Winter in Japan - Budget?
 

Hi. I'm planning to take a trip of around 3 months in Japan from December to February. My flights are booked so I can't really change the length of the trip. I want to travel all over Japan from Sapporo all the way to Nagasaki. I'm just wondering if approximately $3500 will be enough money for food and sightseeing (accommodation, transportation and flights are all paid for separately) in Japan for a time period of 75 - 90 days? Thanks everyone who replies! :vsign:

I think this all depends on exactly what you plan to see and eat. I`ve gotten by on less than $500 for 90 days when accommodations, transportation, and the flight taken care of.
I imagine if you eat reasonably, you should have more than enough for sightseeing. The rest falls to how many souvenirs you pick up.

Ok, thanks for that. Was the $500 you had just for food then? I think I will budget $1200 for food for the whole trip as I will be staying with host families for approximately four weeks. Other than that, I imagine maybe $10 per day for small scale transportation for 50 days (42 days will be covered by JR passes), which makes $500. That leaves about $1800 for sightseeing which is about $20 per day for sightseeing and souvenirs. Does this sound reasonable?

Personally, I think that if you manage to keep up $20 worth of sightseeing a day for a full 3 months, you`re amazing. No matter how exciting something seems at first, after months of temples, shrines, and castles... Well... it gets tiring.

Yeah, I think it probably will. I will probably spent the first half of my time in each destination spending the $20 on sightseeing, and then the last half of the time at that destination will see the $20 spent on souvenirs or clothes or music etc. By the way, do you live in Japan?

Oh, I see now: Outside of Nagoya, cool.

And have been here for nearly 10 years now. Married, and own a house.

Oh, cool, awesome. I would love to live in Japan, but that looks like a long shot for me. At least for now, that is. One day I plan on living there. Would it be worth it for me to make a stop in Nagoya on my trip? I'm sure I will have plenty of time to fit it in!

I don't think 3500 is enough for japan for 3 months. Just my 2 cents, I mean, sure, anything is possible, but if you are there already, you really want to enjoy your stay, I am not suggesting to live large, but if you think about it, 3500 for 3 months will be saying you are spending $38 a day. Transportation cost will be 1/3 that, so you are really living with $28 a day on a daily basis.

Hi godwine. Thanks for your reply. I see what you're saying, it's just I will have two 21 day rail passes so that leaves less than 50 days for transportation costs, plus four weeks with host families who will transport me most of the time, so that leaves say 30 days for transport maybe if the JR passes and homestay overlap a little. So if I budget $500 for the remaining 30days for transport ($17 a day), I still have $3000 for the rest of the time for food and souvenirs. What do you think about that?

In case you were wondering, I'm not in Japan already. I leave for Japan on December 1st and come back to Australia on 27th February.

Also, do you think it being winter while I am there will make any difference as to what I have to budget for?