The pure joy of driving in another country

Trains are great, but having your own set of wheels and an open road can mean endless adventures

Noto Peninsula in Japan.
(Image credit: Chris Selby / Alamy Stock Photo)

"Wait, wait ... do you hear that?" my husband asks. We're driving north toward the Noto Peninsula, a little thumb jutting out of Ishikawa prefecture on the western side of Japan. As our car passes over a random combination of grooves in the highway, we stop chattering and crane our necks back and forth to hear a melody: a delightful little song, produced when our tires hit the road, to welcome us to this somewhat remote part of the country. Our mouths contort into smiles. We wanted it to last for so much longer than it did, even with the low din of bump-bump-bump underfoot.

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Samantha Weiss Hills

Samantha Weiss Hills is a freelance writer and editor currently living in Bloomington, Indiana. With a background that blends food and beverage with art and design, she writes regularly for Food52 and Architectural Digest.