Issue 2 - September 2026: We’re Expanding to Kyoto & Hiroshima!

 

Hey friends,

 

Welcome back to the second edition of the Tokyo Campervans newsletter. Last month we were running away from the heat. This month we're doing the opposite — planning where to chase something, because autumn is the single best season to have a van in Japan and we want to talk about it before it arrives.

 

Fall in Japan doesn't happen all at once. It rolls down the country from north to south over about two months, which means if you have wheels and a bed you can basically follow it. That's the theme of this issue: the fall spots we want to get to in 2026.

 

But first, some genuinely big news on our end.

 

Here is what we are covering today:

 

1. 🗾 Big News: We're Expanding to Kyoto & Hiroshima

2. 🍁 Destination Highlight: Early Autumn in Tohoku (Aomori & Iwate)

3. 🐕 Meet the Themed Vans (And Help Us Pick the Next One)

4. ♨️ VanLife Tip of the Month: What to Do About Showers

 

 

🗾 Big News: We're Expanding to Kyoto & Hiroshima

Since day one, most Tokyo Campervans trips have started in Tokyo. That's great if you're heading north or into the Alps, and while we do offer van pick ups and drop offs anywhere in the country, it’s meant an extra cost to pay our drivers to travel to far out locations. A lot of you have written to us saying some version of: "I'd love to do this, but I'm only in Kansai" or "I'm flying into Hiroshima, is that possible?"

 

Now it is. We now have pickup and dropoff locations in both Kyoto and Hiroshima.

 

Here's why those two, specifically.

 

Kyoto unlocks the entire Kansai and Hokuriku side of the country. Most people who come to Kyoto stay inside Kyoto, which is exactly why the city center feels the way it does in peak season. With a van you can sleep somewhere quiet and drive in for a sunrise temple visit, then leave. Or skip the city entirely and go north, the Kyo Tango coast, Amanohashidate, the Sea of Japan, Lake Biwa, the Kumano Kodo. It's a two-hour drive to landscapes almost nobody flying into Kansai ever sees.

 

Hiroshima is the home of our partner Kirameki, which opens up access to the countryside of Japan in an intimate way that’s hard to access otherwise. Hiroshima is also the gateway to the Seto Inland Sea, and we think this might actually be the most underrated campervan region in Japan. The Shimanami Kaido, the island-hopping highway from Onomichi down to Imabari on Shikoku, is one of the greatest drives anywhere in the world, crossing a chain of bridges and small citrus-growing islands. Miyajima, the Setouchi art islands, and a coastline of tiny port towns are all within a day. And it puts Shikoku and Kyushu in comfortable reach for longer trips.

 

For those of you who've been waiting on us to exist somewhere other than Tokyo: this one's for you. Full pickup and van details are on the site at TokyoCampervans.com

 

 

🍁 Destination Highlight: Early Autumn in Tohoku (Aomori & Iwate)

Everyone knows about autumn leaves in Kyoto. Far fewer people know that the season starts about six weeks earlier, 700km north, in the mountains of Tohoku, and that up there you can have it more or less to yourself.

 

We haven't made this trip yet. It's the one at the very top of our own list for this fall, and we've spent an embarrassing number of evenings mapping it out. Here's the route we keep coming back to.

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The Hachimantai Aspite Line

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This is the centerpiece. The Aspite Line is a mountain road that climbs across the Hachimantai plateau, connecting Iwate and Akita prefectures, topping out near the summit area at around 1,600m. In spring it's famous for its snow corridor. In autumn it's just an enormous, wide-open sweep of color, and because you're so high up, the peak tends to hit in early October, while the rest of Japan is still green.

 

The trick with driving it is that the mountain closes on its own schedule:

 

• Night closures start partway through October. The gates shut in the late afternoon and reopen in the morning, so you cannot plan on being up there after dark.

• Full winter closure runs from roughly early November until late April.

 

The exact dates get announced by the prefecture each year and can shift with the first snowfall, so check before you commit to the drive. The practical takeaway for van travel: treat the Aspite Line as a daytime drive and sleep lower down. Don't plan to overnight at the top.

 

Once you're up there, the walking is easy and worth it. From the parking area near the summit there's a network of short trails, anywhere from about 40 minutes to two hours, that loop past alpine ponds, including Hachiman-numa, a crater pond with a roughly one-kilometer path around it.

 

And then the onsen, because this road is lined with them:

 

• Toshichi Onsen (藤七温泉) sits at about 1,400m, the highest hot spring in Tohoku, with open-air baths looking straight out over the mountains. It's seasonal, open roughly late April to late October, so autumn is your last window.

• Goshogake Onsen (後生掛温泉) is a 300-year-old single-inn hot spring right on the road, sitting in a field of steam vents and mud pots. It's a classic old toji (bathing-cure) inn.

• Fukenoyu (ふけの湯) is nearby and equally atmospheric.

Lake Towada & Oirase Gorge

From Hachimantai you drive north into Aomori toward Lake Towada, a huge caldera lake, and the reason you go is the Oirase Gorge, the stream that drains out of it.

 

The Oirase trail runs about 9km between Nenokuchi and Ishigedo and takes roughly 2.5 hours one way, following a mossy stream past more than a dozen waterfalls. It's flat and it is beautiful. One caveat: a road runs alongside most of the trail, so it's not a wilderness experience, it's a gorgeous walk with cars nearby. If you go early though there are so few cars that it barely matters.

 

Timing here is different from Hachimantai. Because you're much lower in elevation, peak color at Towada and Oirase lands around late October into early November, about three or four weeks after the plateau. Which is the whole reason this route works: drive the Aspite Line in early October for the high-altitude peak, then take your time working north and hit Oirase as it turns.

 

Practical notes for a van:

 

• There's free parking at Yasumiya (the main lakeside village) and at Yakeyama. On peak autumn weekends the area gets congested enough that roads occasionally close — a weekday visit is worth arranging.

• If you'd rather not walk the gorge in both directions, the boat between Yasumiya and Nenokuchi takes about 50 minutes and runs around ¥1,650 one way. You can walk the trail and take the boat back.

• For overnights, Michi-no-Eki Towadako and Michi-no-Eki Kazuno are both in the area, and there are proper campgrounds around the lake and over toward Hakkoda if you want facilities.

 

Why we want to do it this year

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Tohoku is the kind of place we started this company for. It's spectacular, it's set up for driving, it has almost no crowds, and the towns along the way genuinely benefit from visitors showing up. If you only do one autumn trip in a van in 2026, we'd point you north.

 

 

🐕 Meet the Themed Vans (And Help Us Pick the Next One)

This has been the fun project of the summer: we now have themed vans!

 

Two are finished and available to rent right now:

 

• The Shiba Inu Van 🐕 — exactly what it sounds like, and it has been very difficult to keep our own hands off it.

• The Mt. Fuji Van 🗻 — Fuji on the outside, and a nice thing to be arriving in for photos when you actually pull up to the real one.

 

Both are regular Tokyo Campervans on the inside with a little twist of some themed items, but other than that you’ll find the same bed setup, same bug net, same fan, same everything you'd get in any of our vans. 

 

Next up: a cherry blossom van, which we're working on now with a target of having it ready well before spring.

 

After that, we'd rather hear from you than guess.

So: what theme do you want to see? Send us an email at Amber@TokyoCampervans.com  and tell us! We're reading all of them, and the ones that get asked for the most will be the ones we build. Ramen van? Godzilla? Onsen monkey? Something regional? Tell us. There are no bad ideas.

 

♨️ VanLife Tip of the Month: What to Do About Showers

This is the number one question we get, by a wide margin: "Where do you shower?"

 

The answer is one of the best things about van life specifically in Japan, and it surprises people. You don't need a shower in your van, because the entire country is covered in public baths. Japan has a bathing culture and an infrastructure to match, and once you learn to use it you'll stop thinking about the problem at all.

 

Here's the full scoop:

 

Day-use onsen (日帰り入浴). Natural hot spring water, usually in the countryside and mountains, which is likely where you'll be. Most inns and hot spring facilities let you bathe without staying the night, generally somewhere in the ¥500–1,000 range. This is the good option. You are not just "solving a hygiene problem," you're enjoying the experience of soaking in a mineral hot spring with a mountain view for the price of a coffee.

 

Sento (銭湯). Neighborhood public baths using heated tap water rather than spring water. Cheap and not so glamorous but, often wonderful in their own way. In a lot of these you can feel the retro vibe of “showa” Japan. They’re usually the way to go when you're overnighting near a city rather than out in the hills and often tattoo friendly.

 

Super sento. The bigger commercial bathhouses. More expensive, but they have multiple baths, saunas, restaurants, and long hours, some run very late or around the clock. Excellent when you arrive somewhere late at not, but these tend to be on the stricter side about tattoos. 

 

Coin showers. Some michi-no-eki, campgrounds, and highway service areas have them. Usually around ¥100 for a few minutes of hot water. Not an experience, but it's fast and it works.

 

Campgrounds. If you're staying at a paid campground or RV park, showers or sometimes onsen facilities are included.

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The michi-no-eki hack

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There are roughly 1,230 michi-no-eki (roadside stations) across all 47 prefectures, they're free to park overnight, and a surprising number of them have an onsen or a public bath attached, some have a foot bath out front.

 

That's the move: plan your overnight around a michi-no-eki that has a bath. Park, walk fifty meters, soak, walk back, sleep. No driving after the bath, no hunting for parking, no cold walk to the van.

 

How to find them:

 

• The official michi-no-eki site (michi-no-eki.jp) has a full, current list with a map.

• On Google Maps, search 日帰り温泉 (higaeri onsen, day-use hot spring) or 銭湯 (sento) near where you'll be, and check the opening hours, rural onsen often stop admitting people surprisingly early, sometimes by 7pm.

• Nifty Onsen (onsen.nifty.com) is the big Japanese onsen database and is more complete than anything in English.

 

What to bring, and what not to do

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Most facilities provide body soap, shampoo, hairdryers, and lockers. What you should keep in the van: a small towel, a bath towel, a hair tie, and ¥100 coins.

 

Quick etiquette, since it trips up almost every first-timer:

 

• Wash and rinse completely before getting in the bath. This is the big one. The bath is for soaking in, not for washing in.

• The small towel never touches the water. Fold it on your head or leave it at the edge.

• Tie long hair up so it stays out of the water.

• No swimwear. You bathe without clothing, and baths are separated by gender.

• No photos. Ever, anywhere, in any changing room or bath area.

• Tattoos: some facilities still restrict them. Small ones can often be covered with a patch, and plenty of places don't care at all, but if you have visible tattoos, it's worth a quick check before you drive an hour to a specific onsen.

 

Do this once and it stops being intimidating and you'll likely start planning trips around the baths instead of the other way around.

 

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For more of our recommended destinations and tips check out our social media:

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tokyocampervans/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tokyo.campervans 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Tokyo_Campervans 

 

That's all for this one. If you take a fall trip north, send us photos, and don't forget to reply with your themed van idea.

 

Have a great week,

 

The Tokyo Campervans Team