Yahello! and welcome back to kinda neet since completing my first ever
anime expedition the question i've received most often is just how much
money i spent on my trip naturally everyone would love the
opportunity to visit japan but they're often held back by the
seemingly monumental hit their bank account would take
so today i want to do a thorough breakdown of every dollar i spent on my
trip to give you guys a more realistic
expectation for how much your dream vacation will cost
to be completely honest with you guys i probably spent far more money than
necessary over the two weeks i spent traveling japan
so throughout this video i'm going to do both a breakdown of what i spent as well
as what the budget alternative would cost you
and when i say budget i don't mean like backpacking and foraging for mushrooms
but just a pretty casual laid back vacation
to make things easier for you guys i broke down
all the costs into categories and added them as chapter markers so you can
easily jump around first up wheels up we're talking
transport so try not to fall short you can't hit the land of the rising sun
without having a little fun japan air is your best bet so this could get pricey
but try not to fret by far the most
expensive category will be transportation
obviously the ticket price will vary depending on where you're from and
what time of year you're traveling but after comparing some popular airports
i've determined that you're looking somewhere from 500 in the off season
to 1200 during golden league which i do not condone unless you like role playing
as stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it
i need more power i used the flight
tracking app hopper to snag my ticket for 689
including all taxes and fees great so you've managed to cross the pacific
ocean or i guess the arctic or even the indian
if you're from madagascar you've touched down the land of the
rising sun and uh-oh what's this the sun's sort of rising but downwards
it's getting dark and you need to get into the city fast
luckily all of tokyo is connected by an extremely intricate
rail system with so many tracks that'll make your head spin but that's a subject
for another day i averaged out all the money i spent on
transportation not including any long distance trips
and discovered that i spent around 15 a day multiplied by the 14 days comes to
a total of 210 dollars now if you end up buying a japan rail
pass most of that cost can be mitigated depending on your specific itinerary it
may be worth it to purchase an unlimited use rail pass
to figure out if it's right for you there's an amazing calculator on
japanguide.com which i'll link in the description
in my case the pass wasn't worth it and i only ended up spending 127
across two long distance train rides but normally a round-trip shinkansen ticket
from tokyo to kyoto will set you back 247 now i added that
number on to the budget total because this is where i went a little rogue and
ignored every first trip guide ever written
rather than make a beeline for kyoto i chose to rent a car and spend a day
driving on the wrong side of the road all around mount fuji
the car rental cost me 66 dollars per day but after fees
one-way drop-off gas parking and an international driver's license
it came to a whopping 197 dollars for the 24 hours that i spent in the ss Weeb
depending on the time of year domestic
flights in japan can often be quicker and cheaper than taking the train not to
mention they also have totemo kawaii mascots
so once i finished exploring the kansai region i boarded a plane from osaka to
tokyo which only cost me a measly 93 dollars
i never found the need to take a taxi which can easily cost you twice what it
would in the states and that just about covers what you can
expect to pay for transportation on your first trip to japan
obviously there are a million different places to go and routes to get there but
tokyo to kyoto and back is a great place to start and then you can just add on
the cost of additional trips from there this next category can be a complex
story with so many places to stay it's easy to go astray so up your
retention i.e pay close attention as i mentioned hotel convention with
intention i'm sure by now all of you japanophiles have heard of capsule
hotels in all their capsule glory but given they cost around 40 dollars
per night they're only really worthwhile if you're traveling alone
or i guess someone you aren't comfortable sharing a bed with but
to that i say what happens in japan stays in japan
i place a lot of value on having a cozy home base while traveling and i place
even more value on having a private bathroom so i somewhat splurged on my
lodging over the course of two weeks i stayed in
three different hotels and two hostels apanishi shinjuku was 117 a night arkha
tour roppongi 102 fp osaka 80 ryokan yamazaki 87
and Koan hostel at lake motosu 62. in my case all of this was split between
two people and in total we ended up spending
1229 but you can easily do better if you compromise on location and don't
mind staying in hostels you should be able to find a place to stay for around
forty dollars a night a four word about category the third
logistics might not sound fun but no doubt need to be done if getting lost
has you well nervous grab yourself some cell service
by far the most important purchase you can make before leaving on your trip
aside from ghibli museum tickets is a japanese unlimited data sim card
i got mine from smash mobile for 55 including shipping but there are plenty
of options out there that'll work just fine
you enter the date of your trip and they send a sim card right to your door that
you can just pop into your phone before you leave
if you've ever spent any time looking at pictures and videos of japan
wait look who i'm talking to that's all you weebs do then you'll know just how
tight and crowded certain areas can be and the only thing worse than crippling
claustrophobia is crippling claustrophobia plus a giant suitcase
containing all your expensive personal belongings
miyage and your waifu pillow which i'm sure some of you will bring along
rather than lug your luggage along with you i recommend taking
advantage of their incredibly convenient hotel to hotel delivery service that
will treat your pillow with all the love and care she deserves
to send my bag from tokyo to kyoto only set me back 12
and trust me it was the best 12 dollars i've ever spent aside from jubilee
museum tickets but what about the times when you are stuck with the old ball and
chain well luckily japan is littered with coin
lockers and as long as you aren't straying too far
they'll be your new best friend a large locker will run you five dollars per day
and i only ended up needing to use one twice
what kind of fun things did you do while your bag was in the locker i am so glad
you asked next up my proclivity for activity now i
don't know about you but when i'm visiting somewhere for the first time
i want to see and do absolutely everything possible
and unfortunately thanks to capitalism or whatever things cost money so i'm
gonna rattle off everything i did during my stay and just how much each one
cost the osaka aquarium 10 onsen theme park 14
different onsen theme park six dollars regular onsen four dollars
times four arcade eight dollars osaka zoo 5
kyoto tower eight robot restaurant 80 tokyo sea life park 7 mori digital
art museum 30 tokyo skytree 32 big ferris wheel
thing 10 and last but not least the most
essential stop on any first trip to japan
the studio ghibli museum 10 i'm only going to include half these expenses
in the budget version because i think i may have went a little overboard here
but not the onsens those were all essential stops i saved the best for
last and oh what a feast i am asked the
foundation to any japanese vacation food out of all
the categories this one is both the easiest and hardest to save money on
if you're like me and don't drink okay don't drink very much
okay okay we get it i spent a lot of money on strong zero
you only live once i guess unless you're subaru
or kazuma or tanya or otanashi or i say it's easy to save money in this
category because there are a ton of high quality and inexpensive food
options most importantly convenience stores
which if you wanted to could feed you three square meals a day for like 15
total but that's next to impossible when you're constantly walking past stalls
shops and restaurants containing the most delicious food and beverages the
world has to offer and if you don't try absolutely every
flavor of kirin of course you'll regret it
so quickly that 15 dollars can turn into more like 70 dollars a day which
is around what i was spending i know i know i have a problem but there was
delicious curry buns on every corner and everywhere you look were vending
machines with so many unique drinks it would take a lifetime to try them all so
even if you're on a super tight budget i'd plan to spend at least 30 a day on
food and yeah i think that about covers
things oh unless you're planning on visiting Akihabara
in which case i'd bring an extra 200 to drop on useless things you don't need
but i would never be so irresponsible with my money oh my god pokemon hats for
cats so during the two weeks i spent
traveling around japan i spent a grand total of
3424 dollars whereas the budget alternative would be closer to 2041
now i don't know about you but that really doesn't sound too bad considering
i had my ideal dream vacation and got to see everything on my bakettorisuto
what this video did not include is just how much money i spent on camera
equipment and editing software which i don't even want to think about but hey
if you want to support me and my future japan travel vlogs please
consider joining the patreon squad where you can download my personal maps and
itineraries watch exclusive kinda neet videos and
chat in our discord server otherwise thank you so much for watching
my video i really hope i helped some of you plan your own trips and
if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask in the comments
have a great time in japan and try not to spend too much money on strong zero