Planning a trip to Japan
 

Hello guys and gals-

This is my attempt to plan my first trip to Japan and I am quite unsure on how and where to start. First of all, I am a 5th generation Japanese-American (my great-great grandparents immigrated during the 1800s) and am curious about my heritage. I have been in contact with a few relatives in Japan and want to visit them, the ancestral graves/shrines, and learn more about the family history. Also, sightseeing if time permits. However, I have ancestors that came from Kumamoto, Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka, which means I have a bit of traveling to do.

I am a poor college student right now, so cost is my main concern. I would be willing to stay at business hotels or hostels to cut the costs. This is my rough outline of what the costs could be:

-plane tickets round-trip from the US to Japan and back; seems to be around $1500-$2000 from what I see on travel sites
-hotel or hostel for 3 weeks-maybe about $1000 on the cheaper side, I need someplace where I won't get mugged and my belongings stolen
-food-I will probably eat at my relative's houses on several occasions, so that will cut some costs; maybe some meals at some local restaurants that I can find; McDonalds, if all else fails; cost will be probably around $400?, I'm not picky about what I eat, as long as it's cheap and not chicken sashimi or blowfish
-transportation-this, I have no clue what the costs are; I'll probably need to use a train to get from city to city (I have about 7 to visit) and maybe a ferry to get from Honshu to Kyushu; help please :(

Is there anything important I missed? Is this trip possible to do on a $6000 budget? I want to do this trip before I am old, infirm, and have children leeching off my money (I know how my parents feel).

Thanks! :vsign:

-Keith

It doesn't sound like you have budgeted for travelling.

Chicken sashimi and blowfish are not cheap, so don't worry about it if you are on a bare bones budget. Seven cities in three weeks is ambitious.

Hi MMM-

I know, this is the first time I'm doing anything of this sort, which is why I posted here. My main goal right now is just to save enough money to go. Realistically, this trip probably won't happen until late next year or 2011. All I need to know right now is just a rough estimate on how much this would cost. I don't plan on going nuts on shopping sprees there.

7 cities in 3 weeks is what I'm planning for right now, but I might cut out going to Omuta-shi in Fukuoka Prefecture and Fukuyama-shi in Hiroshima because those are my only 2 places where I don't have any contact with relatives. Fukuyama-shi was destroyed in World War II and my family here in the US lost contact with the ones in Japan. I think they all survived, though. I can probably stay for a month at the longest if I decide to extend this trip.

For once I am going to disagree with MMM. I did about 20 cities in 22 days, sure there were LOTS of traveling, but its doable :)

As for your flight, that seems a lot, I fly from Canada and have never paid more than 1000 canadian, try IACE travel, they normally have some decent deals