My Trip to Japan

Mon, Dec 14, 2009

Preparing a trip to Japan on a student budget is harder than I expected. There is a story to be told about my decision to visit Japan first. My roommate and I decided, spur of the moment, we were going to go to Japan. We are both studying Japanese at university and were simply browsing ticket prices out of boredom. We were astonished at how affordable they were if we booked them months in advance. So about six month ago we decided, “What the hell.” So we both dropped $800 USD each on round trip tickets to Narita International Airport for a two weeks stay. As it begins to boil down to our departure we are a little bothered by all the preparation we have to do. Initially I heard about JAL’s troubles and second guessed going but as it is we are both following through. The following is a list of things we have to do to prepare:

Pass our third level of elementary Japanese – Free with price of tuition at Univiersity
Buy plane tickets – $801.90 USD
Buy 14-day JR pass – ~$550 USD
Find a place to stay because our friends are all going home for the New Year – ~$500 USD
Pay January rent early – $375 USD
Pay electric bill early – $72.83 USD
Book press passes for New Years Eve Pillows concert – FREE
Buy camera for photos at Pillows concert – $400-700 USD
Rent a SoftBank cell phone – $300 USD (for 2 weeks)
Anticipate food costs in travelers checks (including alcohol) – $1000+ USD

Total= aproxomatley $4149.73 USD or 369222.23 JPY

It seems this trip is going to cost quite a bit more than we anticipated. I welcome suggestions. Please note we are already planning on finding a MangaKissa for one night around Ropongi or Shinjuku, so don’t suggest staying there the whole trip, YUCK. If anyone wants to help us out while were in the Tokyo area let me know! We are also visiting Osaka/Kobe for a few days in the New Year but will be in the ginormous city of Tokyo for most of our trip. Cheep thrills are good suggestions. Maybe good bars to visit or temples/parks/touristy things/anything worth seeing on a first visit to Japan. THANKS!

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karen

dont eat in tourist places like Asakusa. Eat out where the loacls eat.
As you’ve got a rail pass, use the JR lines for everything, subway prices can look cheap, but add up if you keep changing lines. Most tourist attractions are free – temples, some museums, etc. Have you got international student cards? You can get discounts at some places with that. Where are you staying? If you are willing to stay in the suburbs and use your JR pass to travel in then that would be cheaper too. All in all though, it’s a myth that Japan is expensive, if you’re from the UK or Norway, you’ll have a ball on how cheap it is…

Name

so the point of the post was to get some suggestions about my trip

i am borrowing my mothers camera
i need the rail pass because i am living an hour outside of tokyo for the cost
not to mention my trip to osaka

Cailin Coilleach

I'm with Al on a lot of points.

JR Pass is useless if you're not leaving Tokyo. However, if you're traveling about be sure to get one. I spent two weeks in Japan in 2007 and traveled a lot, so it earnt itself back.

He's right about the camera, the food and the cellphones though.

1. Camera can be cheaper.

2. Food? I spent about $20-$30 a day. I splurged a little on one or two days, but definitely never broke $500.

3. Cellphones? Doesn't your current phone have UMTS/3G? If it does, enable international roaming on your own cellphone and you're good to go.

I also wonder where you're staying. Please stay away from expensive hotels. Instead go for business hotels like Toyoko Inn, which can be found literally everywhere in Japan and which I can heartily recommend. $500 for a few nights in a hotel is NUTS! At Toyoko Inn in the middle of Tokyo I paid $50 per night.

enekochan

To visit temples you should go to Kyoto.

- If you are going to Japan for only 2 weeks why do you need a cell phone? I made a 3 week trip this summer (me alone) and just bougth a public telephone card to call some people I know there.

- May be you can borrow a camera from a friend. Or just buy a cheaper one.

- Eating in Japan is very cheap. It sounds like $1000+ is too much. And may be better to just use regular money for it. If you don't use all the money, at the end of the trip you can change yens to $ again. I did soo (but to €).

Aseem

I agree with Al..
Buy 14-day JR pass – ~$550 USD (Unless you are travelling for more than 5 days out of your 15 day stay in Japan, its going to be worthless)
Buy camera for photos at Pillows concert – $400-700 USD (I would reduce that to $400 only. You can get a decent point-and-shoot camera for $400 on the first day of your landing in Japan or may be even less.)
Rent a SoftBank cell phone – $300 USD (Seriously, why do you need a cellphone for only 15 days, that too a Japanese cell phone with really terrible UI (to the extent of dont-want-to-use). You can use phonebooths for much lesser than that (About $1 per minute for local calls).
Anticipate food costs in travelers checks (including alcohol) – $1000+ USD (Make that $750 ($10 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, $30 for dinner per day) even if you are lavish including alcohol. I am assuming that you will encash your traveller cheques as soon as you reach here.)

Name

Have you checked whether it was economical to buy a JR-pass? You may consider taking the (night-) bus rather than the shinkansen...
Your food cost are enormous for only 2 weeks, I know that the dollar is weak but 1000$ is a lot!
What's the point of having a cell phone? are the 300$ for 2 weeks worth it?
I stayed in Japan for 3 weeks last year at the same period and I was nowhere near this travel cost (I had a place to stay and food).

Al

Things you don't need:
Buy 14-day JR pass – ~$550 USD (Unless you like sitting on the train, with only two weeks in Japan, you shouldn't bother with a pass since it only pays for itself if you travel to Hiroshima and back.)
Buy camera for photos at Pillows concert – $400-700 USD (You can get something that will do the job just fine for much less. http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/tag/tz7-zs3/ )
Rent a SoftBank cell phone – $300 USD (Why would you waste so much money on a phone for two weeks? I have two phones in Tokyo for year for less than that. For only two weeks I wouldn't bother with a phone at all.)
Anticipate food costs in travelers checks (including alcohol) – $1000+ USD (If you spend more than $400 on food and booze during two weeks in Japan then you are pissing your money away. You can eat and drink for much less with a tiny bit of planning.)

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My Trip to Japan

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