Quote:
Originally Posted by Rauisufirippu
To start with, hello everybody 
Me and a friend are thinking lately to visit Japan next summer for about 2-4 weeks.
I'll be 17/18 by then and he will be 18/19.
Never been on my own outside of Europe before.(I'm from the Netherlands.)
I've read some more stuff about a railpass and more.
The cities we wanted to visit are Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa. (Maybe other cities too, but we didn't decide yet.)
Do you people maybe know a few things we need to know and how much will the total thing cost us? (I think its about 500-700 euros for a plane ticket each of us.)
And also what are musts to see in those towns?
We both are anime fans, we're going to visit some clubs, check out museums, check out the culture ofcourse.(Temples and more stuff.)
Any more suggestions which we will have to see?
Also will our ages be a problem over there even if our parents agree we're going there?
Thanks!
EDIT: Also, do the internet cafes over there have qwerty keyboards or keyboards with japanese on it? (Maybe a weird question.) O yea and are the outlets over there the same as in Europe?(So I can recharge mobile, PSP, camera n stuff.)
EDIT #2(Prolly more to follow): Will English speaking be enough? I know about 5 words japanese lol. |
Hey, what are you interested to see? If you have 4 weeks, you can cover a LOT of grounds in Japan. You touch on the subject of age restriction, what do you plan on doing? You don't want to be caught smoking or drinking at 17, but otherwise you are "legal" to do a lot of things when you are there
Total cost really depends on the lifestyle that you plan to live in while in Japan. Here is a simple pricing gudie that may help you plan your budget.
- Hotels: Hostel and business hotels start from around 4000 yen per person per night, some business hotels cost up to 12000 yen per person per night, but hardly go over that. You can always stay at really grand hotel for about 20000+ yen a night
- Food:
A) Breakfast: Many choices here, you can live off conveience store food (Onigiri for about 150-300 yen, instant noodle 200 yen, a bottle of drink will cost you around 100 yen), coffee store (like starbucks, tully's etc, standard price as North America). Some hotel offer buffet breakfast (Continental) for around 800-1000 yen
B) Lunch and dinner: Ramen appears to be popular among tourist, 500-1200 yen. Other type of set lunch or bento (like katsudon, udon) are available at aroun d800-1500 yen. Japanese-Western style restaurant (like Denny's, the Mom/Pop Pizza place etc) 1500yen - 2500 yen. There are also real Japanese cuisince like Sushi, Teppanyaki, Shabushabu, these can get expensive, especially if you eat at specialty stores like Kani Douraku or like a kobe beef lunch/dinner in Kobe/Osaka.
Transportation: If you have a rail pass, your JR travel will be covered, so factor that cost in. Otherwise, most transportation are base on distance travelled. Regular surface train (Densha) can run you around 120yen-560yen, subway is around the same thing. Shinkansen is rather pricey if you don't have a rail pass, a single ride from Tokyo to Kyoto on reserved seat will cost roughly 15000yen (i believe is around 9000yen on non-reserved). In some cases, if you travel with a big group, it may be cheaper to get a taxi: I remember traveling from Akiba to Tokyo Dome, tickets cost about 240yen each if I remember correctly, i was traveling with 3 other friends, so if we are to take the train/subway, it would have cost use 960yen, while a taxi ride was almost the same, but faster depending on time/date
Attraction/Entrance: Shirnes and temples are generally around 300-500yen per visit, some special shirne in Kyoto cost more (Kokedera for example, will need a reservation by mail, and it will cost 3000 yen per visit). Museum cost more, around 1000yen-1500 yen per visit in some cases. Most major cities have some kind of tall building setup and an observation deck, these will cost a bit more (like umeda sky building, i believe entrace was like 2000 yen per person). There is also different type of food themepark (Gyoza stadium, icre cream park, ramen museum etc etc), some of these are free to enter
Thats about it, I don't drink or party, so I don't know the cost of nightlife (cost me nothing just to go out and take pictures
). You also will find yourself spending a lot on souvenir, there are just too many nice little things that you can't get anywhere else....