Homemade Two-Storey Japanese Motorhome

It’s not often that I come across a motorhome completely different to any I’ve seen before – but this one is.

Built by three Japanese schoolfriends for a one-year road trip around Japan, it took two years to create and really is unique.

The second floor is a Japanese-style room – it has a full length window down one side, tatami-matted floors and no furniture at all.

The lads used it mostly as a bedroom – downstairs was filled by the kitchen, bathroom (including a bath) and living/dining area. When not in use, the second floor retracts to give the vehicle an overall height of 3m and a standard box van profile.

One of the (many) things that impressed me about this build are its dimensions. The motorhome is based on a Toyota Toyoace, a fairly small van model. The maximum gross weight is only 3000kg and it is only 5.2m long and 1.8m wide when setup for driving.

That’s really impressive – as a comparison, a short wheelbase European van like a Ford Transit is around 4.9m long and 1.9m wide. That means that this Japanese motorhome has a footprint that isn’t all that much larger than a large car or a small van – yet provides every creature comfort, accomodation for three adults and has two storeys. It really is impressive (compare this to the last two-storey motorhome I featured).

The lads’ website is well worth a visit – whether you are interested in the build of the motorhome or the photographs from their year-long road trip around Japan. Both Japan’s beautiful countryside and all aspects of the build are illustrated with dozens of photographs.

Hat tip to Japanese Nostalgic Car.