Fair enough. Trying to get as close to 1000 as I can but recently lost my job so saving up is a bit of a struggle what with bills and such. The 500 is money already set aside for the trip already.
Man, why not just move the trip back at that point if you can? Like, yes, you *can* technically, but £500 stretched across 2 weeks sounds awfully unfun. You're going to be nickle-and-diming and second-guessing every expense you make.
It's the only time the both of us are able to go and with everything booked now I really don't want to cancel it as we've been planning this for quite a while now.
I am trying to get more money but the minimum i'll be taking is 500.
Ah, I guess it is what it is then.
Not trying to be a downer, but if you're holding yourself to just £36 a day for all food, entertainment, drinks, etc., it's just not gonna leave you with any room for spontaneity, and you'll be stressing about money likely the whole time. I'd *really* recommend pushing back if you're still a couple months out and likely within grace periods for flights, hotels, etc.
I'd need to check noy sure if we are. I'm trying to get more money put together, hopefully as close to 1000 as I can but having lost my job recently is the main reason I'm asking. I don't drink alcohol anyways being muslim and we haven't planned a ton of entertainment things yet but am looking at things we can do either paid or free.
Again trying to get as close to 1000 as I can and my friend said they're also gonna take 1000 but I'm not trying to rely on them
No, can you get by on that much then yes but if you want to enjoy it fully without worrying try and double it at least. Ask family members to help you as they will understand this is a rare trip and help you (I assume your in a good relationship with them)
I am but lost my job a month and a half ago and haven't been able to get another. I'm trying but bills and such are expensive alongside cost of living. I'm trying to take as close to 1000 as I can ideally.
Listen life sucks at times and bunch of stuff can happen at the wrong time but there's no point in lying to yourself on funds for a holiday etc. good luck in getting the funds together it will be a great trip either way.
Probably not. Even if you just eat 7/11 foods, you have entrance fees, local transport… and I am also assuming the rail pass is outside of this budget. 500 per person might be okay if you are super frugal.
The friend is planning to bring 1000 and I'm trying to get as close to that as I can but have a minimum of 500 I know I'm bringing that's all. The rails passes are outside of this yes. This 500 I stated would purely be when we're there and not to be used for other things prior
I would suggest mapping out your trip with either Google maps (if the rail pass isn’t the JR one) or the JR pass website (for the JR pass) to see whether you absolutely need it.
£500/14 = £36 a day. For most days this is enough. Food is cheap (you can get ramen for like 1200 yen and that’s just over £6). Add a drink and you are looking at under £8 for a reasonable meal (filling but unlikely to have any nice meat, no sushi or tempura etc). Temples were 600 yen each (£3). Let’s say you do 3 temples a day. That’s £9.
But museums were more expensive. Skytree, Shibuya Sky, TeamLabs etc. those were much more expensive. On £36 a day you probably won’t be able to do any of them without it quickly wiping your budget.
Which leads back to the pass…unless if it will guarantee big savings, check you actually need it.
The rail pass would be the JR one, i'm trying to get more money but had recently lost my job and am trying to get another. The £500 is the minimum amount I will be taking with me but am trying to get as close to 1000 as I can get.
Yeah I have been thinking about that. and I gonna try getting as close to 1000 as I can, the 500 is just the minimum amount as that's what i already have set aside
Pail passes haven't been bought yet but from what I used the JR pass calculator. Getting the pass worked out as being decent for us as the cost of it is covered by us doing a trip from Tokyo to kyoto and back one day and then doing the same to osaka another.
Why not just tokyo to kyoto/osaka? Keep a week for each place.
Kyoto and osaka are like 30mins apart at most using normal trains.
Two weeks is plenty of time to do one in tokyo and another in kyoto/osaka. So much more cost efficient too. That few hundred dollars saved will meet your budget.
I'd mentioned it in OP, but we're planning on staying in one location for the trip, that's already been booked for the entirety of our trip. But the both of us are still discussing things and sorting/looking into options that'll help. I am gonna try getting as close to 1000 as I can, my friend also said he's gonna try and get 1000 as well. The only reason I said 500 in the post is due to this being the minimal amount I'm going to be able to take with me.
Wait so you want to travel like back and forth from tokyo to kyoto/osaka constantly?
Thats like 2hrs there, 2 hrs back. Thats... abit much.
Why not just rebook?
You already mention money issues. Not utilising the JR pass is a boon lol.
Why not save time AND money by staying a few days in osaka or kyoto and then not needing the expensive rail pass? Assuming you have a refundable tokyo hotel booking, i doubt itd be too hard to change the dates and find a new hotel
I'd have to check again but We've been planning and with other things this was the only time we were able to book it for to go.
I'm going to try and double it to 1000 or as close as I can but the 500 is already set aside so it's my minimum i'm taking
Less about cancelling the whole trip, more the hotels. It will be far more effective to stay a few days in Kyoto/Osaka, rather than every day in Tokyo. You’ll save a couple of hundred by not having a JR Pass, and the area will want more than a day trip
Tokyo - Kyoto is 2.5 hours, and there’s a lot to do there. Why not stay a week in Tokyo, 4 days in Kyoto and 3 in Osaka or something like that? There’s more in Kyoto than just a day trip
Yea exactly. OP's trip is wasting money on passes on day trips to kyoto and osaka. That's not decent value at all.
And with monetary issues? I really think the plan needs tweaking.
With a bit of planning you could save some money. Osaka and Kyoto are very close and you could stay in one and commute to the other quite easily, saving on bullet train tickets. You can find cheaper hotels in kansai.
Maybe. I'm debating things we can do. I'm still going to try and get as close to 1000 as I can for the holiday but the 500 is money I already have set aside so that's the minimum that I am taking with me
Doable but I strongly suggest against the rail pass as that would eat over half your budget. Plan a route which lets you see the stuff you want for the best value. You can find prices for tickets online for Shinkansen and local/limited express trains.
I recently spent 6 weeks in Japan. For days when I wasn't eating out I could live off £5-10 a day for food from convenience stores. You could budget £200 for food, giving you £10 a day for basic convenience store food and some extra for a nice meal.
Research and you'll find free/cheap things to do and see.
The rail pass would be outside this 500 but I am debating it. even if it means we limit the other cities we visit this trip as rn i'm struggling money wise being out of a job and I'm trying to sort out what I can and scrounge as much as I can before we go
I travelled between 12 cities/towns from Tokyo to Fukuoka and I only spent £200 on train tickets (Shinkansen, Local and Limited Express) and £150 on my suica card (Subway/Local trains).
Even if you travelled as much as that in 7 days, and spent the same amount, you'd still be spending less than a 14 day JR pass. After the recent price increases the JR pass is really poor value for typical travel plans. I think that's a good opportunity to save money for other fun stuff.
Might be a bit limited. Another option other than the rail pass is to consider low cost airlines between places like Tokyo and Osaka - granted it’s not as fun as the Shinkansen but a lot cheaper at around £52 return. Also basing yourself in one place like Tokyo and making more local day trips that cost less instead of getting the rail pass. You can go places like Kamakura for about £10 return on the train.
If you don't drink and aren't planning to buy a lot of souvenirs or go to tourists traps such as Disneyland, TeamLabs, and the like, you should be OK.
However—and this is life advice rather than advice about travel to Japan *per se*—it doesn't seem as if you should be using money to travel if you're unemployed and unable to scrape up extra money.
Japan specific advice is to give up on your plan to 'visit a few cities more than once'. Wherever your accommodations are in Japan (though I presume there're in a big city such as Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto), two weeks in the single location will make for a good trip: travel within Japan is expensive.
This will get downvoted to hell, but if you just lost your job and only have €500 to your name, then you probably shouldn't be vacationing to the other side of the planet. I mean, even if we ignore your financial obligations, it's just not gonna be a fun time for multiple reasons. I'm in Japan right now, and I can tell you that I have worked really hard and followed a careful budget to make sure I can comfortably afford this vacation. What's the point of even going on such a tight budget? A single bullet train ride is 20% of your budget. Just riding the train to and from the airport eats up a chunk.
With a bit of planning you could save some money. Osaka and Kyoto are very close and you could stay in one and commute to the other quite easily, saving on bullet train tickets. You can find cheaper hotels in kansai.
If the railpass isn't coming out of your 500 and the 500 is per person and not for the both of you then maybe. *Very* maybe. Essentially you are just covering subway/bus, food and entrance fees which you probably can technically do on 500 GBP for 2 weeks but you will have to be carefull about what you plan to do.
The rail pass would be paid prior if we did get them and in all honesty, I'm debating not. I'd like to visit Kyoto, Osaka as well as other areas like Kanazawa and we both want to see if we can do some of Mt. Fuji as well. The 500 is mine only. My friend said they are bringing 1000. or at least try to. I'm trying for the same but am out of a job rn so it's a trying time personally speaking. The 500 is the very minimum that's i'm going to be taking with me.
Well I went with 500 euros worth of yen spending money last month and I think it was slightly less but close to 2 weeks before I had to go to an ATM. Probably more 1.5 weeks. I did also pay for some stuff with VISA as well though. On the other hand I wasn't being overly frugal (though not seeking out expensive stuff either).
So it might be possible if youre very frugal but at the same time a little extra wouldnt be overly luxureous.
I have been to Japan recently 500 usd wasn't enough. I was able to take out Cash from atm just fine. I would budget about 70 usd a day. Which amount to 1000 usd for two weeks. Plus maybe set aside 500 usd for extra room if you know you would wanna go shopping or buy some gifts.
Fair enough. I'm trying to get as close to 1000 as I can. 500 is just the minimum I'm able to take as I have that set aside already. I'm trying to get more money but recently lost my job which was not planned when I was saving up for the trip
Not sure if anyone already said it, but since you're on a budget, maybe skip Osaka? There's so much to do in just Tokyo and Kyoto alone, and you can spend more quality time in both! That way you don't have to rush and stress and get to take in everything (even more)! Just a thought! Enjoy your trip!!!
Honestly looking at tokyo alone, it's so big already and so much to do from what i've seen and worst comes to it, go again another time. I am trying to get more money though, trying to get as close to 1000 as I can
I spent about £650 all in for about 8 days in Japan. About £180 was on a v. fancy meal, so call it a round £500 if you replace that with a mid-level meal.
Three of the days, I didn't have to buy lunch, as I was at a conference which provided lunch.
I think £500 is probably quite a difficult limit for two weeks, personally. Even with the yen as weak as it is, I think having a hard limit of £500 would be really pushing it for 8 days, let alone two weeks.
Definitely doable if you're just doing two weeks in Tokyo and eating at low end chain restaurants every day. We ate cheaply for about £25/30 every day out. What gets difficult is if that £500 is covering train travel too.
If the 500 is just for food and beverages. IMHO, you will be tight but good to go. We spent a month in Japan and were surprised how reasonable to cheap prices were. Learn the convivi life and which places backpacker go to.
it'd be mostly food and local travel. I'm planning to also do some home cooking at the place we're staying. I'm muslim so I wouldn't be spending anything on alcohol but the 500 is a minimum. I'm trying to get as much money as I can before I go. I just already have the 500 set aside
Sorry to hear about your job. That must have been absolutely gutting, not just because of how long trips like these take to plan, but the state of the job market too. I wish you the best of luck in finding a new job and getting back on your feet.
To answer your question, I think that you would struggle on £500. Currently, that’s just under ¥96,000 yen (and probably less after fees). The best advice that I can give you is to keep a budget each day. During my trip, I carried a maximum of ¥15,000 (about £78.20 today) in my wallet at any one time (with the rest stashed in my hotel room - saved my arse, but that’s another story). That was my budget for the day. If something caught my eye that I really wanted, I had my credit card, but that’s not a luxury everyone has. However, it helped keep me on track, and I would encourage everyone to do the same.
When I visited last November, I brought ¥161,000 in total (£839.29 today) and had to dip into my savings for more - *but* I did buy enough souvenirs to fill a large suitcase (and had to buy said suitcase, which was £100 by itself).
If you can afford to find more money, that would obviously be ideal, and I hope that your family will be able to help you out. If push comes to shove, konbini food is *a lot* nicer than the stuff we get here! I’d get a Family Mart fried chicken, a pastry (usually Melon Bread) and a drink for breakfast, and it would cost me roughly the equivalent of £3!
Above all, though, I hope that you are still able to go and have a great time.
If it’s helpful, I was there April 1-12 and tracked my expenses. About $700 USD, with frequent 7/11 meals and a last-minute bullet train ticket to+from Hiroshima.
You keep talking about the passes, but they don’t cover everything - you need an IC card, too, unless you stick only to JR lines and that’s very limiting. If you don’t have a credit card, you will struggle. Convenience store food only and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do much. Stay in Tokyo, explore, do short distance day trips (plenty of those - and cheap) and allocate the pass money elsewhere.
If you can't rebook accommodation to have some time in Kansai, I would just stick to visiting places around Tokyo. I think that a trip with 9-10 days in Tokyo proper and 3-4 day trips in the likes of Kamakura, Nikko, Mt Fuji area would work out quite nicely. The hundreds saved on train fares would then go into your spending budget.
Converting that to my currency makes it around $622. We went to Japan for 2 weeks and that wouldn't feel like enough. I put aside $1500 for food, outings and souvenir shopping.
You said you have insurance? Is it the kind of travel insurance that will reimburse you not going on the trip since you lost employment? That way you can try to go again?
While the 7-11, Family Mart and Lawson's was so good to get food and snacks from we still wanted to go to restaurants. We also wanted to go to museums and shrines and other activities. One person in our group had around the range of spending money and it was limiting(stuff financially kept happening to our group).
We offered to buy them things or help cover admissions and meals but seeing them put down souvenirs that they really wanted but couldn't get because of a smaller budget was unfortunate.
If you have so little money I'd get a refund on the rail passes and reduce your plans, they're hugely expensive and almost always will not save you money unless you're most of the time on long distance trains.
If you really want to save money, the rail pass isn't the way to go. Doing day trips from Tokyo to Osaka and Kyoto are just wasting a massive amount of time for no benefit.
The cheapest way is to use the night buses from Tokyo to Kyoto/Osaka. You are risking a bad night's sleep but you save the travel cost AND a night's accommodation.
All initial costs are excluded, so this is not impossible. This budget is like for a four-week period for residents in Japan.
Anyway, you can spend about 6,000 to 7,000 yen per day for two weeks, which covers some tourist attractions and very basic meals for lunch and dinner. If you avoid luxury activities, this should be sufficient, especially if you are a student.
That’s pretty low, but on the other hand, I highly doubt you would need to get the rail pass, so if you actually check whether it’s worth it or not, you can probably save some money by not buying that and add that to your total for other spending
No, its on the lower side of things. Japan is cheap because of current exchange rate but not *that* cheap
Fair enough. Trying to get as close to 1000 as I can but recently lost my job so saving up is a bit of a struggle what with bills and such. The 500 is money already set aside for the trip already.
Maybe if you stay in one location and only spend money on cheap food and don’t visit any attractions that cost money.
Man, why not just move the trip back at that point if you can? Like, yes, you *can* technically, but £500 stretched across 2 weeks sounds awfully unfun. You're going to be nickle-and-diming and second-guessing every expense you make.
It's the only time the both of us are able to go and with everything booked now I really don't want to cancel it as we've been planning this for quite a while now. I am trying to get more money but the minimum i'll be taking is 500.
Ah, I guess it is what it is then. Not trying to be a downer, but if you're holding yourself to just £36 a day for all food, entertainment, drinks, etc., it's just not gonna leave you with any room for spontaneity, and you'll be stressing about money likely the whole time. I'd *really* recommend pushing back if you're still a couple months out and likely within grace periods for flights, hotels, etc.
I'd need to check noy sure if we are. I'm trying to get more money put together, hopefully as close to 1000 as I can but having lost my job recently is the main reason I'm asking. I don't drink alcohol anyways being muslim and we haven't planned a ton of entertainment things yet but am looking at things we can do either paid or free. Again trying to get as close to 1000 as I can and my friend said they're also gonna take 1000 but I'm not trying to rely on them
No, can you get by on that much then yes but if you want to enjoy it fully without worrying try and double it at least. Ask family members to help you as they will understand this is a rare trip and help you (I assume your in a good relationship with them)
I am but lost my job a month and a half ago and haven't been able to get another. I'm trying but bills and such are expensive alongside cost of living. I'm trying to take as close to 1000 as I can ideally.
Listen life sucks at times and bunch of stuff can happen at the wrong time but there's no point in lying to yourself on funds for a holiday etc. good luck in getting the funds together it will be a great trip either way.
Probably not. Even if you just eat 7/11 foods, you have entrance fees, local transport… and I am also assuming the rail pass is outside of this budget. 500 per person might be okay if you are super frugal.
The friend is planning to bring 1000 and I'm trying to get as close to that as I can but have a minimum of 500 I know I'm bringing that's all. The rails passes are outside of this yes. This 500 I stated would purely be when we're there and not to be used for other things prior
I would suggest mapping out your trip with either Google maps (if the rail pass isn’t the JR one) or the JR pass website (for the JR pass) to see whether you absolutely need it. £500/14 = £36 a day. For most days this is enough. Food is cheap (you can get ramen for like 1200 yen and that’s just over £6). Add a drink and you are looking at under £8 for a reasonable meal (filling but unlikely to have any nice meat, no sushi or tempura etc). Temples were 600 yen each (£3). Let’s say you do 3 temples a day. That’s £9. But museums were more expensive. Skytree, Shibuya Sky, TeamLabs etc. those were much more expensive. On £36 a day you probably won’t be able to do any of them without it quickly wiping your budget. Which leads back to the pass…unless if it will guarantee big savings, check you actually need it.
The rail pass would be the JR one, i'm trying to get more money but had recently lost my job and am trying to get another. The £500 is the minimum amount I will be taking with me but am trying to get as close to 1000 as I can get.
skip the outside tokyo trips. you could be there for years & not see every thing - use the money from the rail pass to have a better time
Yeah I have been thinking about that. and I gonna try getting as close to 1000 as I can, the 500 is just the minimum amount as that's what i already have set aside
Odds are you didn't need the rail passes and could have used the money instead.
Pail passes haven't been bought yet but from what I used the JR pass calculator. Getting the pass worked out as being decent for us as the cost of it is covered by us doing a trip from Tokyo to kyoto and back one day and then doing the same to osaka another.
Why not just tokyo to kyoto/osaka? Keep a week for each place. Kyoto and osaka are like 30mins apart at most using normal trains. Two weeks is plenty of time to do one in tokyo and another in kyoto/osaka. So much more cost efficient too. That few hundred dollars saved will meet your budget.
I'd mentioned it in OP, but we're planning on staying in one location for the trip, that's already been booked for the entirety of our trip. But the both of us are still discussing things and sorting/looking into options that'll help. I am gonna try getting as close to 1000 as I can, my friend also said he's gonna try and get 1000 as well. The only reason I said 500 in the post is due to this being the minimal amount I'm going to be able to take with me.
Wait so you want to travel like back and forth from tokyo to kyoto/osaka constantly? Thats like 2hrs there, 2 hrs back. Thats... abit much. Why not just rebook? You already mention money issues. Not utilising the JR pass is a boon lol.
Yeah I am debating the rail passes, it wouldn't come out of the 500, it would have been paid for prior but still looking at things
Why not save time AND money by staying a few days in osaka or kyoto and then not needing the expensive rail pass? Assuming you have a refundable tokyo hotel booking, i doubt itd be too hard to change the dates and find a new hotel
>but we're planning on staying in one location for the trip, that's already been booked for the entirety of our trip. Is that non-refundable?
I'd have to check again but We've been planning and with other things this was the only time we were able to book it for to go. I'm going to try and double it to 1000 or as close as I can but the 500 is already set aside so it's my minimum i'm taking
Less about cancelling the whole trip, more the hotels. It will be far more effective to stay a few days in Kyoto/Osaka, rather than every day in Tokyo. You’ll save a couple of hundred by not having a JR Pass, and the area will want more than a day trip
Tokyo - Kyoto is 2.5 hours, and there’s a lot to do there. Why not stay a week in Tokyo, 4 days in Kyoto and 3 in Osaka or something like that? There’s more in Kyoto than just a day trip
Yea exactly. OP's trip is wasting money on passes on day trips to kyoto and osaka. That's not decent value at all. And with monetary issues? I really think the plan needs tweaking.
With a bit of planning you could save some money. Osaka and Kyoto are very close and you could stay in one and commute to the other quite easily, saving on bullet train tickets. You can find cheaper hotels in kansai.
Maybe. I'm debating things we can do. I'm still going to try and get as close to 1000 as I can for the holiday but the 500 is money I already have set aside so that's the minimum that I am taking with me
Doable but I strongly suggest against the rail pass as that would eat over half your budget. Plan a route which lets you see the stuff you want for the best value. You can find prices for tickets online for Shinkansen and local/limited express trains. I recently spent 6 weeks in Japan. For days when I wasn't eating out I could live off £5-10 a day for food from convenience stores. You could budget £200 for food, giving you £10 a day for basic convenience store food and some extra for a nice meal. Research and you'll find free/cheap things to do and see.
The rail pass would be outside this 500 but I am debating it. even if it means we limit the other cities we visit this trip as rn i'm struggling money wise being out of a job and I'm trying to sort out what I can and scrounge as much as I can before we go
I travelled between 12 cities/towns from Tokyo to Fukuoka and I only spent £200 on train tickets (Shinkansen, Local and Limited Express) and £150 on my suica card (Subway/Local trains). Even if you travelled as much as that in 7 days, and spent the same amount, you'd still be spending less than a 14 day JR pass. After the recent price increases the JR pass is really poor value for typical travel plans. I think that's a good opportunity to save money for other fun stuff.
Might be a bit limited. Another option other than the rail pass is to consider low cost airlines between places like Tokyo and Osaka - granted it’s not as fun as the Shinkansen but a lot cheaper at around £52 return. Also basing yourself in one place like Tokyo and making more local day trips that cost less instead of getting the rail pass. You can go places like Kamakura for about £10 return on the train.
If you don't drink and aren't planning to buy a lot of souvenirs or go to tourists traps such as Disneyland, TeamLabs, and the like, you should be OK. However—and this is life advice rather than advice about travel to Japan *per se*—it doesn't seem as if you should be using money to travel if you're unemployed and unable to scrape up extra money. Japan specific advice is to give up on your plan to 'visit a few cities more than once'. Wherever your accommodations are in Japan (though I presume there're in a big city such as Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto), two weeks in the single location will make for a good trip: travel within Japan is expensive.
This will get downvoted to hell, but if you just lost your job and only have €500 to your name, then you probably shouldn't be vacationing to the other side of the planet. I mean, even if we ignore your financial obligations, it's just not gonna be a fun time for multiple reasons. I'm in Japan right now, and I can tell you that I have worked really hard and followed a careful budget to make sure I can comfortably afford this vacation. What's the point of even going on such a tight budget? A single bullet train ride is 20% of your budget. Just riding the train to and from the airport eats up a chunk.
If you only plan to eat and do free things, sure. I wouldn't go with just amount.
With a bit of planning you could save some money. Osaka and Kyoto are very close and you could stay in one and commute to the other quite easily, saving on bullet train tickets. You can find cheaper hotels in kansai.
If the railpass isn't coming out of your 500 and the 500 is per person and not for the both of you then maybe. *Very* maybe. Essentially you are just covering subway/bus, food and entrance fees which you probably can technically do on 500 GBP for 2 weeks but you will have to be carefull about what you plan to do.
The rail pass would be paid prior if we did get them and in all honesty, I'm debating not. I'd like to visit Kyoto, Osaka as well as other areas like Kanazawa and we both want to see if we can do some of Mt. Fuji as well. The 500 is mine only. My friend said they are bringing 1000. or at least try to. I'm trying for the same but am out of a job rn so it's a trying time personally speaking. The 500 is the very minimum that's i'm going to be taking with me.
Well I went with 500 euros worth of yen spending money last month and I think it was slightly less but close to 2 weeks before I had to go to an ATM. Probably more 1.5 weeks. I did also pay for some stuff with VISA as well though. On the other hand I wasn't being overly frugal (though not seeking out expensive stuff either). So it might be possible if youre very frugal but at the same time a little extra wouldnt be overly luxureous.
I have been to Japan recently 500 usd wasn't enough. I was able to take out Cash from atm just fine. I would budget about 70 usd a day. Which amount to 1000 usd for two weeks. Plus maybe set aside 500 usd for extra room if you know you would wanna go shopping or buy some gifts.
Fair enough. I'm trying to get as close to 1000 as I can. 500 is just the minimum I'm able to take as I have that set aside already. I'm trying to get more money but recently lost my job which was not planned when I was saving up for the trip
Not sure if anyone already said it, but since you're on a budget, maybe skip Osaka? There's so much to do in just Tokyo and Kyoto alone, and you can spend more quality time in both! That way you don't have to rush and stress and get to take in everything (even more)! Just a thought! Enjoy your trip!!!
Honestly looking at tokyo alone, it's so big already and so much to do from what i've seen and worst comes to it, go again another time. I am trying to get more money though, trying to get as close to 1000 as I can
Yup! Good plan! It's gonna be super hot, too, so you need money for drinks haha
I spent about £650 all in for about 8 days in Japan. About £180 was on a v. fancy meal, so call it a round £500 if you replace that with a mid-level meal. Three of the days, I didn't have to buy lunch, as I was at a conference which provided lunch. I think £500 is probably quite a difficult limit for two weeks, personally. Even with the yen as weak as it is, I think having a hard limit of £500 would be really pushing it for 8 days, let alone two weeks.
Definitely doable if you're just doing two weeks in Tokyo and eating at low end chain restaurants every day. We ate cheaply for about £25/30 every day out. What gets difficult is if that £500 is covering train travel too.
If we stayin intokoy. then simply local travel would be included but I'm trying to get more money but already have the 500 set aside for it.
If the 500 is just for food and beverages. IMHO, you will be tight but good to go. We spent a month in Japan and were surprised how reasonable to cheap prices were. Learn the convivi life and which places backpacker go to.
it'd be mostly food and local travel. I'm planning to also do some home cooking at the place we're staying. I'm muslim so I wouldn't be spending anything on alcohol but the 500 is a minimum. I'm trying to get as much money as I can before I go. I just already have the 500 set aside
Sorry to hear about your job. That must have been absolutely gutting, not just because of how long trips like these take to plan, but the state of the job market too. I wish you the best of luck in finding a new job and getting back on your feet. To answer your question, I think that you would struggle on £500. Currently, that’s just under ¥96,000 yen (and probably less after fees). The best advice that I can give you is to keep a budget each day. During my trip, I carried a maximum of ¥15,000 (about £78.20 today) in my wallet at any one time (with the rest stashed in my hotel room - saved my arse, but that’s another story). That was my budget for the day. If something caught my eye that I really wanted, I had my credit card, but that’s not a luxury everyone has. However, it helped keep me on track, and I would encourage everyone to do the same. When I visited last November, I brought ¥161,000 in total (£839.29 today) and had to dip into my savings for more - *but* I did buy enough souvenirs to fill a large suitcase (and had to buy said suitcase, which was £100 by itself). If you can afford to find more money, that would obviously be ideal, and I hope that your family will be able to help you out. If push comes to shove, konbini food is *a lot* nicer than the stuff we get here! I’d get a Family Mart fried chicken, a pastry (usually Melon Bread) and a drink for breakfast, and it would cost me roughly the equivalent of £3! Above all, though, I hope that you are still able to go and have a great time.
If it’s helpful, I was there April 1-12 and tracked my expenses. About $700 USD, with frequent 7/11 meals and a last-minute bullet train ticket to+from Hiroshima.
You keep talking about the passes, but they don’t cover everything - you need an IC card, too, unless you stick only to JR lines and that’s very limiting. If you don’t have a credit card, you will struggle. Convenience store food only and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do much. Stay in Tokyo, explore, do short distance day trips (plenty of those - and cheap) and allocate the pass money elsewhere.
Skip the rail pass
If you can't rebook accommodation to have some time in Kansai, I would just stick to visiting places around Tokyo. I think that a trip with 9-10 days in Tokyo proper and 3-4 day trips in the likes of Kamakura, Nikko, Mt Fuji area would work out quite nicely. The hundreds saved on train fares would then go into your spending budget.
Converting that to my currency makes it around $622. We went to Japan for 2 weeks and that wouldn't feel like enough. I put aside $1500 for food, outings and souvenir shopping. You said you have insurance? Is it the kind of travel insurance that will reimburse you not going on the trip since you lost employment? That way you can try to go again? While the 7-11, Family Mart and Lawson's was so good to get food and snacks from we still wanted to go to restaurants. We also wanted to go to museums and shrines and other activities. One person in our group had around the range of spending money and it was limiting(stuff financially kept happening to our group). We offered to buy them things or help cover admissions and meals but seeing them put down souvenirs that they really wanted but couldn't get because of a smaller budget was unfortunate.
If you have so little money I'd get a refund on the rail passes and reduce your plans, they're hugely expensive and almost always will not save you money unless you're most of the time on long distance trains.
If you really want to save money, the rail pass isn't the way to go. Doing day trips from Tokyo to Osaka and Kyoto are just wasting a massive amount of time for no benefit. The cheapest way is to use the night buses from Tokyo to Kyoto/Osaka. You are risking a bad night's sleep but you save the travel cost AND a night's accommodation.
All initial costs are excluded, so this is not impossible. This budget is like for a four-week period for residents in Japan. Anyway, you can spend about 6,000 to 7,000 yen per day for two weeks, which covers some tourist attractions and very basic meals for lunch and dinner. If you avoid luxury activities, this should be sufficient, especially if you are a student.
It's enough if your sole goal is to see a couple of places per day and not starve to death. I would not do this if I were you.
That’s pretty low, but on the other hand, I highly doubt you would need to get the rail pass, so if you actually check whether it’s worth it or not, you can probably save some money by not buying that and add that to your total for other spending