Kitty and Ducky's Guide to (Kind Of) Budget Traveling in Japan!

For fun, we wanted to track down our expenses to see how much we really spent during our trip and ultimately we want to share our experiences/tips on how to plan, navigate and enjoy this wonderful country.

We were in Japan from August 29, 2013 to September 17, 2013 when 1 USD was approximately 100 Yen (円) so doing conversion math was super easy when we went.

Pregame: Things to Pack Before Leaving

• Tissues 

1. A lot of restrooms (aka parks, train stations, temples, older buildings) do not usually have toilet paper, so if you are out sightseeing a lot, tissues are a must! Thankfully most malls/department stores/restaurants do have toilet paper.
2. Paper towels are not usually offered in bathrooms (most people in Japan carry their own handkerchief/hand towel). 
3. Many restaurants only offer you a little hand wipe to "clean" your hands before eating but no napkins. 

When you walk through cities like Tokyo or Osaka there are people who stand on the streets offering tissue packs with advertisements on them, but just in case..bring a few packs prior to your trip.

• Antibacterial Hand Sanitizer - No joke...we were surprised as well. Japan is one of the most developed and cleanest countries, not to mention the most advanced toilets! Yet 70% of the bathrooms we went to did not provide soap at all. There may be some cultural reason or public health unawareness behind this...it's not entirely clear. Ultimately this was probably the one thing we didn't pack but wish we did. 

Accomodation

There are a number of ways to book your place to stay whether it's your usual travel agent or Expedia, Hotels.com and such. However we really wanted to stretch our dollar since all we really needed was a clean place to sleep, shower, and use the internet. So we ended up using: AirBnB 

AirBnB is where people who have an extra room in their apartment or home and are willing to rent it out to travelers. You can filter through which area you want to stay in, certain amenities you need, as well as read other travelers' reviews of the place. This is really great for budget travelers who do not want to stay in capsule hotels or hostels but still want to save money. Ultimately the places we found were roughly around $40 a night, so $20 per person. We stayed at the following hosts:

• Tokyo: Koenji - This place was SUPER close to the train station, making it SUPER convenient to get to anywhere in Tokyo. It's located in Koenji which is not too far from city at all either. Plus there was a lot of great places to eat around the area. The host was nice, and even though the room and shower tends to be a bit small it served its purpose well.
• Kyoto: Derek's Place - BEST PLACE EVER. Derek's place was relatively close to the train station, and his place was super spacious and clean~! He's also a super cool guy and a really awesome host (he even printed us maps and made us breakfast!). We super duper recommend his place!
• Osaka: Planet One Deep - Nate's place is located in Tennoji which is really close to Nanba and relatively close to Osaka Station. It's also very close to the train station and there are absolutely TONS of amazing places to eat around his place. He's also a very friendly host and has a lot of recommendations and is friendly about guiding you to getting anywhere. The place was spacious too.

Transportation

The easiest way to get to anywhere is by train! And so the ultimate question before our trip was...

Should We Buy the JR Rail Pass?

This was our schedule:

8/29 - 9/4: Tokyo
9/4 - 9/5: Hakone
9/5 - 9/9: Kyoto
9/9 - 9/13: Osaka
9/13 - 9/17: Tokyo

The JR Rail Pass is only available to foreigners and it's an all-you-can-ride pass for all JR operated trains. You can purchase it through here: Japan Rail Pass Home Page or your local Japanese travel agency. For 2 weeks it would be $451 while 3 weeks $577 per person. While we were planning this trip we knew that we would go to places like Hakone where is absolutely no way around paying extra money since no train route going there takes JR Pass. Although there are JR railways down in the Kyoto/Osaka area, many of its convenient private railways and buses do not accept the JR Rail Pass.

I took the leap of faith and did not buy the JR Pass and we ended up spending $539.2 per person for the 20 days, so about $180 a week. We definitely spent less than the 3 week pass, and even if we chose the 2 week pass and supplemented the last week with extra money.....in the end not buying the JR Rail Pass saved us a lot of money.

The ultimate reason why I felt we didn't need to buy the pass was because our main destinations were mainly Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and that we would only take the shinkansen 2 times. If you're planning to make day trips to places like Hiroshima or make visits to Nagoya, Shizuoka, etc in addition then the JR Pass is definitely worth it. Otherwise it would be cheaper to go with out it, and in addition you get the freedom of using any transportation you want instead of always feeling like you have to use JR railways to make the pass worthwhile. Some of the private railways even get you to places faster.

Now enough with my giant rant about the JR rail pass....what about actually GETTING AROUND Japan?

Google Maps was our best friend. Prior to our trip I made an itinerary of which stations to get on/transfer/get off as well as a screenshot of how to walk from the station to the desired destination. It was a little excessive but came in handy when we were first getting used to using the trains. If anything, what was most helpful was the screenshot of getting from the station to our desired destination because....Japan doesn't use street signs and for the less touristy places there aren't a lot of signs around to help guide you. Plus

Another great resource is Japan Guide This is an extensive site that often times gives a background about all the site seeing places and cities of Japan as well as very efficient directions to wherever you may want to go. Combine this with Google Maps and the possibilities are endless.

TIP FOR KYOTO TRAVELERS

We highly suggest you get a Kyoto City Bus Day Pass. It's only ５００円 and unlimited rides all day. It also comes with an English map so you know which bus to take to get to what area you want. It's a really good deal, but beware not to get on the buses with the red/brown coloring because those do not accept the pass. We had to learn that the hard way. 

TIP FOR OSAKA TRAVELERS

In Osaka if you are planning to take the subways, there is an ８００円 unlimited rides all day pass. This is great if you're going back and forth between Osaka or Umeda or Nanba or really anywhere that the subway lines can take you because even a trip between one station to another can cost ２３０円 down in these neighborhoods.

Food

Japan certainly has the image of having really expensive foods, but it doesn't mean you have to break your wallet if you want something good to eat. There are TONS of options for all kinds of budgets...and now I'm sounding like I want to sell a mattress. Anyway, for cheap eats definitely find yourselves one of these:

• Convenience Stores
• There are as many convenience stores in Japan as there are Starbucks and McDonalds here in America. No joke. The Big 3 are Family Mart, Lawson, and 7-11
• You can get a variety of foods, snacks, bentos that range from $1.30 - $7, readily made and on the go. Definitely stop by at least to try the unique soda/tea drinks that Japan offers

Seaweed Riceball

Quick Fill Up Snack

• Ramen (ラーメン) and Donburi (丼)
• This is probably one of the cheapest ways to eat. Ramen ranges from $5-10, and the $10 was from the all famous Ippudo. You can get donburi from chains like Yoshinoya for as low as $3
• Beware that places like these...as delicious as they are...come in a 80:20 carbohydrate:protein ratio. We did get sick of eating ramen at one point because it would fill up our stomachs too much and didn't allow room to try other tasty foods.

Available Everywhere

A Cheap and Filling Staple

• Department Stores
• Department stores in Japan are double the size of Macy's with quadruple the amount of products....but its true secret weapon is their basement which sells TONS of food items, groceries, specialty desserts...it's a smorgasbord
• Depending on what you get, you can spend about $10-13 for your meal and still be able to enjoy something a little gourmet. Just because you're on a budget doesn't mean you have to eat at fast food places all the time!
• Not to mention their variety of desserts are very beautiful and well crafted. Some of their cakes even shined like jewels.

Fluffy Meat Buns

Deep Fried Chicken Morsels

Greasy Delicious Squid Omelette Fry

Beautiful Works of Art

• Family Style Home Cooking Restaurants (家庭料理)
• There are cheap homestyle cooking restaurants in Japan that have meals for about ７００円.  It was quite difficult for us to find one, but there are quite a few in every district.  Most places will call themselves 食堂.  Depending on what area you are in, you can google the kanji with the the district you wish to find one of these establishments.  There is a famous one in Akihabara, but we did not have time to go there. Kanda Shokudo.
• These places are TREASURES because for less than $10 you can get rice, soup, vegetables, a side, and some form of protein. It's a relatively nutritious balanced meal, it's cheap, and it's a chance to experience the authentic taste of a typical Japanese home.

This was only $6.30

• Lunch Specials
• Japan is a magical land of lunch specials. Many places offer a lunch set that's around $7-10, and you get a full on entree, rice, soup, and salad or side. 
• Subway stations and top floors of malls often have many restaurants that are convenient and have a variety to choose from depending on what you're feeling for
• Try to go either around 11am or 1pm otherwise you'll be battling with salary men and office ladies for seats.

Part of Your Daily Balanced Meal

But honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Just pay attention to your surroundings and you can be surprised at how many things you can eat here in Japan and not have to break the bank. And of course if you are a lover of gourmet and have the change to spare, Japan can definitely serve that facet as well.

Money

We did not carry a lot of Japanese currency when we came because nowadays we can withdraw money from the ATMs in convenience stores. However the only convenience store that will take our American cards was 7-11. Each withdraw will take $5 for transaction fees. On top of that there will be an additional exchange rate fee depending on which bank you use. When we went, Bank of America took 3% of the amount withdrawn while Wells Fargo had no fee. Check with your bank's policy beforehand. Also, REMEMBER to call your bank beforehand and let them know that you'll be making a trip so they do not freeze your card.

Overall Cost

So how much did we really spend? With airfare your mileage may vary since on a good day you can find tickets for as low as $500 roundtrip, an average day around $1000 round trip, and on a terrible day is anything over $1000. We really wanted to know how much we spent during the past three weeks, so we decided to write down everything we spent during our trip and categorize them to either food, snacks, traveling and accommodation. We didn't count souvenir or leisure shopping because who are we kidding here.....

Did we spend a lot? Yes. Is Japan an expensive country to travel in? Yes. Can it be affordable? YES YES YES! The things that were pretty fixed were transportation and accommodation which combined was $1000 for about 20 days...not a bad deal. Things like food, snacks, attractions, and souvenirs are variable depending on how much you choose to spend. 

We highly encourage anyone to visit this very beautiful country. It's worth every penny and yen. Hope this guide helped in planning your own trip to Japan!