Traveling To Japan From The Start
 

So, basically, I've wanted to visit Japan since I was 12 and first discovered Anime, the music and everything else. You've probably heard that kind've story before, but I wanna see it before I go to Uni.

I have two years of college left, so I figure going in the next two years is what I'd really need to do. If I start Uni, I doubt I'd be able to save up for something like that. Either way, two years is a long wait considering I'm 21 now.


I'm living in the UK currently and just wondered what would be the best way to go? Any one know roughly how much it'd cost me to get there? How much a adverage Hotel would cost? How much spending money I'd need for essentials; ie, food, drink.

So atm, I'm just wondering if you could help me work out how much I'd be looking to save up for. Also, anything I'd need to know? Any tips?

Thanks for reading =]

Most if not all these questions are discussed in the section.

As MMM pointed out, most, if not ALL of your questions have answers all over this section. However as a quick note, expect hotel to be around USD$35-USD$60 a night. Food will be minimum USD$27 a day. Transportation varies, it depends on if you are getting a JR Pass or not. The rest are all sightseeing fee and souvenir fee that differs between people, but I always tell people that on an average, it should be around USD$150-200 all inclusive (Flight, hotel, food, etc etc etc)

Of course, if you go and live large, then its a totally different story...

That's living almost like a homeless person in Tokyo. I think capsule hotels start at about 5000yen. Business hotels are about 10,000. Normal hotels are even higher.

If you can eat three meals for $27 a day, at least two of them are from convenience stores or fast food. I'd budget 5000 yen so you can at least have some good dinners.

You can get a room at the Prince hotel in Shinagawa (metro Tokyo) for 8000 yen a night. Train and bus transport around the city will run you about 1000 yen per day. Train fare to outlying areas will cost more, generally about 800 yen each way. Food can be cheap or expensive, depending on your taste. A combo meal from McDonalds or Burger King will run about 700 yen. A prepared meal (boxed lunch or dinner) from a convenience store (they are pretty good) will be 300 to 600 yen. Vending machine beverages run 120 to 150 yen. Sushi from a garden-variety restaurant will be about 1500 yen. Chanko nabe (my favorite dish here) is about 3000 yen.

Souvenirs. The best place to get them in Tokyo would be Asakusa. There are hundreds of shops of every variety, selling pretty much everything. A pair of geta cost about 2000 yen, a yukata will run about 4000 yen. Fans average around 2500 yen. Besides the shops, you can visit the Sensoji Temple, which is Tokyo's most famous.

Amusement/theme parks/theaters. Admission to the Disney parks is about 5000 yen. Admission to water parks and such is about 4000 yen. A typical movie ticket is 1800 yen. Rides at places like Cosmo world in Yokohama are about 500 yen each.

Budget about 20,000 yen per day for your visit. Over the course of the week this should be enough for hotel, food, transport, a couple of attractions, and souvenirs. Bring comfortable shoes, as you'll be walking a lot. And bring a good camera, the more pictures you take, the better.

A single room with private bath here at Toukaisou cost 4300yen or 4500 each night.
But if you don't mind sharing there are hostels with dorm type rooms that cost 2000+ per night.

The hostel toukaisou is located in Asakusa with lotsa good food. And there is this shop called Derika Paku Paku near Toukaisou which sells bento at 250yen each! XD
Plus Asakusa is nearer to Akibahara which anime lovers should visit I think.
Oh my I sound like I'm trying to sell Asakusa. XD

Ah and a restaurant called Saizeria with lotsa chains around Japan is a famous eating place among teenagers due to it's low cost.

Just a few things I found while researching for my upcoming trip. =)

Saizeria is undoubtedly the most inexpensive reastaurant chain in Japan. It serves nothing very Japanese, though. A high schoolers' heaven!

Go with Sakura or Oakhouse and you should be looking at 100,000 yen or less per month, so thats about 500 quid per month.
As for food, cook your own most of the time, it works out cheaper then UK if you know where to shop plus the quality is 10 times better.

Today I bought about 850g of chicken (boneless) for 658 yen plus a good lump of beef for 1014 yen. I went to Hanamasa for that. That will provide me with a good few days top eating.
Eating out every day is a mugs game and is the trap that many people fall into.

If you want a cheap and productive trip here then you need to behave like a local and not a tourist and you don't need to speak the language to do it.
Donkey (Don quixote) is a good place to buy a wide range of essentials but visit a 100 yen store first to save a few quid. I can get a bottle of Chivas Regal at donkey for about 12 quid and the same in the UK is about 25. Also Smokes are about 1.50 per pack as opposed to 5.00 in the UK.

I am a sukker for beef and love my peas with it. I just bought 1Kg of frozen peas for 1.75 GBP, in the UK that would have cost me 3.20

If you want Japan so bad then consider a stay of at least a month. This is my budget for this trip in GBP

Return flight (Finair) 540.00
Single Private room. 400.00
Room includes TV/Fridge/Bed/Futon with shared toilet/shower/kitchen/washer dryer.
Weekly food shop. 40.00
Dining out Aprox. 20.00-60.00
Suica travel card per week. 10.00-30.00 depending on where I am going.
Most other stuff will depend on what I want to buy and how much I want to spend.

If you will buy clothes then do not pack too much to come here. I only came with 2 x jeans 2 x shirts some socks and Upants and 2 x teeshirts. Bear in mind that I was wearing one set to travel. I expect to spend about 3-400.00 on clothes to take home.

You could prob do a month trip and have a good time on about 2000.00 GBP
Sounds alot? To live for a month in the UK paying room and board and all the other things would cost you closer to 3000.00

Marc.

I don't disagree, i am just laying out the bare minimum... and yes you are correct, I relied on convenient store sandwich 2 of the 3 meals in a day for a few days.... but its just for it be being convenient....

As for hotel rooms, MOST of the hotels I stayed at was around that price last year. It wasn't a capsule, but very small room, though they all have private bath. The most expensive I spent was 65 a night, and that was at a resort in Hakone...

But why fly all the way to Japan to eat at a convenience store twice a day. More than once I have had to bail out friends who budget like that, but then, just can't eat nigiri and premade sandwiches twice a day and end up spending their money on real food, or a t-shirt and go broke.

I always advise make a reasonable budget, then bring that plus 1/3. Expenses ALWAYS come up you don't expect. If you can't afford to bring that much, Japan may not be the holiday destination for you.