In Japan, you can take your dog on the train?? Not in a crate?
Say it is so!
My wife and I are beginning medium-term plans to move to Kanagawa prefecture to be closer to her mom for awhile. This would be a long-term thing and we're planning on taking our kishu, Tomoe, with us.
I've been trying to figure out how we can keep Tomoe's life as rich as possible seeing as how we're never going to be able to afford a thing called a "fenced-in yard" in the Kanto area, and I was thinking about how there must be doggy taxi services we can use to ferry Tomoe around. Then the wife drops this bomb on me as though everybody knew it!
She says that you can generally take your dog on trains during off-peak hours, though you need to register an itinerary ahead of time. You folks who live in Japan, do you know anything about this?
It would be so awesome to not need a car....I will take my dog up all the mountains!!
My wife and I are beginning medium-term plans to move to Kanagawa prefecture to be closer to her mom for awhile. This would be a long-term thing and we're planning on taking our kishu, Tomoe, with us.
I've been trying to figure out how we can keep Tomoe's life as rich as possible seeing as how we're never going to be able to afford a thing called a "fenced-in yard" in the Kanto area, and I was thinking about how there must be doggy taxi services we can use to ferry Tomoe around. Then the wife drops this bomb on me as though everybody knew it!
She says that you can generally take your dog on trains during off-peak hours, though you need to register an itinerary ahead of time. You folks who live in Japan, do you know anything about this?
It would be so awesome to not need a car....I will take my dog up all the mountains!!
Comments
The rules are that the width, length, and height of a crate should add up to under 90cm, and the crate and dog should weigh less than 10kg.
Long story short, I've find a solution that is working. It's called the Burley tail wagon. I had it delivered to Japan and got the buggy attachment (you have to purchase this separately). It's working like a charm, though you get lots of looks in the train stations...
If I figure out how to post pictures, you'll see what I mean...
Also, renting a car is quite cheap in Japan and although you are not suppose to bring pets in a rented car as long as you get rid of the evidence you should be OK.
I never saw dogs or cats on trains while living in Tokyo, though I have seen people carrying those rat-sized little fur balls people refer to as designer dogs in their handbags (I think they hide them when they go through the ticket gate). I guess people take taxis to the vet, or own automobiles. Here in the country vehicles are a necessity.
From the JR East website:
"Small dogs, cats, pigeons and similar small animals may be brought on board for a fee as long as they are kept in a carrying case that is no more than 70 centimeters long and has a total length, width and height of no more than around 90 centimeters."
As far as driving, the IDP is good for one year from issue. Some people think you can go back to your home country and get a new one after the first one expires, but that's prohibited by the police. If you are a long term resident (someone not on the 90 day visitor visa), you can drive up to one year with the IDP, but you should plan on and take the test to transfer your DL to a Japanese one.
If you are from one of these countries:
"Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Taiwan and South Korea. " then you do not need to take the driving test.
If not, you need to take a driving test at the closest center, which requires you to follow the instructions, in Japanese, of the evaluator while traversing a series of simple driving maneuvers, including very tight S curves. When applying, you need to specify automatic or manual transmission. That will be the vehicle you test with. MT license holders can drive both types, but AT license holders can only drive AT.
As Jeff said above, trying to skirt the rules, even with a valid IDP, will earn you a citation from omawarisan of "driving without a license". This happened to a famous gaijin talent (the guy from the SoftBank commercials) a year or two ago.
Like I said, sorry if this is late or unneeded, but maybe the info can be helpful for someone thinking about traveling here any time soon.