Summer Holiday

So the rainy season is over and summer is here now in Japan. Children’s summer holidays started which is going to last until the end of August. At JPC, it is our annual holiday time too. It will be for a week, this year from 11th to 16th of August for 8 days including the weekend. As I mentioned in our mail magazine issue #25, some places like USS Tokyo are still going to have auctions but please note that we cannot take your orders during this time. However, even if they do have auctions, they are usually “open, but not doing business”, as there will not be many cars listed.

I am going to the mountain called “the Northern Alps in Japan” with my family for a 2 night 3 day trip by car. It is approximately a 1000Km round trip from Tokyo. Even after the oil price went up, if it is JPY 50 up per litre, it will only be JPY 5000 more expensive than usual. For highways, we use the ETC(Electronic Collection System) to get a discount. When you have this system on your car, you do not have to stop at the toll booths and automatically get charged to your credit card later. The government is trying to promote the use of the system at the moment by giving a 40% special discount if you go through the booths between 12:00am and 4am. It is about 20 minutes drive from my place to the nearest toll booth, so if we leave home at 3:30 in the morning to get on the highway before 4:00, we will be OK. Using your brain, you can still make it more economical to use a car than paying train tickets for a family of 4. (I know it is not eco-friendly…)

There is another attraction: you can stop at service areas which are situated every 50Km. They have rest areas, shops, restaurants and gas stations and you can buy some local products of the area and have meals. At some service areas, farmers bring their fruit & vegetables to sell them directly. I found them a lot cheaper and fresher than buying them in Tokyo. There are also some service areas which have public baths and accommodation. Quite often, I stop at a service area in Kanagawa Prefecture to have a bath on the way from my parents’ in Osaka. This is to use this 40% night time discount, I have to adjust time so that I can drive through the toll booth after 12:00am as well as to ease fatigue. If I have a bath there, when I get home, I can go straight to bed without a bath. It is efficient, too. I plan my holiday very carefully because I do not have many. When we go out for a long trip like this one, I want to make it as economical but as fulfilling as possible.

I will tell you about our holiday when I come back. Please hang in there!


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★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955