Originally Posted by Nao
I'm planning on being in Tokyo for the entirety of June (one month). There are a few areas I could really use some advice and comments on.
Location
I'm planning on renting a guest house from Sakura-House. The current room I'm looking at is in Ueno, on Ameyoko, and will run me about JPY74,000. However I've also been looking at other locations and see significantly lesser prices in areas like Asakusa. Why is that? Are they close? I was really looking forward to staying on the Ameyoko, but if I can get there quickly and easily from Asakusa, then I may stay there instead...
Can anyone make a good recommendation, or give input on the situation?
Funding
My total funds for this trip is roughly $5,400.
As far as plane costs go, I've found as low as (after tax) ~$1300.
That brings my funding down to $4,100.
If I rent the room on Ameyoko in Ueno, it'll be a $300 deposit, then around $700 for rent. That takes us down to $3,100.
If I spend $30 a day on food (unlikely, but I like to overestimate just in case), that'll be $900 in a month for food. That brings us down to $2,200.
Train fares... won't be too bad. If I spend $60 between trips to the airport, and then say $10 a day, that'd be $360 total for a month. That brings us down to $1,840.
Now here's something I haven't quite figured out completely. A phone. It would probably be a good idea for me to have a phone, and I've heard that prepaid phones out of Japan now require Japanese residency to acquire. The only solution I've seen for foreigners on temporary visitor visas now is rental phones. I've found a company called "RentAFone Japan", but the prices are kind of steep. They want a $300 deposit before they sent the phone, $10 for shipping to me, the first week is $35, the next 13 days is $36, and the last 10 will be $10, which brings the total cost to $391 for the phone, which is kind of ridiculous. If anyone has a better solution, please, PLEASE let me know. Assuming I went with this plan, I'd be down to $1,449 to last me for a month of fun and any unexpected costs... which, I think will do fairly well, but please give me your input on it.
General Information
I'm not getting a travel guide or anything of that sort, and I'm not planning on any huge trips. I want this to be fairly casual. One of my main issues right now though is finding places I might want to go to (I say might because, as I previously mentioned, I want this to be casual - I'm not setting destinations in stone).
I can read and write hiragana, katakana, and a number of kanji. I can understand and speak the language to some degree, but I am by no means anywhere near fluent. I have a rather basic grasp of the grammar (I'm a bit shaky on some of my particles and conjugations), and a comparitively large vocabulary (compared to my grasp of the grammar).
I am nineteen years of age, and will be traveling alone. I've never lived alone before, been away from my family for an extended period of time, or been in a foreign country (I am a United States citizen).
Conclusion
Any ideas, helps, comments, or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. I definitely need the input. I've been looking forward to & planning this trip for months, so I'm hoping everything will pan out as I plan for it to.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
-Nao
|