budget travelling to japan?

does anybody know the budget for travelling to japan for one person? like on a budget trip that time. maybe to tokyo, kyoto or osaka etc... (: thanks. Smile

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 5:44 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Budget depends on how many days, airline ticket, where you say at (high end hotel, hostel, guest house), how much shopping, night life, etc etc.

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 5:54 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

lets say... 7-10days.... Unsure

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 7:49 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hi there,

Where do you intend to go?

I'm going on a budget trip next year to tokyo, osaka and kyoto regions for 3 weeks.

Rough estimate about SGD$3500+, accomadation, three meals, JR Pass and some buffer.

Acommadation is either ryokans or youth hostels, food wise it depends but roughly about $30-$45 a day.

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:33 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Are you traveling by yourself?

I think a 15 year old showing up by themselves at the Immigration desk at the airport will probably raise a few flags.

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:01 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

^ hahhaha yeah, you're quite young so it wouldn't be wise to go alone and on a budget...

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:48 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

SGD$3500+.. wow... Suprise

is this include you flight ticket..? Blink

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:15 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I went from Montreal to most of Japan with about 2500-3000$.

Ticket: ~$1000
Train Pass: $700
Eating/Living: $50 / day (Possible, especially if you stay in Hostels)

Hit me up if you wanna know anything cheers

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:16 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Yah it includes flight ticket..Haha that's what my friends and I calculated. Roughly about there.

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Do you plan to stay at a hotel/ryokan or hostel? Hostel's tend to be a lot cheaper and are pretty well maintained, I stayed at one in Azabajuban district of Tokyo, it was around USD$30-40 a night. If you're going to stay in one city, then it shouldn't cost too much though what cost the most for us was transportation: subways and taxi's etc (it cost about USD$2-3 just to go ONE WAY to the popular districts of city's). If you're planning to visit multiple places (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto etc, which I wouldn't really recommend since you're only there a week) you should get a JRail pass. My friends and I went around japan and the J-Rail pass saved us tons of money even though it cost a couple of hundred bucks (that was for a 2 week pass, I do believe they have a 1 week pass). Food there wasn't that expensive, you'll find lots of places that sell great food (mostly curry and ramen shops) for $5 and under, sushi is a a bit cheaper than in the states but it's still easy to run up a tab. My friends and I stayed there for 17 days and we spent around a total of $3000 each(EVERYTHING included). But we did go clubbing and buy drinks etc etc and bought a lot of food and snacks and spent tons of money on drinks since those drinking vending machines are EVERYWHERE. One word of advice, since the Japanese coins range from 1yen to 1000yen (1000yen is about 10 bucks) we were spending lots of money because we had the mentality that coins aren't of much value, and it's very easy to spend 10 bucks a day on soft drinks alone so be careful.

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:13 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If you pay more than $800 for a round trip ticket, you're probably paying more than you have to. For example, a quick check of his-usa.com shows tickets for 2 weeks from Dec 28 at $758 round trip Chicago-Tokyo. I'm not sure where you're from of course..

The big secret to saving money in Japan however, is staying with Japanese people and not at hotels. Call up that random exchange student who you talked to only once 3 years ago, and ask them if you can crash there. You wont pay rent, and the odds are they will feed you.

Then hitchhike to save money on trains. It's slower, but WAY more fun.

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:23 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:10 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If you are traveling Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto even for two weeks, a one week pass or no rail pass actually comes out cheaper than a two week rail pass.

For example a two way trip between Tokyo and Osaka is 13750 (x2) thats about 27500yen. A 2 week JR Pass is 45100yen, you're essentially flushing down the drain 17600yen , even with transportation within Tokyo and Osaka (JR Pass useless for transport within Kyoto) your still losing out on about 12000-15000yen, money that could be used for shopping, food, lodging..

Now if you do the trip in one week, then a One week JR Pass is very affordable and recommended depending on where you plan to travel.

Don't just go out and buy a JR Pass an expect it to pay off, I know people who do this all the time until I show them they are really wasting their money, of course It all depends on where you plan to travel and for how long to determine if a JR pass will pay off or not.

Of course you save even more money by taking overnight highway buses. Prices are pretty much half of trains.

My trips have been under $2000 USD , with airfare from the US, I usually stay in business hotels over youth hostels, business hotels are usually priced around $60-70 USD. Don't forget to sign up for frequent flyer miles on whatever airline you fly, I had so much frequent flyer miles that my last trip to Japan was essentially free.