Japan Budget Advise

10 comments

1. I’m probably going to get downvoted for being a snob here but I think you need to define “slow-paced fairly luxury trip”.

   The hotel prices you have mentioned feel around the 3 star level pricing to me. And your meal pricing is definitely going to feed you, but again won’t fall into 4-5 star category.

   Your budget will work but I don’t think it’s going to be “luxurious”.

2. If you really wanted to, you could reduce the accommodations expenses quite a bit. You could get hostels for $10-30/night and I’m seeing hotel options in Tokyo for around $200 for 7 days in areas like Ueno, Asakusa, Shinjuku.

3. With inflation throughout most parts of the world and a tourism infrastructure that has been on hold for the better part of two years, this is a difficult questions to answer.

   With chaos in major airports, delays and cancelled flights – it is anyone’s guess what a ticket.. let alone connections will be like. Hotels in Europe this summer have seen huge demand influencing prices. Restaurant workers and so on.

   Everyone is wondering here in this sub daily.. I just don’t know how you could nail down a dollar (Yen) figure.

   One thing is for sure – once the restrictions are lifted for ‘normal’ travel to Japan it is going to be a very busy place..

   edit: looking at your budget for food/drinks/ shrines .. pre-Covid those prices are realistic if you have one can of beer from a Conbini (convenience store or beer machine.. ) and the budgeted prices of your meals is sorta realistic (I’m not sure if you have had experience finding affordable places within Japan) but I would suggest those numbers are a little on the low side. Perhaps others can chime in here.

   The ‘flight’ will be anyone’s guess depending on timing. The ‘train tickets’ is very general and I am assuming is for inter city travel. There is all kinds of discussion in this sub about certain National or local train tickets. The types of tickets (tourist specific) is a real unknown.. well, post Covid. When you are in the larger centers do you realize that JapanRail tickets will not allow you to travel within a large city? (like a local Tokyo Metro pass allowing you travel within a large city area) This will effect your travelling getting around central Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto.

   The ‘admission to shrines’ is very general. Shrine is a general term as they are usually by donation upon entry. Some of the more organized gardens, museums and similar have been by appointment in the past where 1000Y is not unusual

   I noticed you have not budgeted for a SIM or eSIM card. There are a variety of prices and kinda a necessity if you are not a Japanese speaker or are not familiar with visiting Japan.

4. In the daily budget, you put 1900 for travel pass, I assume you transport expense outside of the JR Pass, in that case, that seems to be much higher than what you would typically have to spend, I would say that most of the time it should be under 1000 yen a day. If you do more than that inside of Tokyo in a single day, then you spend too much time in the train and it is not slow-paced.

   Admission to shrine at 600 yen by day, that is odd. First of all, in Tokyo most shrines and temples are actually free and you are likely going to visit things other than shrines. So if this is the general budget for activities, then I feel it is not enough, there is lot of museum, observation deck, garden, castle, and more that you might want to visit and it will cost money. I guess you do have some extra planned in your “7x extra event pass”, but that is a bit of a strange way to phrase it. It also depend what it include, if it’s just a couple of days for things like Disney, then that does not leave much activity money for other regular days.

   Actually, the daily budget it not bad, but I would personally spend less in food and more on attraction than what is listed. However, that is not especially in the “luxury” budget. A luxury dinner can easily be 10 000 yen and more. So you will have to spend less on a typical day if you want to try some high quality wagyu or fancier sushi restaurant.

   For the accommodation budget, you are at 12 000 yen a night in Tokyo, for one person, while not being luxury, it’s more expensive than a business hotel. Kyoto at around 8000 yen, that look closer to business hotel price, so absolutely not luxury and Osaka at 4700 yen, that is a cheap business hotel… in general, I do not understand why you want to spend more than twice a night in Tokyo compared to Osaka, like what, you are running out of budget and selected the cheapest business hotel in a sketchy area ?

   You also seems to be missing the 2 “Mount Fuji” nights, and those are not clear, you want to hike the mountain and sleep in a mountain hut, or is it two nights in a ryokan in Hakone ?

   In your budget you have 14 days JR Pass (at least I assume it’s what you mean), but seeing you only have Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, it might not actually be necessary, it really depend on the extra day trips you want to do.

   Do you have any budget planned for souvenir ?

   ​

   So while this is for sure not a low budget trip and of cours not a minimal budget, it is also nowhere near “fairly luxury” budget.

5. This is somewhat off topic but you may have noticed that the Japanese Yen (JPY) has been dropping relative to other currencies. You might be able to offset some of these costs by opening up a JPY account. Then, you could buy JPY when it falls relative to your currency. It is risky because of course no one can predict where inflation is going to take us but Japan seems to be facing severe and drastic price increases as most of what it consumes it has to import. Its currency may have a long way to go before it stabilizes.

   Another factor that complicates this is that it is really the American Dollar that is showing the greatest gains against the JPY. As a Canadian, though, my country’s currency is at the highest level against the JPY in quite awhile so I have bought JPY. Please note, however, that I am not advising that anyone get into foreign exchange trading (Forex). It is extremely risky and one can lose one’s shirt in the blink of an eye.

6. It would depend on what you define as “fairly luxury”. I personally feel that your budget may fall a little below what you’re looking for. Especially, hotels around the 8,000 yen range in Kyoto are glorified business hotels unless you happen to stay in one before the country opens up for inbound tourism or use the discounts available for Japanese residents.

7. ¥1300 a day for breakfast is on the high side, unless you have to pay that at a hotel, but I think it offsets your dinner budget which is I think on the low side. Places like Yoshinoya, dennys, Matsuya have a nice Japanese style breakfast if you want. Go to coffee shops as well if you want more of a western style breakfast

8. The 600 yen per day for temples might need a little more detail. Some have admission fees and some don’t, and for some you might want to visit the nearby gardens which might also require fees.

9. Depending on the area, the price and quantity varies. My experience is mostly Tokyo.

   Breakfast varies quite a lot.
   Most hotels offer a breakfast buffet that is ￥1000 ~ ￥2500. Sometimes it is included with the room so pay attention at booking. Most of the time though it is a la cart.
   From my experience the smart thing to do is go to 711 or Lawson and pickup a breakfast beanbun and coffee for < ￥500

   Lunch will be cheaper than you think. Most places have a lunch menu.
   The ramen and soba stalls are ￥500 and maybe ￥1000 if you go all out. Yakiniku rice bowls start at ￥800 and go up to ￥1500. Katsudon is in the same price range.

   Dinner starts at the lunch price floor and goes up very quickly. What you save on breakfast and lunch usually goes to dinner. Sushi dinner for one starts at ￥1500, bento box probably ￥3000. A sushi boat to feed 4 usually starts at ￥6000. Wagyu starts at ￥5000 but that does not include anything so you have to spend a lot more.

10. This seems a bit low. I may be.a little closer to the luxury spectrum but usually budget to average $400USD/hotel, $500+ USD/Day Spending. I do a mix of super local izakaya/ramen shops to some higher end spots too. Fly up front so not gonna cite flight costs. As others have pointed out you can eat super cheap. I would definitely find authentic but lower end spots to eat and save your resources for nicer places to stay/travel to get there. Authentic Ryokan experience will change your trip but can be spendy.