 on Thursday, which eats the Thursday afternoon in Osaka; and an R35 is too wide for flap-type and mechanical car parks, so it needs a flat open lot overnight. | A$240 |
| C. Fun2Drive guided, Hakone |
Majestic Mt. Fuji Drive, 4.5 hours including lunch, launching October 2026 — Fuji and Hakone, guided in convoy behind a pace car. ¥82,980 (A$748) at October peak. Dearest, but they're based at Hakone so no hire time is spent crossing Tokyo, and no deposit or mileage exposure. Add ~¥5,000 (A$45) each for the Romancecar. | A$321 |
| D. Car Rental Tokyo fallback only |
2020MY R35, 24 hours, ¥59,800 + tax (A$539). Similar money to B but capped at 400km against a 380km route. Worth it only if Omoshiro has nothing free on the 14th — check both. | A$246 |
| Option | Detail | Each |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Drift GTR35-R Mark & John's pick |
3–3.5 hours, 4.7 from 172 reviews. Starts at Aomi in Koto City, two hours at Daikoku PA, then Odaiba, Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and Shibuya Crossing. Fuel, tolls, insurance and hotel drop-off included. Book all three spots and it becomes a private VIP tour with free hotel pickup. Worth knowing: we're passengers, not drivers — a pro drives. | US$168 ~A$259 |
| Daikoku Car Meet run cheaper |
Same idea, 3.5 hours, hotel pickup available, 4.9 from 116 reviews. About 40% less. | US$102 ~A$157 |
| Tokyo JDM Tour most reviewed |
Daikoku PA with tuned JDM cars, Skyline GT-R, RX-7. 3–4 hours, 4.8 from 1,158 reviews — much the biggest sample, which counts on a night that depends on who turns up. | US$113 ~A$174 |
USD converted at roughly A$1.54 to the dollar — check the rate when you book. Daikoku has no published schedule and police sometimes close it, so treat it as very likely rather than guaranteed. The operator is the hedge — they'll pivot to Tatsumi PA or Umihotaru if it's shut.
| Where | When | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Nissan Global HQ Gallery Yokohama Station east exit |
Tuesday. Weekdays 10:00–18:00 | Free |
| NISMO Showroom Daikoku-cho, Tsurumi-ku |
Weekends only, 10:00–17:00 — so Saturday, before Daikoku | Free |
| Nissan Heritage Collection Zama — the 400-car one |
Runs ~10 days a month, by appointment. October dates not released yet — expected 5 September, 12:00 Japan time | Free |
Three tiers, because the spread depends on what we hire and how hard we go at night. AUD per person, converted at ¥111 = A$1. Shared costs already split three ways. Leo — your airfare will differ, swap it into the top line.
| Item | Lean | Mid | Loose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flights Ali + Fadi, booked | $1,275 | $1,275 | $1,275 |
| Hotels A$271 committed + 4 nights to book | $533 | $641 | $775 |
| Wed GT-R Omoshiro 9h / 24h / Fun2Drive | $174 | $240 | $321 |
| Sat Daikoku cheap run / the recommended one | $157 | $259 | $259 |
| Trains Nozomi both ways is A$265 of this | $412 | $412 | $412 |
| Street karts Tuesday, one each | $99 | $140 | $180 |
| Food 7 days at A$45–81 | $315 | $420 | $560 |
| Drinks and nights out five heavy ones | $325 | $510 | $720 |
| IDP NRMA, one-off | $50 | $50 | $50 |
| Watches and shopping excludes the actual watch | $150 | $350 | $600 |
| Contingency 10% excl. flights | $222 | $302 | $388 |
| TOTAL, ALL IN | $3,712 | $4,599 | $5,540 |
| Excluding flights | $2,437 | $3,324 | $4,265 |
Free, and worth knowing: the Nissan Global HQ Gallery, the NISMO showroom and the Heritage Collection at Zama are all no charge. The two lines we can actually move are nights out and shopping — they swing about A$1,000 a head between lean and loose; everything else is close to fixed.
Japan is more cash-based than you'd expect. Small bars, Golden Gai and market stalls are all cash. ATMs that take foreign cards are mostly 7-Eleven and Japan Post — 7-Elevens are everywhere, so it's never a real problem, just don't assume your card works in a six-seat bar.
Suica in Apple Wallet covers metro, convenience stores and most vending machines. Set it up on the train in from Narita and load ¥5,000 (A$45) to start.
Booking order: IDPs first, then the Wednesday and Saturday Tokyo hotels, then the GT-R, then the Daikoku tour, then the Nozomi seats, then the karts. Ticks are saved in your own browser, so each of us has our own copy of the list.
The main risk to three foreign men on a night out in Tokyo is not street crime — Japan is extremely safe — it's bottakuri, the rip-off bar. A friendly English-speaking tout walks you upstairs and the bill arrives at ten times what you expected. Cards get run more than once. In the worse cases drinks are spiked and the bill is settled while you're not tracking. The US Embassy in Tokyo has issued drink-spiking warnings naming Roppongi and Kabukicho specifically. Our hotel is in Kabukicho, so this isn't theoretical.
The rules: never go anywhere with a street tout, however charming and however good his English — and don't relax because he's a fellow foreigner, which is the usual setup. Ground-floor venues you can see into from the street. Only sit where prices are posted at the door. Watch your drink poured. Nobody splits off alone. Carry a card you can freeze from your phone. Skip Roppongi entirely — Shibuya and Shinjuku give you everything it does with a fraction of the nonsense.
The permit. 1949 Geneva IDP from NRMA, carried with your Australian licence and passport. Needed for the GT-R and the street karts. You cannot obtain one in Japan.
Drink driving. Effectively zero tolerance, and the penalties reach passengers who knowingly let a drunk driver drive. Wednesday is the night to moderate.
Which side. Left, same as home. Speed limits are lower than you'd expect and camera-enforced. Expressway limits are generally 100km/h and traffic genuinely sticks to them.
Japan is one of the best places in the world to buy a used Swiss watch. Dealers must be licensed under the Antique Dealings Act, so the grey market is unusually clean and fakes are rare in established shops. Japanese ownership culture is fastidious — boxes, papers and service records survive. And a soft yen has kept pre-owned sport Rolex below European and US pricing. Three cracks at it: Nakano on the Tuesday, Shinsaibashi on the Thursday, Ginza on the Saturday.
The tax maths, and it matters. Good timing on the Japanese side: Japan replaces tax-free shopping with a pay-first, refund-at-the-airport model on 1 November 2026, two weeks after we fly home — so we get the old, simpler system, with the 10% consumption tax off at the till. Minimum ¥5,000 (A$45) per store per day, passport required.
The sting is at our end. The duty-free concession coming into Australia is A$900 of general goods per adult, and watches count. Over that and GST at 10% applies. Three mates cannot pool concessions — only families travelling together can. A A$4,000 watch: save A$400 of Japanese tax, pay about A$400 of Australian GST, landed around A$4,400. The two taxes cancel out, so the whole case for buying in Japan rests on the base price being genuinely lower. Check Chrono24 before you fly, and declare it on the incoming passenger card.
Straight answer: cold approaches in Japan land badly, and that's cultural rather than anything about you. What works is venue choice — standing bars, shared tables and small counters where talking to strangers is the format rather than an intrusion.
Tokyo: Tasuichi in Shibuya for standing-bar chaos, Nonbei Yokocho and Shibuya Yokocho alleys, Golden Gai for six-seat bars where you talk to whoever's there.
Osaka: Amerikamura — Bar Mustang, Bar Nayuta, Rock Bar Cherry Bomb, and The Drunken Clam in Namba. Markedly more direct and more talkative than Tokyo.