Hey all, I’ve basically copy and pasted my rough draft solo trip plan to Japan to see what others think. My plan is to stay in different areas of Tokyo for a couple days at a time as I really want to just go to the places of Tokyo I’ve been dreaming of going for years and explore other parts of Japan at later dates. If you can suggest other things to do or see in these places I’d really appreciate it. Also make sure to tell me if the amounts I’m budgeting for seem unrealistic, too high or too low. I’m trying to be as low budget as I can regarding accommodations as I don’t care where I sleep as long as it’s clean and safe and not a love hotel.
Budget: $3000-$3500
Flight: $1200-$1800
Hotels: $400-$500
Food: $400
Shopping:
Emergency:
Day 1: Akihabara
Day 2: Akihabara
Day 3: Akihabara
Day 4: Akihabara
Things to do: Anime and gaming stores, animate Akihabara, Akihabara Gamers, Maiddreamin cafe, Mandarake store, Shrines, animal cafe, pandemonium
Day 5: Edogawa
Day 6: Edogawa
Day 7: Edogawa
Things to do: Asakusa, Kasai Rinkai Park, Museums, chilling
Day 8: Shinjuku
Day 9: Shinjuku
Day 10: Shinjuku
Things to do: shopping, omoide yokocho, kabukicho, samurai museum, Shin okubo, harajuku
Day 11: Shibuya
Day 12: Shibuya
Day 13: Shibuya
Things to do: Diesel Art Gallery, malls, Takeshita Street, Shibuya Center, Niku Yokocho, Yoyogi park, Meiji Shrine
Day 14: Airport
Day of departure, may just wind up staying in the airport until flight is ready to leave
3 comments
Looks like you’re into anime and gaming, I would add Ikebukuro area with lots of arcades(including Mikado that has only retro games), anime shops, and even a Super Potato location. Another stop will be Nakano Broadway that is a shopping mail with anime and retro games. Finally look for the Surugaya in Shinjuku when you are there, as it has a bigger selections of items than the ones in Akihabara.
By staying in different are you also implying changing hotels every few days? If so I’d advise against that since you’d be wasting time just moving from place to place. I suppose if you pack extremely light it is possible, but again it seems better to just pick a single centralized location and commute to where you want to go each day. If you’re looking to get a more local experience this is how you’d likely live. Day to day life is pretty mundane and living in different neighborhoods is pretty much about routine and you have your goto places.
With that being said I’d probably also just break things up and not stay consecutive days in places. Your budget is very low for food and also doesn’t take into account any souvenirs or activity costs. If you had a kitchen were you are staying you could probably get away with buying groceries and making your own meals which would help with the daily cost of food.
Based on 1:100 rate, that looks like ~2850 Yen/day for food.
Do you plan to eat at the Yokochos or Theme Cafes? If so, many of them have a cover charge or admission fee. Yokocho can range from 2000-3000 yen a meal from my research. The theme care you have looks like 950 for a meal set.
I can see doing light breakfasts 200-300 yen and light konbini lunches 400-600 yen to pay it forward to a Yokocho night / Maid Cafe.
Also consider public transportation. In my thread it looks like 500-1000 yen / day is realistic.
You could also consider buying yen around this time in preparation for your trip since the exchange rate is ~1:140 which is at an all time low. I can only imagine Japan opening up will cause the yen to rise back.