Hi all. I’m a 29 year old Canadian headed to Japan in early January for 5 months with my Japanese girlfriend. I have 26K USD saved and should have around 40K USD by the time I leave. I’m trying to figure out how much I should expect to spend and if I should work, just go to language school, or a mix of the two.
After arriving in Japan we plan to travel for 2-3 weeks starting with a few days in Tokyo and then a week with her family in Mito, another week (give or take) somewhere else, and then head to Okinawa for a month or more to chill and lay low. I don’t plan on working in Okinawa but if working for just a month is possible and/or reasonable I will consider it.
After Okinawa we will find a place in Kyoto for the remainder of our stay (3 months or so) Once there I will either go to language school, work or both (not at the same time obviously).
I know there are still LOTS of things to work out but I was wondering if anyone has any kind of ballpark on what I should expect to spend on a journey like this. I am hoping that 13-14K USD could be possible but understand if I’m way off.
For some additional details we have travelled and lived for extended periods of time around Latin American and Europe and are ok with living a very basic lifestyle while travelling.
I’m really jumping into this without knowing much so feel free to go hard on me if any of this doesn’t make sense. Also I’m very interested in the finding a job part of this so if anyone has experience there I’d appreciate any advice. I’ve worked in many tourism and hospitality related business as well as tech sales roles if that helps at all. I presume the latter won’t be possible.
Thanks in advance!
4 comments
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**WHV in Japan for 5 months with Japanese girlfriend. Trying to get a ballpark of how much I’ll spend.**
Hi all. I’m a 29 year old Canadian headed to Japan in early January for 5 months with my Japanese girlfriend. I have 26K USD saved and should have around 40K USD by the time I leave. I’m trying to figure out how much I should expect to spend and if I should work, just go to language school or a mix of the two.
After arriving in Japan we plan to travel for 2-3 weeks starting with a few days in Tokyo and then a week with her family in Mito another week (give or take) somewhere else and then head to Okinawa for a month or more to chill and lay low. I don’t plan on working but if working for just a month is possible and/or reasonable I will consider it.
After Okinawa we will find a place in Kyoto for the remainder of our stay, once there I will either go to language school, work or both (not at the same time).
I know there are still LOTS of things to work out but I was wondering if anyone has any kind of ballpark on what I should expect to spend on a journey like this. I am hoping that 13-14K could be possible but understand if I’m way off.
For some additional details we have travelled and lived for extended periods of time around Latin American and Europe are ok with living a very basic lifestyle while travelling.
I’m really jumping into this without knowing much so feel free to go hard on me if any of this doesn’t make sense. Also I’m very interested in the finding a job part of this if anyone has experience there. I’ve worked in many tourism and hospitality related business as well as tech sales roles if that helps at all. I presume the latter won’t be possible.
Thanks in advance!
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Different people spend different amounts on different things, even if they are in the same country for the same amount of time. Asking us how much you’ll spend is futile.
Some people travel for a month on <2k USD, others would burn through your entire budget in 2 weeks.
Make yourself a spreadsheet and do the actual work if you’re so curious.
> I was wondering if anyone has any kind of ballpark on what I should expect to spend on a journey like this
How wet is the ocean? How blue is the sky? How much will a person we don’t know anything about spend on vacation?
All of these are questions that are impossible to answer. Like u/Etiennera said: Different people spend different amounts.
>if working for just a month is possible and/or reasonable I will consider it.
It’s almost certainly not going to be possible. Very few (if *any*) employers are going to bother hiring/training someone who’s just going to be gone in a few weeks.
Even for your 3 month stay in Kyoto you’re going to run into the same problem.
If you want to go for 5 months you are going to need a VISA. I’m also Canadian and I applied for mine last February and just got into the country August 1st. So I’d say that’s where you need to start. If you want to work while you are here you will have to get a work visa which I found to be a pain in the ass. Canada does also have Tourist Work Visas but I have no idea how hard those are to get.
As far as your budget I think you could definitely see some stuff and live off that if you find a cheap place to stay, but I found that very hard to do. Your girlfriend might have better luck with that though.
In general food/drinks are cheaper here than Canada ($5-10 CAD per beer at a bar, $2ish at the liquor store). I have found a lot less English speakers than I had hoped. So getting help with directions and ordering food at restaurants has been more challenging than anticipated, but everyone is very understanding and seem happy to use google translate on my phone.