Tokyo to Nagano

Convenient

Like: The mountains with dense forests, the expressways that got us places in a reasonable time. The considerate drivers, no one toots or says angry things - they are too polite for that. ( Although I did get one toot in 14 days, a fair cop. I had to desperately cross three lanes to get to an exit before the lights changed. A big white car came out of nowhere tooted at me, we merged but didn't touch for a few seconds, I slowed down and he took off ahead. Phew!) The Japanese people are friendly everywhere in the country. The island of Hokkaido; it's less populated and it was great to see rice paddies, open fields and green hills. I loved going up into the mountains with our car and going through tree tunnels and seeing waterfalls. The 7/11 and Lawson stores; they had very good made up Japanese and Western meals and yummy sandwiches plus all the usual mini mart products. They have good carparks right outside the store. Having the car meant we could get to out of the way places, there was always hotel or guest house nearby. Mt Fuji, so good we had to stay there twice. The lakes nearby are lovely. Our car was a cross between a shopping trolley and a hairdryer but it was a nifty little car. Lots of interesting things to see - Rabbit Island, shrines on the top of mountains, gorges with rapids and waterfalls, Tokyo from the Tokyo Tower and lots, lots more.
Dislike: I read on Google that we couldn't get an ETC card but now I read that foreign visitors can get a 14 day Expressway Pass for 34000 yen. I am confused. Our car didn't have a device to signal the toll gates but could we have got one. An ETC card would have saved a lot of toll fees. On most of southern Honshu nearly every bit of the flat land has houses, factories and commercial buildings. Finally got to some open space north of Tokyo and saw rice paddies. Very few animals? No goats, sheep, chooks, ducks, pigs or birds. There were crows and a few ibis. Most animal farming seems to be done in huge sheds,