How Much Money to Bring to Japan for 10 Days
How we took a 10-day trip to Japan for only $4,000, including flights
Asia has pretty much always been on my travel bucket list, but there had never really been a good enough excuse to spend the money to get there.
Until recently.
My husband had made it his goal to complete what were then the five world marathons within five years. In his fifth and final year, as he was ran what he thought would be his last race of the series in London, then the announcement was made that Tokyo would join the list.
And suddenly we had reason to go.
Of course the timing wasn't perfect — we had just up and moved halfway across the country, spent tons on a trip to South America and were now expecting a child. But on the other hand, we didn't want to wait much longer. It felt like a now or never situation. Traveling frugally is always a goal of mine, but now more than ever we needed to save as much money as possible on this trip.
When all was said and done, we spent 10 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima, and only spent about $4,000 for the both of us, including flights and accommodation. Here's some of ways we made it work.
Step 1: Book flights and accommodation as far in advance as possible.
How it helped: Since we were stuck on our travel dates (they obviously had to revolve around the marathon date), we couldn't be flexible, but we did know well in advance when the race was taking place, so we were able to start tracking flights about a year out and when a great deal came up, we pounced.
We purchased our tickets in March of 2015 for a trip in February of 2016, which some might say is crazy, but it worked well for us. If you're worried about things coming up to derail a trip planned that far in advance, book travel insurance as well. (We went with World Nomads, which has great prices.)
The other thing that worked in our favor was that the end of February/beginning of March isn't exactly peak travel time for Japan. We were a bit early for the famous cherry blossoms, and the weather can be unpredictable (although we luckily had no issues there), so if you can decide to book during a less popular time, that will help you save big, too.
Step 2: If you love hotels, at least combine your hotel stays with some apartment rentals, as well.
How it helped: Again, for us our stay at an Airbnb apartment in Tokyo happened by necessity (even at almost a year in advance, all the decent hotels near the starting line of the race were sold out).
However, it turned out to be a blessing, since a stay at an apartment afforded us other cost-cutting options (more on those later), and it turned out to be way cheaper than what the hotels were offering. In fact, our cute little Airbnb abode — which was in a great location for sight-seeing and was super close to the start line of the marathon — cost us about $100 per night, compared to the hotel we booked in Kyoto, which cost about $189 per night. That's a pretty good savings.
Step 3: Make as many meals as you can.
How it helped: Having the apartment helped as well because we were able to make breakfast for ourselves every single morning in Tokyo, and we even ended up making dinner one night. Of course eating out is one of the great pleasures of travel, but I honestly felt like we did plenty of that, while still saving a ton of cash on similar foods we probably would have eaten out for breakfast anyway.
Step 4: Pack snacks
How it helped: Japan is awash with tasty snacking options, and we did indulge ourselves from time-to-time when we saw something that looked interesting, but as a pregnant lady spending the entire day walking around, I knew I could end up spending a fortune on snacks if I weren't careful.
So we stuffed our carry-ons with tons of goodies from home, then made a pit stop at the local grocery store as soon as we arrived in Tokyo to stock up on stuff for breakfast and snacks we could easily bring along during the day. This saved us a lot of cash and it kept me from getting cranky when the hunger would hit and we weren't anywhere near an available food source.
Step 5: Plan out your transportation in advance.
How it helped: If there's one thing other than accommodation I would recommend planning in advance, it's how you think you'll get around during a trip. In Japan, the cabs are lovely and fancy, but they are expensive. For a 10-day trip, we would have spent a small (to large) fortune if we planned to mostly get around that way.
Instead, we purchased our PASMO (subway) cards ahead of time, and used public transportation to get pretty much everywhere we needed to go. As an added bonus, you can use PASMO cards elsewhere in Japan (like at vending machines and even certain stores or restaurants), so it's worth doing a little research ahead of time for any item you plan to buy to see if they come with added perks.
Step 6: Buy souvenirs in bulk.
How it helped: Luckily we were traveling with Chris's parents, which meant we didn't have to buy for them, and they would take care of buying for Chris's siblings, but we still had my family (four parents, two sisters, two brothers-in-law and a nephew) to deal with.
If you've decided to forgo getting souvenirs for everyone in your life on trips, more power to you, but for me, I just haven't been able to give that up yet.
What I can do, though, and what I have found very helpful, is buying certain things in bulk, which tend to be cheaper, and divvying them up. That way everyone gets the same thing (there's no "Hey, I like hers better!"), everyone feels remembered and you get to save a little cash. For example, on this particular trip, packs of chopsticks and sake cups — beautifulpacks of chopsticks and sake cups! — were available pretty much everywhere. Problem solved.
Step 7: Never buy tickets to anything without searching online for a discount first.
How it helps: You just never know where you might be able to find crazy discounts for even the most out-there of activities you want to partake in on your journeys. For example, one night we decided to take in the crazy spectacle that is Robot Restaurant in Tokyo (I could explain to you what this actually is, but it's kind of a 'you had to be there' type of thing). The point is, regular tickets were about $80, which was steep, but we really wanted to go. On a whim, we hopped online and quickly found a site that was offering 25% discounts on tickets. Now we no longer had to feel guilty about going, which made it even more fun.
For you
How Much Money to Bring to Japan for 10 Days
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-we-took-a-10-day-trip-to-japan-for-only-4000-including-flights-2016-3
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