From midnight club meetups to mountain touge runs, the frozen beauty of Hokkaido and the musical thrum of “melody roads” driving in Japan has so much to offer. Here are five of our favourite automotive adventures.

Tokyo Expressways and the Daikoku Parking Area

If you’ve ever played Gran Turismo you’ll feel right at home on Tokyo’s elevated expressways. Built in the run up to the Olympics of 1964 these concrete noodles twist through the metropolis flying over the streets below. The speed limits are a low 50mph, but that doesn’t deter the city’s resident car enthusiasts. On evenings and weekends the expresways become a rolling car show, with many headed to the Daikoku Parking Area on the Bayshore Route. Built on a man made island in Tokyo Bay this intersection of expressways plays host to the countless communities of car lovers in the world’s largest city.
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Hakone Turnpike

It’s known as Japan’s Nürburgring but the Hakone Turnpike, south of Tokyo isn’t a race track. But it is a road that’s there just for the fun of it. It’s a thrilling drive through many twists and turns that also offers spectacular views of Mt Fuji.
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Mount Fuji Melody Road

There are more than 30 “Melody Roads” in Japan, but if you’ve headed out of Tokyo to tackle the hairpins of Hakone then Fuji no Yama road is a tuneful way to calm down again.

Irohazaka Winding Road

This fantastic route into the mountains of Nikko is one of Japan’s most famous touge runs – a favourite of drifters who love nothing better than to tackle its turns on opposite lock with plus of tyres smoke following them.
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Sapporo to Niseko

Driving in Japan’s frozen north is blissfully chilled (and chilly) and occasionally terrifying. For the most part it’s simply beautiful, as you pass through snow-covered farmland, never far from a mountain peak. Take the Nakayama Pass between Sapporo and the ski resort of Niseko, and the fast-changing weather can turn a gentle scenic drive into a blind panic.
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