Should You Rent a Car for a Tokyo or Yokohama Cruise?

The second row moves the score most.

In these two cities a train beats a car for nearly everything a cruiser does — a car only wins once the days leave town.

The last two rows ask a different thing: can the driver do this legally, and comfortably? A permit you can’t order in time ends the question — however good the plan looks.

The US Embassy in Tokyo says a US driver needs a valid US licence and an International Driving Permit. It must come from AAA or the American Automobile Touring Alliance, no more than six months ahead.

Japan accepts only the permit issued under the September 19, 1949 Geneva Convention. The 1968 Vienna version isn’t recognised, and only the paper booklet counts — a card or a phone copy doesn’t.

Japan lets you drive on it for the shorter of the permit’s own expiry (AAA prints one year from issue) and a year from your entry. Check the date printed on your booklet.

When you order, ask AAA to confirm it’s the 1949 booklet.

The Embassy also warns that a valid permit should cost no more than $20 to $30 plus shipping, and that imitation websites are common — order from AAA itself.

Toyota and Nippon take the 1949 permit. Times’s English page says “Japanese License Required” — we couldn’t resolve that, so ask Times before you book.

Carry your US licence with the permit, because the permit alone isn’t a licence.

The US Embassy puts it in one line: “Vehicular traffic moves on the left.” Turning at a red light is forbidden unless a sign allows it. Pedestrians have priority, and every occupant wears a seatbelt.

Posted signs rule — with none, the defaults JAF prints are 60 km/h on ordinary roads and 100 km/h on expressways.

You can’t use a phone, or get drawn into the navigation screen, while driving — the JAF page prints no penalty amount.

Driving under the influence starts at a breath alcohol of 0.15 mg/L. A drunk driver faces up to five years or ¥1 million; one merely under the influence, up to three years or ¥500,000.

The penalties reach whoever provided the car. A passenger or alcohol seller who helped can face up to three years or ¥500,000 where the driver was drunk.

The US Embassy adds up to 15 years in prison where drunk, speeding or badly careless driving causes a death.

Treat the limit as zero: nothing at dinner, not one glass.

Children under six must ride in a child seat, per JAF and Nippon. The seat prices are on the airport page.

We found no congestion charge or low-emission zone for Tokyo or Yokohama — though we didn’t search exhaustively, so treat that as unconfirmed.

We also haven’t verified how narrow the side streets are or how coin parking works, and we won’t describe either.

Tolls, ETC cards and parking costs are on the hub.

Tokyo’s 23-ward taxi tariff is ¥500 for the first kilometre, then ¥100 for every 232 m. Add 20% from 10 PM to 5 AM, and expressway tolls on top.

It rose about 10% in late April 2026 — the first increase since November 2022.

Haneda’s Terminal 3 is 13.6 km from the Tokyo terminal by our routing. Take off the first 1,000 m, divide by 232 and you get 55 steps.

That’s ¥5,500 plus the ¥500 start: about ¥6,000, or roughly US$40, before tolls, slow-traffic time and any night surcharge — our arithmetic, not a quote.

Holland America’s port page prints about ¥30,000 for that run and ¥12,000 for Haneda to Osanbashi. The first is far off the tariff. The second rests on a 49-mile distance our routing doesn’t support, so we use neither.

The Tokyo Hire-Taxi fixed fares from Haneda cover most of the 23 wards but exclude Ota, Shinagawa, Minato, Chuo and Koto. The terminal is in Koto — so it runs on the meter, not at a fixed fare.

From Narita the meter reaches about ¥30,400 for the Tokyo terminal and ¥42,600 for Osanbashi, before tolls, on routes of 70.2 and 98.4 km.

Holland America prints about ¥38,000 and ¥70,000. Either way it’s a charter — not a transfer.

For Tokyo’s terminal, the aggregator Rome2rio routes Haneda by monorail to Hamamatsucho, then the Yurikamome to the terminal station.

It says about 46 minutes for $6 to $9. We didn’t read the operators’ own fares. The Haneda limousine bus to Odaiba, ¥1,000, stops at the Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba and the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba, not at the terminal itself.

On port days Tokyo’s port bureau runs a free shuttle from Tokyo Teleport Station to the terminal, about 10 minutes. Times depend on the ship.

From Narita, JR East’s N’EX to Yokohama is ¥4,480 in the ordinary car — JNTO’s older page says ¥4,090, and we go with the operator.

The Airport Limousine to YCAT is ¥4,000 for an adult and takes about 110 minutes.

Uber and GO dispatch licensed taxis in Tokyo and Yokohama, with GO in English. One blog reports Haneda app pickups failing late at night, with waits of 40 to 60 minutes.

After a late flight, walk to the rank — don’t wait on the app.

Private transfers exist. Viator’s Yokohama page listed a shared ride to Haneda from US$77, a private one to Haneda from US$115 and to Narita from US$140, priced by group size.

NCL sells a post-cruise Tokyo tour that ends at Haneda for $239 an adult — an India-storefront price, so the US one may differ.

Hold any rental quote up against these numbers. Two adults on the Haneda train to Osanbashi pay ¥1,320 (about US$8), and a rental starts at several times that before fuel.

Kamakura sits in the middle: about 14 miles from Osanbashi by road, though the Great Buddha has no on-site parking.

A train usually suits it better than a car does.

If the car is for one day, price that day in the hub’s Fuji section before you book anything else.

Rent for the days that use the car — and collect it at a desk you can reach while it’s staffed.

Hours, returns and one-way limits are on the hub’s desk cards. The airport shuttle and the fee line items are on the airport page.

How Discover Cars handles deposits and coverage is in our review.

Dollar conversions here use the ECB’s Oct 5, 2026 reference rates, roughly 0.63 US cents to the yen; your card will settle at its own rate.