Planning a trip to Japan in September and want to do Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, thinking 10-14 days.
Is Tokyo really as expensive as people say it is? I live in London so I’m we’ll use to expensive big city prices and I would be shocked to find a city MORE expensive than London.
I know all the tricks to avoid tourist spots etc so how much is food/drink at mid range spots? And what would be a reasonable amount to spend on accommodation?
31 comments
Who said that?
https://www.japan.travel/en/uk/inspiration/tokyo-is-the-cheapest-long-haul-destination-from-uk/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-7455989/Tokyo-cheapest-long-haul-destination-Brits-Seychelles-expensive.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4888300/Tokyo-revealed-cheapest-long-haul-destination.html
I’m there right now and I can say I don’t think so. The weak yen certainly helps in that, but yesterday I spent $1-2 each for a few train rides, $3-5 for breakfast at a convenience store, $25 for dinner at a family restaurant (which has the rare free refills, even on some alcoholic options), and $10 for McDonalds because I was still hungry before going back to my $40/night business hotel.
The portions are smaller so westerners might fit another meal, but last week I was in the US and spent $50 at a TGI Fridays, and my hotel for a for a weekend in the US I have planned went up to $300/night, soooo Tokyo is amazing value in comparison. Some things, like staying at a ryokan or western-owned hotels are gonna drain the bank though (hotels are priced mostly per person also).
Flights costs are horrific however.
I spent 60 euros per night for a hotel in Ginza. I booked it about a month ago for a trip in March. It is now about 120 euros. So anecdotally, book early for good prices. It seems the same for Kyoto, but the jump in price was lower.
As for food, I expect to pay around 15-20 euros per meal, with a couple of more specialty food (totally into unagi!) for around 40-50 euros.
Compared to the UK, no its not expensive. Not cheap to get there, and some accommodation can be pricey, but you can also find much cheaper than the UK and definitely cheaper than London. Food is cheaper as is regular public transit (not Shinkansen), however taxis are very expensive.
Not at all compared to London.
I was shocked and delighted by how inexpensive Tokyo is.
Currently in a 15 euro a night hostel in the south of adachi ward. Transport for me is around ¥1000 a day and food between ¥1200 and ¥2000 per day. The city is basically as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. In more touristy areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Asakusa it can definitely get expensive af. In the suburbs and quieter streets tho I would say it can get very cheap if you take the time to look a little.
Was there until Monday.
Street food ( ramen etc) is cheap
Coming from London you won’t find that restaurant are expensive
They are not a lot of tourist
If you look for cheap, go rent an Airbnb in kichojoji . It takes 15/20 min to go to shiny ta from there
It’s not more expensive than London. Rent is pretty high, but that obviously won’t affect you. Easy enough to find decent priced hotels and food.
Unless you want to stay somewhere like the Hyatt and eat at upmarket, Michelin-starred restaurants, Tokyo is very affordable. Until last year, prices had largely stagnated for the past two decades. I live in Australia and find Japan to be cheaper than Australia.
No, it’s cheaper than London by a lot, unless you are looking to buy same fruits and veggies as in local Tesco. Beer in a pub is also more expensive.
It’s more on Hamburg, or Vienna level otherwise – not cheap, but not Oslo, Amsterdam or Geneva (or for that matter NYC) level.
Way cheaper than London, especially restaurants and groceries.
Under 10 pounds for dinner or lunch is pretty easy if you want to – Konbini food, Sukiya, Yoshinoya or other cheap restaurants will do it. Breakfast (coffee and a breakfast roll) for under 2 pounds is quite easy too.
No, I never got why people considered Tokyo to be expensive.
Coming from UK mate you’ll be lapping it up here with the pound and the weak yen. As other posters say, trains around Tokyo are 1 pound a pop roughly, beers in Kobinis are 1 pound if not cheaper. A local izakaya with a spread of absolutely delicious yakatori, noodles, fried chicken, and a few drinks each will cost you roughly 40 pounds. That’s the important thing, what you’d define back home as an average cheap restaurant in the UK is in Japan a decent tasty local restaurant, the food quality is incredible. You can also get decent hotels like APA for 50 quid a night, they’ll just be a little small. Taxis are also really cheap but you only need them at night when the subways are closed.
The only things which will be expensive is the train trip to Kyoto on the bullet train might be about 150 quid each and if you dine at really top restaurants for wagyu beef you can easily spend a bit more, same with staying in nice hotels, will get up there. If you want to go cheap there’s plenty of options.
Compared to London it feels incredibly cheap (other than the flights, those are ridiculous)
I met someone from London in Japan that was telling me he didn’t find Japan and Tokyo that expensive since he came from London. I think you’ll be fine
It’s the flights and accommodation that can be expensive. Once you are there, I would say it is cheaper than London. Unless you go out of your way to eat at expensive Michelin star restaurants.
Living is expensive
I am from south east asia.
And the first time I went to tokyo was in **2010-2011**. I packed water bottles to the limit back then in the luggage because I saw how expensive tokyo was in the tv. Back then It was on the expensive side from an Asian perspective. More expensive than Singapore. and slightly more expensive than HK.
2016-2017 was my second trip back and it was on Osaka-kyoto-Nara. and I was surprised that it was only at par with Singapore. factoring airfare-hotel-food.
2020 was my third trip. and this is where it was really different. Prices of food in Osaka are already at par with what you would eat in Philippines(Makati, Boracay), Malaysia( Kuala Lumpur), and HK. Singapore I believe is quite cheaper still. With Thailand still extremely cheap. Hotels are at par with singapore and hongkong, with Japanese hotels more cleaner. HK hotels feels more claustrophobic.
I am currently planning my 2023 trip. And as early as now factoring exchange rates. Hotels in Tokyo are far cheaper than what you would get in Singapore.
Expensive cities ranking are often made with the idea to maintain the same lifestyle for an expat. If you want to live in central Tokyo, it can obviously be expensive to buy/rent.
However as a tourist, I do not think it is that expensive.
While portions are smaller (just perfect for me), it is easy to find cheap restaurant that serve good food. Business hotels can be small, but have really good prices.
You do not even really have to avoid the touristy spots, there might be some places that are a bit more expensive, apparently Tsukiji outer market is just a bit expensive compared to other places, but it is generally not bad.
I would say that no, traveling to Tokyo is likely not going to be more expensive than traveling to big cities in the US or in London. It is more what you do that will make it cheap or expensive … use train or taxi ? Business hotel or 5 stars hotel? Normal restaurant or Michelin restaurant? Day at Disneyland or visit a couple of free to enter temples?
No. I was there in December and I live near London and visit frequently. Tokyo is pretty reasonable (even with the £ in its dreadful state). Public transport costs are very reasonable, and food’s not bad at all by London standards. I was at a conference and stayed in the Yokohama Four Seasons (so, a pretty posh hotel) for around £120 a night which is ludicrously cheap by London standards, but I booked the room when it was still necessary to get a visa to go, so I suspect that it’s a lot more expensive now.
As others have described, it will be much cheaper than you are used to in London.
Obviously there’s all kinds of levels of prices for hotel and dining, from budget to high end, but you’ll find that each option is markedly cheaper than what you’d find back home
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For example, [https://global.southerntower.co.jp/](https://global.southerntower.co.jp/rooms/) is roughly equivalent in location and feel to here in London [https://www.sbe.com/hotels/originals/st-martins-lane/](https://www.sbe.com/hotels/originals/st-martins-lane/), yet is roughly £150 a night vs the St Martin’s Lane £300+
Food is also much cheaper for the same or superior quality, so long as you’re going for Japanese cuisine. For example, even cheap conveyor belt sushi is generally better than the Yo!/Sushimania equivalent in the UK, yet each plate is usually about £1-£1.50, and Ramen at Kyushu Jangara will set you back £7 rather than the £12-£15 you’d get in Kanada Ya for a not as good bowl.
Since you are from London, I doubt you will find it expensive.
The stereotype that Japan is expensive (and it can get expensive no doubt) probably originates from travelers of not so wealthy countries and that spilled over.
Edit: Kind of unfair to say it’s not expensive, when it clearly is for some. So please don’t take this statement the wrong way.
I visited last November-December and thought it was quite inexpensive when compared to European prices for accomodation and food (especially now with inflation in Europe and a weak jpy).
This is, however, subjective and probably depends on your personal experience and your salary.
Ignoring the flight, I spent 1k€/week (stayed 3 weeks, includes food, some activities, transportation aso). I think that gives you a general idea on what to expect. Note: I booked my accommodation on short notice like 2-4 days before check-in. If I had focused on the cheapest/capsule or booked earlier, it could have been less, no doubt.
Like with any other country, prices can vary by a lot between (off-)seasons.
I mean this all really relative. If you live in a city with a high cost of living like London, New York, San Francisco, Paris etc probably not. You will likely feel like its the same or cheaper.
Diving into categories of things I’ve found to be more expensive.
– Fine cheese. Processed cheese is fairly cheap and abundant when you start getting to even basic cheese like cheddar it is much harder to find and portions are small and costly. I want to say its 3-6x more expensive compared to where I am from.
– Coffee. Individual cups are not too bad, but if you want to buy whole beans to take back home it gets pricey. Usually sold in 100-200g bags its priced at similar prices to 350g bags I see in the states.
– Fresh fruit and vegetables. These are packaged in much smaller quantities then you typically would see in western countries.
– Some electronics and PC components. I’ve found that graphics cards, TVs, CPUs are incredibly over priced here.
– Music CDs – Not sure how it is now compared with western countries since I haven’t bought a CDs in a very long time, but they were really expensive when CDs were still the primary way to buy music back in the day.
However, there are a lot more things that are cheaper. Prepared foods are very affordable and as well as canned and bottled beverages. Restaurants will have much more varied price ranges and tiers that can fit almost any budget. There fairly good quality food at all prices levels. Health and beauty items have a good range of pricing and variety too. There is a healthy used item market with a lot of the used items being in like new condition.
Is it expensive? Yes. Is it cheap? Also yes.
You have options where to spend your money, they have dozens of cheap restaurant/accomodations, as well as the expensive ones. Even if you go to the tourist spots it can be cheap/expensive depends on where you want to spend it.
No, many people have a 90s image of Tokyo, which simply is not true anymore. It’s a very affordable city overall and especially when compared to other major (western) cities. Both for traveling and for living.
I’m here now and it’s really cheap compared to the US. The weak yen helps a lot.
Lived there for 6 years. 7/11 or even Family Mart have some of the best food for cheap. There are loads of all you can eat places too. I personally love a place called DON DONS but I’m not entirely sure if it’s a chain place or not. Pepper Lunch is my absolute favorite place. Its a fast food place often found in shopping centers. Boss coffee out of the vending machines was my favorite. The train is incredibly reasonable in price and you can download an app on your phone to monitor your Pasmo/Suica card that pays your way on the trains and buses. You can even use the card to pay for things at vending machines and convince stores and some other places too. We always stayed in a Hilton hotel for points purposes (the one in Osaka was great) but Ryokens can be nice too. My husband had to book a business hotel for some contractors that were coming in for his work, they were the most basic of basic hotel rooms. Hardly any amenities. If you get the chance to visit an Onsen (most are gender segregated, full nude, and don’t allow tattoos. Though you can find some that are bathing suit allowed, not segregated, and there are some that do allow for tattoos but those last ones are hard to find) do it. It’s a cheap bath house with a cafeteria and spa services. Don Quijote is a store filled with practically everything. They have food, alcohol, clothes, baby and pet supplies, hair and body care, hobby items, home supply items etc. Typically it’s crazy cheap too. Osaka tends to have larger size clothing options than other places if that’s something you want. Hard Offs are second hand shops.
I also lived in England back in 2004 and 2005. To me England was more expensive than Japan. I don’t think you are going to have much issue when visiting Japan coming from England.
I was in Ireland in december, and no, Tokyo isn’t expensive. You have way too many options.
Since I have travelled to both places with roughly the same standards: Tokyo is way cheaper than London imo. If you compare each expenditure, you’d get it like this:
– Hostel: 20€ Japan vs 25-30€ London (with worse quality mind you) per night per person
– Food: about twoce as much in a konbini for the same amount, even with a meal deal
– Transport: even with special passes, London still is more expensive, at least as I remember I spent less in Tokyo
– Long Distance travel: Japan is more expensive but faster, unless you get a JR pass
Also regarding the hostel quality: For all I have chosen in Japan with a 8+ rating (on Booking .com), the quality was really great. They all cost around 20€/night/person and were clean, albeit mostly bunk beds/in a room with several others. There also are single, double, triple rooms even in hostels, still at a cheap price.
I spent a lot more on my trip to London than I did on two trips to Tokyo. You can stay at an APA business hotel for sub $100 USD, I enjoy breakfast at Lawson / Family Mart, a good ramen meal is like $10… it seemed fairly reasonable to me.