There are lots of (936 places) road stations in Japan. Though those stations have been constructed to give comfortable repose and food services mainly to long-distance car drivers, they are open to people other than car drivers. As a matter of fact, some restaurants in road stations are very popular among the local people. Some road stations are located along the roads that are liked by cyclists. Unknown but nice goods such as local confectionaries and folk pieces that are not available at usual nationwide chain stores are on sale. Maps of road stations are available from this site.
http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/station/road-station.html
As above figure shows, easily understandable signs are displayed on this site to show what kinds of services are available at each station.
