Borrowed Cars

An extremely interesting option for those who do not have a car, borrowing a car. This is like a car rental service minus all the people. 

This is a really nifty feature of Japan society. Since the majority of people do not have cars as there is simply no space to have a car (most houses do not come with garages or anywhere to park your car), and the fact that owning a car can get pretty expensive, with the parking fees (if you do not have a personal parking lot, you must pay some company for the use of their garage to permanently store your car when it is not in use) and the parking fees (when you go somewhere) and the insurance for the car, and the fuel it eats. You get the picture. It all adds up. So unless you are pretty well off, you most likely don't have a car. But that does not mean you don't have to not have a drivers license. You can still get one of these without registering the car for which you need it. Therefore this little invention of Times Plus, basically a rental car, can be extremely handy for people who need to get somewhere out of the way of buses and trains (or possibly you just have a lot of baggage that can't properly be handled on a train or bus). 

From a designated spot, and for a certain fee you get to rent out this car for a an undesignated amount of time. You pay a pretty low initial fee something like 2 or 3 hundred yen (I am not sure the exact amount here) to be able to use this car. Of course you must have a drivers license, with which at some computer you will register your use of the vehicle before you can use it. Clearly this is for their own security purposes, so if any damage comes to the car, your identity is on file. Now what is to stop you from stealing someones drivers license and identity... your good heart? I don't exactly know. But I do know that the computer at which you register has a camera so that if any inaccuracies or identity thefts occur, it can be easily checked. 

After you check out the car you also must pay by the hour as per use. I can't tell you the fee for that simply because I have never done it (I also don't have a Japanese license). And if you need more gas you have to pay for that too. You also have to pay for the parking of anywhere you park, and in Japan, parking is hardly ever free. 

When you are done with the car, you simply return it from whence it came paying for the hours for which it was absent from its parking spot. Nice and simple right?