Alen looks so big on the inside compared to the outside, really clever design. I think a permanent hob or cooker would have been better as the kitchen looks huge, and the back bit seems like it could have been put to more use perhaps. But he's super nice. 6 people would be a squeeze for sure, even 6 little people! Martha will feel weird after getting used to Alen! Loving the tour of Japan, really nothing like I expected. Happy New Year.
Yeah I agree about the hob, I figure because it's a rental it is not as cost effective to have to maintain an entire kitchen and ensure all regular safety checks etc compared to renting a little gas stove extra. I would defo install a permenant one. I reckon at the back I would install a big stand up cupboard or something, or find someway to utilise it. Maybe move the sink forward and box off the whole back as a big storage space for climbing mats and outdoors stuff. I reckon tweaking a van like this could be a lot of fun to refurb. But I'm very grateful for Martha, her design works pretty perfectly for us 🥰🥰
Thanks Helen! Yeah we did wonder if people would be interested in a cost break down. Maybe we could write a blog comparing prices of different sizes of campervan and then say how much groceries and fuel and tolls cost us etc so people can get a budget idea in mind. Let us know any other info you would want to know maybe I can spend some time this week writing one up.
Happy New Year …. well 2022 went quickly? 🎉🥳😍🥂🥂 The tour of your cute Van was fun as it is well equipped, the Japanese are so organised in respect to tourism & internal travellers! Take care! 🤗🇦🇺
Thanks Pamela, yeah the Japanese are great! Alen has done us very very well! But we are very excited to get back to Martha 🥰🥳 pumped to share our last couple snow filled vlogs with you guys of Japan, it's been so epic.
wishing you a happy and healthy New Year filled with adventures and new places.. and now I'm totally SOLD on Japan campervanning! Thanks for the tour and FAQs
Thanks Kathi 🥰🥰 yeah it's pretty awesome, feel so lucky to have been able to experience all of this. Can't wait to share our next two snowy adventures with you 🥰🥰
I'm telling ya you will get addicted to onsens in Japan and never want a shower again 🤣🤣 but defo enough space to modify and build a wee shower back there.
Awesome info guys, thanks so much. I'm flying into Osaka in October & have booked a small Toyota HiAce camper van for 11 days to tour around Shikoku Island - really looking forward to it.
That sounds awesome!!! It's gonna be so much fun!!! We would love to do islands if we get the chance in the future. You will have to let us know how it goes
Thanks Fiona!! Yes Martha is honestly our pride and joy haha. We love her more than ever, and are so excited to get back. Just hoping and praying the anxiety doesn't return when we do! I feel like I've had enough time away to regulate my emotions and we are missing her so that's a very good sign, I was genuinely worried when we first left her I wouldn't want to come back haha.
I know its a wee bit old but I am looking for a van trip for my third time in japan to make my way from tip to tip. Loved your videos and the detailed explainations and your energy! Had to sub and leave a comment! Hope you guys keep having fun.
Thanks so much! So glad you are going to explore Japan by van, it's incredible! We hope to come back again some day! If you contact Tokyo RV let them know you found their campervan company through our channel they might give you a discount on rental 🤞🤞
A very efficient layout! If Alen is for 6, Japanese people must have much smaller personal space bubbles. 😬 Did you see Ben's impression of Keely a couple episodes ago on Overlanding Sophia? 😁😁 Gave me a good chuckle! Also, I hear Chris & Marianne at Tread the Globe have been picking your brains as they will be shipping Trudy to Japan in a few short months. I hope you get to meet them on the road one day -- such kind & generous people. ❤️❤️😎👍xx
Thanks Aaron 🥰🥰 yeah I noticed that ✌️✌️ made me laugh, sent them a wee message after that haha. I'm so excited about tread the globe heading to Japan, they are going to have such an incredible adventure!! I would love to meet them on the road. And we are hoping to meet up with Chesca and Ben again soon too, we miss them ❤️❤️
So happy you guys didn't get buried in snow.=Philly you have to go on the roller coaster bridge. ==Keely's reaction would be neat to see.== Be safe== Elder Bruce from Canada.
I just looked up the rollercoaster bridge! That looks horrific! 🤣🤣 It would definitely give me PTSD of going up Romanian mountains in Martha. Just looking at videos of it made me want to barf haha. Wait till you see the snow coming up in next week's video, it gets crazy!!
Van Life sounds like a dream in Japan. One thing you didn’t address was the language. How easy is it to get on when you don’t know the language. Or do you use a translator on your phone??
We learnt lots of common phrases and words which helps significantly, but Google translate is the saviour. For example when we got stuck in the snow and had to go ask someone for a shovel, not the type of words you know off by heart haha. But ultimately when we've been in Japan before the days of Google translate, people are just so kind and helpful, hand signals will get you a long way without words. We've always been able to get help from people irregardless of language barrier because Japanese people are just so kind.
What a brilliant little summary! This has been a fun trip to follow, (did you check for tiny monkey stowaways in the 6-berth camper?). #1 son is hoping to go over this year to meet his Japanese friends, practice his self-taught linguistics, do a mad-dash tour of a few cities, scope out business locations, check property prices - okay, he gets a bit carried away there (18yr-old's enthusiasm)...😁 I might be tagging along as some sort of living baggage trolley. What are travel times like? I guess the more you pay the faster it can be, but one thing I know is Japan is bigger than most people think, and Jamie's got 2 weeks to fit it all in - from wheels up in UK to landing back here again! Oh, and now he's basically sorted reading all three Japanese alphabets, tone pitch, etc., he's just moved on to reading & speaking Chinese now as well (Mandarin, IIRC). Says it's easy...!?!
I think you son must be an absolute wizz at languages cuz it's defo not easy haha. I learnt the two alphabets then when the third one came in I gave up, my head hurt too much lol. You are right more you pay the quicker you go. Buses obviously cheapest and slowest, followed by local trains and then bullet trains. I would say foreigners get access to a special rail pass that makes public travel alot cheaper, but you have to apply for it in advance and it gets delivered to your home address and then bring it with you to Japan. Worth looking into the different options to save most money in the long run. And if you want to rent a vehicle to drive you have to have an international driving licence which also needs applied in advance and delivered to home address.
@@phillyandkeely Thanks - those 'Plan Ahea...d" tips are great. Languages: yeah, but oddly he couldn't get with French or German at school, but does play piano and guitar, picking up tunes by ear rather than reading score or tabs. One of those left-brain right-brain things I guess!
@@phillyandkeely Hello, this is the son. The third alphabet, Kanji, is very difficult at first but I found that taking my time helped me persevere. I'm not fluent yet, there's still lots of Japanese to learn, but it's so fun. The Chinese is something I have on the side, not studying as seriously as I am studying Japanese, but Chinese is also a very cool language. I'm very excited for my trips to Japan in the future. I'm hoping to go on a holiday this summer after my a level exams, and I hope to be able to put my skills to the test. Budgeting is difficult and I am trying to figure out whether the rail pass will be worth a purchase. I do have some day trips planned so it might be but I'm still learning how things work of course.
@@ahuman5125 hello son! I am sure you will love it so much. Excited to hear how your adventures go. Be prepared in summer it gets very hot and humid, drink lots of water and wear sunscreen lmao. Lots of people faint on the tube in summer cuz it's so hot! Any questions ever let us know 🥰✌️
Thanks Richie. Honesty Japanese Culture is just so polite, and that even translates to the roads!! I mean the more Europeans that fly over and do vanlife, the more that might change haha, but with only locals on the road it's a pleasure.
@@phillyandkeely no, you guys just do you, we'll be following along. My husband made a challenge for us where we have to like and comment on each one of your videos to get you guys famous lol. Stay tuned.
Brilliant plenty of information on that video love the van Hope you both had a lovely Christmas and New year looking forward to seeing the next one ☘️☺️ Veronica Derry
Thanks Veronica! Hope you are well and have had a wonderful holiday season. Excited to share more of our winter vanlife adventures with you. Things get very snowy next week 🥰🥰🥰
Sounds like a perfect place to hire a van to go on a epic adventure. Thanks for the show and tell you two. Happy New Year, Phily and Keely, oh and I love Phily's trainers, they are so cool.
@ChapterByChapterVlog ha ha, tell him I had to rewind what he was saying cause I got distracted by the trainers ha ha. All good here, had a 8km windy Irish landscape hike up at sheep's head down Bantry way.
@ChapterByChapterVlog it was considering I trapped a nerve in my back on Xmas eve,eve. Water therapy brought it back on track and a mad hike, windswept to say the least. Well Alen is serving his purpose well, that's a unreal sleep in.
I'm lovin' your video folks! Gal did you hear what you said about the refrigerator‽ "Nice and big"‽ Oy Vey Chickadoo, when he says he's 7&1/2", you're really only gettin' 3&3/4"! Enough of my inappropriate silliness. Truth be told, your japanese van is Just Right in my book. Enjoy folks. 🙏🦉 🏞️
Hi Philly Keely,happy new year to you both,I hope you are enjoying your trip in Japan 🇯🇵 it sure looks fun Alan is a lovely small camper van but big enough for you two ,so where you heading to let’s see some beautiful pictures some great views ,lol no I don’t mean you bending over lol 😂 great blog very interesting till next time take care and enjoy yourself keep safe 😅,John 🌹👀🇬🇧😂🇯🇵🇯🇵🤫😠🥺😷😢🫣🥳🥳🤝🫶🤶🎄🫢
Thanks John 🥰🥰 hope you are well and having a great start to 2023 😜 Japan has been awesome. Excited to share our last two Japan vlogs with you all soon! Then back to Martha woop woop
Fabulous van tour . But I'm not going to buy one . I decided that the first time I saw it . Definitely to small . It was like Philly had a different woman with him in the section at the end . That cascading hair . I'm hopeful that's a New Year resolution for her to keep it down for 365 days . I'm kinda interested to see more of the lovely things from your country . I'm sure it'll be in videos 25 years from now when you're old and gray . I'll just patiently wait . Glad you're enjoying Japan .
David I always love your comments on my hair, you make me feel like a mermaid or something haha. I think if we had Alen long term he would give Philly bad knees driving with them so high all the time lol. Martha defo better suited for his legs and my hips 🤣 I do want to wear it down more, I know Philly likes it down, but it's just so much easier to handle in a bun lmao. I keep setting it on fire when making coffee with it down, I'm a hazard!!
@@phillyandkeely The poor man has to make so many sacrifices being 6 foot 4 . Lol 😆. It's a rough life he leads . Guy has two bosses Keely and Mother Nature . Imagine waking up and wondering what kinda wild adventure are these two going to put me through today . Being from another country you two might not understand this saying. Here we'd say to Philly you're a brave man Charlie Brown .
Firstly, a very happy new year to you both. Hope you had a good eve. That van was really practical wasn't it. Would you have swapped it for Martha 🤔😂. And lastly, you can always trust an Alan 😂. See you soon
Hahaha, alan love Alen, surprise surprise. Honestly, the van is great, but its no Martha! The thing with self builds is you can design it and tweak it along the way to fit your needs. It's made us appreciate Martha even more, but also gave us some food for thought for things we could tweak when we get back in her!
Hi Philly & Keely, thank you for sharing. Am keen to find out which areas did you guys cover? Is it easier to drive in terms of navigating the road like turns or curve or mainly straight roads? Which month did you guys cover? Winter?
Hey, yeah we were there over winter time. It was so incredible. The easiest country to navigate weve ever been to, the road systems are similar to UK but the people are much more patient drivers in Japan, excellent road etiquette. Depends where you go on types of roads, in the mountains nice and winding and between cities nice and straight. But excellent quality roads. We went from Tokyo up to the mountains then right to the very northern point of Japan and back down the east coast to Tokyo. Would love to do the south next time 🥰🥰
@@phillyandkeely thank you for your prompt reply. May I ask again you mentioned parking is easy, have you park overnight near the rest stop? Is it allowed? Cause they have the toilets available
Yeah we park overnight at all the rest stops it is allowed. But not to camp and spread out, its allowed to "park" so we stay inside the van, no tables and chairs out or anything like that.
Heyo, thanks so much for tuning in!! No denying vans are not cheap in Japan, but accommodation is also not cheap. We had considered writing a blog or something comparing three weeks of backpacking costs and three weeks of vanlife. To be honest, even though the van is more expensive to rent, I think the money saved on public transport and eating out for every single meal will make it the same. Plus you can get a wide range of vans for different prices. Do you think a blog/vlog comparing all that would be useful!?
Some things, like walkway into back and long bed have been toying around in our mind, but the things we would lose to gain that make it not really worthwhile in my mind. But we are debating haha
There are lots of free onsens, and alot of them you are able to park at over night, so definitely look Into those. If you send me a message on IG or email I can send you a link of a map with lots of park ups on it (I can't send links on YT comments)
Happy New Year both of you. Loving this van life series in Japan and am thinking about doing it as have always wanted to go but thought costs would be prohibitive. Sounds like so much is free and fuel is cheap but how much was the hire cost for Alen please?
Van rental isn't cheap, but then again neither is accomodation. Tokyo RV do 4-6 person campers starting at around £50per day, but I know other companies also do little two person campers which might have smaller budget. We think comparing cost of public transport, eating out and accomodation would probably end up same price as vanlife rental eating home cooked. We thought we could maybe write a blog comparing the costs with and without van, maybe people would find the comparison useful.
@@phillyandkeelyThanks for responding. £50 a day sounds pretty reasonable to me. I think putting some price info out there would be great - blog or RU-vid.. You know what's best. Xx
Happy new year to you too 🥰🥳 The prices vary immensely as the size varies alot haha. Different companies have different sizes of fleets. Some specialise in smaller vans so have little 2 person ones like @travelbeans used in their video series in Japan. Tokyo RV do 4-6 person vans and their prices range start from £50 per day for 4 person van. You can get discounts for longer rentals, or out of season rentals etc. It's worth just emailing different companies and trying to negotiate. Good thing is most of them include insurance, so that's nice. Was thinking we might right a vlog doing a comparison of costs of Vanlife to backpacking.
Thanks so much Julia!! Alen has done us absolutely wonderfully and we have put him through his paces!! SO excited to share all our snowy adventures with you guys!! it gets extreme!
Thanks Lisa, that's a good question. We wondered if we should do a whole cost break down of vans and how much we spent during our time in the van, maybe people interested in cost comparison between backpacking and public transport Vs vanlife. Prices in Japan vary alot for vans as their van sizes vary alot. Tokyo RV doesn't do little small vans that might be even more budget. But their 4-6 person vans start at £50 per day. There are discounts on for winter vanlife in a lot of companies, so out of season might save even more money.
I described him the same way I would describe myself as a little Irish woman, small in stature and big hearted Japanese soul just like he was. You misreading my words are a reflection on your own mindset and not mine, I have nothing but love and appreciation for all shapes and sizes and all cultures. He was more than a petrol station attendant he was a kind soul that I appreciated helping us.
Hey Philip, Same reason we say little Irish man or why people call me the little girl at work. Because someone is small in stature. Sorry if it came across offensive, didn't mean it to. If he was tall I may have said "big" Japanese man. Just a visual description of someone. Apologies if that's rude.
