We heard at 3 pm that the vehicle had been cleared by customs -no taxes, no duty! But the car could not be released until the bill was paid! This had to be paid to the Australian agent, and we couldn't do it ourselves because of bank procedures. Luckily Emma came to the rescue again, and bill was paid within minutes, and we had the receipt very quickly. But could we wait until 30th to pick it up, because the next couple of days are public holidays? Answer? -NO WAY!
We got ourselves over there, threw everything into the car. Customs came and gave us the carnet back, and the shipping agent had a fork-lift standing by to put the tent back on the roof. With only two of the bolts in the tent we drove out of the shipping yard, just across the road and finished the job of attaching the tent, allowing the workers to move on.
First priority was to find a service station to get fuel. At the first intersection Joe ran through a red light! But luckily, since it was after knock off time everyone was gone from the industrial area, and nobody saw us! We found the service station easily, then after one wrong turn found the highway. 3 Toll gates later and we were well put of a Osaka. We then took an exit and found ourselves on a minor road, in mountainous country, and in the rain. Joe saw a symbol which looked a bit like the rest area signs at home. We pulled in and it was truck rest area! It was right on a busy (albeit minor) road, but we were staying put! We put the roof down to block put the noise and went to sleep.
In the morning a grocery store had set up next to us, with all sorts of vegetables. We stocked up and off we went again.
Pretty soon we were really in the mountains. YAY! And the scenery that unfolded was everything we wanted to find!
Yep! We really have the Earthcruiser in Japan!
29/4/14
We "camped" in a parking lot near an onsen. We parked next to a Campervan! It was similar to a lot of motorhomes in Australia, and was owned by a Japanese couple who had been camping for 4 months. Language problems prevented us finding out too much about them or their travels, but they had a good look over our vehicle, and exclamations and gestures made it pretty clear what they thought!
We also met a group of young Americans who were backpacking/walking the pilgrim trail. They were excited by our vehicle. They declared us their "travel heroes"! We haven't been anyone's heroes for awhile so that made our day!
It seems clear that camping in Japan is going to be easy, with plenty of places to camp in beautiful surroundings, and camping in parking areas in an emergency is quite OK by the authorities (so far anyway). I think it is going to be all we had hoped for. :)
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